411’s WWE Elimination Chamber Preview

Hello 411 guys, gals, enbies, and everyone else! Welcome to 411’s WWE Elimination Chamber preview! I’m Jeremy Thomas as always, and we’re deep into the road to WrestleMania — which apparently travels through Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this year before heading to Dallas. That’s right, the Chamber is taking place overseas in the Middle East, and I do not envy the shipping fees WWE paid to get that cage over there. We have a pretty big card for tomorrow’s show, with several titles on the line and all most of WWE’s top names performing for in the country as that Road to WrestleMania continues to come into focus. Without further ado, let’s get into it and take a look at Saturday’s lineup.

Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz

Image Credit: WWE

With six weeks left for WWE until the Grandest Stage of Them All, we have to have some undercard matches to build up for the big PPV. For now, one of those matches seems to be The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio. Miz and Rey have been feuding over the WWE 2K22 cover of all things, with Miz angry that he lost out on the cover to Mysterio. That’s the kind of hastily-assembled feud we’ve come to expect for the Saudi shows, but at least we’ve got two talented people here to do it with. There is currently no clear path for either of these guys for a WrestleMania match; Samio Zayn has this year’s celebrity match on lock, and Mysterio has just been doing his thing with Dominik. That makes me believe that this feud will continue past Saturday. Add into that the fact that Miz hasn’t won a PPV match since LAST YEAR’s Elimination Chamber, and it feels like this is a bout that Miz needs to win. I have little doubt that these two will deliver a thoroughly watchable match, but it’ll also likely be nothing too special.

WINNER: The Miz

Falls Count Anywhere Match
Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss

Image Credit: WWE

We move on from the WrestleMania setup match to the “give Drew McIntyre something to do” match. In truth, this is probably a WrestleMania setup match as well even if I can’t think of an opponent for Drew McIntyre I would care about less than Happy Corbin. So I’m blocking that out of my mind until we get to it and pretending this is just to get Drew on the Chamber card. Anyway, I don’t actually think this will be a bad match if it’s booked appropriately. McIntyre is a beast and Moss is a talented guy who just needs a better gimmick than this. The problem is that I don’t think this will be booked well. There will be shenanigans, stupid jokes, and Corbin involvement since “Falls Count Anywhere” functionally tends to also mean “No DQ.” Regardless, there’s no way that McIntyre doesn’t win this, presumably so he can move onto something I’m still not thinking about at the moment. Our best hope is that it’s short and Drew comes out dominant as he should be.

WINNER: Drew McIntyre

Smackdown Tag Team Championship Match
The Usos vs. The Viking Raiders

Image Credit: WWE

Our first title match is one that doesn’t have a lot of heat or mystery behind it. The Usos have been on top of the Blue Brand tag team division now for over half a year, as befits The Bloodline’s Smackdown dominance. They’ve put away just about every potential challenger on the brand, which brings us to the Viking Raiders as one of the few remaining. The match has a decent amount of potential from a workrate standpoint; these two teams have a good clash of styles and if motivated enough can deliver something quite enjoyable between them. The problem is that I can’t imagine anyone thinks of Erik and Ivar as a real threat to the champions at this point. Jimmy and Jey need a more inspired choice for a WrestleMania rivalry if they’re going to get a match, and that means there’s no way the Raiders pick up the win here. Again, the in-ring part of the match should be fine in theory but I don’t think there’s any question who comes out of this with the win.

WINNER: The Usos (STILL Smackdown Tag Team Champions)

Ronda Rousey & Naomi vs. Charlotte Flair & Sonya Deville

Image Credit: WWE

Ronda Rousey is challenging Charlotte Flair for the Smackdown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania, and I appreciate that they’re doing something to build to that (and presumably a Noami vs. Deville match). On paper, this seems like a perfectly logical match to have, and it’s pretty basic (in a good way) booking logic to have the challenger get a win in a tag team match on the road to the eventual title match at the bigger stage, especially when that challenger still has a little bit of ring rust to shake off.

My issue with this is the stipulation that is apparently being added during Smackdown (which airs after this preview has been written). When in the history of time has a match where a competitor had an arm behind their back turned out well? This is the kind of silly booking that suggests they aren’t able to figure out how to lay out this match in an interesting way without a crutch to lean on. And that doesn’t make sense, because you have four women who can absolutely go here. It feels like this is just mean to add some intrigue, but no one is more interested in this match because it’s now three arms vs. four. And I don’t think it changes the result, either. Rousey has the guaranteed title shot, but making her take a loss even by tag match seems like a losing proposition, and Deville can easily take a pin from Rousey and still feud with Naomi. This unnecessarily limits the competitors in the ring and unless they have Naomi take the loss (which I don’t think is happening), doesn’t help the match in any conceivable way. Anyway, Rousey gets the win for her team by beating Deville, then moves on toward Mania and Flair.

WINNER: Ronda Rousey & Naomi

Raw Women’s Championship Match
Becky Lynch vs. Lita

Image Credit: WWE

In terms of pure potential in-ring enjoyment, this is the match I’m most looking forward to. Becky Lynch has been firmly at the top of the women’s division since she returned at SummerSlam, picking right up where she left off. During that time she’s delivered perfectly fine in the ring in a variety of matches, and while her heel turn isn’t as heel-y as I think she wanted her status as a top star has been unscuffed. Meanwhile, Lita remains one of my favorites from the Attitude Era and has proven she can still go in the ring, if (understandably) not quite where she was at her height. Obviously, this is simply a match to pass the time for Lynch before WrestleMania, but I have no problem with that and the back-and-forth between them in the lead-up to this has been entertaining. There’s no question that Lynch picks up the win here as she should; the only question is how well they will be able to perform in the ring, and honestly I see no reason why (outside of the Saudi heat that has dampened many a WWE match) we can’t get a really fun match from them.

WINNER: Becky Lynch (STILL Raw Women’s Champion)

WWE Universal Championship Match
Roman Reigns vs. Goldberg

Image Credit: WWE

Speaking of foregone conclusions, up next is Roman Reigns vs. Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship. While the idea of Goldberg in Saudi Arabia remains one that makes me cringe, I think WWE for the most part has used Goldberg fairly well when he’s returned. He comes back, provides a challenger for a champion, has a moderately enjoyable build-up to the match and then a short enough effort where he ultimately comes up short. These take nothing away from Goldberg, who will always be considered a viable challenger, and puts another notch in the champions’ belts. This one has had a bit of backstory behind it since the two were supposed to face off at WrestleMania 36 before Reigns pulled out due to pandemic concerns, so giving Goldberg an eventual match seemed to be inevitable. I don’t think anyone believes Goldberg has even a snowball’s chance of winning the title here, and he doesn’t. But with Reigns running out of challengers on Smackdown, Goldberg gives WWE someone to throw up against the champion and I’m okay with that. Reigns picks up the win here to head to his match with Brock Lesnar in Dallas, and Goldberg goes back into storage until MBS wants him back for another show.

WINNER: Roman Reigns (STILL WWE Champion)

Women’s Elimination Chamber Match
Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair vs.
Doudrop vs. Nikki A.S.H. vs. Alexa Bliss

Image Credit: WWE

The Chamber matches are the bouts on the show with the most intrigue regarding potential winners, which is honestly how it should be. In fairness, there wasn’t a lot of intrigue in the women’s Elimination Chamber before earlier this week. With all due respect to Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Doudrop and Nikki, the clear choice to win this match was Bianca Belair because there’s a story behind Belair seeking redemption against Lynch at WrestleMania, the place where she won the title. Then Alexa Bliss was announced for the match, and just the slightest fraction of doubt came in.

To be clear, I do still think Belair is winning this match, but Bliss at least provides an X-factor that the other challengers don’t. We don’t yet know what form Bliss’ new twist on her character will take in the ring, but it seems like she’ll be pretty normal as long as Lilly is okay. If that’s the case, she can be a potential threat but can also quickly be beaten without hurting her return by some Lilly-related shenanigans. The women’s Chamber matches have typically over-delivered in terms of action by my estimation and this one should be able to as well. But yes, I think even with the Alexa factor, it’s clear that Belair gets the win and moves on to challenge Lynch at ‘Mania 38.

WINNER: Bianca Belair

WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match
Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins vs.
AJ Styles vs. Riddle vs. Austin Theory

Image Credit: WWE

And here we have the big question mark. And okay, listen. I get that most people think Brock Lesnar is winning the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber so that his match with Reigns at ‘Mania can be a title vs. title match. That’s the prevailing theory, because it adds stakes to the match and makes it something different than their previous bouts were. All of that logic makes complete sense to me. But here’s the thing: does anyone actually think the WrestleMania match needs to be title vs. title? What does that actually add to the intrigue surrounding the match that Reigns vs. Lesnar, with Heyman as the X-factor, doesn’t? And more to the point, if they wanted to WrestleMania to be Title vs. Title then taking the belt off of Lesnar at the Rumble makes no sense. So I will start this off (too late) by saying that while I will probably be wrong, I actually don’t think Lesnar comes out of this with the WWE Championship, probably thanks to The Bloodline in some way.

So that brings us then to who will win this match. We can dismiss Riddle and Austin Theory right away, because they aren’t viable as champions yet. AJ Styles can and should always be a threat to win the championship, but there’s a question as to what the story would be for WrestleMania. That brings us down to Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins. Lashley’s victory over Lesnar at the Royal Rumble gave him the title back, and while I respect that decision I don’t think that Lashley is the guy who carries the championship into WrestleMania. That’s because Rollins is a perfect pick to win the title here, and perhaps get a rematch with Lashley for the championship at the big PPV. Rollins has been slowly climbing his way back into this position with some great character work and equally good matches, and we all know Vince McMahon loves the babyface chasing the title heading into ‘Mania. Lashley may not be strictly a babyface, but he would be such in a feud with Rollins. So while I’m probably shooting my predictions in the foot here, I’m going against Lesnar and picking Rollins to win the Chamber and the Championship.

WINNER: Seth Freaking Rollins (NEW WWE Champion)

And that’s all we have for the Elimination Chamber! To be honest, this is one of the more “going through the motions” PPVs from WWE I can remember as of late. But that doesn’t mean it won’t potentially be an enjoyable experience even if I do have some doubts. Thanks once again for reading, and remember that we will have live coverage of the show courtesy our own Scott Slimmer right here on 411mania.com. Now, I have to go before WWE unveils any big surprises…

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— Jeremy Thomas⦻ (@jthomas411mania) February 18, 2022