WWE Elimination Chamber 2018: Live Results, Highlights, Analysis, and Grades

Photo Source: WWE.com

Raw Women’s Championship Elimination Chamber Match

Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Sasha Banks vs. Mickie James vs. Mandy Rose vs. Sonya Deville vs. Bayley

Result: Alexa Bliss eliminated Sasha Banks via pinfall

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

Brilliant decision right off the bat to have Bayley – ultimate underdog, even if that hasn’t translated well on the main roster yet – be one of the two superstars to start the match. I had this fear after Bliss, Banks, and James were locked in the pods that Bayley would be next out, and Rose and Deville would start the match against each other. It would have most likely been a glorified exhibition and a crowd killer. So kudos to whichever producer decided against that.

But Bayley and Deville put on a solid five-ish minutes before the first pod opened. I don’t know how I feel about the weird “neither woman could actually smash the other’s face into the cage” spot. But overall, I liked how things were set up. Bayley’s elbow drop to the outside was a thing of beauty – if ill-advised with her kayfabe/shoot shoulder injuries.

Of course, the first pod to open – “randomly” – was Rose, putting Bayley at an immediate disadvantage. It’s like someone sat down with “Booking for Dummies” and realized hey, this is pretty easy! Absolution spending the next segment just wearing down Bayley was perfect. That‘s how you build up an underdog babyface.

You don’t have to be Nostradamus to figure out that Sasha would be next in to even the odds. The Boss cleaned house, even though the crowd wasn’t totally into it at first (probably expecting a turn). In truth, the only thing that took me out of the match a bit was that the six participants were split into three pairs of allies. Only Absolution is really a strong unit at this moment, but Sasha/Bayley and Mickie/Alexa didn’t really all need to be done.

Rose taking the first elimination was just another great decision. First out of the first Women’s Royal Rumble, first out of the first Women’s Elimination Chamber – it fits, giving her a possible chance to develop her character because of the dubious accomplishments. Plus, it leaves the superstar with the least experience – Sonya Deville – as the only participant at the moment without a partner.

That, of course, came into play once Mickie entered the match, as her daredevil spot led to Deville’s elimination. I wouldn’t have expected Mickie to be the one to climb to the top of the pod, but here we are. Bayley following up with an immediate elimination of Mickie was a bit jarring – we couldn’t give Mickie more than five minutes? Or at least play off the alliance between Mickie and Alexa? It took nearly twenty minutes into the match for the first miscue, but to me that was a big one.

When Bliss finally entered the match, things continued to take a turn. The game of keep away along the cage wall was kind of silly, especially because the end game was so blatantly obvious. Still, Sasha’s inevitable betrayal of Bayley – again – injected some life back into the crowd and match. Any time the focus of the match was on that broken friendship, it was the best part of the later stages of the match.

So of course, Bayley was the next to be eliminated, and by Bliss – after a super Bayley to Belly to Sasha. Alright, then. Bliss and Banks had a decent enough mini-match in their 1-on-1 segment. But the super Twisted Bliss into a super-contrived Banks Statement was kind of overkill. I know everything is about “moments” in WWE today, but that was a bit much. The elevated DDT to close it out for a successful Bliss defense was pretty, though. Alexa’s post-match promo was unnecessary and awkward, but I’ll let it slide.

In general, the first twenty minutes were on fire for this one, but the last ten were a bit uneven. Still, it was a great match and a hell of a way to open the main show.