Thumbs Up
Best Match: John Cena vs Kevin Owens
Worst Match: Divas
I could kind of follow WWE’s booking logic in putting Mark Henry in the IC chamber match. I mean, he’s a big guy, he gets a receptive pop, and there’s no harm in pinning him. But even Big Show could have filled that spot and meant more. Instead, Ryback wins his first singles title in WWE and gets the most lukewarm reception, despite the rub from Daniel Bryan.
The NXT guys were tremendous. Even Bo Dallas and Neville, who were put in the death spot post Cena v Owens, did what they could with a crowd that had largely been taken down from a tremendous star-making turn.
The only big “surprises” were that they inexplicably left the Divas title on Nikki. Perhaps Nikki is going to mimic boyfriend Cena’s open challenge and Sasha Banks is going to come out and win it on RAW some week.
Also, it was the perfect opportunity for Roman Reigns to turn on Dean Ambrose. Yet as soon as he laid out Rollins, J&J Security, AND Kane, there was no way he was going to lay out Ambrose and suddenly join forces with the Authority. Perhaps for Monday night, if its in the works.
Jeff Cohen
Flushing, NY
Thumbs Up
Best Match: Rollins vs. Ambrose
Worst Match: Divas Triple Threat
I really enjoyed this show. There wasn’t a bad match on the card and the two big singles matches delivered huge. Plus the two Chambers were decent if underwhelming.
The Tag Chamber was a really fun way to kick things off, and while I would’ve liked to see Cesaro/Kidd and New Day as the final two teams, this was enjoyable from start to finish while also making the Tag Titles seem important. It’s nice to see a full tag team division again.
Divas 3-way was the usual throwaway women’s match. Perhaps someday we’ll finally get the women’s wrestling we deserve on a main roster PPV.
Cena vs. Owens was pretty great. Owens came off like a major deal and this was full of excellent false finishes. The only thing missing was the intangible that comes from two guys who have wrestled each other a lot and have that perfect chemistry (more on that later). HUGE moment for Owens getting a clean win.
Neville vs. Dallas was fine. Little more than a showcase for Neville, and I would’ve liked more offense from him.
The IC Chamber was a bit disappointing, but still not bad. It was a bit on the awkward side and the lethargic crowd kinda hurt it. Ziggler was blatantly yelling out spots (particularly when wrestling Ryback), which I found very distracting. I’m not sure what that was about, as I’ve never noticed him doing that before. Ryback winning could be a good thing if it plays out right, and should elevate both him and the Title.
Rollins vs. Ambrose was awesome. Loved the chain wrestling at the beginning, and these two have such amazing chemistry and clearly drawn characters I could watch them fight each other all day. This might be their best singles match to date. Usually I hate the Dusty finish, but in this situation I thought it worked great. Rollins’ reaction at the DQ announcement was priceless. This was a great heelish way for Rollins to retain while keeping Ambrose strong.
Overall Elimination Chamber was easily the best WWE PPV of 2015 thus far, IMO. Yes, I thought this was much more fun than ‘Mania 31 and featured a great one-two punch, plus a fun tag Chamber.
-Justin Ballard
Boston, MA
www.enuffa.com
Thumbs up.
Best match: Cena vs Owens
Worst match: Tag team chamber match
Kevin Owens continues his surprising run as a top guy, not surprising due to talent level, but surprising due to he being a guy that you wouldn’t think Vince would be interested in featuring based on the “look”. Great match too with believable near falls. Let’s hope the follow up is just as strong.
The tag title match gets the worst match honor because in what universe (no pun intended) should all of the New Day been allowed in and none of the other teams had a third man (not counting Torito)? Some plot holes I just can’t overlook.
Starting to get sick of garbage finishes in the main events too, with this being the third show in a row as such. The match was real good, but it’s hard to get totally involved in it when you know a crap finish is coming.
– Chris H
Lakeland, FL
Thumbs in the Middle.
Best Match: Cena vs. Owens
Worst Match: Triple Threat Divas
I can’t say how big it is to have someone, let alone an NXT person in their first call up match, beat John Cena cleanly. It shows that WWE may be interested in pushing Kevin Owens to the stars; he could be the next major heel. Is this the beginning of the end of Cena’s ‘super’ status? Also, I must point out that it’s not common in WWE for opponents to steal each other’s finishers, and that’s a good thing; makes it feel like a big deal (or disrespect) when it happens.
In terms of the tag team chamber match, I’m not a fan of allowing all three members of the new day in there at the same time, legally. Could have been really heel-ish if the third member were to sneek in when the outer door is open to allow a just-pinned team to leave. Are all three now tag team champions? Also, not sure when (if) Kane said the bull was allowed in. Happy to see the Prime Time Players get some shining moments.
Happy with Ryback winning the IC Title. Also Bryan presenting it to him felt very genuine. Would have been nice to have him on commentary during the match. Not really any special spots that I’ll remember. Would like to one day give Mark Henry a decent run before he actually retires.
The WWE WHC match was good. I couldn’t imagine that Ambrose would win but was marking out when he did, and quickly came up with an excuse to not give him the belt (the same one they wound up using, a DQ.) Didn’t like that as WWE does that type of cloudy, indecisive ending far to much, especially on PPV-like-events. Though, Ambrose keeping the physical belt has given me a big reason to tune into RAW tomorrow, to see what he does. Then again the whole thing feels like trying to recreate the beginnings of Austin (Ambrose) vs. McMahon (Authority) with Seth being HBK, around WM14. Let’s see if Ambrose throws the belt in a river tomorrow. I’ll be watching.
– Charlie Scott Machalow
Thumbs up
Best Match: Cena vs. Owens
Worst: Divas
Really happy to see them trying with some new guys, like Ascension, Neville, and Owens. Having Ascension elminate two teams strong hopefully will help them out. Enjoyed the tag a lot. Interesting choice to put the PTP in at the end. Kidd and Cesaro were awesome as usual.
Really enjoyed the Cena vs. Owens match. Looks like they really trust Owens.
Really enjoyed the main too, and although it was too soon to put the belt on Dean, we saw that the fans will get behind when the time does come.
Good win for the Ryback. Hey, it’s something new and he certainly can get over with his power stuff. Nobody needed to see Sheamus win the IC belt.
I will be very interested to see where they go with Money in the Bank coming up.
Dan Velten
How you doin’ Dave,
Thumbs Up
Good show, although the crowd hurt it which I feared after how deafly quiet the Corpus Christi crowd were for a Raw at the beginning of the year. Owens-Cena was a great match, and had the most shocking finish I’ve seen in years excluding the ending of the streak. Really pleased for Owens. They weren’t gelling at the start, Owens was trying to work a lot slower than Cena. I assume that was down to the months of working down in NXT where they adopt a slower pace. Also I think he was a little rough for Cena during the first half of the match as he appeared to lighten up during the second. In addition he’ll have to pull back on looking out at the crowd so much as they don’t like that there.
I never stop being surprised that they’re yet to remodel the chamber, that grate really needs replacing with something less stiff and worse sounding. Also the distance between the top of the pod and roof continues to be a problem for high-flyers. I’ve said before Paige needs to calm down with her bumps, her frame simply isn’t going to be able to handle it. And combined with the WWE schedule she’s going to end up in a fair bit of pain. Then she goes and takes a top rope German in a six minute match where there wasn’t enough time to get the most out of it, not that she should be doing it anyway. Just crazy stuff. The girls were out to prove a point and tried hard, but they were trying to do too much too fast which led to a bit of sloppiness. Ambrose-Rollins was really good, but I didn’t think it was at the level of their two matches on Raw, the one being a few weeks ago and the other the night after Summerslam.
Best Match: Owens vs. Cena ****1/4
Worst Match: Ryder vs. Stardust **
Tag Title Elimination Chamber Match ***1/2
Naomi vs.Paige vs. Nikki **3/4
Dallas vs. Neville **3/4
IC Title Elimination Chamber Match ***1/4
Ambrose vs. Rollins ***3/4
Thanks Dave
Tom (griffo120)
Wow is all I have to say about tonight as it was NXTs coming out party as if they needed it; know the claim has been made for a while now that its their own brand and not developmental and tonight showed that.
Huge Thumbs up; match of the night and match of the year canidate goes to Owens vs Cena.
Worst match if we have to pick one would be neville vs bo dallas.
Wasnt a fan of how it went off the air but you knew Ambroise couldnt walk away as champion yet.
~John Chagaris
Davenport, fl
Hi Dave,
Just wanted to give my thoughts on the Elimination Chamber. I gave the show a thumbs in the middle with the best match actually being between John Cena and Kevin Owens (Hell must have froze over if anything involving Cena get’s best match from me, lol!) and the worst match being the Chamber match for the I/C title which was just a bunch of sloppy looking power moves in my opinion and a missed opportunity to enhance a storyline feud between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus. But it was an ok show, and the Chamber cage is a good spectacle but seems difficult to navigate.
1. Tag title chamber match – The match was good and had some cool moves, but really mostly comprised of undercard guys with no real talent depth in the match in my opinion. They really need to beef up the teams in the tag team division or show them in a more positive light. Most of the tag teams are portrayed as an undercard comedy act or two guys put together who could not get a singles push. I guess the right ream won in New Day, but none of these teams really stood out.
2. Divas match – Nothing really special here as Nikkie retains the title over Paige and Naomi. Another division that really needs enhancement, even more then the tag team division. WWE really seems to want to push the IC and US titles as being important, but not really seeing the same thing for the Divas title or the Tag team title for that matter. But it does seem that a new era in women’s wrestling is coming soon with the recent action in NXT which has been awesome, hopefully that translates soon to the women’s division on the main roster.
3. Cena VS Ownes – Now this was the best match of the night for me, totally unexpected. I was not in complete shock at the win, as they tried to portray it along the same lines as Undertaker losing at Mania, complete with trying to act like the crowd was in complete shock. But it was an excellent match, and that is the first time I’ve ever said that regarding anything involving Cena. I don’t know much about Kevin Owens as I have not really followed his career until this point, and he looks like the pro wrestling version of Roy Nelson. But anyone who can get a great match out of John Cena has to be an excellent performer! I hope Owens wins the US title as I think it would be very unique to keep him as both the US champion and NXT champion to see how it works. Hopefully their rematch at Money in the Bank will be just as good. On a side note however, why does half the roster wrestle in jean shorts, work out clothes, or other non wrestling related gear? This
match made me think of how much half the roster looks like they just came from Wal Mart, just saying, lol!
3. Dallas VS Neville – Bo is actually really entertaining as a heel pretending to be a face, and Neville is just awesome. Hopefully both of these guys continue to advance in the main roster as they seem to be building from their NXT past with these two.
4. Chamber match for the I/C title – This match appeared to be just a big mess with a bunch of power guys doing a few power moves and not much else. Henry as a replacement for Rusev didn’t really do much for the match. R Truth should not have even been in the match. And if they want to make the I/C title more important and have quality matches, then Ryback is the wrong guy for that. They had a storyline sitting in their hands with Daniel Bryan at ringside to present the I/C title to the winner. They really should have had Sheamus win the match and Bryan forced to hand the title over. This could have very easily pushed the feud going between the two, and have a title grudge match ready for when Bryan returns.
5. World title match – Rollins VS Ambrose – Really good match with spot of the night when Ambrose dove onto everyone at ringside, that was awesome. A good match but after the ref bump and the other ref running in, well I could see the “Dusty” finish a mile away. The ref should have been wearing a T shirt that read “I’m here to reverse the decision”, way too predictable. That was just lazy booking. And why did Ambrose and Roman continue to celebrate like Amrbrose still won the title after the decision was announced that he won by DQ? It made them both look like idiots. Speaking of idiots, the commentary the entire night was just awful. It was like Cole, King, and JBL were all calling different matches all night at the same time, making no sense, bad jokes, and just not flowing with the matches in any way at all. If Cole is going to be the lead announcer then he really need’s to direct the commentary for the whole team to follow. Although I’m sure that is
an impossible task with JBL and King, and who knows what Vince is also telling them to say at any given time. But the commentary need’s to improve badly in my opinion.
Thanks,
Jon Southerland
Clovis, Ca.