It’s been a pretty wild week in the unbelievable world of pro wrestling. Not only do we have Jeff Jarrett on the way to an induction to the WWE Hall Of Fame, but there are plenty more stories leading to the Road The WrestleMania.
Now all the questions are about to be answered as we finally get Elimination Chamber out of the way. But The Bar still needs challengers for the Raw Tag Team Championships and the Universal Picture as well as Raw Women’s Title matches need to be determined for the Show Of Shows too.
It was set to be a great show with a gauntlet match on top of everything else mounting up this time of year. There is a ticking clock and WWE needs to do some quick booking as well if they want to have an Elimination Chamber event with more than three matches.
So let’s get right into it as the Red Brand does their thing.
Opening Segment/Gauntlet Match
Roman Reigns entered first to start out the gauntlet match because why not?
Reigns cut a promo and seemed shaken up a little bit. He named off everyone in the match and they all got bigger pops than him while Reigns said none of them can beat Brock Lesnar while he can.
Then Rollins came down to start the match and stop the promo.
Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns
2/3 of The Shield battled to kick off the gauntlet match while the crowd chanted “burn it down” at Rollins.
The two traded some shots and went back and forth, then Roman no-sold a shot from Rollins and it got intense for a second as the two stood nose-to-nose.
Rollins would hit a move and Reigns would counter with one of his own so Seth did a fair amount of selling for Roman. Reigns hit a slam for a two count. Rollins turned it around and hit a springboard clothesline and put Roman out of the ring but Roman landed a right hand when Seth was going for a dive. Then Reigns hit a drive-by.
Once they returned to the ring, Roman kept applying damage and Seth sold for him. Seth countered out of a Superman Punch and almost hit a Revolution Knee but Reigns reversed out of it, then Reigns came out of the corner with another Superman Punch that landed this time.
Later on, Rollins went for a top rope splash but Reigns rolled out of the way so Seth crashed and burned. Roman hit some punches but Seth sent him out of the ring and hit the suicide dive this time and then he hit another.
But when Seth was going for a Springboard clotheslines into the ring, Roman hit another Superman Punch. Roman went for a Spear but Rollins countered with a knee and after a couple more counters, Seth rolled Roman up for a pinfall and the crowd went wild.
Seth Rollins vs John Cena
Roman stuck in the ring and tried to shake Rollins’ hand but he was too tired to stand. Then Cena’s music hit and he came out looking very fresh.
Rollins nailed Cena with a knee out of nowhere during his entrance and blindsided him for a very early two count.
Cena and Rollins wrestled around a little bit and it looks like this Gauntlet match could stretch the entire length of the show if they’re all going to be twenty-minute matches.
John hit Rollins with a nice looking stunner looking move for a two count as he got plenty of those in this match because Seth took a lot of damage from Big Match John. Seth was in the corner as Cena was about to attack but he let him get up to fight on but one shot from Cena sent Seth back down. Rollins stood up and then he got punched back down.
Seth got up again to get knocked down and then he kicked out at one and jumped up to get in Cena’s face. But Cena would soon knock him back down for another two count. Cena knocked Rollins off the apron and he barely made it back by the 10 count.
Either Cena was feeling sorry for Seth or he was just toying with him, but he certainly didn’t put Rollins out of his misery with an AA like he could have. Instead, they wrestled around and he caught an STF on Rollins.
Seth hit a sling blade and got a two count. Rollins couldn’t hit the falcon arrow off that roll through suplex he does, but he did kick Cena in the face twice for another two count.
They ended up on the apron and Rollins took a ring post to the shoulder which sent him to the floor. Then Cena ended up putting himself through the ring steps while the referee started his two count. They both got back in at the count of 10.
Seth rolled through and countered an AA and locked in a crossface. Cena muscled Rollins up into an AA but he didn’t land it. Rollins countered again and went up for a top rope splash for a two count. This match has been going on for 50 minutes at this point and Rollins has been in the whole things so far.
Suddenly Cena popped Rollins up for an AA and it landed. 1-2-kick out!
Seth hit a superplex into a falcon arrow for another two count but once he got up, John locked in the STF once more until Rollins got to the ropes but he soon found himself in another one of Cena’s submissions. Seth got to the ropes as the second hour of this match started.
What are they doing? Because this feels rather epic.
Suddenly, Rollins found himself in a top rope AA but he fought out of it to jump down and grab Cena off a cross body, stand up, and hit an AA on Cena. Yes, Seth Rollins hit John Cena with an Attitude Adjustment.
Rollins climbed to the top rope and missed Cena. John hit an AA but got greedy and rolled through. Suddenly Rollins landed the Revolution Kick and then he hit the Blackout. 1-2-3 and Seth Rollins wins again. Something special is happening here.
Elias vs Seth Rollins
The Drifter was still wearing tape on his ribs from the busted cello over his body from Braun Strowman last week and he went directly for Rollins but Seth kicked out of every pin attempt.
Elias maintained control over Rollins as he continued to sell. While all this went on, they went to a split screen where Cena was interviewed by Renee Young and he blamed his loss on his many commitments because Seth gets to do pro wrestling all the time and then he said he had to win at Elimination Chamber because without it he won’t have a WrestleMania. Okay, John.
Rollins and Elias kept fighting and Seth sold his knee after everything he did. Suddenly Elias hit the Drift Away and that was all she wrote for Seth Rollins.
Elias vs Finn Balor
While Elias and Finn fought on, Seth appeared in a little window and was interviewed by Renee as he said if he doesn’t win the Elimination Chamber match none of it matters.
The crowd was pretty deflated after Rollins left the match, but they got over an hour from the dude, so that was good. “We want Strowman” chants broke out as the two continued to fight on in the ring.
Finn sold for Elias while he took one move after another geared toward Balor’s shoulder. They took things outside of the ring and Elias took a ring post to the ribs. Once they returned, Elias fired back with a clothesline followed by a two count after Balor hit a sling blade.
Finn Balor ended up getting the win just as The Miz came down to take him on next.
The Miz vs Finn Balor
Miz took a beating and the two wrestled around for a bit. Each man wanted to prove they were able to not only carry the heavy ball after Royal Rumble, but they also wanted to win this gauntlet match which ha no ramifications on WrestleMania.
Finn Balor ended up falling to the A-Lister.
Braun Strowman vs The Miz
As expected Strowman was last and they used The Miz to put him over big time. Braun Strowman picked up the win after a few devastating moves.
After the match was over, Strowman cut a promo in his usual fashion to cement himself as an overwhelming favorite for Sunday’s big match.
Winner: Braun Strowman via pinfall.
Asuka cut a promo in the ring with Renee and she really tried hard but her English still isn’t very good and the audience wasn’t really into it.
Suddenly, Nia Jax jumped her and left The Empress Of Tomorrow laid out thanks to a Samoan Drop and then she hit three big leg drops.
They played a Ronda Rousey highlight package complete of footage of her actually talking on talk shows which is the most the WWE Universe has heard from her so far. Good news, she’s not a mute. It was also interesting how they showed Stephanie McMahon who said she couldn’t wait to see what Rousey does in WWE which could turn out to be an ironic statement.
The Bar vs Titus Worldwide
Sheamus and Cesaro powered over Tius O’Neil and the news shortened named Apollo.
The Bar traded out tags and took the punishment to Apollo and didn’t let him get to Titus in the corner. Suddenly, Apollo launched Sheamus over the top rope and scored a quick pinfall on Cesaro for a surprising three count victory.
Winners: Titus Worldwide via pinfall
Bray Wyatt cut one of his creepy backstage promos on Woken Matt and then Hardy came back in another dueling promos segment. They called each other liars.
Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Mickie James vs Alexa Bliss, Sonya Deville, and Mandy Rose
All six of these women will meet in the Elimination Chamber match and they really brought it during the main event match of Raw this week.
Absolution and Bliss haven’t gotten along much recently but the three of them worked together well tonight. They cut the ring in half on Bayley and kept her in their side of the ring. It might not have been pretty, but it was effective.
Bliss got the tag and punished Bayley for being a babyface for a while until Deville got the tag to continue the abuse. Then Sasha Banks finally got the tag but the referee didn’t see the tag so Bayley as back in the ring to continue being a punching bag for a bit until she tagged Mickie James and the referee saw that tag.
Mickie took it to Absolution but Bliss wanted nothing to do with it. Mandy hit a gut wrench suplex and the camera caught James talking to her while Michael Cole said she was “talking to herself”… nice cover.
They kept James away from her corner and hit her with some dangerous moves as Mandy tagged Deville and then Rose took the tag once again. But James hit a double neckbreaker as a counter.
Bliss and Banks were both tagged in at the same time and Bliss was caught with a stiff knee from Banks. Sasha took out Deville with a double knees from the apron to the floor and then she returned to take it to Bliss again with a double knees off the top for a two count.
Then Bliss sent Banks into the turnbuckle and it looked nasty. But suddenly, Bliss found herself in the Bank Statement and that was all she wrote.
Winners: Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Mickie James via submission
After the match was over, Absolution and Bliss laid everyone out and then Deville and Rose turned their attention toward her. But Mickie James blindsided Rose allowing Mickie and Bliss to hit Deville with a double DDT for a confusing ending to this one.
The Elimination Chamber is going to be fun.
