I Was There: WWE Elimination Chamber

By Ryan Joy
Updated: March 13, 2020
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Chapter 7

WWE Elimination Chamber

Event: WWE Elimination Chamber

Location: Wells Fargo Center

Date: March 8

Headline: Elimination Chamber Match. Winner Faces Becky Lynch at WrestleMania

Miles from Home: 116 Miles

Ticket:

Elimination Chamber

Origins of the Elimination Chamber

WWE debuted the Elimination Chamber at Survivor Series 2002 in front of a sold out Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show broke pro wrestling records and kicked off a mostly annual tradition that exists to this day. Dave Meltzer spoke of the success in his November 25, 2002 Wrestling Observer Newsletter,

The show [Survivor Series] was a legitimate sellout (there were scattered empty seats live according to several reports) of 17,930 fans (about 15,500 paid). The show broke the all-time gate record for pro wrestling in the New York city market at $1,250,580. It was also the largest live gate for any pro wrestling show ever in the North America that wasn’t a Wrestlemania. The previous record for the New York market was $1,142,540 was set on January 23, 2000 for the Royal Rumble.

The first Elimination Chamber match earned ****1/4 stars from Meltzer. Of the 26 Elimination Chamber matches occurring over the subsequent years, the first match ties four other (Triple H’s win in ’05, Triple H’s win in ’09, Edge’s win in ’09, and Edge’s win in 2011) chamber matches for the second highest rating in the match’s history. The highest rated chamber matches with ****1/2 stars came with Bray Wyatt’s win in 2017 and Daniel Bryan’s win in 2019. The 2019 chamber is notable as a key part of Kofi Kingston’s road to WrestleMania and the most successful year of Kofi’s career.

The Elimination Chamber has to be one of the most successful gimmick matches in wrestling history both for its longevity as a marquee event and for a successful run of fairly high quality matches (elimination chamber matches average a 3.6 star rating from Meltzer with 11 of 26 at least getting four stars).

Build Up for the First Chamber:

On October 21, 2002, Eric Bischoff announced that the Survivor Series would have the first ever WWE Elimination Chamber match. He gave no details other than it would upstage the 2002 Hell in a Cell Match between Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker. That gave us a cliff hanger, so on the October 28th edition of Monday Night Raw, Bischoff gave us a little more:

At Survivor Series, I will debut the Elimination Chamber, and I know you’re probably asking yourself “What’s he got up his sleeve? What is Eric Bischoff up to?” Well, I’m going to tell you . . . next week. For now, suffice it to say, it is going to involve 6 Monday Night Raw Superstars. Oh yeah, and it is going to have elements of survivor series, royal rumble, and my all time personal favorite War Games. Oh yes, and it will also be for the World Heavyweight Title. You’re probably asking yourself right now, “Who would Eric Bischoff put in such a historic matchup?” Well, obviously Triple H, Chris Jericho, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Kane, and Shawn Michaels.

That gave us a little more information, and we could make some general assumptions. Before the story of Elimination Chamber continues, it’s interesting to take a quick look at the list of participants for that first match.

Competitors in the First Elimination Chamber Match

Triple H

Currently employed by WWE as the Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events, and Creative. It’s hard to know exactly what that title means, but we know he runs NXT and sits in Vince McMahon’s inner circle.

Chris Jericho

Speaking of Inner Circle, Jericho is still at the top of the wrestling world having just lost the All Elite Wrestling World Championship. He’s also won a whole bunch of 2019 Wrestling Observer Awards including Wrestler of the Year. In my opinion, there was nobody more important to wrestling in 2019 then Chris Jericho. He gave AEW credibility and instant viewership, and he proved his worth over and over again in 2019.

Booker T

A two time WWE Hall of Famer and an analyst for WWE. He is a regular host on FS1’s WWE Backstage and almost always sits on the Pay Per View panels.

Rob Van Dam

Like Jericho, RVD still wrestles. He doesn’t do as many of the high flying moves that made him Mr. Monday Night, but he competes almost weekly for Impact Wrestling. Of course those shows are taped, so he probably doesn’t work that many dates.

Kane

While he still wrestles from time to time (like on the Saudi Arabia shows), the more important job in his life is Mayor of Knox County Tennessee. He did briefly become the 24/7 Champion in 2019, and he recently had an interesting interview with Steve Austin as part of the Broken Skull Sessions on the WWE Network.

Shawn Michaels

We can’t exactly call him active, but he did have one match in 2019 teaming with Triple H to face Kane and Undertaker at a Saudi show. Interestingly three of the four people in the Saudi tag match competed in the first Elimination Chamber. What does that tell you about WWE’s current star power. Shawn has an off-screen role as part of the NXT brand.

Original Elimination Chamber Graphic form 2002

On the November 11th episode of Monday Night Raw, Eric Bischoff went on to answer some of the questions about the Elimination Chamber. He says, “Here’s how it’s going to work: 2 Men will be chosen at random to start the match. The other four men will be locked in individual chambers. Every five minutes, one of those chambers will be opened at random and that superstar will enter the match. Once defeated, that man is eliminated and the match will continue until there is one sole survivor and that man will become the World Heavyweight Champion. Once again, Eric Bischoff will prove that he is the most dynamic force in sports entertainment today.” WWE also used a video package to show us what the chamber would look like.

Elimination Chamber Tradition

The success and expense (the cage cost about $500,000) of that first match has led to 25 more matches. In 2009, WWE renamed their February pay per view event previously known as “No Way Out” to Elimination Chamber. While the Royal Rumble match winner goes on to face the champion of their choosing, the Elimination Chamber match typically determines the competitor to face the other major champion. In some cases, the champion also defends the title in Elimination Chamber jeopardizing their WrestleMania status. In any event, the Elimination Chamber has evolved over time to now become a key part of the WWE calendar with huge implications for WrestleMania season.

Elimination Chamber Pay Per View 2020 – I Was There

What Happened WWE?

You can forget almost everything I just said. The WWE wrestlers put on a good show, but the promotion failed to make the event significant in any way. WWE failed to meet the promotional standard for even the smallest wrestling company, much less the largest wrestling company in the world. Don’t get me wrong, the wrestling was average to good across the entire card, and I had a great time. My problem with this event is the complete lack of significance WWE placed on it.

WWE has two top male champions and neither of them were on the show. WWE has three top female champions regularly appearing on Raw and Smackdown, and none of them were on the show. Becky Lynch was shown backstage on the Pay Per View broadcast, but that footage didn’t air in the arena much less did we get to see her face off with Baszler after the chamber match. WWE has other top stars besides the champions, but Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt didn’t make the cut either.

The Women’s Elimination Chamber match did crown the number one contender to Becky Lynch’s Raw championship, but the match was below average and a very sad coming out party for Shayna Baszler. Did she look like a monster? Yes. Did that make for a good live show experience? No. As much as fans and media criticize the Raw and Smackdown commentary teams, at least viewers watching at home had someone to entertain them while we waited for Shayna’s next victim. This was painful to watch at the Royal Rumble when Brock Lesnar tossed everyone out and stood around. I found this equally painful.

The Show

I feel bad bantering so negatively about WWE’s lack of effort, but I do feel a little burned that I bought and paid for a pay per view level event that without the chamber would have been a low grade house show. As mentioned though, all of the wrestling turned out to be good. Drew Gulak got put in a good position facing Daniel Bryan in a very good match that showcased both of their talents. The story leading into the match was simple and effective. Bryan did a nice job telling the story in the ring, and Gulak put on a good performance.

The Tag Team Title Elimination Chamber Match

I rated the match at an 8 out of 10 on my scale, which puts it a bit above average. The highlight of the match came when Lince Dorado scaled the side of the cage and climbed monkey bar style across the ceiling to the highest point of the cage and swung himself into a shooting star press on a pile of just about every other wrestler in the match. The Live crowd saw everything happen, but the television crew did a nice job of concealing Lince’s climbing effort so the move came off as a surprise.

While the Lucha House party rarely gets any TV time, they always deliver on an exciting match. While it doesn’t appear WWE plans to ever elevate Gran Metalik from his current position, his in-ring work is exceptional and looks effortless. Personally, I would like the Lucha House party on the same television show as Rey Mysterio, Humberto Carillo, Andrade, and Angel Garza. They could do all kinds of things with that much luchador talent in the same place.

The match also included a fair amount of build toward an eventual Otis and Dolph Ziggler match. While Otis holds all of the charisma in the tandem, don’t look past Tucker. The man has zero appeal other than his loyalty to Otis, but his in-ring work is a very athletic style for someone his size. Among other things, we saw him deliver a somersault senton off the top of a pod. He did a lot to make the match exciting.

Sami Zayne’s Intercontinental Title Win

Sami Zayne’s tenure on the main roster never seems to go anywhere. I’m not sure of his current medical status, but a close review of his work on Sunday will show that he never took an offensive move from another wrestler. That means we could have an Intercontinental Champion that can’t realistically have a regular match. I’m a huge Sami Zayne fan. I think he’s great on the microphone and great in the ring. Despite my years of craving for Sami to have a solid title run, this feels like a comedy win that won’t mean anything. I could be wrong, and I hope I am. No matter how his reign proceeds from here, his initial victory means nothing considering he won from the three person side of a three on one handicap match. I rated this match a 7 (below average).

Women’s Elimination Chamber Match

I’ve already said so much about the Women’s Elimination Chamber match, but I have a couple more points. I want to care about the Riot Squad feud, but I just don’t. Since Ruby Riot has been out of action, Sarah Logan has all but disappeared and Liv Morgan. . . she did disappear. WWE did a ton of video packages hyping the return of Liv Morgan and immediately tossed her into the center of the Lana and Rusev feud. I still don’t know why. When Ruby came back to Raw, she attacked Liv Morgan. Now they’re all fighting each other, but the elimination chamber was really about feeding them to Shayna Baszler. I want more for this trio. They’re full of talent.

Poor Natalya and poor Asuka. They both got fed to the Vampire Shayna Baszler. Lucky for them, Shayna must have eaten recently because despite Asuka’s request from Raw, Shayna did not bite her. Let’s be clear though, Natalya is the cornerstone of the women’s division and Asuka is constantly in the main event because she consistently produces high quality performances regardless of the opponent. Shayna destroyed them both in this match and it did make Shayna look like a monster. Let’s hope they get another shot at Shayna later, and I hope the match is more competitive.

WWE Elimination Chamber Results:

Recommendations and Tips

WWE Merchandise

If you asked me a year ago whether WWE brings unique event based merchandise, I would have said nope. The last few pay per view events have proven me wrong. Don’t expect much uniqueness at a television taping, but I saw unique event merchandise at TakeOver War Games, Survivor Series, and the Elimination Chamber. My advice is to skip everything else they’re offering and only buy the event merchandise. The other stuff can be easily obtained on-line for a much cheaper price. I picked up three Elimination Chamber shirts. As you can see 2 of the three shirts have double sided print with the “I Was There” phrase on the back.

My other piece of advice around WWE merchandise is just be ready to wait. I’ve never had it any other way. The lines do feel more manageable when you approach them knowing you’re going to wait. Its another reason to arrive as close to the time doors open as possible. Sitting in your seat for 20 minutes before the show starts is better than missing half the first match because you’re waiting in the merchandise line.

Eating

I’ve previously written about Santucci’s when I went to the 2300 Arena to see MLW Fightland. This trip took me back to Santucci’s and the recommendation holds up. I wanted to go to Angelo’s Pizzeria (734 S 9th St), but I wasn’t prepared for cash only, no tables, bad parking, and an inability to call the order in. Stretched for time, we passed and went to old faithful (Santucci’s). Next time though, I’m going to plan better and have some Angelo’s. I understand its a great pizza.

Venue for WWE Elimination Chamber – Wells Fargo Center

The Philadelphia FLyers (NHL) and the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) both play their home games at the Wells Fargo Center. The arena sits in stadium park with neighboring football and baseball stadiums just across the parking lot. That makes the stadium pretty conveniently located off 95 on the southern end of the city, which is really handy if you’re headed back south (like me). Since the Wells Fargo Center shares an enormous parking lot with the other venues, parking comes super easy but it did costs me $30. I found the inside of the Center to be fairly nice with manageable food lines and comfortable seats.

If you don’t have time to eat before heading to the stadium, I noted that the Wells Fargo Center has a Shake Shack and a Ritas. Both are good choices normally, but I didn’t actually eat at these places when I was in the stadium. I’m not sure how they would compare to the normal taste and price.

View From My Seat for WWE Elimination Chamber

I sat in section 114, Row 2, seat 4, and I had a really great view of the ramp and of the ring. The only time I had any issues is when the person directly in front of me stood up. There were also a couple of security guards and a guy in the back row of the floor section that bothered my view. That’s really nitpicky though. These were great seats.