WWE: The 5 best Elimination Chamber Matches of all time
5. New Year’s Revolution 2006
Triple H vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Edge for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship with Shawn Michaels as the Special Guest Referee
This match is an underrated gem.
It’s hard to appreciate it as it has been deleted from history for, well, obvious reasons.
The World Heavyweight title had been vacated due to a double fall in a triple threat match between champion Triple H, and challengers Benoit and Edge, and a new champion was to be crowned inside the Elimination Chamber.
The story going into this match was that Triple H, at the absolute top of his bastard persona, had kicked Randy Orton out of Evolution because he was insecure and was being outshined by a younger guy, which is why he was also butting heads with Batista in the build-up to this match. And this match would be another beautiful chapter in the story of Batista coming out of Triple H’s shadow and then kicking that shadow’s butt to boot. It’s one of the greatest payoffs and one of the best passing of the torch moments in WWE history, and the seeds were sown in this match.
The first two entrants were Benoit and Jericho and I don’t know about you, but starting a match with two of the best in-ring performers to ever lace up a pair of boots, who also happen to have fantastic chemistry with each other, seems like a smart idea to me.
Triple H entered next and mixed it up with Benoit and Jericho, and then took two sick bumps on the steel floor just outside of the ropes, and then all three of them took turns flying into chains, you know, the usual Chamber stuff.
Then, Edge entered and ran wild for a while, turnbuckle spears and Edgecutions for everyone!
Jericho and Benoit were bleeding at this point and the match was turning gruesome.
The next entrant was Randy Orton. He locked horns with Triple H and then hit RKOs on Jericho and Benoit. Edge accidentally speared HBK and got a Sweet Chin Music in return, and then Jericho hit the Lionsault and pinned him.
Jericho and Benoit then made Triple H pay for being a general prick. Benoit hit a Diving Headbutt off of the top of a pod. Triple H was then locked in the Walls of Jericho and the Crippler Crossface simultaneously, to the delight of the crowd, only for Batista to make his entrance and save his boss’s behind.
The next section of this match can be described as Batista destroying everyone, as he beat up everybody in Triple H’s path. He pinned Jericho and Benoit, and that led to the moment which in turn led to one of the most satisfying main events in Mania history.
Orton battered and outnumbered, hit a low blow on Batista, and followed it up with an RKO, and then, as Batista was getting pinned, Triple H got up, seemingly to save his stablemate, but thought better of it, and fell back down.
As Orton got his hands on Triple H, Ric Flair interfered and got beaten up by HBK, but it was enough for Batista to drop Orton and Triple H hit the Pedigree to win the World Heavyweight title.
However unnecessarily dominant Triple H may have been in Elimination Chamber matches, I think we can look back at this one fondly knowing what came afterward.