Once again WWE returned back Saudi Arabia, this time with one of the great Triple H brain children this side of NXT: The Elimination Chamber.
Taking a look at the card, this event had three women’s matches with runtimes over ten minutes each, so the women’s division had some solid work for them cut out for their night to show out in Jeddah.
Starting out with the headlining match, the female competitors came off the ramp with modified bodysuits to respect the Islamic culture of the region, which honestly looked better than most of their typical ring gear (specifically Ripley’s black latex joint which had a dominatrix vibe and Belair’s suit holographic as a Fleer collectible card), but the most interesting modification was the swing set waiting for a returning Alexa Bliss within her pod – playing off her Twisted character and a rub to the majority of the WWE Universe that missed her. Cross and Morgan set off the match, with Cross banging the lovable loser’s head off the outside of the ring front to back. I understand that Bobby Lashley caught a concussion later in the night, but Morgan took more shots to the head than any competitor the whole night in both male and female divisions just in this spot alone – so you tell me who’s tougher? Morgan didn’t spend all her time on the floor of the chamber though, and ended up taking advantage of a Cross distracted by the taunting of two of her past tag partners that Cross separated from on sour terms.
Doudrop came out to a crowd of boos and Morgan paid the expense as her face was grated into the chain-link structure. Ripley was next to be released from the pod, quickly (and poetically) eliminating Cross, though this elimination could have came later in the match, since it would have been more interesting to see Cross interact with both Ripley and Bliss in the ring at once, since the possibilities behind the three there together have yet to be fully realized. Ripley followed up being one elimination up by throwing Morgan halfway across the ring, which Doudrop then took advantage of by going after one of Morgan’s legs and hanging her up on the top turnbuckle by it to unleash some devastation. Much to Doudrop’s chagrin, Morgan was still conscious and used the turnbuckle to her advantage to perform a sunset powerbomb drop to eliminate the Scottish powerhouse.
Bliss came off her swing set just to perform her greatest hits; her time away from the ring showing no new skills learned or a change of character as was teased during her weekly psych-promos. Disappointing as Bliss’ return was, out came the Tennessee Titan : Bianca Belair, steamrolling her competitors and memorably lifted Morgan in a fireman’s carry with just one arm for the photo-op, just to powerbomb Bliss nearly seconds later ending the sequence of events locked in a stare-down with Rhea Ripley. Witnessing their double vertical suplexes on their opponents is just another piece of evidence that these two belong in a tag team together in some universe. All those aspirations for the audience ended though once Ripley exclaimed she was tired of Belair “showing off” , attacking Belair only to end up in the KOD – but she landed on her feet ! This altercation caused the two women to take a double knee from Morgan, who burst the move out of the ethers … the same ethers Bliss obviously drew upon moments later cannonballing Morgan and turning that move into her signature Twisted Bliss to put a cap on Morgan’s ‘Mania main event aspirations.
Ripley didn’t survive another KOD, leaving Belair and Bliss to go at it one-on-one to punch their ticket to Wrestlemania.
Belair missed moonsault off the top rope after suffering a barrage from Bliss that resulted in a near fall. Bliss then went for a DDT attempt, but Belair blocked it, and blocked another, handspringing out of the textbook move while Bliss was getting more and more frustrated. Knees were up in Belair’s next pin attempt and Bliss yelled at Belair to give up, but that was just the match to ignite the fire that Belair needed to pull off a KOD to once and for all silence Bliss and cement her seat as a contender for the Raw Women’s Championship at the upcoming Wrestlemania in North Texas. Though Morgan was the workhorse throughout the match and Ripley stood out as expected, Belair got what she deserved as she inches closer to the robbery she was accosted of at last year’s Summerslam AND to not only headline ‘Mania two nights in a row, but to be closer to becoming the first woman to defeat every member of the Four Horsewomen live on a pay-per-view package. I have never seen Belair flip her ponytail so hard, but with facts like these to look forward to in her eventual rematch with Lynch, her excitement at the end of this Chamber match was for good reason. All that could have been derailed though once Lita decided to dust of her boots and head to go one on one for Lynch’s strap.
Just like with the Goldberg match earlier in the night, the Hall of Famer competition demerits the overall locker room, shunning opportunities for newer, sprier faces, in favor of dinosaurs of a latter era back when nu-metal got love (The new Limp Bizkit record is fire by the way). Legs locked up early between Lynch and Lita, ending with Lita turning Lynch inside out with a slam, but Lynch eventually kept consecutively dropping leg-drops from the second rope to drop Lita back to retirement. Bexsploders started bursting out of the champ, but Lita took two too many and cut off the champ’s third attempt at the signature move, countering with a DDT following with an impressive behind the neck takedown using only her legs as offense from the top rope. The devious Lynch eventually got Lita caught in an O’ Conner roll and was using the ropes for leverage to support her pin attempt, but the veteran Lita powered out and put Lynch in a sleeper, which quickly got out of using her best friend, the ropes, yet again. As the match started wearing on, Lita’s resolve was wearing then. I honestly wished she would have tapped out during Lynch’s Dis-Arm-Her attempt because I saw too much ring rust rubbing off on the mat. But if Lita would have tapped, then I wouldn’t have got to see Lita power out of the submission, just to put her leg on the rope to break a pin attempt after suffering the effects of Lynch’s Manhandle Slam. Lynch then missed a moon sault, leaving Lita to pull off Twisted Fate and throw her own moonsault into the fray to show Lynch how it’s done. School is out though, and Lita has long been an alumni. Perhaps she needed her memory jogged , and surely Lynch was up to the task as Lita did not survive Lynch’s match-ending Manhandle Slam, and watched from the canvas as Lynch retained her title.
Watching this match was somewhat underwhelming, given that Lita looked sluggish throughout a majority of the program. I understand that legends are a draw in the mind’s of WWE Creative, but HOF Lita is not the same Lita twenty years ago. This match showed every second of that, despite some instinctual kick-outs and maneuvers, Lita was led to slaughter and all this match really served to do was to pump up Big Time Beck’s ego even bigger. With the ‘Mania showdown between Belair and Lynch locked in, there was a bit of a surprise on the card earlier in the show. Charlotte Flair already has Ronda Rousey to contend with come ‘Mania for the Smackdown Women’s Championship, so there is only time to add fuel to the fire for the next six weeks. Not being an observer of the weekly shows, somehow these two ended up in the Naomi/Deville debacle, leading up to an impromptu tag match at the Chamber, with a fun stipulation – Rousey must have one arm tied behind her back since she broke Deville’s arm earlier during a Smackdown program.
From the jump Deville and Flair didn’t look like a bad team, and it was great to see Naomi on a premium event reppin’ the best section of Florida I’ve ever visited : Central, while Rousey came out to support her in her Olympian Gi looking like Akuma. The Bronze medal winning Olympian started things off running up on Deville’s thigh just to knee her in the face; deserved after Deville revealed that she was feigning her arm injury. This is the type of fighting I expect from to ex-MMA stars exported to the world of pro-wrestling. Naomi entered into the fray and ceremoniously got her licks in on Deville, but her rally was cut short as Deville wickedly ran Naomi’s face into the top turnbuckle – ouch !
Flair made her appearance, but her actions within the ropes appeared clunky, since she has been better suited as a promo specialist on the mic and in performing in singles matches. Throughout the match, the Smackdown Women’s Champion did her best work antagonizing Rousey and her teammate while outside of the ropes. As things began to wind down, Naomi shined as she slid across the mat like liquid grease on her knees and kipped up just to tag Rousey in to perform a beatdown on Deville who performed another submission attempt on Deville for the win.
Flair and Deville walked out disappointed, the narcissist Flair more disappointed in her partner than herself. And ultimately Naomi and Rousey stood tall and accomplished in a fun match that though randomly inserted into the program, was a highlight of an overall bright night in Jeddah.
Score : 4/5
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