WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 was only a few days ago, but some of the events that transpired on that show are already resonating with massive waves that are changing what WrestleMania 41 is shaping up to be.
Every premium live event—along with every episode of television—has the potential to greatly influence stories going forward, but the big moments tend to be spread out more sporadically. Rarely are there as many huge things that happen on a show with only four matches that have as much of a structural impact on The Grandest Stage of Them All so close to the biggest show of the year.
Let's explore four of those moments and what they might mean for not only the next month or so leading up to The Showcase of the Immortals, but how that will continue to play out for the rest of 2025 and longer.
John Cena's Heel Turn, Rivalry with Cody Rhodes, and Alliance with The Rock
The biggest surprise of the entire night was Cody Rhodes dropping an F-bomb, followed by the heel turn from John Cena, as he aligned himself with The Final Boss. The odds makers in sports betting Ontario didn't even have this on their radar as something that would happen at the event, but the unthinkable happened, and Cena is now finally a heel.
Over the next month and a half, Rhodes will be once again tapping into his fighting spirit as the underdog, but it may be too much for him to overcome. A win for Cena feels like a safe bet, and his record-breaking 17th world title reign will be a major focal point for the remainder of 2025 during his retirement tour run.
There are too many "what if" questions to bring up regarding a heel Cena at the mountain top, but one of them in particular becomes "Who will be the one worthy of beating him for the title if he wins it?"
Assuming he does win the belt and stays heel the entire time he's holding it, his successor will have to be someone worthy of getting that honor of beating him. Cena himself even said when he announced he would be in Elimination Chamber that he would "win 17 to some day shake the hand of the person who wins 18." While that won't happen any time soon, if ever, the person who wins the title from him is still going to be in a prominent spot.
Cody Rhodes has to be one of the frontrunners, to just merely beat Cena and win the title back if he were to lose it. That may not be the most interesting story, but it's the cleanest answer before anything else happens to say otherwise.
Roman Reigns could be that person, as WWE has always taken nearly every opportunity to not only give him Hall of Fame accolades, but he's had a passing of the torch moment with Cena multiple times before. This could also be how Reigns begins to feud with The Rock in order to set up a match between those two at WrestleMania 42.
Randy Orton and CM Punk will certainly cross paths with Cena at some point, and both are babyfaces who could beat him and add another title reign to their records. Neither of them need the win, though, so it may be a waste to give it to one of them.
Lastly, this could be how WWE puts over Bron Breakker. He's been poised as a top prospect for the future since his debut in NXT, and sooner or later, he's going to leave the midcard and start fighting for the world title instead of the Intercontinental Championship.Drew McIntyre Eliminated by Damian Priest
Obviously, the biggest focal points of the men's Elimination Chamber match were John Cena's victory and the way CM Punk was taken out of the match by Seth Rollins hitting a stomp on him after he had already been eliminated. We're seeing the repercussions of the Punk and Rollins situation playing out already, as those two had a heated exchange and several brawls on Monday Night Raw, leading to the announcement that they will face off in a steel cage match next week. For the sake of an extra prediction, don't be surprised if Roman Reigns shows up there to interfere and get his hands dirty to help set up a Triple Threat for WrestleMania.
But ignoring those, as well as Logan Paul (who didn't do much of anything in terms of storytelling on this night), the other story to start tracking is how Drew McIntyre was eliminated from the match by Damian Priest.
It isn't so much about how he was eliminated, but simply that he was. Priest had made it a point of contention on SmackDown about how he was going to shut McIntyre up and eliminate him, but The Scottish Warrior's focus was arguably more on Rollins and Punk even in that verbal exchange. At Elimination Chamber, McIntyre's focus was on Cena, allowing Priest to capitalize and take advantage of his lack of attention.
Undoubtedly, McIntyre is going to be furious about this. With Punk and Rollins deeply embroiled in their own feud that McIntyre isn't as directly involved with right now, Paul being set up to have a match with AJ Styles based on their segment coming next week on Raw, and Cena moving on to fight for the Undisputed WWE Championship, that leaves Priest and McIntyre as likely dance partners for WrestleMania.
It will probably play out as simple as can be, with McIntyre upset that Priest eliminated him, so he starts to go after The Archer of Infamy. Once they fight a few times, SmackDown's General Manager Nick Aldis will announce a match between the two for WrestleMania, and that will be it. What's a shame is that neither have something more prominent to do, such as fighting for a world title. But if WWE is interested in merging some storylines together and having more multi-man matches, there could very well be a scenario where both Priest and McIntyre are tossed into the hunt for the United States Championship, particularly if LA Knight defeats Shinsuke Nakamura on SmackDown. Knight has a history with both, wherein Priest and Knight have teamed together, and Knight has been at odds with McIntyre. Put the title between them all (maybe even Nakamura as well) and that could be your United States title match.
Whether that happens or it remains a non-title McIntyre vs. Priest feud will probably be revealed somewhat soon, but at the very least, count out McIntyre and Priest crossing paths at WrestleMania.
Randy Orton's Return and Sami Zayn's Status
Kevin Owens took Sami Zayn out of action in their unsanctioned match, but was then beaten down and nearly punted by a returning Randy Orton to end that segment.
First and foremost, this means it's virtually a lock that Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton gets announced for WrestleMania. Anything alternative to that would be shocking, as this feud has been in the works for months and had to take a back seat when Orton was out nursing his injuries from the package piledriver Owens gave him.
But an interesting underlying element to this is the question of what Zayn is going to be doing at WrestleMania, if anything at all. He is being referred to as "out indefinitely" following the injuries he sustained in the match. Normally, that is an indicator WWE doesn't plan on using that person for at least a month, if not longer. WrestleMania is only 45 days away, which doesn't leave much time, if any, for Zayn to come back and set up something new for him to do at WrestleMania, nor does he have the ability to jump into this feud, as Orton will already have that covered.
Does this mean Zayn will be missing WrestleMania? Will he show up as an unannounced person to interfere in the Owens vs. Orton match to make sure Owens loses and get some revenge? Will he be unceremoniously tossed into the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, if that even happens again this year?
Assuming Zayn isn't actually hurt, which could always be the case, WWE didn't have to write him off television in this match. He could have survived the fight much better off, or this unsanctioned match didn't even need to be booked in the first place. But since WWE went in that direction, and we're so close to WrestleMania as it is, it's becoming doubtful Zayn will even be on the show, let alone have as good of a night as he's had the past two years.
Meanwhile, the other thing to mention is that Orton teased punting Owens. WWE will have to make good on that, so expect Orton to do that at WrestleMania, which will in turn put Owens on the shelf for a bit, for sure.
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— WWE (@WWE) March 2, 2025
Jade Cargill's Return and the Attacker Storyline
After being taken out by a mystery attacker several months ago, Jade Cargill made an explosive return by going after Naomi at the start of the women's Elimination Chamber match.
If WWE is going with the simplest route for this story, this just means that Naomi was the attacker, Cargill has gotten her revenge, and they will either have a match at WrestleMania together, or that was supposed to be the culmination of that story, and Cargill will move on to something else.
If it is the former, it will be interesting to see how WWE manages to fit Cargill vs. Naomi on the card. There are more women's titles than ever before to factor in, and there aren't many spots for matches over the two nights as it is. Is there any room for a non-title feud like this to be at the biggest show of the year, or will it have to be relegated to just SmackDown, instead?
If Cargill moves on from this, does that mean Naomi is also written out of WrestleMania like Sami Zayn? What does Cargill do instead? The most obvious answer would be to face Chelsea Green for the Women's United States Championship, as Green doesn't have a competitor booked for the show yet and it's the only other title Cargill could compete for, but even that might include Naomi if WWE is trying to cram as many people into multi-Superstar matches.
Of course, there may be another wrinkle to the story. There has yet to be 100 percent confirmation that Naomi was indeed the attacker. Perhaps Cargill was wrong, which is why Naomi wasn't fighting back and Bianca Belair was surprised. If that's the way the story unfolds, Naomi will have either been attacked for no reason, or Cargill will just have been upset that Naomi replaced her as tag team champion, and will settle the score with her attacker(s) another time.
WWE is in an era where a lot of things are hard to predict, so there's always a chance all of these things have enough twists and turns going forward that they are impossible to guess. But what do you think will happen?
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