Smark Out Moment

Elimination Chamber, or as I like to call it, the Roadblock to WrestleMania! Six men enter, one man leaves. Actually, 12 men enter, 2 men leave as champion, then the other 10 leave as losers, but that's not as epic sounding so we'll gloss over that. This is the pay-per-view that determines whether or not WWE has long term plans they want to stick to or if they're panicking at the last minute and switching up their titles for the WrestleMania card. What's in store?



WWE Championship [Elimination Chamber]: CM Punk (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth vs. The Miz vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kofi Kingston
Very surprised that Kofi Kingston is in here instead of Alberto Del Rio, but I assume that's because Del Rio's still too injured to participate. Maybe they're rewarding Kofi for Evan Bourne's mistakes and the handstand he did at the Royal Rumble? Either way, Kofi Kingston is probably the first eliminated here and has no shot at winning. The same goes for R-Truth. We all know now that Jericho is the final participant and I think that's going to play into this quite a bit. Punk, however, I don't expect to be the first. I can see this starting off with Miz and Kofi - that way Dolph can come in, maybe eliminate Kofi, Punk can come in, eliminate Miz, Truth can flounder around, get eliminated by Jericho eventually, then Punk busies himself with Dolph and eliminates him, Jericho beats Punk afterward.

PREDICTION: Chris Jericho wins the title.


World Heavyweight Championship [Elimination Chamber]: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Wade Barrett vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Big Show vs. Santino Marella vs. Khali
I'm a little surprised that Khali is in this instead of Christian, who was supposedly able to return at the Royal Rumble but was held off. I'm also a tiny bit surprised that Cody is in it as well, as I didn't think they'd do his IC title match with Goldust at WrestleMania, but rather, at Elimination Chamber. Now, the question is solely about which one of these three names walks away with the title - Bryan, Barrett, or Orton. One of those is winning this match, without a doubt, and I'm starting to really think that Barrett has no shot the way that he was booked at the Royal Rumble, nor Orton the way that we keep hearing about Money in the Bank possibly being former world title holders and that's it. Barrett doesn't fit in that category, but Daniel Bryan would, so it would make sense if they had Bryan drop the title and have Sheamus vs Barrett with Bryan in MITB. However, I'm not expecting that. The way they've continually booked Bryan, I'm definitely expecting him to retain by the skin of his teeth and gloat, then get his ass whooped by Sheamus basically in a squash match at WrestleMania where he drops the title to The Great White. Match I'd prefer, though? Barrett vs Sheamus. Match I expect to happen, Bryan vs Sheamus. As for entrances and eliminations, I'll have to ponder about that.

[UPDATE: Randy Orton has been removed from the pay-per-view, storyline concussion but I highly doubt there's any truth to that. I'm expecting this to have happened because they couldn't figure out a way to eliminate Orton from the match without him looking weak, since WWE is paranoid about that with their stars - look at Cena - so now, naturally, Orton is not going to win this. Santino is in it instead, and he has no shot. I'll update this again and in more detail once Smackdown happens.]

PREDICTION: Daniel Bryan retains the title.


Ambulance Match: Kane vs. John Cena
What's an ambulance match? Is that just a stretcher match? Oh well, at least it's something newer than just doing a standard no-DQ match or something. Either way, I'm not too excited about it, as Cena clearly wins going into WrestleMania and their brawl at the Royal Rumble outside sucked, so this most likely won't be much better. 

PREDICTION: John Cena wins.


Divas Championship: Beth Phoenix (c) vs. Tamina
I'm surprised that Tamina's push has lasted this long and gone this far. Kudos to WWE for sticking with it. That being said, she has no shot at winning here whatsoever. Beth's holding it for Kharma at WrestleMania in a Lumberjill Match or something. 

PREDICTION: Beth Phoenix retains.

Sheamus could do something with Otunga or Alberto Del Rio or something. Jack Swagger has been absent for the most part. Epico and Primo have nobody to defend their tag titles against that I can think of. Tough call but they're at least adding one more match to the card if not 2.