Elimination Chamber Rules

The Elimination Chamber match is one of WWE’s most brutal and high-stakes contests, combining elements of steel cage and traditional multi-competitor matches. Over the years, the Elimination Chamber has evolved, featuring variations like tag team, women’s, and championship bouts. The match has been instrumental in shaping WrestleMania storylines, often determining title contenders or champions. WWE has also refined the chamber’s design for safety while maintaining its unforgiving nature. With careers made and bodies broken inside the steel, the Elimination Chamber remains a fan-favorite spectacle of endurance, strategy, and survival, defining some of WWE’s most iconic moments.

How does the Elimination Chamber work?

According to The SmackDown Hotel and Prowrestling.famdom.com, the Elimination Chamber match adheres to the rules of elimination, as the name suggests. It features six competitors, with two starting the match in the ring while the remaining four are enclosed in glass pods. At set intervals of three, four, or five minutes, one pod is randomly opened, adding another competitor to the match. The process continues until all six participants have entered the fray. Anywhere in the structure, a pinfall or submission results in an elimination. However, rules changed in 2012, requiring all eliminations to take place within the ring.

Wrestlers can be eliminated before every participant has entered, and the match continues until only one competitor remains. Due to the chamber’s enclosed nature, count-outs do not apply, and there are no disqualifications, allowing the use of the steel structure and outside interference. Outside objects can also be introduced, though no weapons are pre-placed inside the chamber. The last remaining wrestler is declared the winner.

Structure and Design

The Elimination Chamber match takes place within a massive circular steel structure with a domed roof and chains that interlock. Extending beyond the ring, the chamber includes steel platforms (grates) at the ringside, level with the ring apron to create a seamless battleground.

Constructed from 16 black-painted steel frames, each weighing 300 pounds (140 kg), the chamber is an imposing sight. It stands 16 feet (4.9 m) tall, spans 36 feet (11 m) in diameter, and has a total weight of approximately 15 tons, with 10 tons consisting of solid steel. According to The SmackDown Hotel, the walls of the cage are made of chains that span 3.2 kilometers and weigh 5,400 kilograms each. This reinforces the chamber's reputation as one of WWE's most punishing match environments.

Origin and Variations

Eric Bischoff introduced the stipulation for the Elimination Chamber at WWE's 2002 Survivor Series PPV. The match was designed by WWE to combine elements from WCW's WarGames, Hell in a Cell, the Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series. It borrowed from the Royal Rumble and WarGames' staggered entry and countdown timer formats, Hell in a Cell's enclosed cage structure, and the Royal Rumble and Survivor Series' elimination-style format. The match has only been a part of the pay-per-view event with that name since 2010.

At WWE's December to Dismember event in 2006, a variation known as the Extreme Elimination Chamber only took place once and featured the ECW brand. By equipping each wrestler in the pods with a weapon that entered play when they did, this version was different. A crowbar, a table, a steel chair, a crowbar, and a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire were some of the weapons used in that match.