CHAMBER

Women's Tag Team Elimination Chamber

This flowed well & everyone involved looked really good; Bayley & Sasha with their overall babyface work were great, Liv Morgan, Sarah Logan, Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville all surprised me in how good their offense looked throughout, Tamina & Nia were awesome just ragdolling everyone once they came out, and while the IIconics looked rough a few times, overall they were pretty good & their whole shtick was pretty fun. Good match. ***

Shane McMahon & The Miz vs. The Usos

As dull as it looks on paper. *

Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush vs. Finn Bálor

Fun storytelling with Lashley & Lio using their numbers-game to keep the control, and then losing that control due to Lio getting too confident. It was all pretty fun stuff, and the match ended up being solid overall. **

Ronda Rousey vs. Ruby Riott

Shame this ended up being a total squash, but I understand it. NR

Baron Corbin vs. Braun Strowman

Complete trash. The fall of Braun Strowman has been tragic - hard to think that back in 2017 he was one of the hottest superstars in the company. *

Men's Elimination Chamber

Everybody got their time to shine - Joe was eliminated first, but the whole time he was there, he looked like a killer just beating the crap out of everyone, especially Bryan. Jeff wasn't there for long, but he got that one big Swanton moment, which was legitimately a very neat spot. Styles looked like the all-time great that he is with his legendary bumping, selling & offense - that Tower of Doom spot they did w/ him, Kofi & Bryan was awesome, because it wasn't the usual; they did it uniquely with AJ doing the pull-up German. Orton was vicious during his time in the Chamber & that DDP-esq RKO he delivered to AJ was great. And then there were two. That is when the match kicked off into another level; Bryan & Kofi crafted a truly special final battle, one of the best of all-time, if not THE best. The scrappy slugfest to start it off was really good, and I LOVED Kofi getting fired up & asking Bryan to deliver some more kicks. The nearfalls were sooo goood - the callback to their Gauntlet match finish was great, and then the Busaiku Knee one was amazing; Bryan has protected that move so much since he debuted it in 2013, so Kofi getting to kick out of it felt pretty damn big, I thought. Also love, love, LOVED the LeBell Lock struggle with Bryan having to fight to get it locked in, and Kofi brought the goods with his emotional selling once it was locked in. The whole finishing stretch with them on top of the pod was also pretty phenomenal - extended battle there, and once Kofi got the upperhand, he went for the big risk in the dive & paid for it. Excellent stuff by the two, and overall I'd say this was the best Chamber in years. One of the best ever, too. Bryan vs. Kofi is no doubt THE match to make at Mania now. The way the crowd BELIEVED in Kofi was special & the heat Bryan received for doing basically anything to him was also special. They got a magical dynamic in their hands, I can only hope that they capitalize on it. The way how strong Kofi was booked, and the post-match (wonderful btw) babyface moment w/ Big E & Xavier gives me some hope they will. ****