United Center, Chicago
RHEA RIPLEY vs. ALEXA BLISS vs. ASUKA vs. KIANA JAMES vs. RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ vs. TIFFANY STRATTON "ELIMINATION CHAMBER" (23:45): I kind of hate how the WWE does PPV's now. They only have a few matches, and between matches they have twenty minutes of commercials. I didn't watch this live, so I got to fast forward through watching all six women make their entrances (which took like twenty minutes). That means that there's very little actual wrestling on these shows. These PPV's are also now on the new ESPN app, ESPN Unlimited. That service costs $25 a month. Finally, Xfinity agreed to give their customers free access to ESPN Unlimited, which meant that this was the first PPV I could watch for free on ESPN Unlimited. But it's not that simple. First, you have to go to your Xfinity account and find ESPN Unlimited on there to check a box to "access" your free subscription. Then you have to download the ESPN app, which is an app that has ESPN, ESPN+, and ESPN Unlimited on it, which are three services that all cost different amounts of money. After attempting to watch this PPV for free I failed miserably and just resorted to watching it on one of those illegal websites. Not good that's it easier to watch these PPV's illegally. As for this actual show: it was okay. The WWE is only mildly entertaining these days. Ever since TKO took over, the amount of commercials and nothingness between segments and matches is unforgiveable on both the PPV's and RAW and Smackdown. RAW is on Netflix...so why are their commercials during the matches? That makes no fucking sense! Netflix can put commercials on whenever they feel like it...wouldn't you think they'd do it after or before the matches? Nope! This all means that, even if you love the WWE, it's frustrating as all hell watching it. The winner of this match gets to face Jade Cargill at Wrestlemania. Speaking of Wrestlemania, they're having a hard time selling tickets because of the exorbitant prices (plus it's in Las Vegas for the 2nd straight year...meaning a lot of people probably don't want to travel to Las Vegas again if they just went there last year). I think Tiffany Stratton was the big star in this match. She seemed to be doing the most. Raquel Rodriguez was meant to be the unstoppable monster even though she lost. I do enjoy the Elimination Chamber gimmick, although I think it would make sense to do it at another time. The Royal Rumble establishes the Wrestlemania main event matches, so this is always kind of a superfluous PPV. **1/2
AJ LEE vs. BECKY LYNCH (15:30): This show was in Chicago, so they decided to have both CM Punk and his wife, AJ Lee, have singles matches. AJ Lee won the Intercontinental title from Becky Lynch. Why Becky Lynch, one of the top stars, has the lesser belt is beyond me. Isn't the point of the IC title to be the B-title? This match was kind of boring. They did the gimmick where the ref was knocked out when Becky was tapping so the match kept going. Supposedly they're setting up a match between this referee and Becky Lynch. I guess I don't pay much attention to WWE because I didn't realize there was even a storyline between this ref and Lynch. *1/2
CM PUNK vs. FINN BALOR (20:21): It made sense to have Finn Balor vs. CM Punk in Belfast, where Finn is from, and then have the re-match in Chicago, where Punk is from. Unfortunately, nobody on Earth thought Finn was winning the championship either time, which made both matches pretty anticlimactic. Their match in Belfast was a little bit better. This match was pretty dull. The WWE just doesn't have exciting wrestling matches anymore. It almost feels like they're not even trying to. This is supposed to be a show filled with PPV level matches; i.e. great matches you don't get on TV. Oh, well. They're setting up a Finn Balor babyface turn so he can wrestle Dominik Mysterio. I just feel bad that Finn won the title ten years ago, got hurt, had to relinquish it after one day, and then never got to be champion again. That's fucking ice cold cruelty. *1/2
RANDY ORTON vs. CODY RHODES vs. JE'VON EVANS vs. LA KNIGHT vs. LOGAN PAUL vs. TRICK WILLIAMS "ELIMINATION CHAMBER" (25:20): Seth Rollins returned from injury in this match, appearing as a masked man that stomped Logan Paul to cause him to lose. The big surprise was that Orton and not Cody won the match. Drew McIntyre came into the chamber to beat up Cody, causing him to lose. Yes, an enclosed cage match had two wrestlers come in to interfere. Makes sense. Cody vs. McIntyre seemed to be the Wrestlemania goal, but now they're just doing it on Smackdown this week. The other memorable moment came when LA Knight slipped on the ropes trying to do his elbow drop. The match was entertaining but nothing spectacular. So now we have Wrestlemania with CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns for the title, Jade Cargill vs. Rhea Ripley for the title, a Becky Lynch vs. AJ Lee re-match for the IC title, Logan Paul vs. Seth Rollins, and Stefanie Vaquer vs. Liv Morgan for the title. The other men's title will probably be a multi-man match with Orton, Cody, McIntyre, and maybe Jacob Fatu. Lesnar is probably facing Oba Femi. Punk vs. Roman is a big match and something seemingly new. As for the rest? Eh. The WWE just isn't that exciting these days. **1/2
