{"id":231,"date":"2010-02-21T16:30:17","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T16:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=231"},"modified":"2010-02-21T16:30:17","modified_gmt":"2010-02-21T16:30:17","slug":"elimination-chamber-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"Elimination Chamber 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

The build for Wrestlemania continues tonight with the second pay-per-view of 2010.\u00a0 The February show is always a slightly awkward one.\u00a0 January has the Royal Rumble<\/em>, with the winner getting a title shot in the main event at Wrestlemania<\/em>… in March.\u00a0 Once they started running monthly pay-per-views, that left the question of what to do in February.\u00a0 Since the brand split has left the company with two versions of the world title, an obvious solution would be to pick the second challenger in February.\u00a0 But for some unfathomable reason, the WWE has instead decided that February is an ideal month to have both world titles defended in convoluted six-man cage matches.\u00a0 This has never struck me as the best way to build to the biggest title matches of the year, but there we go.<\/p>\n

And so, in keeping with the policy of giving every pay-per-view its own gimmick, the February show is now Elimination Chamber<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Elimination Chamber is\u00a0basically a six-man elimination cage match.\u00a0 You have a big steel structure surrounding the ring.\u00a0 Two guys start in the ring, the other four are in little pods inside the cage.\u00a0 Every five minutes one of the pods opens at, ahem, “random” and another guy joins the match.\u00a0 Elimination occurs by pinfall or submission.\u00a0 Last person left in the match is the winner.\u00a0 As usual with these staggered-entry matches, the rules are absurdly unfair to the people who start the match, but it does mean that you can have six participants without too much clutter at any one time.<\/p>\n

The WWE are very fond of the Elimination Chamber, which usually draws a decent audience for PPV.\u00a0 Besides, the cage apparently cost a lot of money, so they’re determined to get plenty of use out of it.<\/p>\n

This show has two Chamber matches, one for the Raw world title and one for the Smackdown version.\u00a0 Until recently the company also had a third brand, ECW, with its own unloved and unwanted version of the world title.\u00a0 But ECW was axed last week, its wrestlers are being reassigned to Raw and Smackdown, and the ECW Championship is being retired.\u00a0 For what it’s worth, the final champion was Ezekiel Jackson, a heel who inexplicably won the title from Christian in the last match.\u00a0 Perhaps the idea is that he can carry his empty title belt around with him as a heel gimmick.<\/p>\n

ECW is being replaced by something called NXT.\u00a0 In typical form, the company announced the launch of NXT before they’d actually figured out what it was.\u00a0 It’s apparently some sort of hybrid wrestling programme and reality show.\u00a0 Eight “rookies” – in other words, wrestlers currently working in the Florida developmental promotion – are paired with an established mentor, and in some as-yet-undefined way they fight to win a slot on the main roster.\u00a0 The first batch consists of Bryan Danielson, a hugely experienced indie worker who’s widely regarded as one of the best wrestlers in the world, and seven other people who are not Bryan Danielson and who are therefore probably screwed.\u00a0 (The other respected veteran indie wrestler currently in developmental is a guy known variously as Low-Ki, Senshi and Kaval, who isn’t in the initial cast.\u00a0 Presumably they’re saving him for the second batch.)\u00a0 This could turn out to be\u00a0a hastily-assembled mess, but at least it’s something different, and should avoid the ECW stigma of being the same show with C-listers.<\/p>\n

As for the Royal Rumble, that was won by Edge, making a surprise, unannounced return from injury.\u00a0 Edge hasn’t yet decided which title to challenge for at Wrestlemania<\/em>, on the entirely reasonable grounds that he’s waiting to see what happens tonight, and then he’s going to pick the softer target.<\/p>\n

But back to tonight’s show…<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 WWE Championship, Elimination Chamber: Sheamus v. John Cena v. Randy Orton v. Kofi Kingston v. Ted DiBiase v. Triple H.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is the Raw match.\u00a0 Sheamus, an Irish wrestler doing an Oirish gimmick, won the title from John Cena in December.\u00a0 As is often the case when midcarders win the title for the first time, the WWE has been a bit hesitant in how they’ve used him.\u00a0 He’s retained the title against both Cena and Randy Orton, but by disqualification rather than by cleanly defeating them.\u00a0 And his storylines are not the centrepiece of the show.\u00a0 But on the other hand, if they won’t let him beat main eventers cleanly in a match, at least they let him dominate in other contexts.\u00a0 He’s certainly doing better than CM Punk or Rey Mysterio did in their first title reigns.<\/p>\n

If Sheamus retains here then he goes on\u00a0to\u00a0one of the\u00a0big matches at\u00a0Wrestlemania<\/em>, the biggest show of the year.\u00a0 That would be bold, but to be honest, it’s not like the company has any great dream matches on Raw that would do better.\u00a0 Any of the matches with bigger names have been done to death and become stale.\u00a0 Triple H v Sheamus – which has apparently been talked about – isn’t really a marquee main event, but frankly, nor is anything else that they could realistically do at this point.<\/p>\n

As for the challengers… Cena’s an established main eventer, but he’s already being paired up with Batista for a Raw vs Smackdown match at\u00a0Wrestlemania<\/em>, so he’s highly unlikely to win the title here.\u00a0 Orton is also established, but he’s caught up in the on-again-off-again storyline of his heel faction, Legacy, turning on one another.\u00a0 It certainly looks as though they’re planning a Legacy break-up match for Wrestlemania<\/em>, which would again seem to rule Orton out of winning here.\u00a0 Kingston is a midcarder who’s there to make up the numbers.\u00a0 DiBiase is a member of Legacy, and he’s there to further that storyline.\u00a0 That really only leaves Triple H as a likely winner.\u00a0 But if he’s going to win the title, he might as well do it in a singles match next month.<\/p>\n

So I’m betting on Sheamus to retain.\u00a0 A win for Triple H wouldn’t shock me.\u00a0 Anything else would be a major surprise.\u00a0 The talent level is pretty high in this match, so it’ll probably be good stuff.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 World Heavyweight Title, Elimination Chamber: The Undertaker v. John Morrison v. CM Punk v. Chris Jericho v. Rey Mysterio v. R-Truth.<\/strong>\u00a0 The Undertaker is the defending champion on Smackdown.\u00a0 But for the last couple of months, the company has been building up Shawn Michaels from Raw as his Wrestlemania<\/em> opponent.\u00a0 The idea is that Shawn wants a rematch from last year’s Wrestlemania<\/em> and is driving himself crazy trying to get it.\u00a0 Plainly the only possible pay-off is that they do the match.\u00a0 Since Shawn isn’t on the Smackdown roster\u00a0and shouldn’t be challenging for their title, presumably the Undertaker is losing tonight, freeing him up to do the rematch next month.\u00a0 And chances are that Shawn Michaels interferes somehow to cost him the match.<\/p>\n

Who does that leave as the next champion?\u00a0 John Morrison is supposed to have an ankle injury right now, although they might be playing it up for storyline purposes.\u00a0 Regardless, I don’t see him as a big enough name to headline next month.\u00a0 R-Truth is there to make up the numbers; the company seems to quite like him at the moment, and I expect they’ll try and make him look good, but there’s no way he’s defending the world title at Wrestlemania<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CM Punk and Rey Mysterio are former world champions who’ve both settled into an upper midcard role.\u00a0 There was talk at one point of pairing them up at Wrestlemania<\/em> for a hair-versus-mask match (which is why Punk’s been doing all those skits where he shaves the heads of his devoted followers), though they might have changed their minds.\u00a0 It’s a plausible match, though, and it’d probably be good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that leaves Chris Jericho, one of the biggest stars on the roster.\u00a0 Which would be ideal, because Edge has a motivation to go after Jericho (who turned on him after his injury).\u00a0 So, if Jericho wins then Undertaker can fight Shawn Michaels, Edge can challenge Jericho, and everything works out nicely.<\/p>\n

With Undertaker past his prime and Morrison apparently working injured, the quality of this match may be a bit more erratic, but there’s enough talent in here that it ought to be generally good.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Intercontinental Champion: Drew McIntyre v. Kane.<\/strong>\u00a0 McIntyre is a rising midcard heel who’s held the title since December.\u00a0 The company clearly likes him a lot, and he’s been given the “chosen one” gimmick of being singled out as a future world champion.\u00a0 Obviously, this has the potential to backfire if the fans think he’s being shoved down their throats, and so far McIntyre remains in the awkward position of not having as much heat as his screen time and push would lead you to expect.\u00a0 He’s a perfectly decent wrestler but not an especially flashy performer, and so far something doesn’t quite seem to be connecting.\u00a0 Nonetheless, there’s no obvious upside to putting the title on Kane, who’s been around for years and whose position in the pecking order is secure and unalterable.\u00a0 So presumably the idea is for Drew to get a big win over him and sail serenely on to another defence next month.\u00a0 I don’t have great hopes for this match – it’ll probably be okay, but that’s about all.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Divas Championship: Maryse v. Gail Kim.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is Raw’s version of the Women’s Title, except with a sillier name and an outrageously garish title belt.\u00a0 (It has a giant pink butterfly on it.)\u00a0 The title is currently vacant after Melina became injured, so they’re doing a tournament to crown the new champion.\u00a0 It’ll probably be Maryse, who was supposed to be winning the title before the injury happened.\u00a0 She’s got great heel charisma but isn’t the best of wrestlers, and in an ideal world she’d be better employed as a manager, but that’s not how the company thinks.\u00a0 As a French Canadian, she’s recently unveiled a new gimmick where she’s disingenuously nice to her opponents, and then insults them in French while smiling sweetly.\u00a0 Obviously, the flaw in this concept is that very few viewers speak good enough French to get the joke.\u00a0 Kim is technically one of the better women on the roster, but I don’t see her having a classic match with Maryse.\u00a0 If it’s short, it’ll be fine.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 ???\u00a0 <\/strong>They’ll have to do at least something else to fill out the show, but nothing’s been announced.\u00a0 There was talk at one point of doing Edge v. Batista, but it would be crazy not to promote Edge’s first proper PPV match since returning from injury.\u00a0 My guess would be something with the tag titles, probably Miz & Big Show v. MVP & Mark Henry, but frankly it could be anything.<\/p>\n

Worth buying?<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, the two main events will probably be decent, and they’ll probably account for an hour of the show.\u00a0 But the rest of the card consists of two matches which probably won’t be much good, and a huge question mark, and that’s a bit worrying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The build for Wrestlemania continues tonight with the second pay-per-view of 2010.\u00a0 The February show is always a slightly awkward one.\u00a0 January has the Royal Rumble, with the winner getting a title shot in the main event at Wrestlemania… in March.\u00a0 Once they started running monthly pay-per-views, that left the question of what to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}