WWE Elimination Chamber 2011

WWE Elimination Chamber 2011

Oakland, CA - February 2011

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, the WWE Champion was The Miz while the World Heavyweight Championship was held by Edge. The United States Champion was Daniel Bryan, the Intercontinental Champion was Kofi Kingston, and Eva Torres was the Divas Champion. Finally, Santino and Vladimir Koslov were the World Tag Team Champions. 

The show begins with the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship, Alberto Del Rio, taking on Kofi Kingston in a non-title match (Kofi was the Intercontinental Champion at the time). Del Rio had had the "rocket" strapped on his back in January when he won the Royal Rumble and would continue to get some favorable booking throughout the rest of the year despite never really feeling like a true top guy (the same would happen in 2015 when he was brought back after a year-long hiatus). Del Rio was considered a "can't miss" prospect, but I just never  saw the "it" factor. Kingston, meanwhile, shows more spirit and general grasp of psychology than he had in 2009 (the last time he was given a serious singles push), but still seems to be not quite ready to break through, the je ne sais quoi not fully there (he'd find it 8-9 years later as part of The New Day). There's good action here, great execution from both men, and even some believable false finishes (including one featuring Ricardo Rodriguez), but this still feels a bit perfunctory and predictable. A solid opener, but not a career highlight for either man. (3/5)

After a brief word from Edge backstage and a video package, its time for the Elimination Chamber match - Kane vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Big Show (a last minute substitute for Dolph Ziggler, who'd been fired by Teddy Long) vs. Wade Barrett vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Edge. I'm not quite sure why Edge would put his title - or be forced to put his title on the line - but whatever. Edge and Mysterio start things off. These two have worked together for so long, they have no problems getting things started before Barrett comes in. A few minutes later Big Show comes in and while there is some fine action, nothing really amazing happens. In fact, we don't get our first real moment of superviolence until Drew McIntyre comes in and lawn darts Rey into a pod wall before getting sent through a pod door himself. That's it. These are the two big spots of an otherwise not-so-noteworthy Elimination Chamber match. Blame it on the PG rating, but really, the structure itself should carry part of the blame - aside from taking back bumps on the cage floor or getting your face rubbed against the cage walls, its just not a structure that lends itself to great matches unless you've got a real interesting story to tell within it. This match feels like a collection of guys wrestling a perfunctory Elimination Chamber and really only one guy - Drew McIntyre of all people - giving much of a shit. Eventually it whittles down to Rey and Edge, which is how the match started, and Edge gets the clean W. At the time, I think this match was reviewed so highly because there were some storyline entanglements on display (Big Show and Wade) and people were excited about Drew McIntyre, but it all seems so predictable in hindsight that Edge would retain and face Del Rio (as Del Rio/Mysterio had already had several matches against eachother by this time). It all makes for a match that, in terms of execution and good ol' fashioned wrestling, is perfectly fine...but, in hindsight, didn't mean anything. (3/5)

After the match, Del Rio attacks Edge and applies his armbar submission. I like that they tried to get that move over as incredibly dangerous, but to me, its a real uphill battle to try to establish a "death move" out of something that (a) is not usually a death move by other wrestlers and (b) can and had been escaped from. Christian makes the save, which is cool. I wonder if Edge was already aware of his impending retirement when this happened.

Before the next match, we get a segment involving the return of Trish Stratus, who is announced to be the next coach on the (failed) revamp of Tough Enough. Meaningless segment that gets a very mild reaction from the audience.

Next up, Santino and Koslov vs. Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel. I watched all 5-6 minutes of this match and barely remember anything aside from some of Koslov's headbutts, which looked good, and the finish, which was fine. Gabriel could fly but Slater was still a very generic worker who wouldn't find himself for another couple of years. Still, the Santino/Koslov pairing wasn't working, so the finish is the right one even if we're talking about trading ham salad for chicken salad - both things that I generally detest. This match isn't actively bad, but boy is it forgettable and proof that Santino, as good as he could be, still needed a foil to get his shtick over. (1.5/5)

Vickie Guerrero comes out to tremendous heat and begs Teddy Long to rehire Dolph Ziggler. He refuses - but does rehire Kelly Kelly. This show really is so 2011. Side note - how many retirements/firings/returns has Dolph Ziggler had over the course of his career? Anyway, this somehow leads to LayCool and Trish Stratus duking it out. I generally enjoy segments like this because they provide variety on the show, but this isn't entertaining. 

The Miz defends the WWE Championship against Jerry "The King" Lawler in the next match. I haven't mentioned it yet but, throughout the whole evening, Michael Cole is on full heel mode and, in this match, he goes from being at an irritable 8 to an incredibly annoying 11. Unfortunately, Cole's heel act distracts from the match and without anyone to really counter his commentary - Booker T is not now and has never been a great color guy and Josh Matthews has always lacked authority - the whole thing comes across as yet another "angle" more than an actual match. This match would've benefitted tremendously from commentary that took it seriously and not like the afterthought that it cleary was. I mean, going into it, there was just absolutely no way that anyone expected Lawler to win - but maybe with JR on commentary selling it as a real contest? Maybe with the magic of Pat Patterson's booking skill we could've had some believable false finishes? Maybe if Randy Orton or John Cena or John Morrison or someone else with history with The Miz had shown up to even the odds? This isn't a bad match, but its not nearly as fun or interesting as it could've been. Its more about setting up a Lawler/Cole match, which nobody wanted to see, than it is about delivering something of quality. (2/5)

Main event time - John Morrison vs. Sheamus vs. CM Punk vs. Randy Orton vs. R-Truth vs. John Cena in an Elimination Chamber match to decide who will face The Miz at WrestleMania. If the first Elimination Chamber match of the night underwhelmed me its collection of wrestlers, this one was only slightly better. I mean, what business does R-Truth have in a match like this? But unlike the SmackDown edition, this one came together in a much more intriguing way thanks in large part to the throughline that the WWE had started way back even before the Royal Rumble, where CM Punk cost Randy Orton the WWE Championship in his match against the aforementioned Miz. Here, the Orton/Punk rivalry is given lots of focus, Punk's magnificent heel work serving as not only the match's backbone but also the subject of the match's biggest "swerve" (Punk's cell door not opening allows Orton to put the boots to him and eliminate him in under 2 minutes only for the mysterious RAW GM to reinstate him). Meanwhile, John Morrison quietly puts on the kind of performance that makes it believable that he may somehow end up with his arm raised at the end, not only because he gets some great offense in, but also because his history with The Miz makes him not-that-far-fetched a candidate (especially because, at the time, there were still rumors that Cena could face The Rock). In the end, Cena gets the W (which is what most people expected), but there was enough drama throughout the rest of the contest to keep me engaged and not feel like they were just going through the motions. I wouldn't call this a "must see" match, but it comes close to it - especially if you're a fan of CM Punk, who is just amazing here from the very start to the end. This is the CM Punk that made him arguably the best wrestler and character the WWE had that year, if not for the next 2 years. (3.5/5)

With a Kwang Score of 2.6-out-of-5, Elimination Chamber 2011 doesn't feature a single "must see" match, but its relatively short runtime and the fact that its built around two above-average Elimination Chamber matches makes it a fairly breezy watch. If the opener had been hotter and more thought and plotting had been put into The Miz/Lawler match, this show could've been great, but without those things (and with the tag title match being barely Main Event-worthy let alone PPV worthy), it never goes beyond just being an "okay" show. CM Punk superfans will enjoy the main event and while I wasn't as enthralled in the match as others, at the time, the SmackDown Chamber Match was considered one of the best versions of the match ever, but I certainly wouldn't rank it as highly.

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