WWE rolled into Atlanta for the go-home show for Elimination Chamber with RAW set to pay to pay tribute to the career of AJ Styles.
Let’s get into the results:
Elimination Chamber qualifying match: Jey Uso def. Bronson Reed and The Original El Grande Americano
Maxxine Dupri and Nattie – no contest
Je’Von Evans def. Kofi Kingston
Elimination Chamber qualifying match: Raquel Rodriguez def. Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane
Notes:
Bronson Reed appeared to suffer a serious shoulder injury in the triple-threat match.
Liv Morgan chose to face Stephanie Vaquer at WrestleMania 42, attacking her with a microphone.
WWE were set to hail Styles at the start of the show, but Gunther showed up to spoil it. Dragon Lee attacked him again.
Brock Lesnar has issued an open challenge for WrestleMania. No one has answered it yet.
More tension between Dominik Mysterio and Finn Balor as the latter insists he will not help Dirty Dom in his IC title match with Penta next week.
Abyss and Franki Kazarian were among the former TNA stars to show up for Styles – very cool! The Good Brothers were also in the house.
AJ Styles cuts one final WWE promo and is greeted by the whole locker room on the ramp. Undertaker’s gong hits and he makes his way to the ring. The Deadman, after trying his best to suggest they could have one last match in a rather confusing manner, ends up informing Styles he will be the first Hall of Fame induction this year.
Analysis
The AJ Styles tribute was very cool. A fitting send off for a true legend of the game and a great decade in WWE. God, he was so damn good at his peak. And really, there was hardly any real, noticeable drop off in his work. A very fitting Hall of Fame induction.
Reed’s apparent injury is bad news all around. Now, all of The Vision’s original members – Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker and Reed – are on the shelf and out of action. The group was such a powerful force on RAW at one point but they can’t seem to catch a break at the moment.
Hopefully Breakker vs Rollins at WrestleMania – if that works out – will energise all involved once more.
Morgan choosing Vaquer makes sense. Morgan vs Cargill would have been a tough sell for sure and Vaquer’s title reign has underwhelmed. That’s only partly her fault, it’s much more to do with WWE not having her beat any top names.
But who now for Cargill? The women’s Chamber has options in Raquel Rodriguez and Rhea Ripley. They can match Cargill for size and power. Or perhaps WWE wants to run it back with Tiffany Stratton, the woman who lost the belt to Cargill. That’s not too appealing to me, but I could see it.
The Brock Lesnar open challenge segment reminds me of all the things I don’t like about how stale The Beast can be. Don’t get me wrong; I love him at his destructive best. With the right opponent he’s a joy inside the ring. But I do not enjoy watching Paul Heyman reel off a promo from nearly 10 years ago.
It’s beneath him and his vast abilities. I also find it amusing that Lesnar revealed the dates he will be there for WWE, but take this date for example – he went to Atlanta and just stood in a ring while Heyman spoke! What a waste.
I’ve long thought the real interesting opponents for Lesnar are Gunther, Oba Femi and Breakker. Out of those three, we’ve got the best chance with Femi. The hot rumours are it’s LA Knight… but it’s hard to see what the Megastar will get out of that.
It was a solid episode of RAW that didn’t outstay its welcome and the show certainly finished on a high.
