100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 79 - Braun Strowman vs. Elias vs. Finn Balor vs. John Cena vs. The Miz vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
Elimination Chamber Match - Elimination Chamber 2018
Start by looking at the list of wrestlers within this match.
Now, allow yourself to consider for a second that the Elimination Chamber is perhaps the most reliable stipulation for match quality in WWE history.
How does it come to this?
How does a match end up on this list unless there’s something truly catastrophic happen, like a chamber pod opening prematurely and everyone involved forgot how to wrestle (oh wait, that’s a different match).
I want to preface this review by saying that this match is bad. By the very nature of the match being on the list that should go without saying. But in a way this is different to the previous 21 matches listed thus far. Consider this the first of a 2 parter to a match that comes up far later in the process because you cannot truly contextualise the sheer absurdity of part 2 without first talking about part 1 here. Looking back, it is immediately apparent that this entire match was designed for the sole purpose of truly putting Roman Reigns over, and setting him up for his 4th consecutive crowning moment at Wrestlemania. Any positive booking for Braun and Rollins was for the sole purpose of putting him over. Adding a 7th person to make this the “biggest Elimination Chamber ever” is ultimately there so at the end of the show the commentators can proudly declare that Roman won the biggest, toughest Elimination Chamber of all time and he’s the very best like no-one ever was.
With this being the “biggest Elimination Chamber match ever” due to a 7th man, they start it off as a triple threat match. Miz, Rollins and Balor start as a preview of their Wrestlemania match. While that produced a superb contest, this was all pretty tame and unimaginative stuff. Disappointing considering they had an opportunity to make this opening sequence stand out. Speaking of Rollins, I would be remiss if I did not reference the fact that he had a match on Raw 6 nights earlier where he wrestled for over an hour in a gauntlet match and even managed to defeat Roman and Cena in the same night - which honestly he should talk about more as a kayfabe achievement. This gauntlet match really kickstarted a year which would propel Rollins back up the card, and also set the blueprint for Kofi Kingston’s push the following year. What effect does it have on this match? Nothing - except to make Roman’s eventual win look more impressive for defeating him.
The Las Vegas crowd is silent for the majority of the match. They try numerous times to showcase matches with a tonne of history, especially with Rollins interacting with Balor, Cena and Roman. But there’s just nothing there. While it may just have been a bad crowd, I think that the biggest fault is the predictability. Pretty much from the moment Roman pinned the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 33, the Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns match was pencilled in for Wrestlemania 34. The two men that defeated the Undertaker at Wrestlemania, and the two men presented as head and shoulders above the entire roster for the whole year. This result was never for one solitary second in doubt, and I think that’s reflected in the reaction.
This isn’t just a badly booked match but it's poorly worked too. People fresh into the chamber would sell like they’d been in at the start. This is never more excruciating than a spot where Cena, Balor, Rollins and Reigns are all conveniently on their knees with Miz standing over them. And Miz takes an absolute eternity to decide who to kick, while the other four just kneel there doing fuck all in what can only be described as one of the most painfully embarrassing sequences in Elimination Chamber history.
(this is not even half of the spot)
Later on, Miz takes a fall off the cell, conveniently onto four other guys waiting to catch the guy in the sort of spot which I hate with a passion. Despite the quality of wrestlers within the match, there’s nothing creative or interesting about this match - it’s a long match with an obvious winner in front of a largely uninterested crowd. From the start of the video package to the end, this is an hour and 10 minutes of television time dedicated to this one, predictable, boring match. Instead of subjecting yourself to this match, read this review and put on the gauntlet match from Raw the week before, you’ll have a much better time.
John Cena is shoehorned into this match with the idea being that this is his path to Wrestlemania. Which I enjoy as a concept if we weren’t talking about John fucking Cena. Everyone gets booked on Wrestlemania, and while I enjoyed what they did with Cena at Wrestlemania 34, it still doesn’t make sense on pretty much any level. To me it’s like they tried to emulate what made Shawn Michaels’ storyline going into Wrestlemania 26 so interesting, but the key difference is that they never pretended that Michaels wouldn’t be on Wrestlemania, he just didn’t have a clear path to the Undertaker.
(seriously, this still isn’t the full clip)
The solitary highlight is when Braun comes in and wrecks absolutely everybody’s shit. This is a desperate injection of energy and enthusiasm and the crowd are right along with it for the first time tonight. The fans are salivating at the thought of Braun getting in and destroying everyone, and they deliver it. At this point, this match picks up significantly. Braun is killing everyone and the match is - seemingly - purpose built to make Braun look unstoppable. Could it be that the predictable winner is not so predictable anymore? Double teams don’t work against him, finishers are getting 1 counts, and even a four person Shield powerbomb does nothing. It’s only after everyone has hit all of their finishers that Braun is down for any meaningful amount of time. Elias comes in last after winning the aforementioned gauntlet match and hides in his pod. He picks his spot, but it isn’t long until Braun gets his hands on him and makes quick work of Elias.
Finally we’re left with Braun, Rollins and Roman left. This leads to a brief Shield reunion. Even this teased Shield reunion with Roman and Rollins feels like a tacked on moment as if to remind the crowd of a bygone era where Roman was actually interesting as a character. Again, even the least cynical wrestling fan should see through this charade of trying to make Roman look good.
Braun is the destructive force who is running through everybody, and once he eliminates Rollins he becomes the only wrestler in WWE history to eliminate 5 men in an Elimination Chamber match. Unfortunately for him, he’s the Night King and Roman Reigns is Arya Stark, and it doesn’t matter what happened beforehand or how unstoppable they were shown to be. For the second time in four months (see my review of Survivor Series 2017's main event), Braun has an entire match designed around making him as dominant and unstoppable as possible, only to cut his legs out at the crucial moment. It would take another 2 years, the pandemic, and fears for Roman Reigns' health before Braun would get the big win of his career, albeit in depressing circumstances.
Up Next - never let me be accused of bias. My favourite wrestler of all time, in his prime, at Wrestlemania.
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