WWE Elimination Chamber 2022: The Hits And Misses

With the latest premium live event wrapped up, it’s time for us to talk about WWE Elimination Chamber, 2022 edition. And for that, we take a look at the hits and misses.

Every show, even those wonderfully controversial Saudi Arabian shows, have hits and misses.

Heading into Elimination Chamber, I had a feeling the 2022 variant was shaping up to be the best out of the WWE-KSA arrangement thus far.

At least, that is what it looked like on paper…so let’s see how that worked out.

That means it is time for…

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

WWE Elimination Chamber 2022: The Hits And Misses

Today, let’s start by talking about the misses first. Not everything goes well, it’s just the nature of the beast.

No, not that Beast.

So…let’s get started.

The Misses

In no particular order…

The actual show.

Yes, I know I said only a few lines up, that on paper the card looked good.

It did. Execution matters, however.

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

I mean, anyone can go to an uninspiring indy card and be blown away.

On paper this one had promise. In reality, this under-performed.

Neither Chamber match was all that memorable, outside of perhaps a couple spots.

Having The Usos/Viking Raiders match never even happen? Just weird, especially because it’s on a PPV that required a lot of time and money to get there.

The tag title match that wasn’t.

Yes I know I just mentioned it, but it bothers me and I am writing…so it’s getting called out again.

On any PPV, having that booked like that would have earned my ire.

To do so on a PPV where I had to fly for like, a day and a half EACH WAY? If I am one of those four, I might not care how much I was potentially getting paid.

That’s just a weird way to book a match.

No surprises

Honestly I didn’t expect any.

I know some were probably on Cody-watch, but in fairness, if he is signing, it makes zero sense to debut him overseas, on a PPV airing at mid-day in the states.

Should he show up, it’s either at WrestleMania or on the RAW/SmackDown after, would be my guess.

Otherwise, it was another paint by number card. No swerves, nothing shocking.

Outside of the use of the Chamber, and the grandiose set…and Lesnar and Goldberg and Lita wrestling…it felt like any RAW or SmackDown.

Squashed Superstars

As he did in the Rumble, Lesnar plowed through everyone he needed to do in order to secure his champion versus champion goal.

But, for a company struggling to have true top Superstars who rival Brock Lesnar…it’s hard to elevate the talent they have after they are summarily squashed by the new WWE Champion.

It can’t all be bad, right? Nope, not all bad.

The Hits!

Just a couple worth calling out.

The presence of the women.

This is more than just the card, but it is also the card.

More female Superstars were involved with this show than prior Saudi shows.

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

That’s progress.

Female Superstars were shown on billboards hyping this show. More progress.

WWE took a lot of flak-much of it deserved-when they entered into this arrangement.

However, I and others hoped that, over time, we’d see them become an instrument for change.

I think they are doing that. The first show had no female Superstars…

Now, we had multiple matches with women, female Superstars on ads telling the fans about the show, and so much more.

Change is not always immediate…but I’d say this is good progress.

Part of the men’s Chamber match

While I might be critical of Brock’s path of destruction (fun as it might have been), some good was there.

The F5 spot off the top of the pod? Even if Theory did land mostly on his legs, that is not a good bump to take on the less-forgiving area of the structure.

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And, Austin Theory. While he did take the loss, he actually got the best run with Brock in the Chamber.

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Not saying it means something, but him being last with Lesnar, and him not being an instant kill like say, Rollins and Riddle were?

That means something.

I don’t know…

Yes, it’s called “Chamber hits and misses”…but…allow me to have a tangent.

A new wrinkle. I don’t know how I feel about the Lesnar win, and what it all means.

For the moment, we indeed have the champion versus champion match for WrestleMania.

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Vince wants a big match, not much bigger than that, in theory.

However…it’s title versus title. Does that mean WWE is considering unifying them?

Or will we have a lot more swerving between now and Dallas?

I expect the swerves.

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For one…Lashley didn’t lose. I feel like, in a normal match, if such an injury happened for real, it would just be a no contest.

I know, rules in pro wrestling don’t often matter…but it’s something worth thinking about.

Now, do we see Lashley challege Brock, either on an upcoming RAW, or perhaps somehow on night one of the show?

We’ve seen champions defend twice in the same night before. It also would not be the first time we’ve seen wrestlers work two matches.

So, it’s possible that Lesnar works a big match on both nights.

Or maybe, Lashley interferes and makes it a triple threat?

It would make for a terrible ‘Mania match if it was champ versus champ and it ended in a DQ, so let’s hope that isn’t on the table.

I call it “I don’t know” because a lot depends on how things play out. If they have a plan, and if it’s a good plan (two huge if’s) then it won’t matter.

However, if things go bad…it could be really bad.

That’s a wrap for WWE’s Elimination Chamber 2022 edition…the hits and the misses…and even one “I don’t know”!