I like the idea of the Elimination Chamber. It has the threatening feel of a Hell in a Cell match, with the bit of randomized order that makes the Royal Rumble so great. It even has people losing due to getting pinned. So as a match in and of itself The Elimination Chamber is a great event. As a Pay Per View? Not so much.
Due to it’s February timing, the Elimination Chamber usually gets to be the middle child between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. It tends to be a bit difficult to really get invested in the buildup to the Chamber when we’re already starting to try and predict Mania cards. This is a recurring problem that crops up ever year (did anybody care about Kane vs. Cena last year?) But this year seems to be an especially problematic example.
As 2013 began, it was starting to look like a very real possibility that Twice in a Lifetime would be the main event of WrestleMania 29. And at the end of the Royal Rumble it seemed like all necessary steps were being taken. So like last year, we are headed full steam ahead with the Main Event of WrestleMania pretty much guaranteed. We know that Cena will be taking on the WWE champion come Mania (who we assume will be the Rock) which means that there is no way that he will appear weak in his final PPV before that match. So When the WWE Super Friends take on The Shield, they have to be victorious because there’s no way Cena will be in the Ring with the Rock if he can’t beat guys who only first appeared in November. And speaking of the WWE championship match, that seems to have a foregone conclusion as well since Rock has to keep the title in order for Twice in a Lifetime to be for the championship (after all the stakes have to be risen a little bit from last year.) That mean that something that could be a potentially thrilling match is being reduced to little more than filler to make sure that there is no way for Rock and Cena to come to blows before mania actually happens.
The thing is that in any other circumstances these matches could be potentially thrilling. CM Punk, the best wrestler working today attempting to reclaim his title from “part time star” the Rock? The “boxing with God” promo still resonates in such a way that it seems that there is a truly great matchup between these two just waiting to be had. And The Shield? This group could have the ability to voice every complaint that has been whispered in the corners of Internet message boards for the past several years. And here is there opportunity to take on the Internets most hated superstar, John Cena. With the right promo (and the one we got on Monday wasn’t that far off) we could actually see a glimmer of hope that WWE is about to make a drastic change to their main event roster. But no, we can see the outcome in the distance, which means that all we’re getting this Sunday is a necessary filler match to get rid of a rematch clause, and another match that is looking depressingly similar to the final days of The Nexus.
Now because nothing official has been announced, this could all change come Sunday when the Elimination Chamber. Maybe Twice in a Lifetime isn’t in the cards for Mania 29. Maybe Punk will get back his title at Elimination Chamber and go on to challenge The Undertaker in a Streak vs. Title match. Maybe Cena will finally make that long fabled heel turn in the middle of his match to reveal himself as leader of The Shield, forcing new, fresh wrestlers to compete to be the new face of the company. Until it actually comes to pass on the TV, anything can happen. But that’s not really the point. Whether or not Twice in a Lifetime is guaranteed to happen, it seems extremely likely that it is coming up. Which means that we all have a pretty good idea of the outcomes for this Sunday. And in a business where “I wonder what’s going to happen” is a statement that keeps the audience invested, thinking you already know what the outcome must be might not inspire you to shell out the money to actually see it play out. And in the eyes of the WWE, that’s the worst outcome of all.
