Elimination Chamber is tomorrow

[Supremo]

That was a really good show. It makes such a difference when they keep the pay per views to roughly three hours. It felt genuinely refreshing when I realised it was time for the main event and I didn't feel exhausted. It clearly helped the crowd, too. There's no way they'd have been going that crazy at the end if they'd had to sit through six plus hours by that point. Ironic, really. The, "minor," shows are going to quickly become my favourites because unlike with Rumble, Mania, Summerslam and Survivor Series they aren't going to go forever in order to get everyone on the card.

I completely fell for the Kofi stuff. They absolutely got me. My heart was in my throat on every near fall. Good shit. Really hoping they do some type of Battle Royale to determine Bryan's Wrestlemania opponent and he pulls it off one more time. It's obviously not what they had planned, but fuck me if they haven't stumbled across some fried gold right here. Give Kofi that big win at Mania. Hoisted on the shoulders of Big E and Xavier. It'll be incredible. Great Chamber match overall. Joe remains the most legitimate feeling guy on the whole roster. Like he'd proper fuck you up just for asking for the time.

Buddy Murphy is so wasted on 205 Live. He needs to be the next one after Mustafa Ali brought up to the main roster. Great match.

I'm ALL IN on the Shane/Miz storyline. Simple stuff but I love it.

Considering the dross in the match, the Women's Elimination Chamber was nothing short of a minor miracle. Loads of times it looked close to falling apart but in the end it was an OK match, which far exceeded my expectations. Not sure I'd have gone with Sasha and Bayley though. That team, their relationship and those characters as babyfaces are never going to recover from the never-ending turn teases and endless amount of shit segments together. Even when they got the usual pavlovian, "you deserve it!" chants you could still hear thunderous boos. I can't think of that ever happening before. Both characters are fucked beyond repair. Giving them the belts won't help. Even worse will be when they continue to tease turning on each other until the end of time.

That beatdown on Strowman was weird. They just spent weeks positioning Kurt Angle and Finn Balor as his bessy mates, yet neither comes out to save him, with no explanation given? Weird. Even stranger was The Shield Triple Powerbomb. What gives? Is Roman coming back? Ambrose,Roman and Strowman vs. Drew, Lashley and Corbin at Mania? Drew looked the business here though. Every now and then you see flashes of greatness. The sooner he bins off Corbin the better. I don't think there's ever been a bigger boner killer than Corbin's music hitting right after the Ronda/Becky/Charlotte angle. Fuck me that brought it back down to Earth.

If it has to be a Triple Threat at Wrestlemania, as much as I disagree, they're at least doing a good job of making Charlotte into the best heel in the company. Plus, as has already been mentioned, Ronda looked fucking brilliant. The best she's looked in months. The new gear and makeup made her look a hundred times better, she never had to grab her vagina once, and as much as I like Ruby Riott, Ronda squashing the fuck out of her was by far the best decision. Absolute superstar.

The angle with Becky was great and really helped her bounce back from the apology on Monday but you could tell everyone involved had realised it needed a final re-write that they never had time to do. The way she was putting her hands behind her back as if she was handcuffed, with Cole shouting and screaming about how she needed to be arrested, you could definitely sense someone suggested an arrest too late in the day for them to actually factor it into the script. If it has to go down the over-complicated, pro-wrestling 101 route, at least they're doing effective angles with over characters. I still feel like Ronda vs. Becky in a singles match, sold more as a UFC fight, had far more potential though. In a sense, it reminds me of Vince McMahon vs. Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 28. The story wrote itself. Just run with the story. You don't need all these diversions and distractions.

[Devon Malcolm]

The absolute state of this thread. Anyway.

I don't normally watch this show but I did because I couldn't be arsed working tonight.

Women's Chamber - Enjoyed this a lot. Best bit was the IIconics frantically covering everyone when they first got in. Bayley and Sasha were streets ahead of everyone else in there except maybe Sarah Logan, who looked really good as well. And is quite lovely.

MizMoney vs The Usos - Never stop being a nutter, Shane. I like the Usos but they didn't really hit it off in this one, they need faster paced matches than this. It was alright though.

Balor vs Lio and Lashley - "Tell you what, Finn, we'll give you the IC belt as a soz for ignoring you since you dragged Lesnar to a rare good 'un at the Rumble." Crap.

Rousey vs Riott - What the fuck was the point of this match? An absolute waste of time. Ronda's outfit was good. As for the post-match angle, ok.

Here's the thing. When Becky started hobbling out, there was no crowd reaction at all, because it was so stupid. When she started twatting them both, then they reacted! It was a bit of a dangerous looking bashing but they're grown women, they can handle themselves. It was great. I'm probably in a minority of preferring Charlotte to Becky but give her more stuff like this to do and I'm more sold.

Strowman vs Corbin - It's 2019 and Vince still hasn't put the belt on a 350lb massive fucker. I can only assume Strowman shite in his jet or something. Does ANYBODY like Baron Corbin? And how the fuck hasn't McIntyre not been given the big one yet? He looks incredible.

Men's Chamber - Probably the best Chamber match I've seen. The ending was logical, because surely you want Kofi vs Bryan at Mania. What kind of idiot would think this was the night to push the button? Nobody has any patience anymore. Everyone looked great, some cracking spots, and the crowd were superb.

Overall I give it 6 surprisingly gratuitous shots of Mandy Rose's arse out of 10.

[Glenryck Pilchards]

15 hours ago, The British Bushwacker said:

Lashley is bloody dreadful and probably has the least threatening face in wrestling, needs to at least grow a beard or something 

He can hardly grow eyebrows, how do you expect him to grow a beard?

[tiger_rick]

What happened to Rey and Andrade?

[PunkStep]

19 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

She's the business.

Bella Buchanan

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Finally got to watch all this. What an ace show! The shorter length makes a world of difference.

The finishing run of the mens chamber blew me away. Just simple, effective pro wrestling magic. Kofi going for the splash before crashing and burning was the perfect finish and put this over the top as a moment.  A total gut punch. Bryan was phenomenal in his role and it might be the best work of his career. I loved the post match too, no turns, no bullshit, just three mates disappointed but proud leaving with heads held high. 

The women's chamber match delivered as well. Once again, the finishing run with the last two combatants was brilliant and made the titles feel special for the first time since their (horrible) introduction. Job done. Topped off by another genuine moment of emotion, although Bayley being literally speechless shows why they dropped her singles run. Sonya Deville, Mandy Rose and Riot Squad have got pretty darn good over the last year. Even Iconics have grown on me, their goofy/smart character work since the rumble has won me over. The two of them going on a offensive onslaught was the matches low point though.

Rousey looked like a million bucks. Becky Lynch looked like a million bucks. This angle got stupid when mommy and daddy got involved, but this was some good recovery. Leave The Authority in the background and let the girls work with their own heat and you get gold like this. Those brutal looking crutch shots were the best thing about this!

Ice cold Strowman getting powerbombed into midcard purgatory is a bit sad. He's Big John Stud at this point, what a waste.

[Sphinx]

On 2/18/2019 at 12:22 PM, tiger_rick said:

Great job on the Kofi Kingston rehavb again. God I hope this is going somewhere. Kinda wish it was Big E though.

They really need to push him as one of the top guys at some point. I'd be looking at him as someone who could be a figurehead. Good look, funny, kids like him, fans like him, able to use social media well, sells merch, and he's alright in the ring. I imagine you could get him doing all the promotion and he'd be entertaining too. He's not tainted by failed/badly booked main event pushes before either.

Edit: to be clear, I mean Big E.