WWE Elimination Chamber 2017

WWE Elimination Chamber 2017
Phoenix, Arizona - February 2017

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, John Cena is the WWE Champion (for the 16th time, no less), while Dean Ambrose holds the Intercontinental Championship. Alexa Bliss is the reigning SmackDown Women's Champion and the SmackDown Tag Team Champions are Gable and Jordan, the American Alpha.

COMMENTATORS: Mauro Ranallo, David Otunga, JBL, and Tom Phillips 

The show begins with Becky Lynch taking on Mickie James. Commentary here was pretty woeful as JBL had to correct David Otunga on nearly every point he tried to make, essentially making Otunga sound like an idiot but also forgetting to react to anything that was actually happening in the match. Mat-based open with James really showing her experience though I would've liked her to bring out more of the heel "crazy stalker" persona that initially made her such a bright spot of the Divas division back in 06'. Execution and action are never going to be problems for Lynch and James, but the crowd quieted down in the middle stretch because, despite her credentials, James' (arguably controversial) character was absent. I'm also not sure the finish, which seemed pretty definitive to me, was necessary considering that these two did have good chemistry and the feud is fresh enough to run longer. Good, not great match. (3/5)

Next up - a handicap match pitting Dolph Ziggler against Apollo Crews and Kalisto. I loved the way Ziggler came out and attacked Kalisto straight away, tossing the luchador into the wall before the match could begin. Unfortunately, the next 8 or so minutes were miserable. Crews is a tremendous athlete but is so vanilla the audience has no choice but to reject him (which they did) while Ziggler is in the rough situation of consistently being more over as a face when he's supposed to be a heel than he is as a face when he's supposed to be a face (see Lex Luger in 1989 for another example of this phenomenon). There's a reason 2-on-1 matches where the "fan favorites" outnumber the heels are so rare and this match helped show why: there's nothing valiant or heroic about having the numbers advantage so the babyfaces don't really get to shine and the heel, just for putting up a bit of a fight, comes off as more heroic than he should. I always mark out for a "Pillmanizing" but this whole storyline needs to be reworked before I will care again. (1/5)

The SmackDown Tag Team Championships are on the line next in a Tag Team Turmoil Match, starting with the still-fairly popular Rhyno and Heath Slater going at it with the less appreciated Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango). The first round wraps up fairly quickly, though, credit where its due, Breezango had a fairly entertaining few minutes in there. The Vaudevillains arrived next and were met with a big splash from Slater as the crowd broke out into a "He's Got Kids!" chant like it was 2016. The faces made quick work of Gotch and English who probably deserve better but I say "probably" because they haven't been impressive enough for me to really know for sure. The Usos meandered their way down the aisle next looking like a Samoan version of the Wyatts. I understand that being heels means being less "fun," but couldn't they have just kept their ring gear and made it darker colors? Why are "street clothes" more heelish? Cuz its lazy? Jay Uso hit a nasty Samoan Drop at one point before Jimmy connected with a vicious superkick to snag a quick pinfall on the match's MVP up that point, Heath Slater. The reining champions, The American Alpha, arrived next and the teams came to blows in the aisle, furthering their feud. Gable and Jordan hit stereo germans before Gable launched himself off the top with a huge crossbody. As the action slowed down a bit, the crowd's enthusiasm petered out a bit with Jordan's hot tag drawing crickets. A crafty pinfall shocked the crowd and led to a nice beatdown from the Usos, cementing their status but also adding some much needed drama to the final round (which desperately needed it considering how little credible The Ascension have). Smart booking. The Ascension arrived but couldn't finish off the Alphas with Total Elimination on Jordan as Gable came in for the save. A few minutes later, thanks to Konnor's clumsiness, the champs retained, though, they obviously have unfinished business with the Usos. I went into this thinking it was going to be pretty terrible, but it actually was closer to average at times. Unfortunately, at other times, like when the Ascension were in the ring, it was less than that. (2/5)

After a video package hyping their feud, it was time for the pretty heated Nikki Bella vs. Natalya match, easily the first Total Divas tie-in bout to actually draw my (and many people's) interest. The repeated "John Will Never Marry You" line sounds like a huge spoiler that we're headed to a Very Bella Wedding after WrestleMania but part of me thinks that John Cena still has feet like ice when it comes to marriage. Nikki was sporting some Pheonix Suns-inspired garb, a nice touch. As soon as the bell rang, Natalya took control, showing off her wrestling prowess, though Nikki surprised her with a semi-decent armbreaker, forcing Natalya to bust out some straight-up shots to Nikki's face. Bella, eager to prove that she could hold her own on the mat, locked in a leglock and followed it up with a huge clothesline off the apron to the outside. Natalya played to the crowd a bunch to draw heat, though, despite her hard work, she doesn't have the natural heelishness of a Charlotte or even Nikki herself. Still, even if the action wasn't as crisply delivered, the crowd was fairly into things, especially for the bigger spots and nearfalls. Bonus point for Natalya calling Nikki a "bitch" multiple times and also needling her "Mama Bella" in the front row. I can't imagine that Vince will be happy with her for those comments, but who knows. I'm not sure the match needed to stretch for as long as it did, but its hard to knock the efforts of both performers, Nattie hitting a huge superplex at one point and Nikki delivering a pretty strong spinebuster too. The submission trading brought a smile to my face, especially considering that I'm not sure Nikki didn't lock in the STF better than her longtime boyfriend. On the outside, the intensity picked up even more leading to a crowd-deflating double countout, a non-finish that works just fine for me as, even more than Lynch/James, this feud has legs. In what became a pattern for the whole show, there was a great post-match spot with Bella hitting an awesome spear on the ramp before Nattie hightailed it out. (3.5/5)

Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper followed. The video package before this definitely helped set the stage for this match as I've definitely not been on-board for most of the Orton/Wyatts storyline. The match started a bit slow, as is usually the case when "Bore-ton" is around, but got considerably better as the match proceeded and Harper started to take command, not only on offense but with some spirited bumping (that bump on and off the announcer's table was terrific). The crowd's "This is Awesome" didn't feel wholly earned but, when you look at the rest of the card thus far, I can totally understand the audience desperately wanting to believe that this match was something special. Oddly, had the audience really rallied behind Harper and maybe started some sort of supportive chant, that actually would've made it a bit more memorable and "awesome." Whoduhthunk a hot crowd that "plays along" can actually improve a match? Excellent closing stretch, but not excellent enough to nudge this one into "Great" territory. (3.5/5)

Backstage, Nattie continues her attack on Nikki Bella. Cool with me.

The remarkably athletic Naomi makes her way down the aisle next to challenge the reigning SmackDown Women's Champion, Alexa Bliss. You knew these two weren't going to tear the house down, but there were certain spots that were damn good, a credit to both the relative newcomer Bliss and Naomi, who, remember, came up in the WWE's farm system before it was cool or even expected for a woman to be a well-rounded worker capable of going 10 minutes in the ring. Both women have movesets that are character-based, which I like, and from the first bell to the second, there was no point when it didn't seem like they were both trying to win and take home a coveted championship. The final minutes were sloppy, but what a shocker of a finish! I'm looking forward to their rematch as this was a better than average match and a genuine "feel good" moment for the 8-year veteran. (3/5)

...and another Carmella and Ellsworth backstage sketch. I'm not against this act, but I wish they'd have come up with something a bit more clever for them to do on the show. Like, how about having 'Mella meet Ellsworth's chinless family or something? Just spitballing here...

Main event time - Styles vs. Cena vs. Ambrose vs. Wyatt vs. Corbin vs. The Miz in the Elimination Chamber. Styles and Cena start things off and the crowd is red hot for them, the dueling chants almost drowning out the commentators. After a great series, Ambrose comes in and the minutes they share were, to me, more exciting than any stretch in the 3-way dance they had from a few months ago. Wyatt comes in fourth in a somewhat surprising move and here's where the big spots and viciousness really kicked off, including an absolutely awesome Tower of Doom spot after John Cena fell from the second level of the cage onto the structure's "floor." Corbin was in next and looked like he belonged, dishing out punishment to all others. In one particularly great moment, Corbin hit his End of Days on Cena and, so excited that he had actually taken out the heaviest hitter on the block, ended up on the receiving end of an Ambrose dropkick for his troubles - a moment that was, intended or not, subtly brilliant (Corbin being too inexperienced and cocky to immediately go for the cover, but also being justifiably psyched by his accomplishment). The Miz was the last in and his inclusion allowed for Ambrose to eliminate Corbin in the best (and only) major storyline development in an otherwise very tight and title-focused match. Of all the competitors, The Miz had the fewest minutes and the least opportunities to shine, but made them count with his Daniel Bryan heat-baiting. If The Miz is being set up for a feud with Cena (as the rumors suggest), this match did not do much to point in that direction, which is unfortunate but understandable. Thanks to Corbin's post-match tantrum, The Awesome One eliminated Ambrose and the match was down to four. Cena took out Miz fairly handily (again, an odd decision if we're heading to a Cena & Nikki vs. The Mizanins match at Mania) and the match progressed into a somewhat rapid closing stretch. In a bit of a shocker, Cena went next, essentially leaving two heel "fan favorites" in the match - Styles and Wyatt. The match's MVP, Styles proved here that he, like bacon (I know, I know, super played out trope), makes everything better, helping keep the match exciting and fast-paced when Wyatt could've easily derailed this into overdramatic, elongated theatrics. If Styles is not being used in some major way for Mania, you can automatically deduct some points from that card because he is easily the best in-ring worker in the company. Overall, the best Elimination Chamber I've reviewed yet (admittedly, I've reviewed only 3) and a potential MOTY candidate. (4/5)


With a Kwang score of 2.86-out-of-5, Sunday's Elimination Chamber show doesn't score too high when you look at the numbers, but aside from the atrocious Ziggler/Crews/Kalisto match and the not-so-great Tag Team Title match, the rest of the card was consistently good and even great at times. SmackDown took a bold step in featuring three women's matches so prominently and I'd argue that both Bella/Nattie and Naomi/Bliss over-delivered while James/Lynch was not quite as great as I had hoped it would be (I had somewhat high expectations as a big fan of both). Orton/Harper teetered on greatness during its second half and the main event was, as I wrote in my summary, the best Elimination Chamber match I remember seeing - in no small part due to the bumping of AJ Styles, the energy of John Cena, and a clever layout that never got dull. When you think about how much "name" talent was in that main event, the rest of the card could have been an absolute debacle (see the first and only December to Dismember PPV for an example of how that could be), but smart booking and strong effort pushed most of the show into watchable territory.

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand