WWE Elimination Chamber

[Brysynner]

I think Cena gets his win back at MITB but I think he will get his win back the way he beat Brock at Night of Champions. I think the perfect way for Cena to "win" is to hit multiple AA's but have Finn Balor break up the pin because HE wants to be the one to get the first pinfall victory over Kevin Owens (Also I'd have Owens kick out right after Balor hits Cena to lead one to believe that he might've kicked out in time)

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

I can't believe there are actually people that think that Sheamus' pod malfunction was legit.  (not here but other places) Maybe this is an indictment of the commentary crew (right, JR) because they never mentioned (I don't think) that Sheamus purposely locked himself in so that he could jump out when everybody else was beaten down.

[Burgundy LaRue]

The Sheamus thing was weird to me at first, because of how Mark Henry's pod had been broken.  I thought--briefly--that maybe the chamber was malfunctioning.  But that doubt last for about 30 seconds as it became obvious that Sheamus was biding his time.  I don't think commentary ever mentioned it, either.

[Craig H]

Kevin Owens is going to be a huge babyface in WWE by this time next year. You watch.

 

For sure. That's what I think as well and it's why the WWE has a license to print money with Owens. I hate to keep bringing up Austin, but not since Austin have they had a babyface who will just fight and fuck up dudes who look at him the wrong way and do it successfully time in and time out. By year's end, the FIGHT OWENS FIGHT chants will drown out everything else. There is still a large contingent of bloodthirsty, violence loving fans. You take that and combine it with someone who fights for his son and his family to give them a better a future, and put that person against a heel figure who wants to make sure he can't do that, then you're golden. Owens is the right guy in the right place at the right time to lead this company and to give fans something to identify with beyond something that Daniel Bryan represented.

 

By the way, before watching the show this morning, I pre-order the new Fight Owens Fight shirt last night. It's fucking awesome. I will wear it proudly.

 

And I say all of this as someone who never watched a Kevin Steen match before. He's a special guy. It's rare to see someone like him.

[Technico Support]

Kevin Owens is going to be a huge babyface in WWE by this time next year. You watch.

 

I said that in the NXT thread...he's got this sense of unpredictability and danger about him that nobody else has.  It definitely reminds me of Austin, as well, when he had just become "Stone Cold" and was still a heel.  If they let Owens just do his thing, he will be a HUGE face.

 

It's a big "if," I know.

[Black Angel]

Most annoying part of the night for me: Explaining a Dusty finish to someone...only to get to a argument with said person about it not being one when they didn't even know what a Dusty finish was TEN MINUTES BEFORE. God damn I need new friends.

[Josh Mann]

Kevin Owens is going to be a huge babyface in WWE by this time next year. You watch.

I said that in the NXT thread...he's got this sense of unpredictability and danger about him that nobody else has. It definitely reminds me of Austin, as well, when he had just become "Stone Cold" and was still a heel. If they let Owens just do his thing, he will be a HUGE face.

It's a big "if," I know.

Historically speaking, heels portrayed as badasses who win clean generally don't stay heels very long because the crowd doesn't let it happen.

Funny part is I didn't turn on the PPV live until partway through Rollins-Ambrose (which i liked the layout of the match more than the match itself, if that makes sense) but a certain cuddly DVDVR board mod texted me with "HOLY SHIT" right after Owens won and I knew exactly what happened. Watching it later, it was an incredible match even knowing the outcome.

The very frustrating lesson learned: WWE can still make a new star in a single night if they choose to do so.

[Cristobal]

Most annoying part of the night for me: Explaining a Dusty finish to someone...only to get to a argument with said person about it not being one when they didn't even know what a Dusty finish was TEN MINUTES BEFORE. God damn I need new friends.

Sounds like you needed to explain it better.

[Josh Mann]

So it was basically a test balloon for Ambrose down the road. I can live with that.

There are two kinds of Dusty Finishes. The kind where the face does something stupid to warrant a delayed DQ and the kind where the heel finds a way to cause a DQ and sneak out. I have a less of a problem with B than A, especially given Rollins' character, which is a weasel who will do anything to save his precious title.

The problem wasn't that the finish existed back in the day, the problem was that it was done to death.

[The Natural]

After the Kevin Owens vs. John Cena result, it got me thinking about Cena's clean losses particularly singles matches:

 

vs. Shawn Michaels. RAW 2007.

vs. Triple H. Night of Champions 2008.

vs. Batista. SummerSlam 2008.

vs. The Rock. WrestleMania XXVIII.

vs. Daniel Bryan. SummerSlam 2013.

vs. Brock Lesnar. SummerSlam 2014.

vs. Kevin Owens. Elimination Chamber 2015.

 

There's two impromtu matches Cena lost after just wrestling, vs. Edge at New Year's Revolution 2006 with the Money in the Bank cash-in and Batista at Elimination Chamber 2010.

 

CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011 has Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis asking the timekeeper to ring the bell while Punk was in the STF. Cena stopped Johnny doing this and walked into the match winning G2S.

[Hagan]

Kevin Steen: Fighting Family Man is a great character. I mean, the best old-school angle would be after running roughshod for a year, some other heel calls his kid a bastard or something...

 

On another note, I was starting to think Cena was losing a step a few months back but this US run, and having a different variety of opponents, has really helped.

 

This sounds silly at face value but are they making a mistake not just having Cena be doing this with the World belt? Why can't they the World Champion do an Open Invitational every week and have great matches on TV?

 

I get the idea is that you need to condition people to accept new babyfaces in main event slot (which, as poor of a job as they've done booking-wise, they are doing). Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns have gotten a large portion of the main events for the past year. But...this Cena stuff is working so well...it seems that's where the juice is. 

[Cristobal]

The thing about it is, you can see an up-and-comer taking this shot and coming away with a win, because sure, they might stick the US title on Neville or Sami Zayn. If he was doing this with the world belt, we'd know that there's no real chance of Cena dropping the strap except to a select few people.

[hammerva]

Since it seems they are doing an angle for Summerslam, should I be aware of what the show "Arrow" is?   I mean on the cultural scale of relevance is at the same level of "Haven" or any other USA Network/SciFi show

[Josh Mann]

Since it seems they are doing an angle for Summerslam, should I be aware of what the show "Arrow" is? I mean on the cultural scale of relevance is at the same level of "Haven" or any other USA Network/SciFi show

Arrow has a larger fanbase than Haven, because DC. To say it's a level or two below Buffy-level relevance (and has a chance to get closer before its run ends) is not an overstatement.

[Dewar]

Re: Sheamus and the pod not opening, clearly the announcers were not tipped off about it. It looked like a legit malfunction until Sheamus went and pulled his cross out of there when everyone else was down. In hindsight, the camera should have caught him jamming the cross in there on purpose.

[APO]

After the Kevin Owens vs. John Cena result, it got me thinking about Cena's clean losses particularly singles matches:

vs. Shawn Michaels. RAW 2007.

vs. Triple H. Night of Champions 2008.

vs. Batista. SummerSlam 2008.

vs. The Rock. WrestleMania XXVIII.

vs. Daniel Bryan. SummerSlam 2013.

vs. Brock Lesnar. SummerSlam 2014.

vs. Kevin Owens. Elimination Chamber 2015.

There's two impromtu matches Cena lost after just wrestling, vs. Edge at New Year's Revolution 2006 with the Money in the Bank cash-in and Batista at Elimination Chamber 2010.

CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011 has Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis asking the timekeeper to ring the bell while Punk was in the STF. Cena stopped Johnny doing this and walked into the match winning G2S.

He also lost to Triple H clean on the RAW before the Orton Iron Man match PPV. Also, I remember him dropping a couple of clean losses to Big Show in the first couple of months in '09. Didn't Tensai beat him clean or was that just Punk? He did get pinned clean by Ryback in the regular match of the 2 out of 3 falls match they had, IIRC.

[Go2Sleep]

Re: Sheamus and the pod not opening, clearly the announcers were not tipped off about it. It looked like a legit malfunction until Sheamus went and pulled his cross out of there when everyone else was down. In hindsight, the camera should have caught him jamming the cross in there on purpose.

 

Wouldn't this spot have made a lot more sense if he was scheduled to enter #3, then did the reveal after everyone else came out?

 

I also figured Henry's thing was planned as a way to cut 5 minutes out of the match, but the whole thing was weird and not very good.

[(BP)]

They should be low key with the fighting family man thing with Owens. If Vince gets his hands on that Owens's wife will be getting stalked or his son will be getting happy birthday sung to him in no time.

[Brian Fowler]

Package Blue Thunder Driver?

Blue Thunder Package Bomb?

[THEmanWITHnoNAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ytNnIlsaYk

[Just Dave]

 

Re: Sheamus and the pod not opening, clearly the announcers were not tipped off about it. It looked like a legit malfunction until Sheamus went and pulled his cross out of there when everyone else was down. In hindsight, the camera should have caught him jamming the cross in there on purpose.

 

Wouldn't this spot have made a lot more sense if he was scheduled to enter #3, then did the reveal after everyone else came out?

 

I also figured Henry's thing was planned as a way to cut 5 minutes out of the match, but the whole thing was weird and not very good.

 

See, I figured the Henry thing was an accident, and the Sheamus thing was a way to extend the match so that Ambrose/Rollins didn't have to fill more. Later on, Chioda? was yelling at mark Henry "stay there, Mark" during a nearfall because he wasn't supposed to be in the match yet...

[Raziel]

The thing I really noticed about the show is that the ring mics were too loud.  You could hear everyone calling spots all night.  Maffew is going to put the whole thing on Botchamania.

[Stay Gold]

My cousin, who's just a casual WWE and Puerto Rican wrestling fan, texted me last night with "Yo do you like Kevin Owens?" and just raved about his performance saying he "loved how he beats Cena down every time" and that he's the best wrestler he's seen in a while. Pretty cool. I hadn't seen the match at that point and didn't really read his text as a spoiler, so I was still surprised/amazed that he won. 

[Pete]

Cindy was losing her shit for Ryback last night because he looks exactly like her bridesmaid's boyfriend. You be the judge!

 

[The Unholy Dragon]

So hey wow that was a great PPV. Tag EC was a fun little spotfest, Divas title was a perfectly solid affair, then Cena/Owens was an unbelievable main event.

It's a little weird it was only 90 minutes but hey. Good stuff.

In all seriousness, I loved the first half of the show. Neville/Bo wasn't awful but outside the clever Schoolboy-to-outside spot was just kinda there. IC Title EC was just a mess, but given Henry is past his prime, the only great workers in there were Sheamus and Dolph and Sheamus is very much the type whose quality is measured by his opponents. Throw in the botches and the fact that it was 25 minutes and of course it was a mess. Rollins/Ambrose was hot and Ambrose did his level best to carry Rollins to something great. Finish killed a lot of the heat though and I'm not sure why they didn't just give Ambrose a two week reign given MitB is RIGHT THERE. But hey, Roman got a huge pop so his rehab is going well. He should be over again when they have him win MitB, beat Rollins at Summerslam, then beat Brock at Night of Champions. 

 

Seriously though, show was worth it for Cena/Owens alone. I'll be on a plane to Paris for my honeymoon when MitB airs and it's genuinely a little upsetting I won't be able to watch the rematch live. That's how good it was.

Also, Package Tiger Fusion. Kevin Owens out-innovating Marufuji here.