WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER

 

Perth, Australia

THE KABUKI WARRIORS (ASUKA & KAIRI SANE) vs. CANDICE LeRAE & INDI HARTWELL (8:55): Why, you might ask, was this show in Perth, Australia? Well...the government of Perth paid the WWE to go there. It was pretty obvious, though, because of the multiple Perth tourism commercials sprinkled throughout a 4 hour and 15 minute show that only had 5 matches. I kind of feel bad for anyone living in Perth that, you know, might need assistance. Like...homeless people, drug addicts, single mothers, unemployed people. I think there's probably better money any government could be spending than to bring a wrestling company to the city. Their excuse is that it will sell hotel rooms and expand tourism. That doesn't help the people that actually need help, though, that helps rich people. Wrestlemania is in Philly this year. I wonder if they paid them to come here. I kind of doubt it, since the city doesn't seem to be rolling in money these days. I also kind of feel sorry for Perth because while they did get a PPV show instead of a TV or house show, this wasn't exactly a big deal show. Roman Reigns wasn't on the show. The Rock wasn't either. The tag team championship and one of the women's championships was defended on the show, but no men's championship. This February PPV has always been kind of pointless, as the winner of the Royal Rumble goes to Wrestlemania so you would think this show is meaningless. Last year it was a gigantic deal with one of the biggest main events in recent WWE history. Don't bother asking me how that turned out, as I still kind of loathe the WWE for not putting Sami Zayn in the Wrestlemania main event nor giving him the title. And now with the Vince allegations, my lethargy toward the WWE has only grown. I just find that this company is boring now. The Rock vs. Roman Reigns for the title at Wrestlemania would have been huge...and yet, somehow, they even fucked that up. This show started with this forgettable tag team match. I suppose they bothered to put this on the pre-show because Indi Hartwell is from Australia. Years ago, in NXT, Candice LeRae, Hartwell, Gargano, and Austin Theory, were in a very entertaining heel group. Considering all four of them are doing literally nothing interesting these days (nor are barely pushed), they should just reunite them. That'd be fun. There wasn't anything to this match. 1/2*

BECKY LYNCH vs. BIANCA BELAIR vs. LIV MORGAN vs. NAOMI vs. RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ vs. TIFFANY STRATTON "ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH" (32:15): This show was at a 60,000 seat Australian football stadium. Because of that, some of the scenery looked cool. I kind of felt bad for anyone not at ringside, though, as could anyone tell what was going on without just watching the Jumbotron? Who pays a ton of money to do that? I'm baffled at that. The stadium isn't even in Perth, it's in Burswood, which is across the river. What other fun facts are there about Perth? I know literally nothing about that city. It looked nice. The announcers also mentioned that it was 100 degrees most of the days leading up to the show. I also wonder why they didn't tape Smackdown from Perth, too. They taped 2 Smackdowns last week on the same night and last night was the taped one. The big problem with this show was that nothing unexpected happened. Becky Lynch was obviously winning this and she did. There was some good action in this but a lot of it was kind of boring. I actually do like the Elimination Chamber (it's called No Escape in Germany because of the Holocaust...which I always remember for some reason) matches because it's at least something different. Tiffany Stratton did a moonsault off the top of a pod. That was cool. Raquel Rodriguez looked so different that I didn't know who she was. Did she have plastic face surgery or something? I know Roman Reigns did that a few years ago. I think people forget that. The match was decent, just nothing special. **1/2

THE JUDGMENT DAY (DAMIAN PRIEST & FINN BALOR) vs. NEW CATCH REPUBLIC (PETE DUNNE & TYLER BATE) (17:45): The crowd really loved booing Dominic, who wasn't even in this match. He was at ringside and did try to talk on the mic before the match. The match had some good action but it felt like a typical RAW match. I'm so glad I didn't watch this live. It aired at 5 AM here in Philly. There were so many long introductions and commercials that it probably only took me less than 2 hours to watch this show since I fast forwarded through the non-match stuff. After this match, there was also a talking segment with Cody, Seth, Austin Theory, and Grayson Waller. Seth and Cody ended up beating up Austin Theory. I still find it so funny that Cody is this big star and everyone cheers for him when back in AEW he was being booed before he left. He definitely made the right choice in leaving! **

DREW McINTYRE vs. BOBBY LASHLEY vs. KEVIN OWENS vs. LA KNIGHT vs. LOGAN PAUL vs. RANDY ORTON "ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH" (36:53): Bobby Lashley speared Logan through one of the pods. That was a cool spot. Logan was putting on brass knuckles and was ready to knock someone out when Randy Orton gave him an RKO. That was a good spot as well. The big problem in this match was that twice there were wrestlers that interfered. Dude, isn't this a locked cage? There's like 5 referees walking around...how are there just random people entering the cage to interfere? AJ Styles came in and beat up LA Knight with a chair, causing him to get pinned by Drew. Then, after Logan Paul was eliminated, he came back to knock out Orton with the brass knuckles, causing Orton to get pinned by Drew, who won the match. Kind of a lame way to give Drew the win here. I guess that means LA Knight will face AJ and Logan will face Orton at 'Mania. Those are two matches I could care less about. **1/2

RHEA RIPLEY vs. NIA JAX (14:25): This was the main event because Rhea Ripley is from Australia. It probably would've been nice if they picked a better opponent. The other problem was that they gave Nia Jax way too much offense. You don't have to do a squash, but at least don't make the champion in her home country look like she's fighting for her life against someone who's not even a big star. This match was boring, but at least the crowd was into it because of Rhea. I wasn't the biggest fan of this show. There was a match on AEW's Collision tonight that was better than this whole show. It was Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Sami Guevara. They broke 5 tables. They used chairs. Sami broke two beer bottles over Hobbs' head. Sami did a Swanton Bomb off the top of a big dog ladder in the ring down onto Hobbs on two tables. What a crazy, entertaining, wild match. The Perth audience would've went fucking nuts for that. *