Elimination Chamber- General Discussion thread

[Dead-Angel]

ppv was very predictable my guess that hbk couze taker the title was like 3 weeks ago made because i knew there is no other way for wwe to set another hbk vs. taker but actually i was not happy how hbk from underground goes to the cage , so now it means next year or sometime in future any guy who comes like hbk did can actually win a match , it would be better if hbk runs into cage when it was open when morrison was eliminated , also taker almost died at this ppv at the entrance imagine if he would die then to fucking wrestlemania thank god that cout saved him....

also raw elimination chamber had no meening at all, i mean they wrestle for what what is the freaking point if after the match vince comes and gives batista a title match wtf it would be better if they give it at raw than maybe it will draw some attention , and i hate this fucking title reigns of 3 minutes so now cena is 7 time champion , and at wrestlemania it will be hes 8 omg wwe is so freaking mixed up with bullsh....

i give this ppv 5/10 just because y2j won and the only good thing about wrestlemania that i see is y2j vs edge

 

[Tastycles]

Tastycles' review of Elimination Chamber

I really enjoyed this event in both 2008 and 2009, though it has to be said that it relied heavily on the two main events in both instances. That isn't necessarily a worry, but going into this year, the undercard looked incredibly weak. Indeed, it was clear going into the event that even if the two chambers went on for 45 minutes, we'd still be coming up short.

That being said though, we have the Batista and Edge unresolved issues and the two chambers were a lot more stacked than we were perhaps expecting.

Sheamus vs Kofi Kingston vs Triple H vs Randy Orton vs Ted DiBiase vs John Cena (Elimination Chamber for WWE Championship)

After what must have been a week or two of entrances, Sheamus and Kofi Kingston get us started. They actually do pretty well together, which is certainly a good omen for the future, because these two are obviously Raw's nextt big things.

Sheamus seems to work better with smaller guys, and he eventually hits a big move on Kingston just as Triple H enters the match. Kingston is down for an age as Triple H and Sheamus work together, and I have to say that Triple H and Sheamus are ok together too. After his reasonable match with Cena, and his surprisingly entertaining programme with Goldust, I am beginning to think and hope that Sheamus' complete stinker with Orton was a one off. We shall wait and see.

Anyway, eventually Kingston reenters the fray and we have quite a good three way between them, including a boom drop out of the ring from Kofi. Orton is out next and he levels everyone. He goes for Sheamus in particular, which is perhaps expected, and actually isn't that boring either. He, Kofi and HHH then tease their finishing moves, with Kingston and Triple H eventually getting nailed out of the ring, before Sheamus levels Orton.

DiBiase is in then, and after he destroys everyone else, he signals his intent to work with Randy Orton. They work together and nail everyone, including sticking Kingston's head inbetween the chains of the chamber, which is pretty cool, and then Orton does that hang on the rope DDT to Triple H out of the ring. This period of dominance was pretty entertaining, and the way they stood outside Cena's booth was very interesting.

Cena is ready for them though, and he goes apeshit and takes both of them out, giving DiBiase an Attitude Adjustment out of the ring. Orton saves DiBiase from an STF, When Cody Rhodes appears with a relay baton, that is a apparently a lead pipe. He hits both Orton and Cena with it, before eliminating Orton, which sets up the most inevitble feud in history quite nicely.

They have a bit of a stare down, and DiViase inexplicably falls to the floor while Kofi and DSheams have a bit of a fight. DiBiase gets up, but Kingston gives him trouble in paradise and eliminates him, before he is eliminated by Sheamus. Cole must have mentioned Sheamus taking Triple H out on Raw about ten million times, but never mentions that he took a shitload of other people out too, so their WrestleMania match is clearly set in stone. Joy to the world.

Anyway, we're down to three and Sheamus and Cena are fighting each other as HHH is still down. HHH eventually comes back into the ring and he makes an elimination with a pedigree on Sheamus, before Cena beats him with an STF, which was actually a tense and believable finish, very well done,.

All in all, a very good chamber match. 5 men got an elimination, it set up Sheamus vs HHH and Orton vs DiBiase pretty well, and Kofi lasted a long time, which will help him out immensely. There was a little bit too much of people being down for absolutely no reason, but it didn't detract from the match very much at all, and I think this match was good for 8.4 out of 10

John Cena vs Batista (WWE Championship)

Cena wins the Chamber, and Vince comes in and says that Edge is cashing in his MITB briefcase, oh wait sorry. That being said, this was unsuspected which is weird really, when you consider how they built it. That is the best kind of build, when something looks obvious in hindsight, but you never saw it coming.

Clearly, the score for this match is more to do with it's purpose as furthering their feud for WrestleMania and the swerve, rather than the actual thirty seconds itself, but they got the angle across pretty well actually, and it explained why Batista was helping Vince. Well executed, but there's only so much praise that you can heap on something this short, so I give it 7.6 out of 10

Drew McIntyre vs Kane (Intercontinental Championship)

This match starts off unusually, in that Kane keeps going for headlocks rather than all out roughness. Eventually, he makes a mistake and McIntyre starts to hit him up a bit, before a big clothesline and then we go back to some typical Kane strikes.

McIntyre gets back into it a bit, and then we get into a more typical back and forth match up, with McIntyre focussing on Kane's arm, and Kane outpowering him. Still, the match doesn't really get into a proper groove though. McIntyre has been generally good since he redebuted, but everything about this match is very choppy. It just doesn't flow the way that his matches with Morrison did.

That being said, it was a reasonably solid performance from Kane, who seems to have stopped getting slower, and his top rope move actually looked effective. Still, there was nothing new there, which is perhaps unsurprising. In the end, McIntyre uses some underhanded tactics to get the win, which was a foregone conclusion.

This match wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It served it's purpose and nothing more, so I give it 6.1 out of 10

Gail Kim et Maryse contre Michelle McCool et Layla

Why they felt the need to do this is beyond me. I thought maybe it was because Maryse was still nursing an injury, but the fact she wrestled the next day makes that unlikely. Michelle is shit, and as much as I like Layla, it isn't for her in ring work. It got over Maryse as a heel pretty well, but that really didn't need doing, to be honest with you.

Basically, it was Gail Kim getting nailed for 5 minutes, which was not very entertaining. Better than the divas match at the Royal Rumble, but not by much. A pointless change to the card that didn't really do anything except big up a feud that was already ready to finish. Very strange, and I give it 3.8 out of 10

The Miz vs MVP (United States Championship)

MVP and Miz have been feuding for a very long time now, and they're matches are always a decent watch, if not incredible. The match is pretty much the definition of give and take, with some pretty big moves, such as when Miz pulls MVP into a stomach kneesmash.

The two of them continue in their ways for a while with MVP attempting a few roll ups but with The Miz in charge for the most part. Fortunately, though Big Show and Henry are at ringside, they don't get involved very much, while still serving a purpose.

MVP throws Miz from the top rope, cutting him open in our next big move, but even when there isn't huge spots, there's a lot to keep watching. Henry gets put through the wall by Big Show, and then he hits MVP with a punch after saving Miz, giving Miz the win.

This was probably better than their match at Royal Rumble, because of the two men outside the ring in part, but largely because of what happened inside the ring. MVP and Miz have developed a better chemistry throughout this feud. It was unspectacular, but solid and I give it 7.5 out of 10

R-Truth vs CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio vs Chris Jericho vs John Morrison vs The Undertaker (Elimination Chamber for World Heavyweight Championship)

We start out with R-Truth and CM Punk having a very high paced face off. Truth gets a lot of offence in, but ultimately went out a lot more quickly than I would have liked. That being said, his elimination gives us a repeat of Punk's mid match promo from the last PPV which was very entertaining. It is untrue how much more entertianing he has been since his face turn, and promos like this are the cornerstone of that.

After he's finished, Rey Mysterio is out next and we get an excellent preview of how good their WrestleMania match might be, but without spoiling it because they use the chamber. Mysterio was the star o last year's chamber, and this year he put on another excellent performance. Mysterio's hurricanrana onto the steel followed by a spalsh onto Punk for the elimination was innovative and looked cool.

Immediately after Punk's elimination, Jericho comes in. Jericho and Mysterio had a superb feud last year and they have an excellent to and fro section here initially, before Jericho takes over, thanks to clever use of the chamber. They are later joined by John Morrison, who does much of the same as them really, using the Chamber to bolster what is already an entertaining contest.

Eventually, Morrison manages to eliminate Mysterio with Starship Pain, before he gets put in the Walls of Jericho. Undertaker comes in and breaks it up, and then Morrison and Jericho team up between them to beat down Undertaker. Morrison gets taken out and Jericho runs away from Untertaker comedically into a pod. Taker shifts his attentions to Morrison, but his onslaught is slowed by Morrison hitting the springboard enziguri, but he gets hit knees up to stop starship pain.

This three continue for a while until Morrison is eventually eliminated by Taker after a chokeslam onto the steel. It was a good showing for Morrison in the end, and it has restored my faith that he is on the up. A real chance for MITB in my opinion. Anyway, Taker and Jericho then go forward, and we have a reasonably good, if slow affair between them, until Michaels appears and gifts Jericho the match.

This was an excellent chamber match, and it flowed very nicely. Michaels may have been a likely sight, but I don't think anyone saw him breaking into the chamber. Jericho, Truth, Punk, Mysterio and Morrison all put in fantastic performances, and Undertaker probably gave his best match since he last came back from injury. Very good, I only wish R-Truth could have lasted a bit longer. That being said though, very enjoyable and I give it 9.2 out of 10

Production and extras

We begin with a quite generic road to WrestleMania promo, which follows on from the one at the Rumble, before bigging up some of the aspects of the chamber itself, before entering the arena which is quite nicely set up. As this happens, the elimination chamber lowers while Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Matt Striker, who certainly brings out the best in the other two, which is good.

We get a recap of the Bret Hart story from Raw that week, which is all well and good, but it doesn't really have anything to do with this PPV, so I'm not really sure what the point of it was, especially as they showed it again on Raw the next day. We could have had some sort of build for the IC title match instead, which wasn't there, but would have been relevant.

We have a segment with Gail Kim and Maryse bigging up their match. Apparently, Kim can speak French and knows what Maryse has really been saying to her. We know this because she says "Je suis tres contente" which means "I am very happy". Not so sure that proves anything, but its a pretty original way to build the match. Before their match actually starts, Vickie Guerrero changes it to a tag match. The only thing I can think of as to why they did this is to confirm Maryse as a heel after her teased face turn didn't go very well.

After that match, we get an interview with The Miz talking about NXT and Daniel Bryan in particular. MVP comes along and sets up another US title match, which means that 50% of the card wasn't advertised, which isn't very good really. It was indicative of this shows biggest problem; namely that they underbooked it. I don't know if they were expecting the chambers to last longer or what, but it seems pretty stupid. They could have easily booked MVP and Henry against ShowMiz on Raw last week or even the last ever ECW Title match, but instead they had to throw things onto the card, which isn't good.

William Regal comes out next, and he is talking about NXT, for no real reason, except to fill the time. Edge is out next, and while he's good on the mic and he builds up a rapport with Regal, this segment was unecessary. Edge, a face, then attacks Regal, a heel, completely unprovoked and with no chance of further development, which was ultimately pointless. Cheap heat all around! So yeah, an unecessary segment, that could have easily been acheived with an Edge backstage interview.

We then get an advert for WrestleMania, which is fine, but it is preceeded by a pointless advert for the main event. We then get a recap of the WWE title match which is all but completely pointless. Seriously, there was no need for it and it just shows further that the show was poorly timed outside of the two main events.

The set looked good, the commentators were good and the segments were well presented, but Regal and Edge, the recap of the first chamber, the recap of Bret Hart and the changing of the divas match were all unecessary. The fact that half of the matches weren't advertised is poor preparation of the worst kind, and I have to give this PPV a low score for production as a result. I give it 5.8 out of 10

Overview

This event was, like the previous two February PPVs two good matches and a load of filler. However, this one suffered because the filler aspects of it were very clear. Whereas both last year and the year before had ECW title matches to fill some of the void, they didn't this time around. I think Edge should have been given a match, against someone, doesn't matter who, as it would have filled the gap more naturally.

Still, the two main events and the surprise made it worth a watch, and it was better than the Royal Rumble, certainly.

I give this event 72 out of 100

 

[klunderbunker]

Elimination Chamber 2010
Date: February 21, 2010
Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 17,628
Commentators: Michael Cole, Matt Striker, Jerry Lawler

Well it’s the day after the show and thanks to me being an idiot my regular laptop is in the shop so this is my second try at this. The card looks pretty weak on paper as there are only four announced matches, including one that no one wants to see. However with two chambers it’s hard to assume this is going to be bad, although I’ve seen others that were far better looking that sucked so we’ll find out. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is of course all about the Chamber which is rather annoying but that’s how things go. Why is it annoying? Because it’s exactly what you would expect it to be, which says to me that it’s boring as all hell. WOW that’s a lot of pyro. And the Chamber is lowered for this.

Raw World Title: Sheamus vs. Ted DiBiase vs. HHH vs. John Cena vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton

Cena gets a VERY mixed reaction but I think it’s leaning towards more cheers than boos which is a good sign I guess. I’m digging those white ropes. DiBiase gets an ok at best reaction. I do like them giving the young guys a chance if nothing else. They get main event experience even if there’s no chance any of them win it. Ok Striker needs to drop the damn metaphors already.

Orton gets a POP. Just turn him already Vince. He needs it. HHH gets a pop but nothing compared to Orton or even Cena for that matter. No one has ever won more than one Chamber match. Except HHH. He’s won four. Nothing wrong with that is there? Apparently Sheamus has to get all the eliminations. Kofi and he will be starting us out. Kofi looking over his shoulder just in case is rather amusing. Kofi is rocking red tonight which is working for him.

Can someone get Armstrong a weight in his arm? EPIC RKO chant. They touch on the Orton/Kingston feud. Sweet damn that was awesome. This three man commentary team is working really well for me. The clock runs down and it’s HHH. There’s not a ton to talk about at this point as everything here means very little. Sheamus needs a name for his Razor’s Edge as Cole just calls it that finishing maneuver.

That high knee always works for some reason. They clarify that you have to get the pin in the ring. Good to know as that’s always a question I think about in these matches. Kofi sits on the outside here and lets them fight which is very smart. Scratch that as he hits a cross body on Sheamus.

Kofi hits a sweet Boom Drop over the top rope onto HHH. That looked great. Clock starts up again and it’s Orton to a nice pop. He’s beating the hell out of everyone. This guy is dying to be a face already Vince. Can you not see that? He’s beating the hell out of Sheamus and HHH which is awesome. SHUT UP STRIKER. It’s not a metal thing with fangs. It’s a cage damn it.

The fans want blood. Kofi takes everyone out with a huge dive. He’s getting a lot of big spots in this. He goes for another but Orton catches him with a dropkick. Nice indeed. Everyone goes for their finisher and no one gets it. Orton’s head slams into the post. That looked SICK. In at 5 is DiBiase.

I love that falling punch. Orton and DiBiase team up and beat down just about everyone. They shove Kofi’s head through the Chamber wall and DiBiase puts a Boston Crab on him. Orton gives HHH the elevated DDT onto the cage. That would hurt indeed. He and DiBiase wait on Cena outside his pod so of course he plows through them. He cleans house and hits an FU over the top rope on DiBiase.

DiBiase is in the STF and his leg isn’t supposed to bend like that! Rhodes is here with a pipe. DiBiase hits Orton with it as he’s in the FU and then takes Cena down with it. Ted pins Orton so we’re at five. Kofi puts him out with Trouble in Paradise and Sheamus hits his two move combination to take Kofi out so it’s Sheamus, HHH and Cena left. The pale one takes over and for NO apparent reason, HHH saves Cena.

And of course HHH gets to pin Sheamus first. So at the moment is the title vacant or is Sheamus technically champion as the match he’s defending in isn’t over yet? I’m not sure. A few seconds later Cena gets the STF and HHH taps. I’ve read some posts saying HHH might not have been tapping. What show were you watching? Yeah he was tapping.

Rating: B+. Solid stuff here. It’s missing that little something extra to make it a classic but this is certainly more than good stuff. The timing here was solid as we had enough to keep it from being too short but not enough to get boring. Half an hour is just about perfect I think. Also there was the fact that all of the guys in here were given a chance to showcase themselves, especially Kofi. He stole the show out there and it worked very well. Very good stuff here.

Cena is celebrating and Vince’s music hits. Yep, there’s another match and it’s with Batista. Not going to bother with giving it a formal introduction. It’s 30 seconds long and Batista hits the spear and Batista Bomb for the title. This is what people complain about when they say the amount of title reigns mean nothing anymore. The angle is awesome though.

Mania video.

We recap the Bret/Vince feud. Good video but it has zero to do with what’s going on at the moment.

Intercontinental Title: Drew McIntyre vs. Kane

Never seen Drew’s intro before. That was indeed as sweet as it’s made out to be. Can we give Kane something though? The guy has jobbed more than anyone in history and what does he have to show for it? Very little that I can see. He deserves to have something at some point. I love that uppercut that Kane uses. It’s just sweet.

His in ring stuff is very good overall. We get a great stat: 20% of IC Champions go on to be world champions. That’s something most people wouldn’t pick up on. And yes I’m a Kane mark so get over it. I didn’t realize Drew was that big. And let’s talk about the Raw world title again. Drew goes for the knee. And then the arm. Make that the ribs. PICK SOMETHING DAMN IT. Ok it’s the arm. Better than nothing I guess.

Both guys hit big boots which there’s just something cool about. I mean how awesome is it to just kick someone in the face? Kane hits the clothesline from the top and shakes his arm to sell the injury even more. The chokeslam is countered and it’s still Kane in control. The ramp seems exceedingly short for some reason.

And after Kane dominates 80% of the match a thumb to the eye and the double arm DDT ends it. Never been a fan of that, at least not a setup like a thumb to the eye. I like Drew’s look with the belt if nothing else.

Rating: B-. Not bad but nothing that jumps off the page here. The ending was just bad to me. Kane DOMINATED for about 80% of the match and a thumb to the eye is enough to stop him dead? That doesn’t do it for me. Even a knee or something small like that would have made it a lot better. Still though, the purpose here was to give Drew more credibility and that was certainly accomplished so big points for that.

We get the EPIC, yes EPIC I say, reveal of Gail being able to speak French and knows Maryse has being insulting her. Gail CANNOT ACT. I said in the LD that this is getting to Stephanie levels. Oh and the Smackdown Divas aren’t sexy apparently.

Raw Women’s Title: Gail Kim vs. Maryse

So this is the final of the tournament that has gone on forever to replace Melina who is injured now. No one cares about this anyway. And Vickie has something to say. Apparently the Smackdown Divas don’t like being left off the show so we’re getting a tag match with Raw vs. Smackdown. For the love of ass, no one cares. Whatever. Oh and Striker has something close to a racist joke as he says once you watch a Gail Kim match you want to see another 20 minutes later.

Gail Kim/Maryse vs. Michelle McCool/Layla

Oy seriously? For the life of me I do not get this. Maryse would beat Gail clean the next night anyway, so what the hell is the point to this? I just do not get it. To be fair I don’t care enough to figure it out anyway so there we go. Yep the Smackdown girls are way hotter. Gail and Layla start us off and it’s not very good at all. Basically Maryse refuses to tag in and it’s a handicap match. Yep she won’t tag and Michelle kicks the hell out of Gail and the Styles Clash ends it. Maryse beats her up afterwards.

Rating: N/A. I have no idea what the point of this was unless they’re setting up to unify the titles at Mania or something like that. This was a waste of time and the only perk were the looks of Michelle and Layla.

Ad for NXT.

Miz talks about Daniel Bryan and makes fun of St. Louis. MVP interrupts him and of course he’s got another title shot tonight.

Regal comes out to talk about his rookie for NXT. Edge interrupts Regal’s standard great heel promo to talk about how he’s going to make his pick tomorrow on Raw. It’s Jericho in case you didn’t know by now. Regal gets speared for no reason at all.

Another ad for Mania. I really hate the theme song they’re playing the entire time.

US Title: Miz vs. MVP

I love Miz’s theme music I think. Both guys have their fat tag partners with them. He really does look awesome with all that gold. And the Kool Aid Man is still fat. Naturally the talking is mostly about Daniel Brian and NXT. Why in the world should I care about MVP? I have zero idea what the appeal of him is. Oh and apparently he’s a power guy now? We get Tiger Woods jokes. Oh dear. They try to compare the last few years in their two careers.

Both have come miles. Yes but Miz has gone forward and MVP has gone backwards. This has been fairly entertaining. It’s nothing epic but it’s certainly doing ok. I just can’t stand MVP at all anymore so that has something to do with it. Show’s shouting is funny to me. I hate that Ballin Elbow. It’s just stupid on so many levels. On the floor Henry goes after Show and hits the railing which more or less explodes. Miz is busted open a bit and Show punches MVP to let Miz retain.

Rating: C+. Not bad at all here. It was a great way to get some time on the card filled in which this show needed badly. Also, Miz gets another win to further establish him as a big deal. This is a win he should have gotten and he did. That’s all you can ask of him. Decent little match here indeed.

We recap the Raw Elimination Chamber. REALLY? We need to recap a moment that happened an hour and a half ago? On a PPV? Is this for people that bought the show halfway through or were late getting home? Seriously, who is this for? They show the whole Batista thing. Seriously, is this for people that are stuck with their fathers at a car dealership because their fathers are pathetic liars that just HAD to buy a new truck on the night their son was paying for their first PPV? It could happen.

Smackdown World Title: Rey Mysterio vs. Undertaker vs. CM Punk vs. John Morrison vs. R-Truth vs. Chris Jericho

Rey is out first and thankfully he’s only been world champion once. Morrison is out second and gets a solid pop. Remember he has a bad ankle allegedly. Jericho gets a solid pop of his own. Taker is fourth and this is the interesting thing. In case you didn’t hear, he was set on fire by the pyro.

Let’s see if I can see it unlike anyone else watching the show. Ok the fire is going on and he’s not there yet. Ok there he is and everything seems ok. The flames keep going up but you can’t see where they are in relation to him. Everything seems fine at the moment though.

RIGHT THERE! The flames go up in the middle of everything where he would have been standing so I’d bet that’s where it happened. It’s right as Chimmel is saying his name. Oh yeah when they go down he’s nearly running out of there. Oh man he is PISSED.

There’s a moment where the camera locks on Rey which is when I’m guessing Taker has water poured on him. Now let’s think about this for a minute. Taker, other than running to the ring, which is fairly understandable I’d say, completely stayed in character there.

Think about that: he was just involved in what could have been a life threatening situation or if nothing else something that could have caused severe injury to him. He stayed in character. You can bitch about him all you want, but that my friends is discipline. I don’t think the announcers have a clue what was going on but they play it up as the Chamber changing him. Punk cuts a promo on his way to the ring which of course is epic.

Seriously, this gimmick could carry him for ten years easily. Truth cuts him off. As I’ve said before, wrestlers that get the crowd involved or play to them are ALWAYS going to be bigger deals. Think about this match for example: Truth, Jericho, Rey and Punk got the biggest reactions. Taker here is an exception but look at Morrison. He doesn’t play to the crowd much and he got a far weaker reaction.

Truth talks to the fans, Rey does the mask thing, Jericho and Punk’s promos are insulting to the crowd. They get bigger reactions and they’re the four here with world titles. Morrison doesn’t have one yet does he? And the length of time in the company argument doesn’t hold up as Morrison has been in WWE longer or as long as Punk.

Morrison and Punk start us off. Apparently Serena is Punk’s concubine. Ok then. Truth is dominating here. They’re using the Chamber really well here. That’s a big thing that puts this WAY ahead of its I guess you would say counterpart, Hell in a Cell. They messed that show up so badly I can’t comprehend it.

After a missed elbow, GTS puts Truth out. And now we wait for the rest of the clock and Punk gets to talk even more. That’s a great mini gimmick. He mentions making Taker tap. Love that. It’s Rey in next so we’re getting what’s likely a Mania preview here. They fight outside on the cage area with Rey getting slammed into the cage. Cool spot.

Rey is getting destroyed with a capital destr here. Punk tries a GTS from the top rope and Cole makes me laugh. Striker: you can tear a tendon up there. Cole: how about falling on your head? And Rey gets the rana and a splash from the top for the pin to get us down to four. Ok then.

Next in is Jericho to a nice reaction. He hits this 619 but Jericho gets outside to avoid the really weak pin off a really bad move. Rey hits the Spiderman spot which is always cool. These two can’t have a bad match I don’t think. Rey hooks a form of a dragon sleeper and the IWC rejoices. Solid stuff here.

Rey is in the Walls as the clock ticks down and it’s Morrison. For ZERO apparent reason, he goes for Jericho who lets go of the hold. Yep that makes no sense at all. In a cool spot Morrison goes up top and Rey shoves him into the pod. That would hurt like hell. Morrison hits the standing shooting star on Rey. Solid stuff but they’re just milling around waiting on Taker to come in here. Jericho hits a SWEET backbreaker on Rey to stop the 619 for no apparent reason.

Morrison gets that springboard spinkick that I freaking love. Rey is the only one with something close to control here. And Starship Pain puts Mysterio out to get us down to three. Morrison is getting to showcase himself here which is a big deal. Jericho gets the Walls on John and there’s the clock. And he hits Jericho which makes NO SENSE but whatever. Taker is getting NO reaction here.

The two living guys go after Taker which makes sense. Apparently half of Taker’s offense is his defense. What grade did you teach Striker? Jericho does something great as he hides in a pod. That’s very smart. Shame they’re clear so he’s easy to see.

With Jericho down Taker goes after Morrison who hits the kick again to put him down. Starship Pain is blocked and there goes Morrison’s chances. Jericho is hiding again which is brilliant. In a great looking visual, Morrison is hanging onto the cage while Jericho and Taker fight underneath him.

Taker is SLAMMED into the pod which would hurt like ass. Taker getting a chant now. Morrison gets chokeslammed onto the cage and he’s gone. How have Jericho and Taker never had a long feud? There go the straps. Jericho is in control here but both guys are banged up. Taker goes for the chokeslam with FREAKY looking eyes.

After a bunch of counters, Jericho gets the Walls. Cole points out that he’s in the middle of the ring, even though in a bit he points out that ropes mean nothing in this match. Make up your freaking mind Cole. Jericho hits the Codebreaker which Taker jumps in to, making it look all the better. Last Ride hits and Taker kind of throws him with it. That looked great. We get the Tombstone sign and there’s Shawn. You know the rest.

Rating: A-. I loved this but I would have liked seeing Jericho get the clean pin and for the first two guys getting more time. Either way they pushed a lot of Mania here which is the best thing they could do. The wrestling here was great and they had Morrison do what he had to do out there. This was great stuff though and it worked very well. Great match.

Overall Rating: A-. Sweet show, period. This was great all around with good action, bloodshed, Mania being set up and some shockers. Excellent show and while there are parts that are annoying, there’s nothing here that’s that terrible. Great show, well worth checking out.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

NorCal NightCap

Outstanding show, truly.

The opening chamber match was fucking badass. Everyone got decent offense in, and we got to see everyone all involved at once, which has never happened before. I would have liked things to move a little faster, but on a whole, the match was VERY good, and easily stacks up against others of its kind. I am failry sure the ending and how they went about it definately shocked everyone, and I KNOW nobody saw Cena making Trips tap to finish it coming. Fantastic.

LOVED the aftermath, with Batista squashing Cena to become the new champ. People will rattle on about pointless this and thatm whatever. Its a means to an end, which is what wrestling is all about. The angle, the story arc, the payoff. Thats what this was for, and it was executed beautifully.

Mcyntire and Kane had themselves a decent little match. Nothing overly special, but at the same time, perfectly serviceable. Didnt help that the crowd decided they were done after the first chamber match, which would become the theme of the night. The diva tag match was, er, whatever. Good thing the WWE knew better than to throw Maryse and Gail Kim out there though, which may have been the worst case of embarrassingly quite crowd reaction we have ever heard. I can say I was pleasantly suprised by what was an EXCELLENT US title match by MVP and The Miz. Like seriously, this match was really very good, and was given a decent amount of time. Loved the mix of brawling and technical style, the big Mark Henry crash, Miz with a bit of blood. Just a fun, good match overall.

The SD chamber fucking rocked hard. I would say you could definately stack this one up against any other of the EC matches, except sadly for the fact that the crowd was sitting on its hands for the whole thing. It was really very odd and eerie. You are watching this amazing match, and the crowd just can't be bothered, I was really very confused by it all. Fantastic work by everyone involved, and if you get a chance to see any match from this card, I suggest finding this one. Great work by everyone, only flaw I found is I woul have enjoyed seeing Punk getting to stick around longer, but, you cant have everything.

Excellent show, full of great action, and huge suprises. Superb show, and one that will be tough to beat for best show of the year

A