With the spur of the moment announcement of the return of the Elimination Chamber PPV, I decided to take some time over the next few weeks and review several past Chambers. First up is the 2005 edition where the main story heading into was that of Evolution. Would Batista stay loyal to Triple H or would he take the chance to become World Heavyweight Champion? The title was vacant at the time so we knew there would be a new champion. Who would come out on top? Did Batista turn on Triple H? Was it as good of a match as it sounds like? Let's find out!
Triple H vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Edge - Elimination Chamber Match for the World Heavyweight Championship - New Year's Revolution 2005
This one started off much slower than expected. It wasn't particularly bad, but they didn't have the most intricately thought out opening sequence either. Benoit & Jericho had a solid exchange to start albeit a bit rushed with the climax coming before another entrant came into the match as Benoit suplexed Y2J off the top rope. Triple H came in next followed by Edge who began cleaning house when he entered. Three of the four guys get busted open and things start to pick up just before Orton's pod opens. Triple H hits a vicious pedigree on a bloodied Jericho and Orton hits the ring. Orton goes right after the man who ruined his first World Heavyweight Title reign. As said before, this is where things really picked up. Great brawl between Orton & Hunter followed by some awesome exchanges by all the guys in the match at the time including HHH going for a pedigree only to be caught by a german suplex from Benoit and Orton catching Benoit with an RKO out of nowhere while he was applying a sharpshooter on HHH. Edge ends up getting eliminated first and the match continues at a good pace afterwards. There was a fantastic spot with Jericho holding HHH in the walls of Jericho while Benoit had him in the crossface. This takes place as the clock is winding down for Batista to enter the match. Batista strolls in and takes out both Jericho & Benoit. Up next is an epic foreshadowing segment with Batista & Triple H coming face to face and JR calling it like only he can, to the point that it gave me chills, even 10 years later. Before either man could make a move, Orton & Y2J break things up. Batista regains control and cleans house with a spinebuster on Benoit followed one on Jericho ONTO Benoit. This leads to the elimination of Benoit and eventually Jericho as well, but not before Batista threw him outside onto a cameraman. It's down to all three members of Evolution which is something that didn't surprise although it was still cool. HHH & Batista team up on Orton. Orton somehow comes back, RKO on Batista! Triple H watches in the corner as Orton eliminates Batista. The crowd boos as HHH jumps Orton immediately after sandbagging when Batista was down for the count. Batista still shows his loyalty though and comes back in when HBK had his back turned. Wow, just realized I totally forgot to mention that Shawn Michaels was the guest ref for this! Yeah, that was his role her. Not exactly sure why, but it happened. Flair distracts HBK, Batista nails Orton with a brutal lariat. HHH takes advantage and pedigrees Orton to become the World Heavyweight Champion. Batista, Flair, & Orton celebrate together to close this one out. This match was pretty great for what it was. I feel like if I was watching this when it happened, I would have marked out more than I did during this viewing a decade later however there are still moments like Batista & HHH facing off with JR calling it that will send chills down your spine. The action wasn't out of this world outside of one or two cool exchanges and the blood being involved, this one was more about storytelling, I think and did a perfect job of telling the story that it was supposed to by foreshadowing the forthcoming feud between HHH & Batista.
Match rating - ****
Which Elimination Chamber should I review next? I'm going to add a poll to the front page of the site where you can vote. I have the anthology set so I can review any of the ones included in that, those being 2002-2010. So feel free to vote in that or tweet me your vote on Twitter @ThePWTruth!
Triple H makes his first Raw appearance in nearly a month to set things straight between Seth Rollins & Kane. Pretty entertaining stuff with HHH proclaiming "Daddy's home!" and alot of yelling between the three. Sets up two matches for later tonight - Reigns/Kane and Rollins/Orton. "We Want Ambrose" chants rang through this entire segment and the payoff was his match being up first.
1) Dean Ambrose vs. Jamie Noble & Joey Mercury
This actually got some time which surprised me. Ambrose rolls over them early then the numbers game gives J&J control. Ambrose makes his comeback and picks up the victory. The crowd was super hot for him with it being his hometown so this was fun. Short, sweet, and to the point. I don't think this is the last we will see of The Lunatic Fringe tonight though, at least I hope not.
Match rating - **1/2
2) Bad News Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler
Ah. This match brought some sombering news because both men got matches set for Payback against Sheamus and Neville respectively. That basically takes care of the IC Title picture so where does that leave DB? I hope this isn't a sign of things to come later in the night. None the less, BNB vs DZ is always good and this was no different. They go to commercial pretty quickly, but when we return, a great exchange goes down with Ziggler blocking the bull hammer elbow with a drop kick. Sheamus causes a distraction which leads to a bull hammer out of nowhere. BNB with the win over Ziggler. Sheamus toys with him afterwards. Ziggler gets a nice flurry before being shut down again. Nice little build for that match.
Match rating - **3/4
3) John Cena vs. Neville - United States Championship Match
This week on Monday Night Raw, the WWE Title Match between Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, & Roman Reigns scheduled for Payback got a new dynamic added to it as Dean Ambrose earned himself a spot in the match. Many people expected us to get a Shield Triple Threat Match at SummerSlam so when news came that we'd get it early, everyone went nuts including myself. This excitement turned into me coming up with many different scenarios in this match and I've decided to share them with you here.
This will be different than my other Fantasy Bookings in that I've never done one particular match before. Usually I do months worth of storylines and while I'm contemplating booking the summer, I had so many ideas for the complete layout of this match that I decided to do this instead/first.
If you've read my fantasy bookings before, you pretty much know what to expect. If not, I always like to give a bit of introduction and disclaimer. This is NOT what is rumored to happen, this is NOT what I expect to happen, this IS how I would book this match if given the opportunity as well as how I think it should be done. As the title suggests this is purely fantasy. I will go through this match and discuss certain moments/exchanges that I would have take place all the way through the finish. Buckle up, this is set to be a wild ride.
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Randy Orton - WWE Championship Match
The bell rings and all four men are each in a corner. Immediately, the faces (Orton, Ambrose & Reigns) begin targeting their enemy, Seth Rollins. They corner him and the men begin exchanging words. In the weeks leading up to this match, Rollins tried to hint at his Shield brethren helping him eliminate Orton so they could figure out who the best from The Shield really is. Ambrose & Reigns both shrugged it off.. until now. Ambrose & Reigns look around and realize the numbers game and turn their attention to Orton. Ambrose & Reigns followed by Rollins start walking towards Orton. Orton starts smirking and mouths "You've got to be kidding me, you're gonna listen to him?" Out of nowhere The Shield strikes! They attack Orton and back him completely into the corner. They beat him down viciously. The crowd goes crazy as this is reminiscent of The Shield's old beatdowns. They hit a few of their old double teams before sending Orton into the buckles. As the fight goes on, Rollins begins backing away. Ambrose & Reigns are still working over Orton in the corner when they realize Rollins has disappeared. They slowly turn around to find Rollins in position to strike just like he was the night he turned on them. Rollins puts his hands up and tries to say it's not what it looks like. Ambrose & Reigns disagree and nail Rollins with a double clothesline.
The opening segment of this week's Raw was a pretty nice change of pace. Orton & Reigns have an exchange that gets heated and out comes.. The New Day? I love mixing the mid card with the upper echelon of the roster. I wasn't a fan of how WWE handled New Day's push failing originally however as the weeks go by I'm starting to dig it. They get a ton of heat and all three guys ooze talent. With that being said, it was cool seeing them get a chance to go at it verbally with two main event guys. The verbal exchange was just the beginning though as they face off in a handicap match to start the show.
1) The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, & Xavier Woods) vs. Randy Orton & Roman Reigns
I had a big fear that this would be another case of two randomly paired together top talents squashing the tag champs like we've seen in the past. Most recently with Orton defeating Cesaro & Kidd ON HIS OWN. I was pissed when that took place however WWE would rectify that wrong here by giving New Day a good showing followed by a massive victory. New Day isolated Reigns and talked alot of trash. They really are embracing their characters. Orton gets the hot tag and we get a pretty exciting closing sequence. RKO OUT OF NOWHERE ON XAVIER! Kofi is up, Reigns goes for the spear, Kofi moves, REIGNS NAILS ORTON! Kofi takes advantage and gets the pin on Orton. This was fun. Speaking of fun, here's a fun fact for you: Kofi Kingston defeated Randy Orton on Raw last January when he was WWE Champion and it went nowhere. Hopefully this time it does and I think it will.
Match rating - **3/4
Ryback responds to Bray Wyatt
Smarky crowd remarks aside, this was a strong segment for Ryback. His promo game is stronger than most think and he proved so once again here by actually getting me interested in this feud with Bray Wyatt. Not much else to say, good promos from both men.
2) Cesaro & Tyson Kidd vs. The Ascension
All I have to say is this, Cesaro can't get over with the audience? CESARO CAN'T GET OVER WITH THE AUDIENCE? Vince is completely oblivious and that was proven once again here. Not even one week into Cesaro & Kidd working as faces, they are getting huge pops. Cesaro went into pure babyface mode here and demolished Konnor with running uppercut after running uppercut after running uppercut after running uppercut AFTER - RUNNING - UPPER - FUCKING - CUT! It ruled. He & Kidd go through all their stuff and get the win. Awesome prolonged squash with one of the best babyface comebacks I've seen recently from Cesaro & Kidd.
Match rating - ***
3) Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose
WWE Superstar of the Month - Neville
There really wasn't that big of a race when it came to who was the most outstanding wrestler in WWE in April. Only two names stood above the rest. Those being Neville & Roman Reigns. I came extremely close to giving Reigns his second Superstar of the Month award this year however I don't think he made quite the impact that "The Man That Gravity Forgot" did. It's been awhile since a debuting talent had as huge of a first month as Neville did on the main roster. I'd even venture to say that he's the first person since The Shield to be brought up from NXT and actually used correctly. Neville debuted on the night after WrestleMania to close out March and left us all with the question of what was next? Well, what was next was a series of high profile matches in which Neville blew the minds of audiences across the world. From his match with Seth Rollins to his bout with Dolph Ziggler to his battle with Luke Harper, Neville was a spectacle to see on every single episode of Raw & Smackdown that he was on. To top that off, he defeated Luke Harper & Sheamus to advance to the finals of the King of the Ring tournament which was HUGE for him despite not winning the entire tournament. If Neville continues at this pace, I see him with gold around his waist soon as well as a Top 20 spot in our Elite 80 at the end of the year.
Last month's winner: Seth Rollins
Independent Wrestler of the Month - Mike Bailey (PWG, CZW, C4, Beyond Wrestling)
Last winter, I had the pleasure of discovering Speedball Mike Bailey for the first time as I watched a Best of C4 Wrestling compilation. I was blown away by his matches in recent years against the likes of El Generico & Michael Elgin. Then when his match with Kevin Steen aired during the #Rawlternative program in January and the reaction was big, I knew 2015 was going to be his breakout year however I'm not sure anyone expected it to be as big as it has. This month in particular was absolutely owned by Speedball. He started the month out back in Reseda for his 2nd PWG appearance where he created his first memorable moment of the month by delivering a reverse frankensteiner to Trevor Lee on the ring apron. This clip soon spread around the web in GIF form and garnered upwards of 50k views after PWG released the preview video. Following that epic moment, Bailey headed back up to the Combat Zone to compete in the star studded Best of the Best tournament where he outlasted last month's Indie Star of the Month Tommy End as well as Andrew Everett, Trevor Lee, former NXT star CJ Parker, and quite possibly the most underrated man on the scene today, Jonathan Gresham to win the entire tournament. While many frown on CZW due to unfair stereotypes of it being garbage running rampant on the web, the Best of the Best tournament is a prestigious event with past winners including current WWE NXT star Solomon Crowe (Sami Callihan) and referee Drake Younger, now known as Drake Wuertz. Winning BOTB was undoubtedly Bailey's biggest victory of the month however he wasn't done tearing the house down as he competed for Beyond Wrestling's double header to close out the month where he faced AR Fox and then teamed with Shynron as the Ninjas with Attitude to face The Young Bucks in a showstealing main event, all in the same day. I've been singing the praises of Mike Bailey for several months and I'll continue to because he continues to remind me of why I'm a fan with every match. The year looks to only get bigger for him from here as he will be returning to PWG again to face Johnny Gargano on May 22nd and will also be debuting for Evolve. Bailey could very well be in the running for Indie wrestler of the year when all is said and done! Follow him on Twitter @SpeedballBailey!
Last month's winner: Tommy End (PWG, WXW, Evolve)
Puroresu Star of the Month - Kota Ibushi (3x Winner) (NJPW, DDT)
After last week left us with a serious MOTY candidate and unforgettable moment in the form of the finals of the trios title tournament, I'm pumped to see what's gonna happen next in the temple. The show begins with Dario basically going off on The Crew for disappointing him and losing in their impromptu entry in the trios title match. He says to never let it happen again.
1) Fenix vs. Killshot
Super exciting match to start the show. The action never slowed down and both guys impressed all the fans in the temple as the audience was rocking throughout the entire contest. We saw a number of dives, vicious kicks, and crazy manuevers in this high impact match up. In the end, it was a brutal piledriver from Fenix that put Killshot away. Extremely fun opener!
Match rating - **3/4
Backstage, Dario Cueto delivers two more quality segments as he talks with champion Prince Puma and thwarts off a "crazy fan" named Marti Martinez.
In the ring, a match between four men who were injured by the dominant Pentagon Jr got interrupted as Texano wreaked havoc on all the participants. He called out the guy from the crowd that attacked him last week to no avail. Although he never got any answers as to who he was, he certainly made a statement.
2) Cage vs. Hernandez vs. King Cuerno - #1 Contender's Match
After all the great things I've heard about Beyond Wrestling in the past year, it was only a matter of time before I checked the Rhode Island promotion out for myself. Whether it be the videos on YouTube or the live experiences that friends of mine have had there, I was sold on checking out Beyond a long time ago and considering the attention this particular event got, I figured it'd be the perfect place to start.
I decided to post this show review here on the main site instead of the DVD reviews section considering it's a more recent event as it took place on March 5th, 2015. With that small note out of the way, lets get into Beyond Wrestling's King of Arts event.
AR Fox hits the ring to open the show. It's clear from the start that he's a heel which was a big change considering he's so light hearted in PWG & elsewhere. Apparently a ref hit him at the last show after he tried to attack him. This leads to Fox demanding for the ref, Kevin Quinn, to be fired and he get his wish.
1) Team Pazuzu (Chris Dickinson, Jaka, Pinkie Sanchez, Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztik) vs. New York's Finest (Colin Delaney, Cherry Bomb, Dick Justice, Jay Freddie & Pepper Parks)
The names in this opener probably tell the whole story without you even having to read this review. There are so many different personalities and awesome atheletes that this was bound to be a super fun opener and that's exactly what this was. Jaka & Jay Freddie started things off with a nice exchange that featured a variety of strikes including what AR Fox called a "Kane throat thrust" on commentary. Pepper Parks & Cherry Bomb come in next to clean house on EYFBO then we get a comedy showdown between Supercop Dick Justice and Pinkie Sanchez. Dick pulls out his imaginary hand gun and Pinkie laughs it off until DICK JUSTICE SHOOTS A FAN IN THE BALCONY BAH GAWD! Pinkie falls to his knees and begs for mercy. I'm a sucker for good comedy wrestling and we got it here from those two. After these little square offs, things really broke down with everyone getting their shit in so to speak. The biggest spot of all was Pepper Parks suplexing Pinkie Sanchez off the top turnbuckle to the outside on all the other participants. This was your ideal opener as it was extremely entertaining and showcased action, comedy, and alot of characters all in one.
Match rating - ***
2) John Silver vs. Ryan Rush Galeone (w/ Jimmy Preston)
