Elimination Chamber 2017 *Smackdown spoilers*

Bounty Hunter

Not a fan of the 2 week record equaling reign (although I think that may be tactical as they know Cena won't hold the belt again until maybe Mania next year when he can break the record) but the title scene on SD is light years ahead of that on Raw imo. AJ being all sorts of awesome, then the record equaling win after that great Rumble match for Cena and now Wyatt, who I honestly think everyone is genuinely happy for, winning the belt for the first time in a manner that makes him look strong. Unlike say how Owens won the Raw title and then needed Jericho to help him retain it everytime before part timer Goldberg maybe takes it from him,

I didn't expect Naomi to win it but I'm also kinda happy for her and the hometown girl going into Mania with the title makes sense even though I think she will probably be on the pre-show but who knows maybe her entrance will get her bumped up to the main card though the card will be so stacked it'll probably be a short match.

Does look like it might be Miz/Maryse vs Cena/Nikki just from that backstage segment where Maryse appeared (and JBL made sure to mention later) and that plus AJ being in Mania Limbo (Shane...why?) are def negatives atm even though who knows both could supply "Mania moments",

Cena proposing to Nikki

seems to be getting mentioned a lot for example, whether we want to see them or not.

bennyl10 wrote: »

There's no real hope Wyatt will actually get a decent run is there?..

I get the feeling he's just Orton fodder for mania?..

I could be 100% wrong but at this moment I actually think he will retain (could def change my mind tho) but maybe that is just the fact that they already had Cena as a transitional champ.

SureYWouldntYa

Wyatt winning last night was nice in that he's been booked like crap for most of the last few years and he might finally look like a star

Still think I rather when someone is booked good, works his way up and is the up guy on the roster and the deserving champion be it heel or face, think AJ Styles last September or The Miz right now

DEFTLEFTHAND

Does Wyatt's need a title though?

He portrays a sick, degenerate son of a bitch. He gets off on tormenting people and inflicting harm, not championship gold.

Maybe similar to a Jake the Snake in that regard. A title really doesn't suit the character.

SureYWouldntYa

Power, the title is......power

Or some rant to that degree

PTH2009

Finally bray Wyatt has a singles title

I'd say his dad and brother were proud of him backstage

Neil3030

How f**king over is AJ going to be when they finally turn him face? Smarks will always adore him, and marks/kids can get behind his scrappy underdog Southern Boy gimmick.

SureYWouldntYa

Same as damn near every big face there has ever been minus Daniel Bryan, it took a heel turn for them to find their groove and for the fans to really warm to the performer

AJ was a good performer but could easily have folded into another Cesaro if he didn't turn heel last May

But we'll always love Roman won't we

Mr.Nice Guy

The Ziggler heel turn might just be as bad as the Rollins babyface turn. That whole match with Kalisto and Crews was an absolute clusterf*ck of epic proportions. It might be worth handing out the award for worst feud to this thing already.

This all stemmed remember from Dolph telling Bryan he could beat these two guys on his own - despite him actually losing beforehand. And so our valiant heel Dolph, who is bravely going up against two cowardly babyfaces willing to work together to beat him, ends up taking Kalisto out of the equation before the match begins - to rapturous cheering from the fans. He then enters the ring with a smile on his face - he has outsmarted them and the fans love it. We then cut to a scowling Apollo Crews who makes his way down the aisle - 'how dare you take out my partner and make this a fair fight' his look seems to say. The fans chant for Ziggler.

And so it is a fair fight for a time - until Kalisto recovers and makes his way down to make it an unfair fight - to boos. The fans then proceed to get behind the plucky heel Dolph who in the end is overwhelmed by the odds (including Kalisto no-selling his earlier injury by jumping all over the place). And these two absolute geeks Crews and Kalisto then celebrate the win as if it's something to be proud of: 'Yay we beat a guy 2-on-1!' The fans boo and even JBL buries this on commentary - 'they're acting like they won a singles championship'. Dolph then proceeds to beat them with a chair to more cheers. This leads to more Ziggler chants including a 'one more time' chant as Ziggler destroys Apollo's leg. Dolph, ever the fan favourite, does what the fans want and indeed crushes the leg one more time.

This was just f*cking atrocious. I was offended at how bad this was. This got absolutely none of these guys over and did not help any of these guys out one bit. This was pure sh*t. Who is responsible for this and why?

The Becky/Mickie match was good. I don't think Mickie should have lost so soon though.

American Alpha looked strong, but the tag division doesn't seem to have any competition now.

Nikki vs Natalya was lame.

Orton vs Harper was good. Not sure about having a guy who's a fresh face lose right away, but I suppose compared to Dolph's booking this is fine.

Naomi vs Alexa was okay. I would have kept the title on Alexa a little longer though. It was sloppy in parts.

I enjoyed the Chamber match. One gripe would be in regards to the padding they put over the steel floor - I get why they did this to lessen the injury risk, but why was JBL talking about how deadly the steel grating was when he was in the match years ago? He's going on about how Umaga was barefoot and it even hurt his feet to walk across it - way to put over the old design, John. Problem is that's not there now and you are drawing attention to the fact this is a much safer Chamber. He's awful at his job but then most of them are.

I thought they booked the finishes well. Miz stealing the pin on Ambrose was very good; in contrast to his wrestling, especially the dropkicks, which were terrible. Cena not being in the final two surprised me but it added nicely to the match. Wyatt was put over strong in the end. We need fresh faces in the title scene so I like Wyatt having the title. I'd like to see him retain it at Mania and hold it for a few months.

Overall, there was some good stuff and some horrid stuff but I'd say the Chamber match tipped it towards a thumbs up show.

Neil3030

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

<epic rant about Ziggler v Kalisto/Crews>

A programme with Ryno could be fun actually - have Ziggler smash up the over and respected veteran, then hopefully Slater can get a rub seeking payback. Ziggler could superkick all his kids, it'd be hilarious.

Rock Lesnar

Despite it been pretty well highlighted before hand, i was delighted Wyatt won, just hope he retain's now at Mania and not drop it to Bland, sorry Randy Orton

Itssoeasy

I'm delighted that Bray wyatt won. He joins his uncle Barry windham as a world champion. I've always liked bray.

SureYWouldntYa

I'd love if Randy snaps in the build up to Mania and goes back to being "mentally unstable" ala 2008/09 and goes round punting people

Be funny to have him as the mad one and Bray as the one who saves us from Randy

Infernum

So, I only caught the last three matches (because I faffed around too much) but here are my few cents on what I caught of the PPV:

-- Luke Harper gave a very solid performance against Randy Orton. Probably his best PPV/singles match yet and I sincerely hope he isn't looming outside the title picture for as long as Wyatt and Orton are main figures in it. He is worthy of a shot sooner or later and could maybe take it from either of them, depending on who wins at Mania.

-- I cannot for the life of me tolerate Alexa Bliss and would say I've lowkey been a fan of Naomi for a long time. Seeing her capture a Women's Championship for the first time in her WWE career was a joy to watch, and she put on such a great performance too. She has come a long way from being a rookie on the earlier and more cartoonish version of NXT.

-- The Chamber.... The big one, oh boy. Well, I'm glad there was only one. Having multiple chamber matches on one night watered the novelty down. People are also griping about the chamber floor being covered with padding. I see nothing wrong with that at all as there's a good reason for the padding being there. And as Brian Zane mentioned in his review, the pads actually looked to be hard enough to cause some damage regardless.

My biggest gripe with the whole thing is how early Baron Corbin was eliminated, but even then am excited for how the feud between him and Ambrose will go. Lots of bets being placed on him taking the Intercontinental Championship from Ambrose at Mania, which would be amazing to see considering they've been making a lot of mention of the fact he won the Andre The Giant Memorial battle royal last year. It only makes sense to give him the gold the following year.

The Miz's entry felt a little pointless. Like he was only there to get pinned by Cena to set up this corny rumoured mixed tag match at Mania. With that said, he did a pretty solid job for however long he was in.

Bray Wyatt's victory, a lot of us can safely say we saw it coming from a mile off. While some will gripe about it being a "transitional reign" until Orton beats him at Mania, they appear to neglect the fact that it hasn't always been the case with Rumble winners, particularly the past three years. And even if Orton does win, you can guarantee it won't be very lengthy. Hell, I'll bet any of you his reign won't survive the summer.

The only one coming out of this with an unclear future path is AJ Styles. The chamber match helped to set up three bouts for Mania but AJ's road to the big one has no clear direction coming out of the PPV. It will be interesting to see what is planned for him.

gerrybbadd

My, I've never seen Becky Lynch looking hotter than she was at EC.

Itssoeasy

gerrybbadd wrote: »

My, I've never seen Becky Lynch looking hotter than she was at EC.

Gerry she looked the same as she has since she started dyeing her hair orange.

CastorTroy

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

I didn't expect Naomi to win it but I'm also kinda happy for her and the hometown girl going into Mania with the title makes sense even though I think she will probably be on the pre-show but who knows maybe her entrance will get her bumped up to the main card though the card will be so stacked it'll probably be a short match.

They'll have trouble doing her normal entrance since isn't it a stadium? I'd say she might open though.

Couple things that annoyed me about this was the inconsistency around finishers. I know it's rarely effective but I didn't like Cena kicking out of the Styles clash not long after he pinned a fresh Miz with the often kicked out of AA.
Then neither AJ or Cena kicked out of Sister Abigail.

Speaking of Miz, up until he was eliminated I remember thinking the Chamber had a good selection of entrants. Like I didn't look at any of them and think "He doesn't deserve to be in this". Like who would be in a Raw chamber? Probably Owens, Jericho, Reigns, Cesaro, Sheamus and Braun. Basically the default guys. And out of those, Braun would probably the only guy we could take seriously, who hasn't been made into a joke.

bobby_says_hi

Apparently some earlier matches ran over time and the Women's Championship had two minutes cut from it. The Elimination Chamber main event also had to have some time cuts too.

CastorTroy

Meant to say as well, I don't like pointing to guys who seem to be letting themselves go, but has Konnor always been like that? It won't exactly help matters if he gets out of shape. Though explains why they didn't run to the ring to cover Jordan

sky88

CastorTroy wrote: »

Meant to say as well, I don't like pointing to guys who seem to be letting themselves go, but has Konnor always been like that? It won't exactly help matters if he gets out of shape. Though explains why they didn't run to the ring to cover Jordan

One of the usos as well seems to have let himself go

Itssoeasy

sky88 wrote: »

One of the usos as well seems to have let himself go

I saw that but I don't think it's letting himself go, it's more of genetics kicking in. I mean look at their oul fella ? Fighting a losing battle.

sky88

Itssoeasy wrote: »

I saw that but I don't think it's letting himself go, it's more of genetics kicking in. I mean look at their oul fella ? Fighting a losing battle.

Seems to be all samoanas isn't a fat burner that Roman got suspended over

ERG89

CastorTroy wrote: »

Meant to say as well, I don't like pointing to guys who seem to be letting themselves go, but has Konnor always been like that? It won't exactly help matters if he gets out of shape. Though explains why they didn't run to the ring to cover Jordan

Both world champions now have to wrestle in a t shirt so I don't think it's an issue in 2017.

gerrybbadd

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Gerry she looked the same as she has since she started dyeing her hair orange.

Her outfit and hair were different. She's regularly changed these things

DM_7

Happy to see Bray win the title. He has worked with everyone and always performed well.

Makes me hopeful for Rusev to get a big win in the next 6 months.

gerrybbadd

Really don't think they should have taken the title off Alexa. I don't see Naomi holding the title long after Mania

Lithium93_

gerrybbadd wrote: »

Really don't think they should have taken the title off Alexa. I don't see Naomi holding the title long after Mania

Alexa to win it back at Wrestlemania.