WWE’s Elimination Chamber 2019 emanated from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. We’re crowning Women’s Tag Team Champions for the first time. LFG.
Kick-off show
Cruiserweight Championship: Buddy Murphy def. Akira Tozawa – Two bona fide studs here getting the action started for the night. I love Murphy’s run as champ and am happy to see Tozawa hangin’ around the title race. Pretty unusual move to cut away from the middle of the match to go to a Kofi Kingston interview backstage. That was weird, but here we are.
Pretty fun little bout with Tozawa delivering kick after kick. Nice sequence that ends with Tozawa hitting the Shining Wizard only for Murphy to kick out. Counter after counter, and this is a nice little war of attrition. Tozawa gets his stalling German suplex, but Murphy kicks out – this guys had the crowd chanting, “this is awesome.” Well-deserved. Murphy with another successful defense. This one was a damn good one. Rating: 7/10.
Elimination Chamber 2019 Main Show
Women’s Tag Team Championship Elimination Chamber: Sasha Banks and Bayley win – Sasha Banks and Bayley start things off against Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. The Riott Squad is out next, followed by The IIconics, Carmella and Naomi, and then Nia Jax and Tamina. I was afraid this was going to be a bit of a mess, but it really wasn’t.
Carmella and Naomi were the first team eliminated. Then Nia Jax and Tamina hit double Samoan Drops on The Iiconics and they’re out. Rose and Deville team up on Jax, but she kicks out, throwing both of ’em off of her at the same time. Riott Squad hits tandem cross body splashes off the pod. This is some wild shit, y’all.
Nia hits a Samoan Drop from the second rope on Morgan, and Tamina jumps off the top rope onto both her and Logan. The Riott Squad is eliminated.
Nia runs right through one of the pods, and then everyone teams up on Tamina….kickin’ the shit out of her and then eliminating her. Deville eats a Bayley to Belly but Rose breaks up the near fall – the crowd is HOT at this point.
We get some more action with the ladies on top of one of the pods. Rose hits her finisher, but Banks kicks out! Miscommunication leads Deville to accidentally spear and knock out Rose, Banks hits the Bank Statement on Deville, who taps out and BOOM – ball game. That was a whole lot better than I thought it was going to be. We’re off to a great start. Rating: 7/10
SmackDown Tag Team Championship: The Usos def. Shane McMahon and The Miz – Here we go – the BEST tag team in the world defending the straps! The Miz is out first to announce that he and Maryse are having another baby. Damn! Didn’t they just have one? They poppin’ ’em out like crazy.
Can’t say I’m into this match – kinda hopin’ The Usos just win and we get to the Miz-Shane conflict. McMahon goes for Coast to Coast but Jey Uso hits him with a superkick and follows it up with a splash. Miz breaks up the pin attempt, and it seems like things are picking up.
Shane hits his big elbow from the turnbuckle through the announce table. Miz hits the Skull Crushing Finale and goes for the pin, but whichever Uso rolls him over in a backslide and gets the surprise win. Fun match. Rating: 6/10.
Intercontinental Championship: text – Man, adding Lio Rush to Lashley’s gimmick has made all the difference. I’m actually digging this run as IC Champ…even if Lashley’s music sounds like it’s something straight out of late 90s WCW Power Plant. Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I’m into this feud – two bona fide studs bringing up the prestige of the Intercontinental Championship.
Lashley and Balor having some good back and forth. Rush gets in the ring, hits a couple of punches and as soon as Balor comes back, Rush gets out of there. Classic shit-eating heel stuff. They keep teasing a rift between Lashley and Rush, but man – I’m hoping they don’t split up this act just yet.
Balor gets the win after delivering a splash over the top rope, but throwing Rush back into the ring instead of Lashley. Coup de grace, and Balor’s your new IC Champ! Surprised by that, but more surprised that Lashley turned on Rush after the match. Lashley’s a dude they just haven’t gotten right since his return to WWE. Still, this was a quality bout. Rating: 6/10.
Raw Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey def. Ruby Riott – Welp. That didn’t take long. Rousey hits the arm bar and Riott taps. After wards, Becky Lynch comes out on crutches and beats the shit out of Charlotte Flair, who came out to watch the match. After Flair is good and incapacitated, Lynch turns her attention to Rousey and beats the shit out of her. Lynch going Stone Cold saved this segment from the quick match. Rating: 5.5/10.
No Disqualification Match: Baron Corbin def. Braun Strowman – Didn’t really have high hopes for this one, but it brought about some fun shenanigans. Drew McIntyre and Lashley hit the ring to gang up on Strowman. Really cool spot where they powerbomb Strowman through two tables and Corbin picks up the win. Fun stuff. Rating: 5.5/10.
WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match – text wins. Here we go! Main event time!
We start with Daniel Bryan and Samoa Joe, with Bryan playing the evasion game. Joe finally catches him and quickly gets him into a submission. Good, good stuff between these two to get us going.
Kofi’s in at #3 and hits a flurry of offense on both guys. Bryan tries to hide from everyone on top of one of the pods, which leads to a spot where Kofi jumps up there, they scale the chamber, Bryan falls. Kofi leaps backwards, doing his trust fall move on Joe and Bryan. Awesome spot that has the crowd chanting Kofi’s name. Styles is out at #4, and stands tall against all three opponents.
Styles hits the Phenomenal Forearm on Samoa Joe and gets the pin – time for Joe to hit the showers. Jeff Hardy is out at #5 and immediately goes after Styles.
Hardy hits a sick Swanton Bomb to Styles, who is draped across the top rope at the turnbuckle. He’s up and immediately hits a flying knee from Bryan. Bryan gets the 1-2-3 and Hardy’s out.
Time for Orton to get in on the action. Styles goes for a Phenomenal Forearm on Kofi, but Orton catches him with the RKO and Styles is eliminated. We’re down to Orton, Bryan, and Kofi. Wild stuff.
Kofi hits the Trouble In Paradise on Orton and he’s eliminated. We’re down to Kofi and Bryan – holy shit. Kofi hooks the SOS only to get a near fall. The energy in that crowd is electric. Bryan hits a series of dropkicks in the corner and Kofi counters with a double stomp. Another nearfall and we’re all on the edge of our seats.
Bryan with a flying knee and Kofi kicks out AGAIN. This is damn near perfect, y’all. Both men end up on top of one of the pods, Kofi kicks Bryan off and goes for a frog splash, but misses. Another flying knee and that’s all she wrote, boys and girls. Absolutely amazing match – one of the all time great chamber matches. Rating: 9/10.
After the match, Big E and Xavier Woods head down to the ring and the crowd gives Kofi a standing ovation. Well-deserved….holy shit that was a match and a performance for the ages.
Overall: 7/10. Not a bad match on the card. A really fun, interesting, and well-paced show. Just the type of stuff they need to make the Road to WrestleMania HOT!
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
Check out the SoBros Shop. Subscribe to our Patreon. Give us money for no reason. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @SoBrosNetwork. Listen on SoundCloud. Watch on YouTube.
