WWE Elimination Chamber ended up being a night of new champions, minus American Alpha. Regarding the Heavyweight and Women’s Titles, both Bray Wyatt and Naomi captured their first wins in their respective divisions. They both received praise from the audience in attendance because they were long-overlooked competitors. They truly deserved it.
Those title changes were a big plus from this SmackDown Live-exclusive event, but it wasn’t all sunshine in the Chamber. Some of the less positive moments included what might’ve been the breaking point for Tyler Breeze, a Pele Kick by AJ Styles that the announcers claimed missed its mark, and a pre-show stumble by a former longest reigning SmackDown Champion.
JBL really should invest in some non-slip shoes. Without further delay, here are the 5 botchiest and most outrageous moments from Elimination Chamber 2017.
#5 Camera shy German announcers
When the show began, there was the usual sequence of the English announcers introducing the Spanish announce team. With an ever-expanding international reach, there’s also usually an introduction to another foreign team at ringside. That team in the opening was the German duo, who apparently missed their cue.
Poor Tim Haber treated us all to a long, awkward gaze before he finally attempted a stutter of a start. Even when he did begin, he caught himself and stopped briefly again. Calvin Knie offered a finger point to make sure his pal finally started talking.
#4 Jason Jordan could’ve tagged in
The Usos have been neglected since embarking on their much-needed heel turn and they got their shine in this Tag Team Turmoil Match. They were tough on the sympathetic Champions like in this moment when they refused to let Chad Gable tag into his partner, Jason Jordan.
The noticeable problem here is that they very easily could’ve tagged in. Jordan was obviously not extending his arm fully and on top of that, his frantic waving made it look like he was purposely avoiding Gable’s hand.
#3 Fashion Police silliness
This moment when Heath Slater performed a sunset slip onto Fandango had many layers of outrageousness to it. First, there was the comically long struggle in which Slater did everything he could to roll Fandango into a pin.
Second, the moment when the man with a Fashion Police gimmick started distributing violations to the man with many kids was highly goofy. It was funny, yes, but it’s hard to take Fandango and Tyler as anything more than low card jobbers when they’re throwing papers at their opponents that say “Ewww” and “Fugly.” They’re better than that.
Third, and probably the most outrageous takeaway here, was that Tyler Breeze might be a tad frustrated with this comedy schtick. He took to Twitter after the show and shared a plethora of YouTube links to some of his best matches back when he regularly wrestled serious matches against guys like Hideo Itami and Finn Balor.
Hopefully, Prince Pretty endures his spot on the card until somebody realises the talent that is being wasted.
#2 Grazing Pele kick
The Elimination Chamber Match was a fantastic way to cap off the show. It came down to AJ Styles and Bray Wyatt in this structure, which made it a certainty that a new Champion was going to leave the event.
There was one slight slip up in the closing moment when Styles went for a Pele Kick and didn’t come close to Wyatt. Seeing it from the view of the home audience it really didn’t look like a botch but the move must’ve looked far different from the announcers’ point of view.
JBL and Mauro immediately commented how the kick just grazed Bray and how he didn’t get all of it. This is one of those cases where if the announcers didn’t really say anything then it probably wouldn’t have been noticeable.
#1 JBL tripped again
Are we worried about JBL’s mobility yet? Several weeks back, he became the butt of many jokes when he tumbled out of his desk on SmackDown trying to come to the aid of Jerry “The King” Lawler. While making his way to the ring during Elimination Chamber, a similar event happened yet again.
The former APA member tried to wave his hat and perform a fancy step manoeuvre for the crowd, but it caused a huge fall instead. The cameraman tried to be a hero and catch JBL, but it was of no help.
JBL was mostly a good sport about this slip-up, except for these lines directed toward Tom Phillips and Sam Roberts for their jesting: “I will slap you. I will slap you and Harpo Marx-looking Sam Roberts!”
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