Smark Out Moment

It's time for the Elimination Chamber, or as I like to call it, "The Roadblock to WrestleMania". The challenger has won his spot at WrestleMania by winning the Royal Rumble and now it is up to the champion to earn his spot by retaining here. There's a double-edged sword for this pay-per-view. Personally, I'm a fan of when the champion isn't in the chamber match, but rather, the EC is used for determining the #1 contender for the champion that the Royal Rumble winner hasn't chosen. However, because of that, they give you title matches like the Miz against Jerry Lawler to fill in the spot. Personally, I'd rather see them use that opportunity to give the IC and US title holders a shot at their respective brand's top title, but then again, I'm not the type of guy that would book Hornswoggle to do better in the Royal Rumble than former world champions.


WWE Championship: The Miz (c) vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler
Come on. If you have any, and I mean even .01% thought in your mind that Jerry Lawler is going to win the title here, you're out of your mind. The way they've booked the Miz with this title reign is that he's completely not qualified to hold the title, so I have no doubt in my mind that they won't give him a strong win here, unfortunately. Instead, they'll have Michael Cole screw Lawler out of the match, setting up that "final straw that broke the camel's back" so they can have a match between Lawler and Cole at WrestleMania.

PREDICTION: The Miz retains. I'd bet all of my money on it. Want to take the bet?


Raw Elimination Chamber: John Cena vs. John Morrison vs. R-Truth vs. Randy Orton vs. Sheamus vs. CM Punk
I'm surprised that R-Truth is in here in a way, but in another way, I'm not. He's the quick elimination. I originally expected Triple H to be a part of this instead of him (and if they want to, the could easily just write Truth off and replace him). So unless there's the possibility of the fatal four-way between Miz, Orton, Cena, and Punk, which I don't think is happening now that they've just said "fuck it, let's ignore Cena/Punk and go into Orton/Punk and hope nobody notices that we didn't finish that feud", I think it's safe to say Cena wins here. And what are the order of eliminations? I'd have to guess they'll screw Morrison here once more and it'll go this way: Morrison or Sheamus eliminates Truth (probably Sheamus). Sheamus then eliminates Morrison. Orton eliminates Sheamus. Punk eliminates Orton. Cena eliminates Punk.

PREDICTION: John Cena wins and faces and defeats the Miz for the WWE title at WrestleMania's main event.


Smackdown Elimination Chamber [World Heavyweight Championship Match]: Edge (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Wade Barrett vs. Kane vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Drew McIntyre
I'm confused as to why McIntyre is in the match instead of Big Show. That surprised me a lot. There's only one winner here, Edge. I don't think that this chamber match will be as good as Raw's, considering Kane's limitations, McIntyre not have a ton of steam behind him, and Mysterio's injury (and repetitiveness). As far as the eliminations go? Not as clear cut as the Raw one, but I'd say the finals are Edge and Barrett or Edge and Ziggler (NOTE: Ziggler is supposed to be out of this match now, but I'm not buying it). Just a ballpark guess, I'll say the first eliminated is McIntyre, then Kane, then Ziggler, then Mysterio, then Barrett, but I don't have a ton of faith in that prediction, especially since it seems like they could be trying to turn Kane back into a tweener.

PREDICTION: Edge 100% definitely without a shadow of a doubt retains.


Kofi Kingston vs. Alberto Del Rio
We all saw this coming, so no surprises here. It also won't be a surprise when Kofi takes the hit. We're talking the guy who is challenging for the world title at WrestleMania, against a guy who seems to have won the IC title as a means of staying relevant. Kofi's been in a bit of a slump ever since his program with Orton ended on Raw, and although he's stepped his mic work up, it doesn't seem to have yielded a main event reward yet. He's definitely a stepping stone here.


PREDICTION: Alberto Del Rio has to come out of this either with a rather clean win, or a rather dirty and powerful disqualification. He will not lose by any means other than a DQ.


Tag Team Championship: Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov (c) vs. Justin Gabriel & Heath Slater
The question that settles the outcome of this match is "in what capacity will the Corre and the Nexus compete at WrestleMania?" because there's a good opportunity that they're facing each other, and from the looks of this, it could be for the tag team championship in some sort of Freebird rule.

PREDICTION: New tag champs.

I think the only thing left time-wise is the obligatory shitty divas match...probably Eve defending against Layla or Michelle.