8 Things You Learn Re-Watching The First WWE Elimination Chamber Match
Does the 2002 Survivor Series main event stand up 16 years later?
It’s that time of year again. You know the one, the Road to WrestleMania, and we’ve reached the stop where a collection of individuals enter a fancy cage with trepidation on their faces. The Elimination Chamber is here - Satan’s Prison they call it - although the eighth event under the banner ironically takes place in a city called Paradise.
16 years have come and gone (well, 15 years and four months really) since the Elimination Chamber concept was introduced. It was unique from the get-go, although this uniqueness stemmed from it being a mash-up of all the great gimmick matches of wrestling history. This was WarGames, Hell in a Cell, Royal Rumble and Survivor Series, all in one.
So much has changed in the near 16 years since Shawn Michaels won that first match. HBK, Triple H, Kane, Booker T, Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam entered the structure that night in November 2002, truly stepping into the unknown. What have we learned in the 16 years since? Re-watching that first Chamber match throws up all sorts of interesting points.