The booking decisions were very well done at Elimination Chamber as they were not the calls that were seemingly obvious to the WWE universe. The major matches all had surprising finishes which means fans will be talking about the results for weeks to come as the results to the two chamber matches both had WrestleMania implications.
The Miz becoming a 2x WWE Champion after a decade is short-term booking designed to draw more eyeballs to the WWE product heading into WrestleMania 37, and Miz will most likely lose the title within a few weeks (maybe even sooner)
WWE creative appeared to have thought through this plan very thoroughly. Creative prepared for Bobby Lashley to drop the United States Championship at Elimination Chamber and immediately get involved in the WWE Championship picture. Foreshadowing of this was seen a little earlier in the night before the match took place as MVP was shown having a discussion with Miz about cashing-in his Money in the Bank contract on whoever emerged from the chamber with the title, and that’s exactly what happened. MVP successfully talked Miz into it, even if it was manipulation.
This could have merely been a setup to make it easier for Bobby Lashley to win the WWE title. It is perfectly in line with Bobby’s character – as the CEO of The Hurt Business – to collaborate with the leader of the entire group (MVP) to get The Miz to cash-in on Drew McIntyre right after he successfully defended his title in the Elimination Chamber. Miz is almost guaranteed to be an easier opponent than McIntyre from whom Lashley can (will?) win the WWE championship very shortly, only to set up a massive WrestleMania encounter with The Scottish Warrior.
The WWE Championship has been Lashley’s primary goal for the last 15 years (I would guarantee it was in the back of his mind every day when he was fighting in Bellator). At 44 years of age, Bobby has improved his craft and gotten it to a point where it is about as good as it will ever be (which is excellent). Drew McIntyre vs. Lashley for the WWE Championship at Mania is easily the most box office rivalry Monday Night Raw has to offer right now.
As Daniel Bryan has said, Miz “wrestles like a coward.” It’s a very formulaic style designed to preserve Miz’s body – that cannot be denied, but you know what, it draws eyeballs to the WWE product. That is great for business as Mike is on many different networks and platforms on television and in the community. Both times Miz has become WWE Champion it has been a result of cashing-in a Money in the Bank contract. He cashed-n on Randy Orton to become champion in 2010, and now Drew McIntyre just last Sunday.
Miz is all but guaranteed to be a transitional and temporary WWE Champion as he will most likely drop the championship within a few weeks to Lashley, but this was well played for over a decade of diligence. To help elevate the WWE product into the mainstream. He has been a fantastic ambassador for the company and being able to call himself a two-time WWE champion will serve to make him an even bigger star.
WWE Championship Chamber Match from the Perspective of each Participant
Drew McIntyre’s Perspective – The Scottish Warrior got the opportunity to main event a Pay-Per-View over Roman Reigns for the second time since Roman’s return at SummerSlam. Unfortunately, McIntyre lost the WWE title and his second tenure with the belt is now in the rearview mirror. However, it gave The Miz a spotlight he was kind of needing after floating in obscurity for a couple months. It also gave Bobby Lashley the hard-earned culmination to his push which began over a year ago when MVP returned to WWE at Royal Rumble 2020.
AJ Styles’/Sheamus’ Perspective – The Phenomenal One was surprisingly one of the final two men in the Elimination Chamber with Drew McIntyre (of course after Omos ripped the door of the chamber).
It appeared to be a logical decision to orchestrate for McIntyre and Sheamus – the two one-time best friends – to be the final two participants. At least that was the story WWE was pushing, but the company’s 50/50 booking strategy typically abides by that because Sheamus got the upper hand on the go – home episode of RAW immediately before the Pay-Per-View, The Celtic Warrior would lose at the Pay-Per-View and draw the short end of the stick. This turned out to be exactly what happened.
Styles also had a WWE Championship match with McIntyre at TLC in December, but that match was interrupted by Miz attempting to cash-in his Money in the Bank contract (this was foreshadowing for what transpired after the match). Now 50/50 booking would dictate that AJ owes Sheamus a couple weeks of making him look strong because The Celtic Warrior did The Phenomenal One a favor last Sunday as well as back in December on an episode of Monday Night Raw. So a story between from Sheamus and AJ could be something to look out for leading to Mania.
Randy Orton’s/Jeff Hardy’s/Kofi Kingston’s Perspective – KofiMania part deux simply was not meant to be (at least not this year, maybe because Kofi was not replacing Mustafa Ali). WWE creative has the option to go wherever it wants right now with Jeff Hardy since his storyline with Elias was abruptly dropped without much explanation. On the contrary to Hardy, Randy Orton’s direction is being very intricately planned as it appears as of right now that WWE has decided to extend the storyline between Randy and The Fiend all the way until WrestleMania 37 in Tampa.
Braun Strowman will of course not be happy about being excluded from the chamber. This anger from The Monster could become the impetus for a major push heading into WrestleMania season.
Bobby Lashley drops the United States Championship to Riddle
From Lashley’s perspective, dropping this title needed to be done to place 100% of his focus on the WWE title as was seen later in the night. This is also huger from the standpoint that it puts Riddle over in a major way by giving him his first title on the main roster big things are in store for the Spiccoli-inspired character (even if Mr. McMahon doesn’t understand why it’s over 100%). For right now this is the best thing that could have happened for The Original Bro’s career.
February 15 – February 21 was not a great week for Johnny Drip Drip. Sure his tag team partner MC M.I.Z. Became WWE Champion, but personally, he failed to earn his way into the Elimination Chamber on RAW by losing to Kofi Kingston. Not only that, but Morrison failed to win the United States Championship, taking the pin from Riddle so Lashley didn’t need to take a loss. You are not going to look strong every night in WWE – it’s a team game to keep the machine as strong as possible.
Daniel Bryan emerges from the Elimination Chamber on the SmackDown side and is promptly defeated by Roman Reigns, and after the match Edge makes his WrestleMania intentions known by spearing the Head of the Table
It has been nothing but drama over the past month with Edge teasing the possibility of facing Drew McIntyre or Finn Balor at Mania. We all knew for the most part that the only logical opponent with whom Edge, who won the 2021 Royal Rumble, could main event the biggest show of the year with was Roman Reigns. The Rated-R Superstar made that choice abundantly clear in the form of delivery a spear to the Universal Champion with the mob boss persona after he defeated Daniel Bryan.
The Head of the Table is the quintessential centerpiece of everything that goes on in WWE, and he is not afraid to acknowledge it himself or demand that everyone else also acknowledges it.
A Bryan – Reigns match may have deserved a little more of a spotlight, because it absolutely had the starpower to warrant the company making a big production of this encounter. These two men met in a one-on-one match at Fastlane 2015 in an instant classic to determine who would go to WrestleMania that year to face Brock Lesnar (a match that Reigns one by the way).
WWE has considered multiple times since 2015 the possibility of revisiting this rivalry. The one instance the company came closest to pulling the trigger on this was the idea of doing it at SummerSlam 2019, but for whatever reason WWE decided against it and instead did not use either Bryan or Reigns at the second biggest Pay-Per-View of the year.
Each Man’s Perspective in the Number One Contendership Chamber Match to the Universal Champion
Daniel Bryan’s Perspective – it would have been cool if Daniel Bryan could have closed out his tenure as a full-time wrestler by becoming Universal Champion. A small preview was given on the go – home episode of SmackDown as to what the potential feud between Edge and Bryan would hone in on (I don’t want to spoil it because it’s still a possibility). The money rivalry right now, however, is undoubtedly Roman Reigns and Edge.
Cesaro’s Perspective – The Swiss Cyborg had earned this opportunity arguably more than anyone in the match, but again that was the result most of the WWE universe was expecting. Perhaps this nuance made it so Mr. McMahon couldn’t choose this because not very much talk around the WWE product would be generated in this scenario.
Cesaaro was named the best professional wrestler in the world by Sports Illustrated from an in-ring perspective 4x (2013 – 16). He has also never before received a major title match in WWE (which is almost criminal) as The Swiss Superman has been relegated to the tag team division for much of his time on the main roster.
Fortunately, Cesaro has been the hottest WWE superstar since 2021 began, splitting from his tag team with Shinsuke Nakamiura and turning babyface, as well as picking up pivotal singles victories over the likes of Daniel Bryan twice as well as Dolph Ziggler.
He added several more nuances to his character with the performance in the Elimination Chamber by talking about his love for plain old espresso before the match as well as doing pull-ups during the match to showcase how well – conditioned he is.
The simplicity and authenticity to Cesaro’s character is somewhat refreshing – it feels old-school as opposed to the over-the-top presentations WWE typically goes for. The Swiss Cyborg, on the contrary, has a very down-to-earth and process-oriented approach to his character and life in general. We can all learn a thing or two from this guy – in life, slow down your approach and focus on appreciating what is right in front of you.
One could have concluded that, since Cesaro was one of the two men to start the chamber match, he might become the iron man and outlast everyone. That unfortunately did not happen, but there is reason to be optimistic as he is getting hot at the right time after over a decade of being signed with WWE (not unlike Kofi Kingston finally getting to be WWE Champion after 11 years).
Jey Uso’s Perspective – Uce is essentially playing the character of an indentured servant to Roman Reigns. The past six months in WWE have been the best of Jey Uso’s decade-long career as he has broken out as a singles wrestler and a perennial main eventer. WWE has even gone so far as to give him two Universal Title opportunities in which he did not look out of place at all.
It is, however, unfortunate that this singles push for Uso only was initiated due to Jey’s brother Jimmy tearing his ACL at WrestleMania 36 last year (Jimmy has been out ever since). Jey has talked openly about the injury to his brother, and he has stated that he expects his brother to return to full physical health by January or February. We are there now, so WWE is currently just waiting for the correct opening in storyline to bring Jimmy back. Creative has the option at this point to put him in the same role as his brother or have The Usos return to the tag team division.
From my point of view, the first of these possibilities is the more intriguing of the two as Jimmy has earned the right over the last decade to prove to the WWE just exactly what he can do as a singles competitor – he should get the same opportunity as his brother and should not be punished just because he was injured (aside from this one incident, The Usos have proven to be extremely durable superstars for the past decade as neither of them have ever suffered a major injury before this).
Kevin Owens’ and Sami Zayn’s Perspective – Kevin Owens has received three Universal Title matches very recently, so he was out in terms of winning the match because The Tribal Chief needed a fresh challenger. It was great, however, that Owens was finally given a significant storyline to run with after waiting in no man’s land since WrestleMania 36 prior to the storyline getting going in December. KO was awarded his first legitimate WrestleMania moment in 2020 by jumping off the WrestleMania sign unto Seth Rollins.
Master Strategist Champion of The People – The Critic of Critics – The Great Liberator – Mr. Conspiracy. Sami Zayn can be a bit annoying at times, but no one can argue that he draws eyeballs to the WWE product and has displayed great character development. The latter part of that sentence has only been happening for the last two years as it began the night after WrestleMania 35 when Sami made his return from injury with a much more refined level of confidence. Since then, he has become a crucial part of WWE programming as well as a two-time Intercontinental Champion.
King Corbin’s Perspective – Corbin needs to perhaps drop the King gimmick and start using something else. Even Booker T only used it for about a year and ½ when he became King of the Ring in 2006. Corbin is right on the cusp of that now as he earned this distinction in September 2019. But creative is most likely giving this matter attention and ideas already.
Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships against Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair
Sasha and Bianca have been teasing some sort of a cautious friendship over the past several weeks. However, as WrestleMania approaches, this friendship may begin to dissipate as the tag team title loss will open the door for one of the two women (most likely Sasha because she is already an aggressive babyface and was a heel just a few months ago) to turn heel on her partner out of frustration over not being able to win the women’s tag titles.
Meanwhile, it was an intelligent decision by WWE creative to keep the women’s tag titles on Nia and Shayna as both women have found a niche within the WWE system. The company originally had higher hopes for both of these superstars to find their niche higher on the card, but they have settled nicely into this role. The Irresistible Force and The Submission Magician were both portrayed as unstoppable in the NXT women’s division.
They have both received title matches at WrestleMania (against Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch respectively), so this is evidence that each of them is on the minds of WWE creative. They will be heavily involved in whatever WWE plans in the future as these women are pivotal elements of the division that have significant value.
Asuka is unfortunately excluded from the Elimination Chamber card, a trend since she last became RAW Women’s Champion at SummerSlam 2020
Asuka has been the recipient of some poor booking recently even though she has been RAW Women’s Champion for most of the last year (essentially since Becky Lynch announced her pregnancy in May 2020). Elimination Chamber was the latest example of this as she was originally scheduled to defend her title against Lacey Evans in what would have been a very compelling match and storyline considering the addition of Ric Flair.
The Nature Boy added another level of intrigue surrounding the former Marine Evans. This was rather unfortunate for Asuka but that’s the way the cookie crumbled. Things appear to be looking up for her come Mania time with a second meeting with Charlotte Flair on the horizon.