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WWE has booked itself into an interesting corner going to WrestleMania 38.
The Elimination Chamber pay-per-view was a solid and entertaining effort that lacked a match or moment that over delivered but, outside of one thing, also lack any head-scratching moments or booking. The biggest headline coming out as we look head to WrestleMania 38 is that Roman’s Reign’s match with Brock Lesnar at AT&T Stadium will be a winner-take-all clash for the Universal and WWE championship. It leaves the company potentially set up for either a major shift in the Reigns’ character or how the company is structured creatively.
Here are five takeaway after Saturday’s event from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia:
Champion vs. Champion … so now what?
As of now, Roman Reigns and Brock Lensar’s match at WrestleMania 38 is set to be title vs. title after The Tribal Chief defeated Goldberg to retain his Universal championship and The Beast dominated the men’s Elimination Chamber match to win the WWE championship for the second time in 49 days. Give WWE a little credit for Lesnar planted that seed on SmackDown and them appearing to have followed through on it to make the stakes for this match about as big as they could possibly can be.
Defending WWE champion Bobby Lashley could have a say in that having never actually defended his belt inside the chamber. He was taken into “concussion protocol” after he was leveled by Seth Rollins throwing Austin Theory crashing through his pod. The spot also could have been done to cover a legit injury to Lashley. Former WWE writer Kazeem Famuyide reported The All Mighty could miss four months with a shoulder injury he sustained at the Royal Rumble.
If the title vs. title stipulation remains, there are certainly booking repercussions to have one dominant champion sitting on top of the company for potentially another year. That is unless WWE has Reigns lose the belt to a Seth Rollins to keep that storyline going or in a flash loss to the Money in the Bank winner.
If not, will the audience get tired knowing you have such a slim chance at seeing a world championship change of any kind after already 500-plus days for Regins’ reign? Does WWE have Lesnar end and get the big moment like he did stopping Undertaker’s WrestleMania winning streak? Does this start to end the brand split if Reigns begins to appear on both shows? WWE is running out of opponents for Reigns – unless it uses a potential Cody Rhodes wild card down the road. So that would deepen the pool if he is on both brands.
There are a lot of reasons doing title vs. title doesn’t m ake sense unless you are ready to put a dent in Reigns’ armor or change the core structure of how WWE operates right now. Maybe it’s to set up Reigns believing he has reached the absolute pinnacle by becoming undisputed champion only to close one of the nights of WrestleMania face to face with his cousin The Rock to get the wheels turning for next year’s WrestleMania main event.
Ms. WrestleMania?
We were disappointed when Bianca Belair didn’t win the Royal Rumble again to ensure she got the chance to regain the title she lost in flash to Becky Lynch at SummerSlam. Instead WWE got there by having her win a very entertaining women’s chamber match. It creates an ultimately fascinating booking decision for WWE. Do you further enhance Belair’s absolutely shining star by having her win a world championship at consecutive WrestleManias, get the revenge she deserves, and be the first person to beat Lynch for a title in more than three years? Or do you want to keep Lynch unbeaten until she likely faces Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles?
Lynch is far from a dominant champion as a heel, often taking some liberties to walk away from matches victorious and she ‘survived” a solid match with WWE Hall of Famer Lita for the Raw women’s championship at Elimination Chamber. Maybe a loss humbles Lynch enough to start to turn her back babyface should WWE want to go that route.
The best thing about the women’s chamber was Belair, Ripley, Nikki A.S.H., Doudrop and Alexa Bliss all got chance to shine and felt like they belong in the world title picture. There is also cool story rumbling under the surface between Belair and Ripley. The EST continues to be a step better, pinning her twice in the past six days. Ripley has played humble and nice for the most part, but has shown signs it’s really eating at her – like slapping Belair inside the chamber. There is a feud waiting for Belair should she beat Lynch.
That a baby!
Ronda Rousey the babyface is back. The former UFC women’s bantamweight champion began her WWE run in 2018 that way, but added a heel streak at the end when she became the foil for Lynch’s rocket ship rise to stardom. WWE has done a great job setting her up to get back in the crowd’s good grace. They put her across from true heels in Sonya Deville and Charlotte Flair and coming to the aid of a baby face as big as Naomi, who should at least get a run as a women’s tag team champion soon, is also a big plus.
While Rousey still has some promo work to do – this Friday on SmackDown being in a group at the contract signing was better — WWE has made sure to remind to audience she is ass-kicking bad ass. Rousey wrestling her tag match at Elimination Chamber sans makeup and shoes in her judo black belt and gi — with one hand tied behind her back — put on a show of athleticism and skill in her and Naomi’s victory. Flair not even wanting to step in the ring to stop Rousey from putting the armbar on Deville for the win spoke volumes. Keep giving the audience “The Baddest Woman on the Planet” and her and the WWE will keep getting the reaction they hope for going into WrestleMania.
Last of these legends?
Goldberg’s match against Reigns was the final one his current contract with WWE, and he told Pat McAfee on his show that he needs to get shoulder surgery. Unless he physically can no longer go, we will see Goldberg again as he will likely want a some sort of one-last-match storyline and goodbye to end his career on at some point. His spears and jackhammers still evoke good crown reactions and he is still capable of short, explosive matches with the right opponent. WWE just really needs to keep him out of the world championship picture.
If Lita, on the other hand, wants to stick around for a singles or a tag match at WrestleMania, she certainly did enough to deserve the chance. Her match with Lynch was far from a masterpiece, but certainly solid under the circumstance of Lita not knowing she was having this clash until immediately after the Royal. Being able to go 10-11 minutes with one of WWE’s biggest stars should be enough to prove Lita can handle whatever WWE needs should she and the want to go that route. The chemistry and flow got better as the match with Lynch got going and it would be quite nice to have Lita stick around.
Big Bang Theory
WWE has something in Austin Theory. There some charisma there that makes you want to dislike him and it has made the selfie gimmick work. Lesnar even made it a point to shoot a fake selfie after he pinned him. Theory took the bump of the night on an F5 from Lesnar off the top of chamber pod, he is very capable in ring and WWE has been putting in the story work having him being mentored by Mr. McMahon. Give the kid, who is 24 years old and just scratching the surface, a chance to see what he can become. We’ve seen that AEW has been able to do with Sammy Guevara. WWE needs to give Theory a chance to do that as a heel. He certainly got more of a spotlight put on him than A.J. Styles, Riddle and Seth Rollins, who we saw Lesnar run right through after busting out of his pod.
Notes
- How Madcap Moss survived being dropped on his head by Drew McIntyre on an Alabama Slam (and WWE showed the replay) we may never know, but glad he is OK. WWE needs to let McIntrye finally get his hands on Happy Corbin already so we can move on from the feud as it feels like he needs to something more meaningful. Moss, who McIntyre has now beat twice, is much better in-ring performer than he’s given credit for.
- WWE didn’t even give us the scheduled SmackDown tag team championship match between the Viking Raiders and The Usos. The Bloodline members attacked their challengers before they could even get to the ring. That’s never a good thing to not deliver a match on a pay-per-view event.
- PW Insider is reporting that You Tuber-turned-boxer Logan Paul will potentially be The Miz’s tag team partner at WrestleMania for match against Rey and Dominic Mysterio. Rey and Miz had a highly entertaining match on the kickoff show, won by Mysterio.
Biggest Winner: Bianca Belair
Biggest Loser: The men’s Elimination Chamber losers not names Austin Theory
Best Match: Women’s Elimination Chamber
Grade: C+
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