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When the Elimination Chamber concept was initially created by Eric Bischoff, what he had in mind was a unforgiving steel structure that would separate men from the boys or change the careers of the entrants forever.
Wrestler were supposed to go out of the chamber with bloodied faces and torn muscles though it could’ve been a kayfabe one. The violence in the match was supposed to make it stand out from the other cage matches. All these were the guideline that the former WCW head booker had in mind when he actually proposed the chamber to his biggest rival Vince McMahon.
Satan’s What ?
To be fair, Vince actually utilized the structure to its fullest until one day he woke up with the idea of turning WWE into a family friendly PG show.
And with that the “unforgiving Satan’s playground” was transformed into a mere object which the company took out once in a year to make the fans believe that they are seeing something different. But the fact is: the elimination chamber has turned into a mere chair or kendo stick that has lost all its purpose.
The days where it was seen as a bulky beast structure that changed lives is soon gone and the fans are stuck with just two tons of useless steel that is being put to use at the rarest of rare occasions. To add more misery the WWE even decided to give a pay-per-view with the same name.
Yet the company tries to put a veil over our eyes and say that the chamber is still the most violent match in the business. What a joke right? The fans that grew up seeing Mick Foley drop from 20 feet and Sandman getting crucified at least knows what violence is.
One of the matches that redefined the word Violence
Then the important point comes, how violent can the match be in the PG Era. The truth is PG Era isn’t the one to be blamed for the whole mess up; it’s the company which thinks that even a head bump is going to ruin their Family Friendly style.
Now the chamber cannot be as violent as it was a decade ago and it doesn’t need to be. We don’t want to see wrestlers fall of heights to their deaths or we don’t want to see them have thumbtacks stuck on their back but we could at least get some credible reason for why the chamber is being used in the first place.
Instead of making it just a match were six men fight it out in a transparent room, the creative could get their brains back from the long vacation to do some work on how the match could be booked well. If the company decided to go with the PG Era they should also have a good idea on how they can work brilliantly inside the limit.
The pay-per-view having two Elimination chamber matches with randomly picked 12 superstars ain’t going to work well with the fans anymore as they are fed up with the way the storylines are being put. So for starters the best thing that the creative can do at the moment to breathe some life into the match is to get in some credible storyline backup for the 12-men who are participating in the match rather than picking superstars in a random or qualifying manner.
Men bashing out eachother inside the chamber for a reason would be a better scenario to watch even in the toned down violence. I mean when Shawn Michaels and Undertaker lock horns in the squared circle it’s not the violence that makes the fans go wild, it is the amount of tension that was built between them in the prior weeks. Thus a storyline is the first step that the creative should look into.
it’s potential not a prop
Secondly and most importantly, the company should see the chamber as a cruel dark horse in the match rather than just an object or prop.
The steel in the structure are being put so to provide an attacking option for the wrestler than being the things which blind the fans. The pods and the chains in the chamber could put into more technical use if not hardcore use at some points of the match. Since it’s in PG, the focus could be on the technical aspect. The cage can be used for high flying moves, submission, suplexes, and occasional violent moves. A bit more work on the plastic glass of the pod could also deliver a platform for more action.
With such an immense potential of the chamber being put to waste by the creative at the moment. One should feel sad about being a WWE fan in the PG Era. If things don’t change soon, then there won’t be any point in having matches like this which used to be one of the main attractions in the golden era. For now let’s just hope that the company realizes that there are a lot of crevices to be filled if they have to survive for the years to come.
