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Elimination Chamber IX - 2/17/2019


Dolfan in NYC

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2 hours ago, Greggulator said:

I love Ruby and the Riot Squad. It's one of my favorite acts. Ruby's a great disrespectful heel. 

But the main event of WM is Ronda/Charlotte/Becky. They need to make Ronda look like an absolute monster. They made Charlotte look like that in the Rumble (and with her viciousness in general). And they're doing a great job making Becky the underdog who is an undeniable force of nature and will stop at nothing to take what she has earned. This needs to be clearly the three best women's wrestlers alive (with apologies to Asuka) going at it to settle every score imaginable. 

Ronda needs to squash everyone and everybody the next few weeks. 

Ruby's going to be fine. She's a great worker. But right now, she's a sacrificial lamp for the much bigger picture.

This is the thing that bugs me about some of the arguments about why-do-the-triple-threat-cause-it-means-the-SDL-match-will-be-lesser-when-they-should-be-equal. I hope the SDL match is still good, but of course it will be relatively lesser, this Raw Mania match is going to be billed and presented as the biggest match in the history of women's wrestling between three top stars who all despise each other, and its going to be a very big deal, as we're already seeing by it being the story across Raw and SDL. Some of the booking is going to be unequal to try and push that match, which I get the issue with but is also a consequence of it being Mania season, Ruby/Ronda had a more competitive match on Raw a few months back. My guess from here, predictable as it may sound is that the rumoured Charlotte/Becky match at Fastlane ends with Ronda beating the crap out of both of them, thus completing the triangle of hate and vicious beatdowns.  (Though Becky is the strongest booked 'underdog' in a long time, right down to her ability to win fights and beat up opponents and win matches all on one sporadically-injured leg.)

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They had basically 2 months (and an entire PPV) to get Bryan's opponent built up

It literally could be anyone

Well except John Cena

Cena is either going to wrestle Lars Sullivan, the WWE's substitute for Lars or no one

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3 hours ago, Greggulator said:

I love Ruby and the Riot Squad. It's one of my favorite acts. Ruby's a great disrespectful heel. 

But the main event of WM is Ronda/Charlotte/Becky. They need to make Ronda look like an absolute monster. They made Charlotte look like that in the Rumble (and with her viciousness in general). And they're doing a great job making Becky the underdog who is an undeniable force of nature and will stop at nothing to take what she has earned. This needs to be clearly the three best women's wrestlers alive (with apologies to Asuka) going at it to settle every score imaginable. 

Ronda needs to squash everyone and everybody the next few weeks. 

Ruby's going to be fine. She's a great worker. But right now, she's a sacrificial lamp for the much bigger picture.

Here is exactly were my problem lies with this match. The match did NOTHING to define the character traits you mentioned. They could have easily had Ruby Riott disrespecting Ronda. She could have been punking her out for a minute and still gotten beat convincingly in a short match after Rousey went into her zone. Riott could have grabbed the belt from the ref, "flipped" Ronda off (or some PG equicalent), something to go along with her disrespectful heel persona. 

Instead Riott went into chickenshit mode quite early and got squashed like a "local competitor". It was a chance to establish a character in front of some extra eyes, that Ronda and a hot angle brought to the match. No 15 Minute finishing stretch was needed, only character work and maybe a moment were Riott can facewash a downed Ronda with a boot to the face while antagonizing the crowd. 

For the record, I'm not at all a fan of Ruby Riott. I'm just unhappy how most characters are portrayed in WWE. Charlotte Flair's great promo and Becky's intensity in that beatdown made it a minoru thing, but it could have easily been optimized. 

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I was most impressed by the IIconics, they were working like a true team. I don't watch the weekly tv so I rarely see them work, I hope they get a run because I know  they are good but its aggravating how WWE books makeshift teams over the real tag teams. It's cool they have this division but I don't think they'll treat it serious I mean the Men tag division barely gets enough attention. I feel like Sasha and Bayley got the belts just to as a consolation prize, I'm sure both of them are going to try to make these meaningful but atleast they have the advantage of being a cross branded title.

I hope they dont turn Lio into a face, he was such a great heel, he might end up being mainly on 205live and not on RAW.

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6 minutes ago, ReiseReise said:

For the record, I'm not at all a fan of Ruby Riott. I'm just unhappy how most characters are portrayed in WWE. Charlotte Flair's great promo and Becky's intensity in that beatdown made it a minoru thing, but it could have easily been optimized. 

Hey Minoru Suzuki wrestled Asuka - I would totally be fine with him wrestling Ruby Riott

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The women’s chamber match was decent and glad to see the Boss n Hug Connection with the win. As thrown together as they were, Fabulous Glow make a decent unit.

At this point, if there is any wrestler justified in going full on “screw the fans” heel it’s Ronda. I also dug her new look and cringed at some of those shots from Becky. It’s amazing that she only walked away with that small injury. 

Poor Ruby and the Riott Squad. Every week the WWE tries to sell us on them being a threat only to end up like they always seem to end up. 

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The crutch to the face thing really looked like after Becky started swinging the crutch at Ronda's midsection, Ronda dropped her head down, presumably selling the first shot, and also turned herself towards it. It definitely looked "unfortunate accident/timing" not "recklessly swinging with no regard for Rousey"

But it was nasty as hell.

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12 hours ago, The Natural said:

Only four champions have started an Elimination Chamber match and defended it:

John Cena. WWE Championship. New Year's Revolution 2006.

Edge. World Heavyweight Championship. Elimination Chamber 2011.

CM Punk. WWE Championship. Elimination Chamber 2012.

Daniel Bryan. WWE Championship. Elimination Chamber 2019.

Rare feat.

I think they brought this up on commentary and it's a classic example of a dumb stat that gets rattled off so they can have a dumb stat to rattle off. There have been other chamber winners who started the match. I don't know why they're just crowing about champions who've retained. As if Undertaker in '08 was any less impressive than those four. Heck, Sasha and Bayley both pulled off the start/win last night. 

This isn't quite as bad as telling me who just jumped to number five on the list of cumulative Rumble times. But it's one of those lame things they've done a lot in recent years. 

Also, there've now been 24 chamber matches and in this post I've acknowledged at least six of the winners have come from the starting position. That's a quarter. So... not that rare.

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8 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Here I just thought they were stalling because the show was ending so early.

I'd they actually intended for this show to be over at like quarter to ten... Wow

That makes the Ruby/Ronda match goign so shorter even dumber.

6 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

If you're putting Sasha up there, you have to put Bayley, Asuka, and probably Ember up there.

Ember isn't remotely up there. Everyone else mentioned actually has gotten big reactions in the past on the main roster. 

1 hour ago, Ziggy said:

I was most impressed by the IIconics, they were working like a true team. I don't watch the weekly tv so I rarely see them work, I hope they get a run because I know  they are good but its aggravating how WWE books makeshift teams over the real tag teams. It's cool they have this division but I don't think they'll treat it serious I mean the Men tag division barely gets enough attention. I feel like Sasha and Bayley got the belts just to as a consolation prize, I'm sure both of them are going to try to make these meaningful but atleast they have the advantage of being a cross branded title.

That was one of the reasons I liked Naomi and Carmella being eliminated first. Every other team was actually built up last year or even before then so it was nice to see them outlast the makeshift team though I do hope they keep Fabulous Glow as a thing.

One thing that hasn't been confirmed one way or another yet is that the belts may actually be defended across all of WWE instead of just Raw and SDL. Seeing as how the Sky Pirates thing is official and we just saw a team made last week in NXT I'm thinking we will actually see them defended there.

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Womens Tag had some fun moments and they really worked several characters and storylines into the match well. Action was sloppy for a good deal. Seemed like Sonya/Mandy didnt really mesh well with other teams when they were on. Sasha's spots seemed to drag as well.

Watching Sasha and Bayley chase would have been more interesting imo so I was really pulling for the Iconics or Nia/Tamina. The Iconics really needed this moment to grow. Both girls can work, they've got a decent gimmick going. They needed this to flip the switch on how terrible they've been on the main roster. I'll never look at Tamina as a female main eventer, dont think she deserves to hold the singles titles or be at the top of the card at this point in her career, but tag champion is a good fit for her and would have been a nice reward for the work she has put in over the years.

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1 hour ago, AverageKong said:

Womens Tag had

Watching Sasha and Bayley chase would have been more interesting imo so I was really pulling for the Iconics or Nia/Tamina. The Iconics really needed this moment to grow. Both girls can work, 

1 hour ago, AverageKong said:

 The Iconics really needed this moment to grow. Both girls can work, they've got a decent gimmick going.  

I respectfully disagree  They did have some cute double team maneuvers, but they’re strikes were either off the mark or incredibly sloppy.  

 

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I don't know what was up with Alvarez but holy crap he was unnecessarily negative about the women's chamber.  I thought it started off really great as it seemed like the women were very motivated to put the best match they could.  The quality did dip for a bit but it picked up near the end.  I'm glad Bayley/Sasha won but I would have been fine with either Mandy/Sonya or Iiconics winning as well.  As much as Iiconics were trolling and such in the match I kind of felt sad the way they were separated and laid to waste.  But hopefully they get more of a focus going forward.  While there wasn't much said in the post-match promo the emotion and struggling to speak spoke volumes in how much this meant to them.

I skipped the other matches but saw the men's chamber match.  I found it strange that Naomi was first to lose but with Carmella as part of the team i wonder if that was why.  And squaring up with an office definitely didn't have a negative effect on Jimmy who got the pin in the tag match.  Not a fan of that but what can you do.  Was annoyed that Ruby was made out to be a chump and also found it pointless to have a suspension for Becky when security didn't do shit to enforce it.  But I liked the crutch shots and she looked tremendous in the Kill Bill vibe she had (sorry, I don't read comics)

And they just have to do Kofi/Daniel at WM, only thing right now that makes sense to me.

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6 hours ago, Greggulator said:

Ruby's going to be fine. She's a great worker. But right now, she's a sacrificial lamp for the much bigger picture.

Poor, poor sacrificial lamp.

lTAItlI.jpg

 

Show was okay, probably enjoyed the Tag EC the best out of everything. Then Finn/LashleyRio, which was quick and fun, pretty much the opposite of Braun/Corbin. Corbin is a black hole (bring back the skullet, stat), but Braun can leave TV forever and that would be fine.

I was hoping when Lashley was walking up the ramp, he'd turn back and be like "Goddamit, I need that little asshole" and carry Rush's unconscious body out of the ring.

Finishing stretch to the Smackdown EC was great, everything before it was kind of there.

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I liked all the updated gear for all the women in the EC to make them all LOOK like they are tag teams, even the last minute thrown together "Fabulous Glow". Teams like Mandy/Sonja or the Iconics have been together for a long time, but their gear has not always matched. Seems like every team in the Chamber put forward the little extra effort to make sure they matched and looked like teams that should be competing for tag titles. I also really liked Sonja's updated look with the long tights over the shorts/skirt combo.

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1 hour ago, MADCAP said:

I respectfully disagree  They did have some cute double team maneuvers, but they’re strikes were either off the mark or incredibly sloppy.

I can see why. Here and in most of their main roster performances they've struggled to impress, but both girls CAN work. Billie helped Ember look amazing in Ember's NXT debut match and Peyton continously delivered while she was chasing the NXT womens title. They have ability to produce quality matches.

Sloppy and off the mark pretty much described Sasha's performance in the EC imo. That assisted crossbody and that flying meteora to name a few spots. Still can't say she doesn't deserve the opportunity to shine.

I just felt a moment like this would have been the flip they needed to start getting the opportunities to shine. They have the characters, they're a legit team, they just need those string of serious matches where they can get booked to look strong.

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1 hour ago, NikoBaltimore said:

I don't know what was up with Alvarez but holy crap he was unnecessarily negative about the women's chamber.  I thought it started off really great as it seemed like the women were very motivated to put the best match they could.  The quality did dip for a bit but it picked up near the end.  I'm glad Bayley/Sasha won but I would have been fine with either Mandy/Sonya or Iiconics winning as well.  As much as Iiconics were trolling and such in the match I kind of felt sad the way they were separated and laid to waste.  But hopefully they get more of a focus going forward.  While there wasn't much said in the post-match promo the emotion and struggling to speak spoke volumes in how much this meant to them.

I skipped the other matches but saw the men's chamber match.  I found it strange that Naomi was first to lose but with Carmella as part of the team i wonder if that was why.  And squaring up with an office definitely didn't have a negative effect on Jimmy who got the pin in the tag match.  Not a fan of that but what can you do.  Was annoyed that Ruby was made out to be a chump and also found it pointless to have a suspension for Becky when security didn't do shit to enforce it.  But I liked the crutch shots and she looked tremendous in the Kill Bill vibe she had (sorry, I don't read comics)

And they just have to do Kofi/Daniel at WM, only thing right now that makes sense to me.

Eh, it's not all that different from how she's usually been booked since losing the SD Title to Nattie.

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2 hours ago, AverageKong said:

 I'll never look at Tamina as a female main eventer, dont think she deserves to hold the singles titles or be at the top of the card at this point in her career, but tag champion is a good fit for her and would have been a nice reward for the work she has put in over the years.

I agree, most of her run she's been in the bodyguard type role and  or the monster that isn't that hard to defeat. She never gotten a real serious chance at a singles run to really get good but her and  Nia and the Faces of Fear of this division would be great for both girls.

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I hope Kofi gets the match at Mania, he delivered big time on SD! and in the Chamber when he got the opportunity.

It also reinvigorates my hopes for guys like Rusev and Braun. A good week can do a lot for a guy.

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