Elimination Chamber 2019 
 
WWE 
 
Madman 
 
Just when I thought the Elimination Chamber PPV event on DVD was one of the more laborious of the WWE staple shows, along comes the 2019 edition. Featuring two of the very best elimination chamber contests. 
 
We start with a dynamic showcase to establish the women tag team champions – how strong the female division is now, it has tag-champs too. Amazing when you think back to ten years ago or so and the women were arm-candy and eye-candy only. For all that WWE may not have right they have elevated the women’s competition, found and nurtured the talent and the matches in the women’s division are some of the best they offer. Great storytelling too. And that was the case here. 
 
I couldn’t really care about the opening cruiserweight competition between Buddy Murphy © and Akira Tozawa. It wasn’t terrible – it was just your standard curtain-jerker. An opener. Something to get to the show on the road.  
 
The women’s tag match though, that was something. 
 
The men’s tag match followed – just a standard two-team fight, the Usos against The Miz and Mac. Shane McMahon and The Miz have made a great team and the storytelling and development of the angle was key here with them suffering a loss to Jey and Jimmy Uso in a pretty typical, pretty good bout.  
 
Finn Balor was victorious in a handicap Intercontinental bout against Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush. This, to me, was a fun match. I think that titles shouldn’t be decided this way – but I enjoyed the spirit of this – and I’ve always found Lashley to be a stupid big lunk, so giving him the fast-moving whippet Lio Rush gave him some sort of bonus power, some reason to watch.  
 
Ronda Rousey defended her title in a squash of sorts againg Ruby Riott; the match only ever there to further the angle between Charlotte (with her shit promo) and Becky Lynch with her rebel spirit.  
 
Baron Corbin’s match beating Braun Strowman in a No Disqualification stipulation was the big boring dud of the night.  
 
And then we closed with another pearler of an elimination chamber match. Great spots from AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy and particularly Kofi Kingston. Strong work too from Samoa Joe, as always. And the requisite menace from Randy Orton. Somehow – with all of that talent in the ring – Daniel Bryan managed to make it through from beginning to end, giving this a Royal Rumble-like feel. He was defiant. And it was a marvel of in-ring storytelling. 
 
So I liked this Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, on balance. A perfect stop on the road to Wrestlemania.
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