Sunday, March 22, 2015

March to Mania Year 3: WWE Elimination Chamber 2011

March to Mania Year 3: WWE Elimination Chamber 2011






Alberto Del Rio def. Kofi Kingston(10:27)
Thoughts: Is it me, or is February never good for Kofi? Every Elimination Chamber, the question is who he’s going to job out to, assuming he even makes it to the match. *Cough Edge! Cough* Facing the guy heading to a World Heavyweight Title match at WrestleMania, you know that there was no chance of him coming out with a win. To wwe’s credit, I think they booked this one really well. Kofi definitely looked like a threat to Del Rio and this is one of those times where the face gets elevated by virtue of looking strong in a loss. Del Rio looked good as usual, and Kofi played the plucky babyface role to perfection, so I can't hate this little gem.
Rating: ***1/2

Elimination Chamber Match:
World Heavyweight Championship
Edge(c) def. Rey Mysterio, Kane, Drew McIntyre, The Big Show and Wade Barrett(31:32)
Thoughts: This was a very fun Elimination Chamber. I admit, I wasn’t very enthused about the reveal of Big Show as the mystery sixth man, but he worked just fine within the confines of the match and everyone involved did some very good work. Of course Rey was a workhorse in this match and provided a lot of great moments and I loved the way he worked with Edge in the match. But for me, the breakout star was Drew, who looked incredibly strong here and again, WHY DID YOU DROP THE BALL ON HIM WWE?!. Anyway, it was nice to see Kane have a strong showing and while this wasn’t the best Chamber match we’ve seen, it was certainly a lot of fun and well-put together. Leaving it down to Edge and Rey left some suspense too, because either of them could have faced Del Rio. Smartly laid-out for a great kick-ass match! Oh and Christian’s appearance at the end was a great mark-out moment.
Rating: ****1/4

WWE Tag Team Championship
Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater def. Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov(c)(5:03)
Thoughts: One of the reasons why the Tag Team division was god-awful during this time was because they were treated as afterthoughts and this match was no exception since it was only announced a few days prior to the show on WWE.com. The match itself was certainly nothing special, but it did serve to move the belts from Santino & Kozlov to Gabriel & Slater. I’ll admit that Santino & Kozlov actually had started to grow on me, but I was never comfortable with the Tag Titles being held by a mismatched joke tag team (even if the tag titles themselves were kinda of a joke at the time.) With their win here, I was thinking that this would build to a New Nexus/Corre match at Mania, whether it be Slater/Gabriel vs Otunga/McGillicutty for the Tag Titles or a 6-man tag with Slater, Gabriel and Ezekiel Jackson vs. Otunga, McGillicutty, & Mason Ryan. Neither of which didn't happen. Why? I don't have a fucking clue. Way to drop another ball, WWE.
Rating: *1/2

WWE Championship
The Miz(c) def. Jerry Lawler(12:09)
Thoughts: We all knew that Jerry Lawler wasn’t going to win. We knew it. WWE couldn’t afford to undercut their youth movement by having Jerry Lawler carry the WWE Championship into WrestleMania. We knew it. But damn, there were a few moments when all good sense went right out the window and I truly did believe that Lawler was about to win the big one. Of course, I also truly believed that Tom Watson was going to win the 2009 Open Championship. Like I said earlier, I may be a bit delusional. Having the Miz win the match clean was the right decision and letting him go toe-to-toe with Jerry Lawler on PPV will do nothing but make him a better professional wrestler. Overall, a solid match, but nothing too exciting. It was really here to serve as a placeholder for Miz and to set up a match between two announcers for WrestleMania.
Rating: **3/4

Main Event: Elimination Chamber Match
John Cena def. CM Punk, John Morrison, King Sheamus, Randy Orton and R-Truth(33:12)
Thoughts: Like the other Chamber match, this was a hell of a lot of fun. Sure, there were weird moments. Was the Chamber error a legit one or a work? Personally, I think it was a work. Either way, I thought it was hilarious and worked to Punk’s favor while building the Orton/Punk heat nicely. Morrison came out of this an absolute star once again and I have to ask: Why wasn't this man given a rocket strapped to his ass that shot him to the moon? The whole thing worked very well; I have to say I almost believe Morrison might win at points, but of course it was Cena. Cena made the most sense to face Miz after Rock referred to them both. Anyway, I think this match was the better one by just a hair, due to Morrison Spider-Man antics, but both were great.
Rating: ****1/2

 Final Rating:
 3.30 out of 5

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