Ronda Rousey signed her first WWE contract at Elimination Chamber in the T-Mobile Arena of Paradise, Nevada. This has led to a confrontation with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, with whom she has already had differences in the past. In addition, the first elimination chamber of the women’s Raw Women’s Championship of Alexa Bliss and the men’s elimination chamber where Universal Champion Brock Lesnar’s WrestleMania opponent was determined.
Winner: Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson per Magic Killer against Bo Dallas. A filler match without any consequences for both teams was the only logical winner. While Gallows & Anderson play a minor role after just under a year of insignificance (since the loss of the title at WrestleMania 33) by the Balor Club, Axel & Dallas stay on the jobber side.
None of the two teams will make any progress with this result. Backstage was followed by an interview with The Revival, who made fun of both teams and presumably their feud vs. Gallows & Anderson.
Bayley and Sonya Deville started into the match and the Huggerin made a few near falls before Mandy Rose as number 3 was allowed into the ring. The two Absolution-Heels double-teamed Bayley until Sasha Banks came in fourth and after a short while forced Rose to give up in Banks statement.
As penultimate, Mickie James left her cell and attacked the two faces before she finally climbed onto one of the cells and showed a huge Thesz Press against Deville. The subsequent pin also eliminated the second absolution member. James said goodbye a little later, after both faces had missed their finishers.
Bliss thus threatened a handicap situation, which she tried to circumvent by promptly climbing the cage high up onto her cell when the timer expired. Her opponents followed her, however, until Sasha suddenly stepped down from the top of one of the chambers with great cheers from Bayley.
Afterwards the whole thing advanced to a 3-Way, where Alexa first dusted off the pin to Bayley and later, after a longer 1-on-1, took Sasha by huge DDT from one of the chambers and covered. Winner & further Raw Women’s Champion: Alexa Bliss. Little Miss Bliss is allowed to hold the title until WrestleMania, where she will pass it on to either Asuka or Jax, while the feud between Banks and Bayley was further intensified.
Winner & still RAW Tag Team Champions: The Bar after a double team move against Apollo. After the injuries of Jeff Hardy, Dean Ambrose and Jason Jordan, Raw is practically without a day’s division, as none of the remaining teams have been set up in any way.
The Champs Cesaro & Sheamus are the only highlight that stands out from the ruins of this division and it made sense to leave them the titles. However, Apollo & Titus have been able to increase considerably lately, work well together and recently Apollo was even in a raw main event.
It is therefore questionable how useful it was to let it be pinned here instead of the veteran who is there to take it forward. The feud between the two teams was about to end and WrestleMania opponents for The Bar are not on the horizon. If you don’t hurry up to push The Revival and/or Gallows & Anderson, Cesaro & Sheamus are facing the same fate as last year’s Usos: not to be allowed to defend their titles in WrestleMania as champions. In case of doubt, both will compete in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
The winner: Asuka per rollup, it was to be expected that there would be no clear finish here, but it was simply unlikely that Jax would end the Japanese woman’s huge winning streak at Elimination Chamber, Nia was once again strongly portrayed, the trend is clearly pointing upwards and the audience has long since convinced her.
After the match, she continued to attack the Emperess of Tomorrow, much to the delight of Bliss backstage. The signs therefore point clearly in the direction of 3-Way around Alexa’s title at WrestleMania. Since an opponent for Charlotte is still not foreseeable (unless you want to push Ruby Riott tremendously or do Becky Lynch gymnastics) and Ronda Rousey will be otherwise busy, Bliss vs. Jax and Charlotte vs. Asuka as title matches plus Banks vs. Bayley conceivable.
The problem, however, would be that Asuka would have to switch to SmackDown by winning the title, which is not what those in charge want in case of doubt. Afterwards, you could simply swap Shakeup Bliss/Jax and Asuka, but that would be another blow against the SD division, which besides Charlotte is already weak. Asuka’s decision must be made promptly in order to build up the feud, the coming raw editions will provide the answer.
Page 1: Women’s Elimination Chamber
Page 2: Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt
Page 3: Men’s Elimination Chamber
Page 4: Elimination Chamber 2018: The Result