Elimination Chamber 2018: 5 things we learned from Sunday’s WWE event

RAW’s Elimination Chamber has wrapped up, so we have a pretty good idea of what direction that show is going in for WrestleMania 34. And that’s a lot of what we’ll be discussing here, since our recaps are now all about what we learned from these pay-per-views. If you want the blow-by-blow of the event, you can check out Sunday night’s live results.

Let’s get right to the educating.

Well hold on let’s address Ronda Rousey first: that contract signing segment was real, real, real bad, and then Ronda stopped trying to talk and instead just tried to look pissed and dangerous, and then the segment was real, real, real good. She’s going to face Stephanie McMahon and Triple H at WrestleMania 34, likely with Kurt Angle as her tag partner, and that’s good that the Ronda match and the Angle match and the Triple H match are all the same match, as it opens up the card for more.

Okay, now let’s get right to the educating.

It seemed pretty clear who was going to win in a match between Asuka and Nia Jax: Jax is terrifying and powerful, but Asuka is Asuka, and as WWE kept reminding us, she entered action 246-0 in their rings — having that streak end at the pay-per-view before WrestleMania 34 wasn’t impossible, but it was definitely unlikely.

What we got in the match, then, helped make things feel far less predictable, as Nia destroyed Asuka basically from the opening bell until the end of the match, which was won by Asuka only because she reversed what could very well have been the powerbomb that finally made her take a pin in WWE and rolled up Nia for win 247 instead.

Asuka looked broken in a way she normally does not following a match, and then was damaged further by Nia, who continued to toss Asuka around and then broke her and a barricade before exiting the arena. We got a short, sweet, and violent outing from these two, one that showed Nia can not only hang with but hurt the Empress of Tomorrow in a way others have not been able to, but Asuka was still able to escape with the win. There is more story to be told here, and if it takes until Asuka has a women’s championship — be it the RAW or SmackDown title — for us to get it, the wait will be worth it.

Since she lost, Nia does not have a guaranteed match at WrestleMania 34. Asuka will likely declare her challenge to either RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss or SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte soon, now that Elimination Chamber is in the rearview. Will Nia end up challenging the other, given she wasn’t handed a title opportunity like the rest of RAW’s women were on Sunday?

This part-timer thing John Cena has been doing, where he films movies and commercials and shows up on The Today Show just doesn’t seem to be working out. He keeps losing matches, big and bigger, and suddenly, he looks to be without a path to WrestleMania 34.

Cena’s confidence is shot, and he also sounds desperate when you hear him discuss what’s next. There’s no guarantee of anything, but all of this seems to point toward Cena wrestling Undertaker at WrestleMania 34.

Taker had what appeared to be a retirement match with Roman Reigns at last year’s Mania, but that was because he didn’t seem to have it anymore due to a hip injury and not being fully recovered in time for Mania following surgery — the initial plan for that match was unlikely “Roman Reigns retires Taker,” but as Mania drew closer, plans changed.

So, Taker coming back with a hip that won’t actively detract from a match — in theory, anyway — to face John Cena, the one major WWE star still going who Undertaker notably has not faced at Mania, makes a lot of sense. It pits two part-timers against each other, it creates a real legend vs. legend situation that devoted fans of both can easily latch onto, and really, it’s just going to look good on a marquee or a banner, because it’s something many, many people have been waiting for.

Cena’s still got it, even if he’s pretending he might not. Does Taker still have it? Well, that remains to be seen. But WWE and Cena are playing up this “no clear path to WrestleMania 34” thing so hard that anything besides an Undertaker match at this point would be a shock.

WWE sometimes plays it a little too safe with their Historic Firsts for their women’s divisions, focusing much more on how historic and first time-y the matches are than in telling a good story. The Royal Rumble was a wonderful break from that, and the first-ever women’s Elimination Chamber match was a solid followup along the same lines.

Mickie James climbed atop a pod and jumped off into Sonya Deville, giving us a signature Chamber moment. Alexa Bliss creatively used the cage to escape Bayley and Sasha Banks when it was down to just the three of them. Bayley was strung up on the chamber wall itself by Mandy Rose and Sonya, who proceeded to beat on the outnumbered wrestler until another chamber pod opened up and changed the landscape of the match.

And the six women in this match made up for the safer conditions of the modern Chamber — there is padding on the outside and a whole lot of open space that didn’t used to be there — by hitting each other as hard as they could. Sasha Banks, especially, looked determined to punch and kick her opponents as hard as possible, and it was both noted and appreciated.

The only real issue with the match remains the build to it, in which Alexa Bliss correctly pointed out that it’s weird she was defending her title instead of awaiting a Mania opponent like Lesnar, moments after RAW general manager Kurt Angle simply placed five opponents who had lost the Royal Rumble match into an outright championship match at the next pay-per-view. Bliss defended her championship, though, so at least we got a good match out of it, and now we’ll get to find out who she’s facing at Mania 34 sooner than later.

Braun Strowman did not win the men’s Elimination Chamber match, which was designed to find Brock Lesnar’s opponent and a challenger for his WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34. He did, however, eliminate everyone else in the match besides the winner, Roman Reigns, and that performance is not simply going to be swept away because he lost the match itself.

Strowman won’t get Lesnar at Mania, but he’ll likely get his choice of consolation prize. The Intercontinental Championship is the most significant men’s title on the show besides the Universal belt, and Strowman has had issues with Miz and the Miztourage in the past, so this would be the direction I’d bet on if I were the kind of person who bet on professional wrestling, which I am not. But I do get to write about it, so I can write lines like that to explain where I’m leaning.

Listen, it sucks that Strowman, who is so super over with the crowd right now, won’t be in the main event at WrestleMania 34. However, if he gets to wrestle the also super over Miz at Mania, destroys the Miztourage in a way no one else has been able to, pins Miz, and then murks new opponents for a while as the holder of the Intercontinental Championship, then we’re still in a pretty good place. Especially since he won’t drop that belt until it’s time for him to get back into the Universal Championship scene. As long as Braun is Braun, Roman can wrap his Lesnar story and win a few title defenses until it’s time to go down the Strowman/Reigns road once more.

Maybe you don’t care about Reigns vs. Lesnar happening again, because you want someone besides Roman Reigns in the main event at WrestleMania. While I’m sympathetic to you, it’s also just one match, and this is, at least, a continuation of a story WWE has been telling for some time now.

It began at WrestleMania 31, when Lesnar beat the absolute heck out of Reigns, but Roman refused to quit and even managed to bring things back to where it looked like he could win — until Seth Rollins interrupted, turned it into a triple threat for the WWE Championship using his Money in the Bank briefcase containing a guaranteed title shot, and won the title from Brock by pinning Reigns. We never got to see the conclusion of the one-on-one affair, and now that Lesnar is comfortably back in seemingly unbeatable territory after plowing through the likes of Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, and Strowman, it’s Reigns’ turn to put an end to this.

It’s the story they’ve been prepping us for, and it’s the one they’re going to finish telling in April. What really matters is that the Universal Championship is likely coming off of Lesnar at Mania, and that puts an end to the curse of the last year, which has been Lesnar showing up with the belt every now and again and the top title on the show being in the background almost always. Lesnar can put on some killer matches still, there’s no question there, but he can be a special attraction without also being champion, and it’s time WWE goes in that direction. With Reigns winning the Elimination Chamber, it appears they agree with that assertion.