“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” – Oscar Wilde
Nova invented the Internet. He also invented about half of Chris Jericho’s 1004 moves. But one of the most recent things that Nova has invented was the idea of the WWE developmental talents gaining a better history of the wrestling business they are trying so hard to break into.
Hello. I am Mark Allen and I am going to follow Nova’s lead here and take you on a historical journey through the annals of professional wrestling one topic at a time all while trying to keep it relevant to today’s current wrestling landscape and to you, the readers.
As a little sidenote, this first article was written shortly after the New Year but it was the column that got me hired here at the Pulse so we are going to run with it.
For our first visit into the vault, we don’t have to venture very far back. After the *cough* success *cough* of ECW’s recent December to Dismember PPV that was highlighted by what many consider to be a sub-par Elimination Chamber main event (to go along with the overall sub-par card) I thought it would be only fair to look back at the evolution of the Elimination Chamber match, a concept first introduced on television in 2002 by Eric Bischoff.
Since the inception of the structure, only five matches have taken place inside of it. So let’s take a look at back at those five matches, the combatants involved, the ramifications of the match and what led up to it
and what came out of it.
The Inception
The first of these historical matches was featured at the Survivor Series 2002 card held in New York City. Triple H entered the structure to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against former WWE Champions Shawn Michaels and Kane, first ever Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho, former 5 time WCW Champion Booker T and perennial championship contender Rob Van Dam. Triple H had recently defeated Kane and Van Dam at previous PPVs and was embroiled in a long-running feud with Michaels at the time. Booker and Jericho had been feuding in the tag ranks and were always top contenders for the belt so the participants list was easy to justify.
The match went well, especially for the first time using the gimmick. The match ultimately came down to Michaels and Trips, which was the current top program on RAW as it was. In the end, Michaels, ugly half-done brown tights and all, dropped his rival with Sweet Chin Music to win the World Heavyweight Championship, his first World Championship of any kind in over four and a half years.
The victory led to a continuation of the Michaels-HHH feud including the Three Stages of Hell match at Armageddon where Helmsley won the belt back. Jericho and Booker would continue to battle each other in the tag ranks before Jericho would move onto a program with Michaels leading into a phenomenal WrestleMania match while Booker would go on to challenge HHH for this very Championship at the same WrestleMania. Kane and Van became tag partners shortly after this match and eventually won the World Tag Championship together. The duo would eventually split after Kane lost a Title v. Mask match to Triple H.
The rise of Goldberg
The second Chamber match was featured as the main event of SummerSlam 2003 in Phoenix, AZ. Many of the same players return this time around, as Triple H is back, defending his belt again. Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho also return as perennial challengers to the Championship. New to the Chamber this time are Kevin Nash, fresh off a program with Triple H and currently feuding with Jericho, Goldberg, on a tear and awaiting an eventual collision course with HHH and finally Randy Orton, who had been tormenting Michaels. This was Orton’s welcome into the main event scene. Gone are Van Dam and Kane, then in a bitter rivalry with each other, and Booker T., who was busy with the Intercontinental Title.
This bout should have played out as the ascension of Goldberg as he looked like a world beater by eliminating Orton, Michaels and Jericho in succession. Ultimately, HHH used the sledgehammer to take out Goldberg, ruining the feel good ending that was right there waiting for them.
It did however set up the one-on-one Goldberg-HHH match for the next month at Unforgiven where Goldberg did take the belt. He would only keep it warm for Hunter until December when The Game took it back in a triple threat match that also featured Kane. Michaels and Orton also met at Unforgiven, where Orton got the win to help solidify his top heel standing. Jericho ended up winning the feud with Nash, beating him in a hair-for-hair match and “running him off.”
Rights to a vacant title
By the time the next Elimination Chamber rolled around at New Year’s Revolution in January 2005 a lot had changed. Randy Orton had since been kicked out of Triple H’s Evolution group for winning the World Championship. He subsequently lost to HHH in September before the Title was held up after a December 2004 match between Chris Benoit, Edge and Trips that ended in controversy. This Chamber match was to clear up the controversy and determine a new Champion. All the main players at the time-Orton, Benoit, Edge and Triple H-were involved, as were the Evolution enforcer Batista and perennial Chamber participant Chris Jericho. This was Batista’s introduction to the main event and World Title picture. Shawn Michaels, fresh off returning from injury, was placed in the Chamber as the special guest referee.
The match served as a coming out party for Batista, as he eliminated both Benoit and Jericho and was left in the final three with Orton and HHH, the two favorites coming into the match. Triple H ended winning his second straight Chamber match after taking Orton out, but the seeds of dissent between Batista and HHH had been sewn.
This all led to Triple H finally beating Orton one-on-one at Royal Rumble to end the little “Orton as a face” experiment. The Rumble was also where Batista really made his mark, eliminating John Cena to cement his main event spot for WrestleMania. The build-up to his WrestleMania Title match was a lesson on how to do a slow-burn face turn the right way, as opposed to the haphazard way Orton was turned reviously. As for the other three, Edge continued to grow as a Championship-obsessed heel and eventually met Jericho and Benoit again in the inaugural Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania, a match that Edge was victorious in, leading him to have an elusive World Title shot anytime he wanted it in the next year, which ultimately led us to…
Money in the Bank
The Chamber returned to New Year’s Revolution once again the following January. By this point John Cena had risen through the ranks and had been WWE Champion since WrestleMania. His main opposition for months had been Kurt Angle and this looked to be Angle’s last shot at the gold. Also featured for this Chamber are returning veterans Kane and Shawn Michaels and newcomers to the main event scene-Carlito and Chris Masters. This was a test to see if Masters and Carlito could hang in the main event scene while still being able to hide their weaknesses due to the nature of the match. By inserting Masters and Carlito into the main event it also left some other star power to fill out the rest of the card, as the undercard featured Ric Flair defending the Intercontinental Championship against Edge and The Big Show and Triple H going at it one-on-one.
The match itself had some interesting booking, as Kurt Angle, Cena’s number one challenger at this point, was eliminated first. It was then Carlito and Masters’ time to shine as the duo worked together and Carlito was able to pin both Michaels and Kane. Cena was left alone with the two new guys but was able to roll up Carlito quickly after Carlito had double-crossed Masters and took him out.
The real story came after the match however. As Cena lied there, exhausted from his victory, Edge emerged and claimed he was cashing in his Money in the Bank Title shot right there and then. It only Edge mere moments to take out the weary Champion and claim his first WWE Championship. Cena and Edge would go on to feud for the Championship for the better part of 2006, with Cena finally winning the rivalry by beating Edge for the Championship at Unforgiven in September in a TLC match. As for the rest, Carlito and Masters continued to work in the mid-card, trying to improve and find their niche. Angle was bounced to SmackDown! and then to the newly re-christened ECW before finally ending up in TNA, making him the only man to ever wrestle on all four prime time wrestling shows in one calendar year. Kane continued in his role as the upper-mid card guy that is a credible Title contender in a quick fix. Michaels continued his main event run, which led to an extended run with the McMahons and the reuniting of the original DX.
It’s Extreme!
While it looked like the Chamber had found a permanent home at New Year’s Revolution the idea was jettisoned in favor of using the Chamber to help bolster the appeal of the new ECW’s first solo brand PPV-December to Dismember. Only this Chamber would be “EXTREME” as Paul Heyman said. Extreme in the sense that four weapons would be placed in the Chamber pods along with the entrants. Rather than weapons hanging from the cage, a stack of tables or rolls of barbed wire lying around the Chamber was outfitted with one table, a barbed wire ball bat, a crowbar and a steel chair. It was hardly the extreme elements that fans were looking for. On paper the match looked to be solid. This was to be Rob Van Dam’s culmination of his five month chase to get his ECW Championship back from the Champion Big Show. Also included in this match would be Show’s partner in crime Test, ECW Original Sabu (playing the Chris Jericho-has-no-chance-of-winning-but-is-credible-enough-to-be-belivable role) and ECW’s hot new prospect CM Punk. The sixth spot Heyman opened up to anyone from the three brands to accept, but was a ruse to put Hardcore Holly in the spot until Bobby Lashley from SmackDown! ended ruining their
plan by laying out Holly and taking his spot.
Going into the match, logic dictated that Show would be dropping the belt, but there wasn’t a clear consensus on to whom. Van Dam seemed to be the most obvious choice, but fears of him dropping the ball like he did with his past Title reign hindered his chances. Bobby Lashley seemed to management’s choice for Champion while the smarks and fanboys were hoping for a Punk win, despite his relative unproven status.
Ultimately the booking for the match was quite odd and left most unhappy with the results. Sabu was taken out before the match in a bullshit injury angle so Holly could take his spot. Van Dam and Punk, by far the best workers in the match and the most over, were the first two eliminated. Test then took out running buddy Holly, leaving dead space while he waited for Lashley to enter. Lashley plowed through Test and then resulted in more dead space while he waited for Big Show. Lashley quickly took out Show as well and become the new leader of the “Tribe of Extreme.”
The whole PPV was panned by most fans as one of the worst PPVs ever, with the criminally short Chamber match and under developed undercard. As it stands right now, Lashley is Vince’s new pet project, and has the rocket strapped to his ass that will send to the main event stratosphere, not unlike what happened to Cena a couple years ago, whether the fans want it or not. The ECW Championship looks to be just a trophy for Lashley to hold onto and build credibility until the ECW name dies again. As for the rest of the crew in this match, Big Show is apparently enjoying his retirement with no immediate plans for a return. Test hit a car and the juice and found himself out of a job again. Punk and Holly continue to trade meaningless victories, Van Dam is on constant contract watch and Sabu could be seeing the door shortly after his big WrestleMania payday.
The Perspective
The Elimination Chamber has been of the most successful gimmicks introduced in the WWE since the days of the brand split. It has been used sparingly in order to keep it fresh and maintain its importance in the eyes of the fans. The unique concept of the match itself, something Eric Bischoff noted was a combination of the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and WarGames, is somewhat original yet easy to follow and understand, which is something that isn’t often seen anymore. It has been a way to sow up old rivalries, plant the seeds for new ones and keep things fresh without running the same singles matches over and over. Based on the successes of past Chamber matches and pure curiosity that goes along with the match, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more Chambers to come in the future, only hopefully for all of our sake the next one features a lot less Test.
For this week, the vault is closed…
