Tuesday, January 6, 2015

WWE Elimination Chamber 2013 Review

Match 1: World Heavyweight Championship - Alberto Del Rio (c) vs. The Big Show
Kicking off the night is the third contest between these two for the World Heavyweight Championship. The reason this time around is because Del Rio has never actually pinned The Big Show. Alright. Del Rio as a good guy is so strange and seeing him shake hands with fans is even stranger. It just simply doesn't fit him as a wrestler. With that being said, this match wasn't much different from encounters they have had in the past. Good action throughout with Del Rio finally finding a way to get the giant to tap after Del Rio knocked Show with the bucket that Ricardo Rodriguez brings out. It wasn't a pin, but I guess this will suffice. Decent start to the show but the crowd just isn't getting behind Del Rio as a face yet heading into WrestleMania.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
Rating: **

Match 2: United States Championship - Antonio Cesaro (c) vs. The Miz
Miz has his arm heavily taped and Cesaro looks to use it as a bullseye. Cesaro does a great job of aiming at the arm of the Miz and The Miz does a fantastic job of selling the injury. He made it a point that he wasn't even able to do any type of offense with that side of his body. Cesaro inured his knee after slamming it into the steel steps and the tables turn. Miz focuses on the knee of Cesaro until he accidentally lands a low blow which lead to the referee calling the match. Cesaro retains but Miz hits him with another low blow to send him packing.
Winner: Cesaro
Rating: *1/2

Match 3: Elimination Chamber - Jack Swagger vs. Kane vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho
The match perfectly starts off with Bryan and Jericho and the two have a great encounter filled with such precise wrestling and awesome counters. These two need to have a serious singles match down the line. The two got the match off startin on the right note and eventually, everybody was in the match at once with Henry being the last entrant. The pacing so far has been tremendous, never a dull moment and every pin attempt felt pretty legit. Henry was a beast, tossing everybody left and right before slamming Orton through a pod and eliminating Team Hell No. The Chamber is perfect for someone like Henry, especially when he is the last entrant. Henry continued to clean house before Jericho hits him with a Codebreaker followed by an RKO by Orton. Awesome having Henry in the match, very underrated in what he does and he looked like a complete beast here. Henry then comes back into the Chamber and slams everybody before being escorted out! Awesome! We are down to Jericho, Orton, and Swagger. Crowd is hot for this. Orton looks to be the alpha male and begins to lay waste. The ending sequence came when Orton looked to RKO Jericho before Jericho escaped and tried to hit a Lionsault. Orton gets his knees up and lands an RKO to eliminate Jericho! Swagger rolls up Orton and pins him for the win! Interesting ending to what was a great match that usually always delivers. Wish Swagger would have gotten a more legit win considering he is headed to WrestleMania challenging for the World Heavyweight Championship. With that said, still a great match and definitely one I enjoyed.
Winner: Jack Swagger
Rating: ****1/4

Match 4: John Cena, Ryback, & Sheamus vs. The Shield
This is only The Shield's second official match in the WWE and what a match it is. These guys are in for the push of a lifetime. Great to see the WWE try out something different and these three guys look like they will be a big deal for a long time coming. There was dispute of whether or not this match should have been held inside the Chamber but this makes more sense considering only one person has to eat a pin. Although a Chamber match with these six guys has amazing potential. With that being said, the style of wrestling these guys gave us was perfect to go along with the feud. Out of control and lots of intensity being brought from both sides. The Shield looked like a pack of animals and whether it was Cena or Ryback or Sheamus, they all sold to The Shield's moves accordingly. The big finish came when Roman Reigns landed a Spear to Sheamus outside through a ringside barricade and followed that one up with a Spear to Ryback who had Seth Rollins on his shoulders. Rollins fell on Ryback to get the win as Cena landed an Attitude Adjustment on Dean Ambrose. Another great performance from The Shield, these guys are hot right now. Especially considering that they got this win.
Winners: The Shield
Rating: ***3/4

Match 5: Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston
Dolph Ziggler comes out and cuts a heel promo saying that he is the future World Heavyweight Champion which leads to Booker T coming out and announcing a match against Kofi Kingston. Basically, this was a glorified squash match with Big E Langston helping Ziggler get a quick win. Not much to say about this here, calming the crowd down from the last match leading into the big main event.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Rating: 3/4*

Match 6: Divas Championship - Kaitlyn (c) vs. Tamina Snuka
These two had practically the lamest altercation before this match started on the WWE App thing. I thought the last match was the one driving the show into the main event but I was wrong. We get this very short and dull Divas match that really had no place on the card. Kaitlyn wins with a Spear. Main event time.
Winner: Kaitlyn
Rating: 1/2*

Match 7: WWE Championship - The Rock (c) vs. CM Punk
The rematch from their Royal Rumble is different this time around as if Rock gets counted out or disqualified, the title will change hands.  Oddly enough, I think Rock's ring rust showed off more here than his last match. He looked winded much of the time and lots of his moves didn't seem as crisp as it did the last time around. But the WWE is good with all the bells and whistles and this one had a lot of them. Punk seemed to be in more control for the better part of the match, definitely leading the way of the match for The Rock. Pacing was good but nothing notable, the match was too slow and did drag in the middle of the match. Things did, however, pick up when Punk landed a Rock Bottom on the announce table outside. Punk tried his best to get the victory by the referee counting out but Rock barely got back in. This is when the stupid referee bump happens as Punk hit the GTS on Rock but with no referee in sight, couldn't pick up the win. Rock then hits a People's Elbow as Punk barely kicks out. A second referee eventually got in and he also got injured. Anyone else hate referee bumps? Punk tries to hit Rock with the title but accidentally hits Heyman as Rock hits a Rock Bottom to retain. About even with their last match, too much was going on for me to like this one more. Rock will headline WrestleMania against Cena again and hopefully, his ring rust will be rusted off by then.
Winner: The Rock
Rating: ***1/2

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
A better effort than the last PPV as the Chamber match along with the tag match both delivered nicely. The main event lacked a little something and ended the show in a pretty underwhelming manner. With that said, the pieces to WrestleMania are basically all in place.
Rating: 7.25/10

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