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Csonka’s WWE Elimination Chamber 2015 Review

May 31, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
5
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s WWE Elimination Chamber 2015 Review  

Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.

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WWE Elimination Chamber 05.30.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ Elimination Chamber WWE Tag Team Title Match: Champions New Day won @ 23:40 via pin [***]
~ WWE Divas Title Match: Champion Nikki Bella defeated Naomi and Paige @ 8:25 via pin [½*]
~ Kevin Owens defeated John Cena @ 20:50 via pin [****½]
~ Neville defeated Bo Dallas @ 8:19 via pin []
~ Elimination Chamber WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Ryback became the NEW IC Champion @ 25:45 via pin []
~ WWE World Heavyweight Title Match: Dean Ambrose defeated Champion Seth Rollins @ 21:50 via DQ [***]


Elimination Chamber WWE Tag Team Title Match: Champions The New Day vs. The Prime Time Players vs. The Lucha Dragons vs. The Ascension vs. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd vs. Los Matadores: Man that’s some bullshit, Torito and Woods are allowed in the match but not Natalya. The Lucha Dragons and Ascension will start the match, keeping the NXT feel of the card (Ascension vs. Dragons, Neville vs. Dallas, Owens PPV debut). Lucha Dragons did some fun stuff early, Sin Cara hit a swanton off the top of a pod, while new Day grabbed the legs of Kalisto and beat on him as he was on top of their pod; they were spectacular dicks. Cesaro & Kidd were team #3, and they ran wild and hit some good double team stuff. Cesaro is a straight up freak (strength, agility, timing) in the best way possible. Kalisto was trying to climb onto the underside of the roof of the chamber, and was having some Homicide level issues with it. The Matadores were next; Kalisto eventually fell onto all of the guys in a splash like move. Too much work for that spot. Torito then did something similar, but was caught by Ascension and tossed into a Matadore, and then the Matadores were eliminated. The Ascension then eliminated the Dragons with a sloppy fall of man. The PTP were in next, and eliminated the Ascension. New Day were in last, and also had all three in, which you have to think was a reward from Kane after getting their help on Smackdown. Kidd and Cesaro were eliminated by the PTP, leaving them with New Day. Titus got a lot of run late, going wild on New Day. In the end the numbers were too much and New Day retained. That was fun in a car crash sort of way, and it was honestly about what I expected. I wasn’t a big fan of the booking, as I felt that Kidd & Cesaro and Dragons got eliminated too early, but that’s really more personal taste. It also went a bit too long I felt, but wasn’t a bad way to open the show as the crowd was pretty into it. It was fun, but I thought that they were capable of much more.

WWE Divas Title Match: Champion Nikki Bella vs. Naomi vs. Paige: They did a lot of the two in, one out triple threat work here. They did a tower of doom spot that looked as if it murdered Paige, and were talking A LOT (calling spots), to where you could hear it. The agents need to watch the repeated spots, as we already saw a tower of doom in the opener. Naomi then tried a reverse RANA on Paige, which looked REALLY bad. Nikki won with the rack attack on Naomi. This was not good. Paige was either selling really well on the floor post match or was legit hurt, judging by the work I’d say hurt. Nikki’s march to break AJ’s record continues. You could tell that they worked hard and wanted to have a good match, but they failed here. Stay in your lane ladies.

John Cena vs. Kevin Owens: No titles on the line here, in what is the biggest moment of Owens’ career. John Cena is in CALL SPOTS AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE MODE EARLY with a “Drop down, shoulder block, I’ll give you one” in the opening minutes. Stop it. Kudos to Lawler, discussing that he faced Owens and that he won’t be intimidated. Lawler doing real announcing work is rare. Owens worked a measured and methodical attack, simply beating down Cena with simplistic violence, which works for him so well. Owens dominated the match early, with Cena selling the beating well and giving a lot to Owens, which they need to do here. Owens and his constant mocking of Cena was also good, reinforcing that Owens wants to prove that he belongs. Cena would counter the lights out powerbomb, and run through the five moves, but then ran into the lights out for a great near fall. For a near fall it worked well, but on the other hand I feel that hurts the guy’s finish in his first match. Owens missed the old Marc Mero hop up moonsault, and ate an AA but then kicked out.

They got a great reaction from the fans on that one. Owens was doing all of the little things here, the stuff in between the moves is just as important, and he knows that. Things like using the AA to try and beat Cena was also a nice touch. They completely turned around an at best Luke warm crowd, with Cena opening the bag of tricks and Owens continuing to survive. Owens used a modified package piledriver for a near fall, so that answers if he would use it or not (he kinda will).

This was the definition on the “WrestleMania” match, as both guys did everything and kicked out of everything. You can’t do it all the time, but in a way I felt that they needed to here as Owens won clean with the pop up powerbomb. If you want to make Owens a star, he has to not only beat Cena, but also had to do so in an epic, star making match. Now Owens is already a star to many, but on the main roster he is a new guy. The way he won, surviving all Cena had and then hitting his finish for the win was perfect. I have said before, Cena has so much equity to give and did so here in a performance that was done without ego. He again stepped up on a big stage. You also give credit to NXT here as now some people should look at some of the new stars in a different light due to this performance by their champion. As for Owens, he served notice tonight to all of the people that said he’d work in front of 200 fans for his entire life. Cena is the old warhorse trying to remain the champion, but fell to the WWE newcomer. This was a star making performance by Owens, and an awesome effort by both men. Good luck following that everyone.

Neville vs. Bo Dallas: These poor bastards having to follow that match. Bo Dallas largely controlled and it bored me to no end. It wasn’t bad, but they did nothing to make me interested. Neville won with the red arrow. I get that this was the “cool down” match, but it may have been the most boring and least interesting Neville match I have seen in years. Moving on.

* Reigns and Ambrose talk, Triple H arrives and says Reigns can’t be at ringside for the title match and it he gets involved, Ambrose gets DQ’d.

Elimination Chamber WWE Intercontinental Title Match: King Barrett vs. R-Truth vs. Ryback vs. Mark Henry vs. Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler: Mark Henry is back and replacing Rusev. Barrett and Ziggler started the match. They worked every Ziggler vs. Barrett match you’ve ever seen, and then Truth was in second and then Henry and Ryback. They did stuff, worked over Barrett and Truth then pinned him. Sheamus’ chamber was “stuck closed” and he yelled at Refs, and while this happened we had a sloppy exchange of pin attempts where I am pretty sure that the ref counted three on Truth, but he was still in. Ryback eventually eliminated him. I am NOT feeling this at all. Sheamus then revealed after a while that he had locked the pod from the inside with his cross, and then waited until the others beat themselves down to enter. That was easily the most entertaining part of the match. Commentary did a poor job of explaining this, I know, I was shocked as well he said sarcastically. Sheamus eliminated Henry with the Brogue kick. The crowd is dead, and it isn’t their fault because this match has not been good. The layout is simply poor and they have not given anyone a reason to care. Sheamus eliminated Ziggler, leaving it down to Sheamus and the Big Guy. They did stuff, they hit moves on the steel flooring and then Ryback hit a toss powerbomb and shell shock to pick up the win and the title. Ryback s the winner I like, because most expected Sheamus, Barrett or Ziggler to win. But Barrett and Ziggler have had the title several times and Sheamus looked to be the lock, so Ryback winning was at least a pleasant surprise. This match did absolutely nothing for me, it had no drams, no real excitement; it simply existed. I get why some may not have liked the opening chamber match (personal taste and all, no issue there) but this was just a long match (it went too long and FELT too long) in a chamber that was lazily laid out, poorly worked and elicited no reaction other than yawns from me. It’s right up there with the December to Dismember match as worst chamber match.

* They announced Cena vs. Owens at the MITB PPV. Ziggler, Neville, Reigns, Orton, Kofi and Sheamus are confirmed for the MITB match, with others to come.

WWE World Heavyweight Title Match: Champion Seth Rollins w/J&J and Kane vs. Dean Ambrose: They had a good, but unspectacular back and forth match. The goofs interfered a few times for Rollins, Rollins was trying everything to put Ambrose away including using the ropes, but kept failing. I really like both guys, but like a lot of the card I wasn’t really feeling this early. They worked really hard down the stretch, and actually got the crowd into the near falls, which helped a lot and started to turn the tide for me personally. The goofs got involved again near the end when Ambrose was running wild so he hit a big dive into them on the floor. Ambrose hit the wild elbow late and took out Rollins and the ref, and Ambrose then hit dirty deeds to take the title when a new ref came out to count the pin. BUT WAIT. The original referee is back, and explains that Rollins pulled him into Ambrose, and calls for the DQ. DUSTY FINISH. WHY? FUCK YOU THAT’S WHY! Listen, the Dusty finish was used PROPERLY at times, but it was a device to prolong the build to the face actually winning, and with Lesnar in the wings, that’s not happing in here. They took a match that I wasn’t into, turned it into something I was enjoying, and then shit on it with the finish. Rollins and company beat down Ambrose, Reigns then arrived to make the save and destroyed Rollins and friends. Ambrose then said he was taking the title and left with Reigns. That finish and the consistently poor Authority storyline devalued so much good work there.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

5.0
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
This was a show that has a lot of promise, and ended up very disappointing. The opening chamber was fun, but the ladies match was bad, Neville and Dallas was boring and uninspired, and the IC Chamber was also not good. The main event, while it developed into a good wrestling match, was completely made invalid because they decided to get cute with the finish. I get that Rollins is the heel that heels retain by any means necessary and that this is a network exclusive show; but don’t insult the fans. This show felt, outside of Cena vs. Owens, felt like a TV show to build to the MITB PPV, and not a special or PPV itself due to the poor matches and main event booking. The only thing you need to see is Owens vs. Cena, go watch that match and forget the rest of the show because it will likely piss you off. I can’t call this a “bad show” due to the awesome Owens vs. Cena match and there being some good wrestling in the main event and opener, but it sure the hell wasn’t good…
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