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We've gone past the final pitstop on the Road to WrestleMania. We're now in the home stretch. WWE Elimination Chamber 2020 cleared up the remaining picture quite a bit, giving us a good showing with a lot of things happening in the process. A lot of the results were predictable, but nevertheless, who got the most and least out of the final pay per view before the biggest event on the WWE calendar? Let's go ahead and take a look.
Winner: Aleister Black
Though the Undertaker made his presence felt in this match, it ended in a much-needed victory for Aleister Black, given what happened last week on RAW, where it looked like he was just being used as fodder to promote AJ Styles' inevitable match with the Undertaker at WrestleMania.
Personally, I think Black vs. Undertaker would be far more interesting, but there's probably no changing the initial plan at this point, and there's no one better than AJ Styles to carry an increasingly geriatric Undertaker to a good match on the grandest stage in the business.
Either way, Aleister Black got back to his winning ways last night and will probably have some kind of decent place on the WrestleMania card, which is great news for him. Rumors supposedly suggest he'll have another match with Andrade for the United States Championship, given Andrade's earlier victory over Humberto Carillo.
The United States title doesn't mean a lot in the modern WWE, but we all remember Aleister Black and Andrade's match at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans two years ago. If they can even get close to equaling that showing on the greatest stage in wrestling, the two have a good few weeks ahead of them, and something to look forward to in Tampa Bay. We do, too.
Loser: Braun Strowman
There's a reason why midcard titles don't mean a whole lot in today's WWE. Champions can never get good reigns with them. They're either too short or uneventful. This was the case with Braun Strowman's reign. He lost the title to Sami Zayn in a 3-on-1 handicap match featuring Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro, only a month before WrestleMania.
Though Braun Strowman will probably go into WrestleMania feuding for the title, his loss last night also means that he won't be walking into Tampa Bay as the champion. It knocks him down a peg no matter how you look at it. Braun Strowman is the ultimate case of a start and stop push. We saw it again last night. The company just won't let him go on a run for a sustained period of time.
Perhaps he will get his title back at WrestleMania, but I doubt it, and it would be another meaningless title change anyway. WWE should look at NXT's North American Championship for ideas on how to book a midcard title properly.
Winner: Shayna Baszler
Everybody expected Shayna Baszler to win last night and to win big. She did so, eliminating all five other competitors in the Elimination Chamber. This solidifies the rocket push she's gotten since making appearances on the main roster last fall, and finally arriving full time after the Royal Rumble. For the first time in a long time, Becky Lynch suddenly looks like she's facing a real, powerful threat.
On the other hand, when the match actually happened, the Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler encounter bombed hard at Survivor Series. WWE has so far done a good job building the feud, but Becky Lynch and Shayna Baszler's respective match histories doesn't suggest they'd do well with each other. Both of them have numerous lackluster title defenses to their names. There is a risk here.
WWE will have to continue to build the match properly to mitigate the risk. But so far, the company has done a good job. We'll just have to see what happens over the next month!
