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| Even if the result's in doubt, we know Punk and Rock can deliver Photo Credit: WWE.com |
The thing is that even if someone has the time, it doesn't mean that they would necessarily want to expect a result that they don't necessarily want. Just look at the response to the Royal Rumble. That finish was telegraphed from the night after Mania last year. The Rock said he wanted to come back and be WWE Champion once more, and really, who was going to stop him? When it was announced he'd get his title shot at the Royal Rumble this year back at RAW 1000, the tea leaves all pointed to a concrete date. Yet, people were still gutted that Punk lost the title. I'm not saying they didn't have a right to be; truth be told, if we are to believe pro wrestling Championships are to mean something, then why should we want the misogynist frat boy jock be the representative of WWE and not the guy who actually told the truth and spoke to us as fans, even if he was talking about how he hated "the people" out of the other side of his mouth?
WWE has a formula, and that formula doesn't take into account the voices of fans who say they'll riot if John Cena wins but always seem to be tuned in week after week despite the fact that Cena almost never loses. However, it almost feels this year like they realize they're going all-in on a dreadfully transparent main event for their biggest event, and that they're throwing a bone to the people who want a little bit of shaking up on their Mania forecast. That's where the titular Elimination Chamber match comes in. There are six men in that match vying for the chance to wrestle for the World Heavyweight Championship at Mania. Daniel Bryan, Kane, Jack Swagger, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, and Mark Henry all could step into a main event-level match at the big one. Neither Alberto del Rio nor the Big Show are locks either way to win their match. And of course, the biggest X-factor in all of this is Dolph Ziggler, who could cash in his briefcase during the show Sunday and punch his own ticket to Mania.
Of course, there are several different apparent programs out of those wrestlers that could end up as matches at MetLife Stadium. del Rio and Swagger seem to be on a collision course, given Swagger's new Tea Party affectations and megaphone-volumed mouthpiece. Jericho and Ziggler also seem to be likely dance partners, assuming the roles that Shawn Michaels and Jericho himself played at Mania XIX respectively. Bryan and Kane seem to be one Tag Title loss away from totally combusting into a marquee attraction match. However, the fact that all of them could end up as title matches throws a bit of mystery and surprise in how they're going to set those matches up. That's the selling point of the Chamber. It's not necessarily for the big shock, but it's for the completist fans who want the entire story. Of course, the Chamber itself is one of the crowd-pleasingest matches they have on their slate.
The intrigue doesn't really end there, either. The other huge match pits the Shield against an amalgamated trio of WWE's most popular big-game hunters, Cena, Sheamus, and Ryback. The fact that we're past the entire taping cycle for WWE television this week and we're still not sure whether this match will be held inside the Chamber, while WWE.com seems to indicate that there will be two such matches on the card is enough to make my mind race here. Additionally, the logistics of the Chamber being used in a tag team match hearken back to one of classic wrestling fans' white whales, the War Games match. As we get into the possible results of the match, the doomsday scenario of the three mowing through each member of the Shield like a guillotine through Jell-O doesn't seem all that likely.
Then again, then again, they're not going to offer John Cena up on a silver platter before he goes toe-to-toe with The Rock at WrestleMania, are they? That's the most troubling part about this match. Cena, the man who could copulate with an ovulating woman on fertility drugs bareback and not get her pregnant due to how protected he is, is not laying down when he's gotta go defeat Rocky and take back the Spinner Belt he's not held since SummerSlam '11. The narrative comes full circle. They've already telegraphed what their big New York Mania main event is going to be, and now, they've got to protect it at all costs. Does that take a lot of the unpredictability out of Elimination Chamber, the event? Sure it does. Even if you don't subscribe to the same idea that execution far trumps predictability like I do, there's still a bit of uncertainty there for you.
All you have to do is look at the World Heavyweight Championship match and the Elimination Chamber surrounding it, and you'll get all the mystery your heart can handle.