Pre-show:
Brodus Clay & Tensai vs Team Rhodes Scholars
My, we're off to a great start.
A Rikishi wannabe and Prince Albert vs a team that broke up, and out of nowhere got back together. I guess we're supposed to forget that they ever broke up in the first place. Go figure.
Anyway, the match was solid. Clay and Tensai showed some great teamwork. Rhodes Scholars always had great tag team presence, so it's nice to see nothing's changed. Slow, short match. Not bad. Clay and Tensai get the win with a double flop and Clay getting the pin.
I'll admit, the team of Brodus and Tensai has potential. I just PRAY they don't go overboard with the comedy stuff. A few short skits here and there and they'll be fine. There's no need for any long winded segments that get less funny as they go on. Keep it at a minimum, don't overload on the Nickelodeon humor and we've got something. Just keep Tensai as the serious guy with some flashes of dancing. No need to totally turn him into dancing goof like Brodus.
Looking at the other side of the spectrum, they break up Team Rhodes Scholars and have them get back together only to LOSE their first match back together. Um....?
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Alberto Del Rio (c) vs Big Show
I was expecting the Elimination Chamber match to kick the show off, and this is quite a change.
This was a standard Del Rio/Show match. They told an ok story in the ring. Nothing really jumped out at me except Del Rio's change in moveset. Since his face turn, he's wrestled better and looser. In this match, he showed he had some serious hangtime on a couple of occasions. Del Rio gets the win making Show tap out to the cross arm breaker.
I just noticed, this was the first actual one-on-one match without an added stipulation to the match. It was just a straight forward match and it was good. Like I said above, Del Rio wrestles better as a face, There's just something different about how his moves flow.
Oh yeah, and there was a BOTCH! Del Rio missed a spot where he supposed to kick a bucket back into Show's face, but he missed him. He tried it again, but barely grazed the bald head of Show.
I'm pretty sure this is the end of their feud. Show has lost to Del Rio three times in a row now. Three strikes and you're out Big man. Their feud was enjoyable, I will say that. Started out good, but didn't have the same fire leading up to this match. I was also hoping Ziggler to cash in, but nope. Sooner or later, Ziggler has to cash that bad boy in. For now, Del Rio is going to WrestleMania as the World Champion and I don't have a problem with it.
United States Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro (c) vs The Miz
A match that I was somewhat excited to see. I've been telling people that Cesaro is the next big thing in this business. This match was pretty solid with both men telling a great story in the ring. This is one thing I love about Cesaro: not only does he show how good he is week by week, he can also tell a great story in the ring. This match was short, but still exceptional. The ending was kind of screwy. Miz was going for something, and Cesaro kicked Miz's leg and he landed on Cesaro's thigh, and he sold it like he got low blowed. The ref bought it and Miz was disqualified with Cesaro keeping the US Title. Miz gets angry and low blows Cesaro for real after the match.
The ending could've been a little better, but as long as Cesaro keeps the US Title, it's whatever. Because of this finish, I can see this feud going up until WrestleMania, but to do that, they're going to need to give this feud more life and substance. We had a taste of that on RAW last Monday when Cesaro threw Miz around the barricade like a rag doll. But it's not enough. The Miz's face run has been BAD so far. They need to tweak that a little bit. But anyway, the match was good, nothing special and Cesaro holds on to the US Title heading into WrestleMania and since I'm a big Cesaro fan, I don't have a problem with this.
Early on, I can see the crowd isn't that good, and the commentary is worse. Hopefully things pick up in this next match.
Elimination Chamber Match: Winner becomes #1 Contender for the World Title at WrestleMania
Chris Jericho vs Daniel Bryan vs Kane vs Randy Orton vs Mark Henry vs Jack Swagger
This was a surprisingly GREAT Elimination Chamber match! I didn't expect much, this match played out very well with stories told throughout. It was lengthy with great wrestling and near fall moments that got the crowd out of their seats. Kane and Bryan going at it, Mark Henry coming in and cleaning house, and Jack Swagger's new attitude coming full circle at Elimination Chamber. Great match, solid spots, but I knew before the match started who was going to win. Zeb Coulter and Swagger came out first and cut a promo. Then it hit me, a proud American is in this match and there's a proud Mexican as our World Champion. Predictable much? Swagger's new heel character, his heel manager pushing American Patriotism and there's a Mexican as the World Champion. Giving away the ending before the match even goes down. For shame.
If Ziggler cashed in, then things would've been a lot different as to who could've won, but since Del Rio debuted and Swagger's mouthpiece cut that promo for him, it was an open and shut case. Jericho, Orton, Kane, and Bryan were all faces; no way they were going to win. The ending looked like this: Orton eliminates Jericho, Swagger comes out of nowhere and rolls up Orton for the win. That ending could've gone better, but it shows Swagger as the opportunist and he's going to WrestleMania.
Getting back to the match, again, it was pretty good. I was really taken back by the great wrestling and moments in this match. All 6 of these guys did a great job putting this match over and going all out. Of course, there was the OMG moment when Henry tossed Orton through the Chamber Pod glass. Henry was the best part of this match.
Jack Swagger, the proud American vs Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania. This reeks of JBL/Guerrero or even Angle/Guerrero from WrestleMania 20 in terms of storyline purposes anyway. The whole racist American/Mexican storyline heading into WrestleMania has potential, but how far are they willing to go to make it interesting without offending anybody? WWE is PG after all. They need to tread lightly with this thing We're not in the early 2000s anymore.
Now that Swagger has a mouthpiece, I see a lot of potential in this feud. This could make up for Jack Swagger's last abysmal appearance in the World Title scene. Should be interesting to see.
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6 Man Tag Team Match
John Cena, Sheamus, & Ryback vs The Shield
Going into this match, I was saying how The Shield needed the win, but would WWE really let their top 3 faces lose? This match answered my questions and then some.
The Shield have only had one match in the WWE and it was a Match of the Year Candidate at TLC. This match was no different. The Shield are an exceptionally gifted trio. The way they wrestle brings me back to the Attitude Era. The Shield don't have slow, methodical paces. The pace is fast, quick tags and great athleticism and team wrestling. This, along with their personalities, are why I love this unit.
The way the match started got me worried. I thought it was gonna be a straight burying of The Shield, but the match progressed and I was impressed. These young guys put on one hell of a show with the three top faces in the WWE at the moment. It did drag at times, but it was still a great match that got even better towards the end. Roman Reigns is a very underrated member of The Shield. First, he spears Sheamus through the security wall almost taking out Lillian Garcia in the process and then just flat out takes Ryback down with a Rhyno-esque GORE while Ryback had Rollins on his shoulders. Rollins gets the win over Ryback.
I am SO glad The Shield got the win here. A loss for The Shield tonight would've deemed them irrelevant. How could we have taken them seriously if they got squashed by the Justice League of the WWE? They needed this win and they did it impressive fashion. Great match, great job. Believe In The Shield!
What they do now is going to be most interesting indeed.
John Cena and Sheamus don't lose anything here. John Cena is still going to WrestleMania to challenge for the WWE Championship and Sheamus is the face of SmackDown. They'll be fine. Ryback on the other hand has not won a single pay-per-view since September I think. You could see how mad he was when he just walked away. Ryback maybe a big deal, but with each loss, his credibility takes a hit. This may have been the boiling point.
Dolph Ziggler vs Kofi Kingston
I love seeing Dolph wrestle, but what was the point of this? To get Ziggler on the card? A backstage promo would've sufficed.
These two have wrestled a dozen times, so it was really nothing new. Don't get me wrong, it was a solid match, but these two wrestle each other all the time. You almost come to know just what they're going to do. Ziggler wins with the Zig Zag.
Once again, what was the point? If they wanted to fill the time, where was the Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett? Didn't he have a feud going with that kid Bo Dallas? So, they take those two off the show to job Kofi out to Ziggler when he could've just cut a promo.
Moving on.
Divas Championship Match
Kaitlyn (c) vs Tamina
There's not much I can say about this match. It didn't even last that long. After Tamina missed the Superfly Splash, Kaitlyn hit a sloppy looking spear for the win.
I know I'm beating a dead horse, but I need to rant about this again. It's sad to see what the Divas Division has become. The Divas today have no personality, barely any wrestling ability, their matches are less than a minute, the crowd is asleep during their matches, and even the commentators sound bored. For God sakes, Michael Cole was telling some dumbass story while the match was going on! The action was barely called!
The Divas Division needs a SERIOUS facelift and breath of fresh air because the way this keeps going, there will be no Divas Division a few years from now.
By the way, why is WWE trying to make Kaitlyn look like Trish? I'm talking about ring gear, hairstyle, stuff like that. Look at that picture and tell me she doesn't look like a buff Trish Stratus.
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WWE Championship Match
The Rock (c) vs CM Punk
The build up to this match has been good, and I expected a match that surpassed their match at The Rumble and I think they did just that. I think this rematch easily surpassed their match at The Royal Rumble. Sure it was a tad bit shorter than their Rumble encounter, but there was better storytelling and better back and forth action between both men. Rock still can sell with the best of them, making Punk look like a ring general. The crowd was pretty HOT for this match and rightfully so, and both men delivered. Even the commentary, for the first time tonight, was spot on and well and sold this match as well.
As far as the ending goes, I thought when the ref went flying to the floor, The Rock would get DQ'ed, Vince would come out, restart the match, etc, but one ref after the other went down and after the 2nd Rock Bottom, Rock pins and beats CM Punk. I feel as if this isn't over. I feel like Punk is going to come out on RAW tomorrow and replay the clip of Rock hitting the referee and implying that Rock should've lost and Punk will ask for another rematch.
But The Rock retains and I'm fine with it. The CM Punk fanclub on the other hand are probably throwing tantrums, taking their anger to Twitter, and recording themselves to go on Youtube later as I type this. I wouldn't be surprised. The surge of Punk fanboys that have come out of nowhere is very annoying. I feel sorry for all of you. But I'm pretty sure that with Rock-Cena II pretty much set for WrestleMania, The Rock retaining shouldn't be much of a surprise to anybody. If you expected anything else, you need help.
For the past two months, I have enjoyed the Rock/Punk feud. I say it was better than Rock and Cena's feud. I mean, what is there to look forward to with Rock and Cena II? They're going to hurl out the same insults they did last year. Only the WWE Title is going to be mentioned more.
We'll know in the next couple weeks if Undertaker will be at Mania. If Punk is added to make it a Triple Threat, either no Taker or Taker vs Lesnar. If there's no appearance by Taker tomorrow night or next Monday, we'll have our answer.
This pay-per-view was pretty good. The Rock and The Shield saved it from being a straight faceplant. Not to mention The Elimination Chamber match was damn awesome. Jack Swagger is going to WrestleMania, the Intercontinental Champion was nowhere to be found, Ziggler had a pointless match, the Divas continue to be irrelevant, and Del Rio retains the World Title. Thank God for The Rock and The Shield. They stole the show with their matches.
I'm going to be VERY generous and give it a 6.5 out of 10. If not for an epic Chamber match, The Rock, and The Shield, score would've been much worse, but I'll stick with this score and call it a night.
The Road to WrestleMania gets started tomorrow night. This is when WWE usually turns it up a few notches. Hoping for some great TV between now and WrestleMania.
Feel free to Comment.
By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete
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