Elimination Chamber 2013: 5 Talking Points

Much was expected from the 2013 Elimination Chamber event. Despite the fact that both the big title matches were the same as last month’s Royal Rumble event, the outcomes of both those matches were eagerly awaited. Also, The Shield’s involvement and the Elimination Chamber match increased the interest level on the event. So, did it deliver? In a way, yes! It gave us these 5 points to ponder upon:

Jack Swagger claimed a surprise victory at Elimination Chamber

Jack Swagger is the real winner!

Not many of us saw this coming. Jack Swagger, who was expected to impress given the fact that he had just come back after a long lay-off and had a new gimmick, emerged as the winner of a gruelling Elimination Chamber match. A new entrance theme and a brief promo with Zeb Coulter ahead of the match gave us some pointers that this new gimmick will stick with him for a while. But a victory for him at this juncture seemed to be highly unlikely. Especially due to the fact that he isn’t an established name and a Wrestlemania 29 match between Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger wouldn’t grab many eyeballs. Chris Jericho was tipped to win and set up a title clash with Dolph Ziggler. Mark Henry looked set to main event Wrestlemania for the first time in his career. But he got eliminated after an impressive showing.

When the match boiled down to the last three – Swagger, Chris Jericho and Randy Orton, Orton seemed to be on course to win his first Elimination Chamber match. But Swagger won it in typical heel style – via a roll-up. We are indeed going to get a fresh feud between the ‘Real American’ and the ‘Mexican Aristocrat’. Can’t wait to see how WWE takes this feud forward.

The Shield serves justice to Cena, Sheamus and Ryback

For the second match in a row, The Shield stole the show with an impressive win. They were already involved in an awesome match with Ryback and Team Hell No at TLC in December 2012. An array of impressive tag-team moves was followed by a couple of thundering spears to Sheamus and Ryback by Roman Reigns. It was the best match of the night by a mile.

The Shield triumphed in their match against John Cena, Sheamus and Ryback

WWE has to be commended for not getting to far ahead with the Shield and utilizing them inside the ring sparingly. The fact that The Shield were involved in just 2 matches in 3 months and both of them were absolute show-stealers indicates that WWE is building towards something special for this talented trio. WWE could take this forward by making the Shield specialise in six-man tag-team matches simply because of the fact that they seem to put on a great show together inside the ring. The announcers also did a good job of putting the shield over throughout the contest.

Shield might not have gotten rid of the John Cena problem entirely for now but there is a feeling their crusade has just begun.

A controversial Rock victory

Still the WWE Champion – The Rock

The fact that The Rock retained the WWE Championship under controversial circumstances is an obvious indicator that his feud with CM Punk is not over yet. With his cover on The Rock during the match going unnoticed due to the absence of the referee, Punk will bemoan his loss and claim that he was screwed. There also seems to be some friction in Punk’s relationship with Heyman especially after he banged the championship belt into Heyman’s face by mistake.

On the other hand, The Rock heads into Wrestlemania 29 as the WWE Champion. He will face John Cena, the winner of the 2013 Royal Rumble who had already stated that he will challenge the WWE Champion at the grandest stage of them all.

Alberto Del Rio’s failed bucket kick

There was nothing surprising about Alberto Del Rio’s successful defense of the World Heavyweight Title against Big Show, but this one moment caught the attention of one and all. Alberto Del Rio, as he went for his flying kick to the head on Big Show who was taunting Ricardo at ringside with his bucket, slipped from the top rope and botched the move. Though he executed the move on Big Show successfully soon after, it was an embarrassment of sorts for him. Credit should be given to both these guys for not panicking after the initial failure.

Also, this seems to be the end of the road for the Big Show vs Alberto Del Rio feud. Either he should be forced into the Wrestlemania match fixture between Swagger and Del Rio, since Big Show has quite a bit of history with both these men (Big Show feuded with Swagger during his first title reign in 2011), or he should be given a completely new feud. The former seems to be the likely option since WWE has a story to build upon.

Possible Wrestlemania feuds

Elimination Chamber 2013 gave plenty of indicator’s for possible Wrestlemania matches. The tag-team of Kane and Daniel Bryan showed signs of a impending split during the Elimination Chamber match. A Kane vs Daniel Bryan match at Wrestlemania 29 could be in the works.

Kane vs Daniel Bryan could take place at Wrestlemania 29

Another angle that could spiral into a Wrestlemania match involved Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston. Ziggler may have won the impromptu match but Big E’s attack on Kingston that followed the bout caught many eyeballs. It was an indicator of a possible feud between Ziggler and Kingston or a new direction for Ziggler as a dominant force.

Mark Henry and Randy Orton seem to be headed for a collision course for the past few weeks. It continued in the Elimination Chamber match too as Orton eliminated Henry after delivering a RKO.

The feud for the United States Championship between The Miz and Antonio Cesaor is all set to extend till Wrestlemania as The Miz lost via disqualification and attacked Cesaro after the match with a low blow.

Clearly, Elimination Chamber was a good pay-per-view with impressive matches and a few surprise outcomes. It has given us the perfect set up on the road to Wrestlemania 29.