WWE Elimination Chamber 2018 Final Rating: Women’s Evolution Shines
Photo by WWE’s Twitter
WWE Elimination Chamber 2018 was a largely successful night for the Raw brand as the road to WrestleMania took a chaotic detour.
From top to bottom, WWE Elimination Chamber 2018 was a great show with a few majorly standout moments. Now with the red brand’s WrestleMania plans becoming clearer, the next several weeks of Raw will be key.
The main card kicked off with the historic first-ever women’s Elimination Chamber match with Alexa Bliss defending her Raw Women’s Championship against Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James, Sonya Deville, and Mandy Rose. And what a match it would turn out to be for Raw’s women’s division.
These women put on an outstanding collective performance with a ton of great action and great storytelling as well before Bliss outlasted Banks to retain her title. She also cut an awesome fake babyface turn promo after the match. This match arguably was more impressive than the women’s Royal Rumble match and should do wonders moving forward towards WrestleMania.
The following match pitted Sheamus and Cesaro against Titus O’Neil and Apollo with the Raw Tag Team Championship on the line. The match was pretty good, but it was hard to follow the women’s Elimination Chamber match before The Bar retained its tag team titles after a solid showing from Titus Worldwide.
The women took center stage again when Asuka faced off with Nia Jax in what turned out to be a very good match. Both women looked great, but Jax really shined. She did lose the match, but she came away probably looking even more impressive than Asuka, who kept her undefeated streak intact heading into WrestleMania 34.
The odd match out of the night went to Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt and despite the match not being bad, it was the only average at best match of the night. The crowd wasn’t into it either for the majority of the match before Woken Matt got a much-needed win.
Ronda Rousey’s contract signing followed and, as expected, chaos ensued with Kurt Angle, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon all involved. After Angle told Rousey what Triple H and Stephanie’s true feelings are towards her, Rousey responded by putting The Game through the table setup in the ring. A mixed tag team match featuring Angle and Rousey against Triple H and Stephanie is likely on deck at WrestleMania.
Photo by WWE’s Twitter
The main event, men’s Elimination Chamber match ensued featuring Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Braun Strowman, John Cena, The Miz, Finn Balor, and Elias battling for the right to challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania. And needless to say, the match was very good with a ton of standout moments.
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Strowman stole the match with his dominating ways and eliminated five individuals in the match, but couldn’t overcome The Big Dog and Reigns got the win in the end. The predictability of the outcome might have hurt the match a tad, but it was still very good and showcased several superstars effectively, especially Strowman who stood tall even in defeat.
The assumed Universal Championship match at WrestleMania is set between Lesnar and Reigns. The Raw Women’s Championship match is still unknown, but Bliss has a lot of momentum now as she prepares for the biggest match of her career. In terms of just the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view alone, it was a great show.
It’s arguable which pay-per-view this year was better between the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber, but it’s pretty close regardless. This show did a lot for the red brand with six weeks until the granddaddy of them all.
What will tomorrow night’s Raw bring with several key superstars’ WrestleMania plans still up in the air? What will happen with the Elimination Chamber’s two big winners in Bliss and Reigns? It should be interesting moving forward.
Next: WWE Elimination Chamber 2018 Review