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Home   /   Top Turnbuckle – Elimination Chamber 2020 Review
Posted on by Charlie Scott

By Charlie Scott (@_CharlieScott)

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Elimination Chamber has become a constant fixture on the road to Wrestlemania every year for well over a decade. With less than a month to go until the show of shows, Elimination Chamber always proves to be a bump in the road for champions across WWE. This year’s event saw a Smackdown Tag Team title Chamber match and a Raw Women’s Number One Contender match. The final PPV before Wrestlemania doesn’t always impress fans, but this years show exceeded everyones expectations in a big way.

The show begun with two of the most technical wrestlers in the company, Daniel Bryan and Drew Gulak, in a match that was a lesson in mat wrestling. Gulak has claimed for weeks prior that he knew the key to Bryan’s weaknesses and that he would beat the former World Champion. 

Gulak and Bryan put on a technical masterclass, with Gulak finding a counter to everything the leader of the Yes Movement could execute. For the first time in history Bryan had to roll out the ring several times to compose himself and re-think his strategy. Gulak hit several suplexes on Bryan that caused him to fall hard on his neck and fans across the world held their breath hoping that the five-time World Champion hadn’t re-injured his neck. 

The match showed just how good a wrestler the former Cruiserweight Champion Gulak truly is. After a nearly 15-minute battle Bryan locked in the Yes Lock and rather than submitting the referee called the match when Gulak passed out in the middle of the ring, making Gulak look strong even in defeat. 

Next up was United States Champion Andrade defending his title against Latino rival Humberto Carrillo. The two have been in a back and forth rivalry for a while now and after serving a month suspension for violating the wellness policy, Andrade was back to defend his title. 

The two men showed off their Latino style to perfection in this match up, with Carrillo using his high-flying ability to his advantage. With the highlight being when he hit a top rope hurricanrana, but the defending champion managed to kick out. After a succession of roll-up counters Andrade managed to grab the tights and keep Carrillo’s shoulders down for the three count and retain his United States championship.  

Then it was time for the first of the two Elimination Chamber matches, with Miz and John Morrison defending their Smackdown Titles against New Day, Heavy Machinery, Lucha House Party, The Uso’s and Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. After winning a gauntlet match on Smackdown last week the team of Ziggler and Roode earned the right to be the last to leave the chamber pods. 

The match started with two of the most successful teams in history, The Uso’s and New Day renewed their long rivalry and showed just why they are tag team technicians. The first out their pods were the high-flying team of Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik and they came out the blocks flying. Both men showed that their size doesn’t matter, using the chamber to their advantage, jumping off the pods and walls to try eliminate their opponents. 

The high spot of the match came when Dorado scaled the wall and climbed above the centre of the ring, hanging above the nine men now in the ring he flipped himself off the roof and took out all the men below him in one of the true great chamber spots in history. 

But the true historic chamber spot came when Otis of Heavy Machinery charged at Ziggler who jumped out the way to see Otis go smashing through the bullet-proof glass onto the outside of the ring. With the Lucha House Party already being eliminated earlier in the match the field started to thin out. Despite a resurgence from Tucker which saw him leap off a pod onto the entire pack, Heavy Machinery were swiftly eliminated. 

The New Day were eliminated by the tag champions after Kofi went for a flying crossbody on the Uso’s but they rolled out the ring giving the A-Listers the chance to pin the former WWE Champion. The tag team champions would score the final pinfall of the match to retain their tag titles after both men would roll up one of the Uso’s and use the ropes to gain leverage to head into Wrestlemania still champions. 

Up next was a No Holds Barred match between AJ Styles and Aleister Black, with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in Styles’ corner. The two men had a brutal encounter inside the Wells Fargo Center, using weapons such as steel chairs, kendo sticks and tables to their advantage. 

Styles worked the leg of Black for most of the match in order to prevent him from hitting the Black Mass, but the master of kicks would still manage to strike Styles with an array of blows throughout the match. Just as it looked like Black was about to set the Phenomenal One up for a Black Mass the OC stormed the ring and beat the former NXT Champion down. 

But the crowd would all leap to their feet when the world-famous GONG would erupt around the arena and the lights went off. The lights came back up and stood in the ring with his hands round Gallows and Andersons throats was The Undertaker, who threw the OC away and caught Styles and choke slammed the Phenomenal One for the second time in two weeks. 

With Styles down the lights again went down and this time when they came back up The Dead Man was nowhere to be seen and, after a Black Mass, Black pinned the former WWE Champion. 

The two final title matches on the card saw Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphey try to reclaim their Raw Tag Team titles against the Street Profits, and Braun Strowman defend his Intercontinental Title against Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro and Sami Zayn. 

Rollins and Murphy were flanked by AOP at ring side in an attempt to gain the numbers advantage over Dawkins and Ford. But the Viking Raiders stormed down to ringside to chase the two big men away and even up the odds for the former NXT Tag Team champions. 

In a rematch between the two teams from last week’s Raw and Super ShowDown Live from the week prior, the two teams showed what great chemistry they have together. Rollins and Murphy seemed to have the upper hand until Kevin Owens made his way through the crowd and down to ringside. Proving to be a real distraction for Rollins the tide quickly turned as Dawkins and Ford turned things round to retain their titles. 

Over to the IC title match now and the match stipulation stated that whoever out of Nakamura, Cesaro or Zayn pins Strowman will become the new champion, with the odds stacked against The Monster Among Men. Throughout the entire match Zayn did everything he could to avoid Strowman and let his teammates do all the work. 

But after managing to turn the tide on the champion the pair of Cesaro and Nakamura lifted up Strowman so that Zayn could hit the Helluva Kick and pin the champion to win his first ever main roster title since his debut four years ago. 

Now came time for the main event of the show, the Raw Women’s Title Number One Contender Elimination Chamber match. Natalya and Ruby Riott started the match in the ring and had a decent opening five minutes. They were then joined by the former member of the Riott Squad, Sarah Logan, who delivered a flying crossbody off the top of the pod to the two women below. 

Then entered The Queen of Spades Shayna Baszler, who went on the most dominant display in chamber history. In less than two minutes she managed to eliminate all three women with the Rear Naked Choke. She then stood in the ring waiting for her next opponent, and it would be Liv Morgan. 

Baszler would dispatch of Morgan in quick fashion again, with Morgan barely getting any offence in on the former NXT Women’s Champion. Baszler would then stand in the centre of the ring and wait for Asuka to enter.

The two had a great back and forth with at time Asuka looking like she might beat the woman that Becky Lynch said last week on Raw was the woman she wanted to face at Wrestlemania. But Baszler would prove to be too much for Asuka and would submit the Japanese star in the middle of the ring to become the first competitor in history to eliminate every member inside the Elimination Chamber. 

This PPV proved to be one of the best B show PPV’s that WWE has put on in a long time, whilst the main event fell a bit flat with all the waiting around that Baszler had to do, the rest of the show excelled and the wrestlers all showed just what they are capable of inside the ring. 

Sub-edited by Sam Carroll

For more of Charlie Scott’s Top Turnbuckle click here.

For more of the latest Overtime sport coverage click here.

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