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#3 Back to stage one for Apollo Crews
Apollo Crews is an amazing athlete. He’s a really good wrestler and although he may not be the best talker, he has a lot of natural charisma and the Titus Worldwide gimmick has helped in that department as well. In January, he and Titus O’Neil got a couple of victories over Sheamus & Cesaro that earned them a Tag Title match.
They were unsuccessful because they were just a short-term distraction during the longer-term story of Sheamus & Cesaro vs. Rollins & Jordan. Crews has been overperforming at every turn, doing what is asked for him, but doing it better than anticipated. He was given a spot in the qualifying matches for the Elimination Chamber, but it was essentially out of necessity. It was either Apollo, Titus, Goldust, Axel, or Dallas. That, or you dig into the tag ranks to pick up some guys.
There wasn’t much to choose from, so Apollo got a shot. He had a very good match with The Miz and looked like he belonged in that company. He also had a great showing in the last chance fatal five-way match this week, and almost came away with the victory on a number of occasions.
Next week (and moving forward, I’m sure) it’ll be back to the grind. He will do something with Titus as one-half of a tag team, and he’ll either be left off of the Elimination Chamber card completely or he’ll participate in a multi-team match (Tag Team Turmoil?). The other “last chance” losers will probably face each other in some way. They’ll either announce a Hardy vs. Wyatt match for the show, or maybe a confrontation.
Maybe they won’t announce anything at all, but they still have some sort of confrontation at the show anyway. Either way, they will be featured. Every one of the men in the qualifying matches, both winners and losers, will be featured on the Elimination Chamber PPV except for Crews. He was a pawn, sure, but he earned an opportunity to move to a higher level. It won’t happen, though, and he’ll more than likely be fodder for the Andre the Giant Battle Royal.
