Elimination Chamber (2021)

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Elimination Chamber
behind closed doors)[Note 1]
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2022

The 2021 Elimination Chamber (known as No Escape in

livestreaming and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It was WWE's final pay-per-view to be available to livestream on the standalone version of the American WWE Network before the launch of Peacock's WWE Network channel in the United States on March 18; the standalone version of the American WWE Network itself shut down on April 4. This also marked the last Elimination Chamber to be held in the United States
.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In an impromptu main event,

Elimination Chamber match. In the opening bout, Daniel Bryan won SmackDown's Elimination Chamber match to earn an immediate Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns, who retained the title against Bryan. In another prominent match, Riddle defeated John Morrison and defending champion Bobby Lashley to win the United States Championship. This was the first Elimination Chamber to not feature a women's Elimination Chamber match since its debut in 2018
.

Production

Background

livestreamed on the WWE Network.[2]

In 2011 and since 2013, the show has been promoted as "No Escape" in

Holocaust.[3][4]

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Main article: WWE ThunderDome

As a result of the

Amway Center,[9] the ThunderDome was relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida in December.[10][11]

Storylines

The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed

Friday Night SmackDown.[14]

After

gauntlet match was held between the six Elimination Chamber match participants to determine who would enter the chamber last. Sheamus won by last eliminating McIntyre.[17]

In December 2020,

fatal four-way match was then scheduled for the Kickoff pre-show between Ricochet, Elias, John Morrison, and Mustafa Ali to fill Lee's vacated spot in the triple threat match for the U.S. title.[21]

On the February 12 episode of SmackDown, WWE official Adam Pearce scheduled

Robert Roode in a non-title tag team match to fill the final two spots.[22]

On the February 12 episode of SmackDown, while women's

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. The two teams brawled, with Banks and Belair standing tall.[22] The following week, Banks and Belair teamed with Reginald to defeat Jax, Baszler, and Bayley when Reginald pinned Jax. Later that night, Jax and Baszler were scheduled to defend the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against Banks and Belair at Elimination Chamber.[23]

Canceled match

In early January,

Raw Women's Champion Asuka to lose the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship on the Royal Rumble Kickoff pre-show.[24] On the February 8 episode of Raw, Evans stated that she respected Ric and his legacy, unlike his daughter, Charlotte Flair. Charlotte came out and lambasted Evans for using her dad to move forward. Evans then stated that she had her sights on the Raw Women's Championship and challenged Charlotte to a match, with the stipulation that if Evans won, she would earn a shot at the title. Evans subsequently defeated Charlotte by disqualification to earn a Raw Women's Championship match against Asuka at Elimination Chamber.[16] The following week during a tag team match that featured Charlotte and Asuka against Evans and Peyton Royce, Evans revealed that she was legitimately pregnant.[17] Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirmed that their match would not be taking place.[25]

Event

Other on-screen personnel
Role: Name:
English commentators Michael Cole (SmackDown)
Corey Graves (SmackDown)
Tom Phillips
(Raw)
Samoa Joe (Raw)
Byron Saxton (Raw)
Spanish commentators Carlos Cabrera
Marcelo Rodriguez
Ring announcers Greg Hamilton (SmackDown)
Mike Rome (Raw)
Referees Danilo Anfibio
Jason Ayers
Shawn Bennett
Jessika Carr
John Cone
Dan Engler
Darrick Moore
Eddie Orengo
Chad Patton
Ryan Tran
Rod Zapata
Interviewer Kayla Braxton
Pre-show panel Charly Caruso
Booker T
John "Bradshaw" Layfield
Peter Rosenberg

Pre-show

During the Elimination Chamber Kickoff pre-show, Ricochet, Elias, John Morrison, and Mustafa Ali (accompanied by his

T-Bar, and Slapjack) competed in a fatal four-way match for the vacant spot in the United States Championship match on the main card. After an evenly contested match between the four competitors, Morrison performed a roll-up pin on Ali, who was distracted by his stablemates attacking Ricochet, to win the match and advance to the United States Championship triple threat match.[26]

Also during the pre-show, it was announced that due to Lacey Evans' legitimate pregnancy, Asuka would defend her Raw Women's Championship against a different opponent on the main card.[26] However, this never occurred.[27]

Preliminary matches

The actual pay-per-view opened with SmackDown's Elimination Chamber match between Cesaro, Daniel Bryan, Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Baron Corbin, and Sami Zayn with the winner receiving an immediate Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns. Bryan and Cesaro started the match. Corbin was the third entrant, followed by Zayn. Corbin was eliminated by Cesaro after submitting to the Sharpshooter. Owens entered fifth and Jey entered last. Owens eliminated Zayn after a Stunner. Jey trapped Owens' arm in the main door of the Chamber and performed multiple Superkicks before eliminating Owens with an Uso Splash. After a back-and-forth battle between Bryan and Cesaro, Jey eliminated Cesaro after an Uso Splash. In the end, Bryan countered Jey and performed the Running Knee on Jey to win the match.[27]

Following the match, the Chamber structure lifted above the ring and Roman Reigns (accompanied by Paul Heyman) made his entrance for his immediate Universal Championship defense against Daniel Bryan. Bryan applied the Yes Lock on Reigns, who escaped by performing multiple forearm smashes. Reigns applied the Guillotine Choke on Bryan, who passed out, thus Reigns retained the title by

technical submission. Following the match, men's Royal Rumble match winner Edge appeared and performed a Spear on Reigns. He then pointed at the WrestleMania sign and signified that he had chosen to challenge Reigns for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 37, which was later confirmed.[27]

Backstage, The Miz interrupted 24/7 Champion Bad Bunny, accompanied by Damian Priest. Miz questioned why Bad Bunny was present, who stated that he was the 24/7 Champion. Bad Bunny then mocked Miz for not being a champion before slapping him.[27]

Next, Bobby Lashley (accompanied by MVP) defended the United States Championship against Riddle and John Morrison. In the end, Riddle attacked Lashley with MVP's crutch. While Lashley was outside the ring, Riddle performed the Bro-Derek on Morrison to win the title.[27]

In the penultimate match, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against women's Royal Rumble match winner Bianca Belair and SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks. In the end, Reginald came to the ring and handed a champagne bottle to Banks to use as a weapon while the referee was distracted. This backfired though, as while Banks was distracted by Reginald, Jax performed a Samoan Drop on Banks to retain the titles for herself and Baszler.[27]

Backstage, MVP was shown talking to The Miz, who had his Money in the Bank briefcase in hand.[27]

Main event

In the main event, Drew McIntyre defended the WWE Championship against Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, AJ Styles (accompanied by his bodyguard

Omos), Randy Orton, and Sheamus in Raw's Elimination Chamber match. Hardy and Orton started the match. Later on in the match, McIntyre entered third. Kingston entered fourth and he eliminated Orton with a roll-up, after which Randy then got enraged and performed two RKO's: one on Kofi and one on Hardy. While the referee was dealing with Orton, Omos broke open the pod Styles was locked up in from the outside, allowing Styles to enter early through the Chamber's main door. After Styles scrambled his way through the chamber's main door, he did not notice that WWE official Adam Pearce ejected Omos from ringside and forced the Nigerian Giant to leave. Sheamus was the last to enter the match. Sheamus then eliminated Kingston with a Brogue Kick. After Hardy performed the Swanton Bomb on Styles, McIntyre eliminated Hardy with a Claymore Kick. Styles eliminated Sheamus after a Phenomenal Forearm. As Styles then attempted a Phenomenal Forearm on McIntyre, McIntyre caught Styles in mid-air with a Claymore Kick to retain the title.[27]

Following the match, as the Chamber structure was lifted above the ring, a frustrated Bobby Lashley appeared and with viciousness, he performed a Spear on McIntyre, attacked him at ringside after throwing Drew out of the ring itself, and applied the Hurt Lock on McIntyre after throwing him back in the ring. Then, following the attack, Miz ran to the ring and cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, while Lashley departed backstage. After a nearfall, Miz performed the Skull Crushing Finale on McIntyre to win the WWE Championship for a second time, last winning it in 2010, which was also via a Money in the Bank cash-in.[27] This also made Miz the first two-time Grand Slam Champion in WWE history.[28]

Aftermath

On January 25, 2021, WWE announced that the WWE Network would become exclusively distributed by Peacock in the United States as part of a new agreement with NBCUniversal, which airs Raw and NXT on the USA Network. On March 18, the WWE Network became a premium channel under Peacock, with premium subscribers to the service receiving access to the WWE Network at no additional cost. As a result, Elimination Chamber was the final pay-per-view to be available to livestream on the American version of the WWE Network before the launch of Peacock's WWE Network channel.[29][30] After a brief transitional period, the standalone version of the WWE Network in the U.S. shut down on April 4, with future events only available via Peacock's WWE Network channel and traditional PPV. This did not affect other countries, which maintained the separate WWE Network service distributed by WWE at the time.[31][32] This also marked the last Elimination Chamber to be held in the United States.

Raw

The following night on Raw, new WWE Champion The Miz celebrated his win with his tag team partner, John Morrison. Miz bragged about his victory, dismissing his critics as "losers" and "haters", only for Bobby Lashley and MVP to interrupt. Lashley stated that Miz only won the title because of him and then stated that he owes Lashley, who then gave Miz one hour to make a decision. Later on the show, Lashley came out for his supposed title match with Miz. However,

lumberjack match to win the WWE Championship.[34] He defeated The Miz in a rematch on the following Raw.[35] On the March 15 episode, it was confirmed that Lashley would defend the championship against McIntyre at WrestleMania 37.[36]

Also on the following Raw, new United States Champion Riddle faced John Morrison, who Riddle had pinned to win the title, in a non-title match. Riddle subsequently defeated Morrison.[33]

In a follow-up to the Lacey Evans and Charlotte Flair angle, Charlotte told her father Ric Flair that she cannot focus on her matches, as she and Raw Women's Champion Asuka lost a non-title tag team match against the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler earlier that night, also seemingly causing the breakup of her team with Asuka. Ric claimed that he was not the father of Lacey Evans' baby and that he was only trying to help motivate Evans just as he had motivated Charlotte to become one of the all-time greats. Charlotte stated that Ric was still trying to be the Nature Boy and told him that she was thankful for the opportunities that he provided her, but he needed to leave and let her be herself.[33] The following week, Charlotte set her sights on Asuka and the Raw Women's Championship, wanting to face Asuka for the title at WrestleMania 37,[34] but that did not happen due to Flair testing positive for COVID-19, removing her from the WrestleMania title picture.[37]

Drew McIntyre returned to Raw the following week. He addressed the fact that he successfully defended the WWE Championship in Raw's Elimination Chamber match, but he was not prepared for the ambush by Bobby Lashley and subsequently The Miz cashing in the Money in the Bank contract to win the title. McIntyre declared that he would regain the WWE Championship and main event WrestleMania 37. McIntyre then turned his attention to his old friend Sheamus and the two had their originally planned one-on-one match that night where McIntyre defeated Sheamus.

No Holds Barred match.[38]

SmackDown

On the following SmackDown, Universal Champion, Roman Reigns, accompanied by Paul Heyman and Jey Uso, one half of the Usos, stated that Edge ruined his victory over Daniel Bryan. He then gave Edge an opportunity to back out from choosing to challenge him at WrestleMania 37. Reigns stated that he did not want to hurt him as Edge has a family. Bryan then came out and mocked Reigns for defending his championship against him right after he had won SmackDown's Elimination Chamber match. Bryan then questioned Reigns as to why he defended the title in the second match of the event, instead of in the main event. Bryan then challenged Reigns to another championship match at Fastlane. Jey interjected and stated Bryan would have to earn another opportunity like everyone else and then challenged Bryan to a match. Later, Edge confronted WWE presenter and former WWE wrestler, Adam Pearce, backstage, taking issue that Bryan would receive a title shot before him, as Edge won the Royal Rumble match, which Bryan also competed in. Pearce decided that Bryan would only get a Universal Championship match at Fastlane if he could defeat Jey in their match that night. Edge later confronted Bryan backstage where Bryan stated he believed he had a better chance at defeating Reigns than Edge did, however, Edge reminded Bryan that if Bryan were to defeat Reigns for the Universal Championship, Bryan would be facing Edge at WrestleMania 37. In the main event, however, both Bryan and Jey's match ended in a double countout.

special guest enforcer during the championship match,[41] which was won by Edge.[42] At Fastlane, Reigns retained after Edge attacked both men with a steel chair.[43] On the following SmackDown, it was announced that Reigns would defend the Universal Championship against Edge and Bryan in a triple threat match at WrestleMania 37.[44]

Also on SmackDown, women's Royal Rumble winner Bianca Belair officially announced that she would challenge Sasha Banks for the SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania 37.[39] Before WrestleMania 37, Banks and Belair faced Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler in a rematch for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at Fastlane,[45] but were unsuccessful again.[43] Banks also had a successful title defense against Jax on the March 19 episode of SmackDown.[42]

Results

No.ResultsStipulationsTimes
Money in the Bank cash-in match
.		0:30
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match
P – the match was broadcast on the pre-show

SmackDown Elimination Chamber match

Eliminated Wrestler Entered Eliminated by Method Time[27]
1 King Corbin 3 Cesaro
Submission
 17:45
2 Sami Zayn 4 Kevin Owens
Pinfall
 25:30
3 Kevin Owens 5 Jey Uso 26:50
4 Cesaro 2 32:50
5 Jey Uso 6 Daniel Bryan 34:20
Winner Daniel Bryan 1

Raw Elimination Chamber match

Eliminated Wrestler Entered Eliminated by Method Time[27]
1 Randy Orton 1 Kofi Kingston
Pinfall
 8:55
2 Kofi Kingston 4 Sheamus 23:35
3 Jeff Hardy 2 Drew McIntyre 25:15
4 Sheamus 6 AJ Styles 30:15
5 AJ Styles 5 Drew McIntyre 31:10
Winner Drew McIntyre (c) 3

Notes

  1. ^ The event was held without a paying audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, though it featured a live crowd of virtual fans via WWE's ThunderDome viewing experience.

References

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