Elimination Chamber 2021: Three things that need to happen

In a perfect world, WWE wouldn’t have scheduled Elimination Chamber 2021 — and Fastlane, for that matter — between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 37, but as was made clear over the last year, it is far from it.

Nevertheless, WWE has the show scheduled for Feb. 21 and will now feature five matches, with two taking place inside the brutal confines of the eponymous match. Outside of that, this card looks pretty barren; it’s almost reminiscent of the 2006 WWECW December to Dismember show (a PPV that also featured an Elimination Chamber match, ironically enough).

Still, there are a number of things — outside of producing some quality matches — that WWE has to pull off in order to make this show a success while also keeping the road to WrestleMania relatively debris-free. At the very least, these three things need to be in place…..

These are the three things WWE must do at Elimination Chamber 2021

Make Keith Lee and Bobby Lashley’s interactions mean something

On the Feb. 15 episode of Raw, WWE left Keith Lee’s status for the United States Championship Triple Threat Match up in the air as he was off didn’t appear on the show thanks to vague kayfabe injuries at US Champion Bobby Lashley’s hands (this was likely a cover to give Lee time off for his nuptials to Mia Yim).

If Lee returns and spares up from yet another Lashley vs. Riddle match, WWE needs to rectify the way they had Lashley push Lee around like a crash test dummy (in fairness, this was likely done to write Lee off of TV, but they could’ve accomplished that by having the whole Hurt Business take him out).

They can start by booking the Triple Threat in a way that positions Lee more as Lashley’s physical equal. WWE wouldn’t even need to take the US Title off Lashley; in fact, that outcome would be more preferable to build to an eventual singles showdown between him and Lee. But for that to become a possibility, they have to ensure that Lashley doesn’t treat Lee like a chump in this match.

DO NOT put the Women’s Tag Team Championships on Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair!

For the moment, it looks like WWE may try to dust off the “feuding babyfaces fight for/win the tag team championships” trope that they love using as a means to manufacture tension between two protagonists for this Bianca Belair/Sasha Banks program.

More often than not, this plot device does more harm than good to the wrestlers who are feuding and the tag team division that now has to take a backseat to the singles stars. This is why WWE should avoid putting the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on Banks and Belair when they face Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax for the titles at Elimination Chamber.

Whether they execute a turn with either Banks or Belair to protect the two in defeat or if they pay off whatever they’re doing with Reginald by having him cost the two the win, it has to end with Baszler and Jax retaining their titles.

Whoever wins the SmackDown Elimination Chamber, it can’t be Kevin Owens

Listen, Kevin Owens has been a great babyface since turning again in mid-2019. However, this man has gotten three chances to unseat “The Head of the Table” Roman Reigns as Universal Champion only to fall short each time. In this Number One Contender’s Elimination Chamber match, he shouldn’t earn a fourth.

Sure, you could argue that whoever wins the chamber is probably going to lose to Reigns anyway, so it may as well be Owens again, but given how whoever wins will have the out of having survived a brutal Elimination Chamber match, WWE could easily pick Cesaro or Daniel Bryan and have them eat a pin from Reigns in a competitive effort and no one would lose much sleep over it.

Plus, the latter scenarios could plant the seeds for future matches with Reigns, with the idea being that they nearly beat him at less than 100 percent and could get the job done at full strength.

Those possibilities are exciting, but going back to Owens would feel like an unnecessary rerun.