10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About The Elimination Chamber
Not everyone who gets in the Chamber is a star...
On February 12, WWE presents the Elimination Chamber PPV, which features the first appearance of the titular structure in over a year and a half. John Cena will be defending the WWE Championship in the titular match against AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Bray Wyatt, The Miz, and Dean Ambrose.
For those who haven't ever seen an Elimination Chamber match - or simply don't remember the rules - they work as follows:
Six men compete in the match, with two starting off and the other four in plexiglass pods. Every five minutes, a random pod is opened and a new wrestler joins the fray. Eliminations occur via pinfall or submission, and the last man left is the winner. The rules may sound too complicated, but they almost always result in a really solid bout.
That isn't to say, though, that the match always goes perfectly. Over the course of the past 15 years, there have been 19 Elimination Chamber matches - and a fair amount of the cr*p that one would expect from WWE's oeuvre. Whether it's undeserving participants, undeserving winners, or matches that nearly killed the gimmick entirely, the Elimination Chamber has not been immune.
Here are 10 things WWE wants you to forget about the Elimination Chamber...
10. Injuries Happen (2002, 2010)
WWE likes to hype up the Elimination Chamber as "Satan's Structure" - a uniquely dangerous environment where bodies meet steel and careers are changed.
As much as high-level wrestlers know how to protect themselves about as well as one can, though, it's more than a tagline - the atmosphere is dangerous, and wrestlers have incurred serious injuries in the Chamber.
One such injury happened in the very first Elimination Chamber match, when Rob Van Dam climbed to the top of an entry pod and hit a super Five Star Frog Splash on defending World Heavyweight Champion Triple H. Unfortunately, RVD's knee caught HHH in the throat, damaging his esophagus and trachea (and, undoubtedly, Van Dam's push). Triple H - who also sustained a wrist injury during the bout - spent that evening in the hospital.
In 2010, the injury bug struck again. Sheamus was the undefeated WWE Champion heading into the Chamber, but he'd be neither of those things afterwards. He'd also suffer a concussion, which is a particularly dangerous and unpleasant way to get hurt.