Ranking EVERY WWE Elimination Chamber Match From Worst To Best
Ranking nearly 20 years of brutality and occasional brilliance inside WWE's big mesh monster.
An expensive undertaking eventually done-good for WWE, the Elimination Chamber has persistently promised more than it's been able to deliver over the years, but the company's insertion of it into WrestleMania season in the late 2000s added value to a stipulation sometimes too grandiose for its own good.
The stakes - a title or title shot, depending on post-Rumble permutations - have routinely advanced the outing beyond its structural and creative limitations. Since the gimmick's inception at November 2002's Survivor Series, the ginormous steel structure has been carted out over 25 times over nearly two decades, hosting countless WWE/World Heavyweight Title matches, WrestleMania opportunities, the launch of the Women's Tag Team Champions titles and two more cases of duos squeezing into pods.
But more is always more in WWE - the gimmick hasn't remained as protected as it probably should have been. Several matches have taken place merely because they had to, rather than because a conflict or storyline truly warranted the entrapment. The same complaint that has diluted Hell In A Cell and Tables, Ladders and Chairs can be applied to this post-Royal Rumble skirmish too, but its record isn't half bad. Literally so - just over half of them are worth a rewatch.
And as for some of the rest?
26. 2015 (Intercontinental Title)
Competing for the vacant Intercontinental Title after the secondary belt was vacated by the injured Daniel Bryan, Ryback, King Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, Mark Henry and Sheamus entered in a spirited display that aimed to restore balance back to the underwhelming midcard at the time.
Only when stability was so desperately needed could a contest fall apart so horrifically.
Midway through the clash, Dolph Ziggler was thrown into Mark Henry's pod breaking the plexiglass and allowing 'The World's Strongest Man' an early start in the contest. This drew distracting questions from commentators as to if Henry was yet a legal participant which (like Henry's involvement in the match in general) were eventually forgotten along whatever else had been pencilled in.
Further to that, an attempt to ape an old Chamber spot with a broken door fell flat - Sheamus let himself into he match as the last entrant, which was the draw he'd received anyway.
The final sections were similarly devoid of drama, with Ryback pinning 'The Celtic Warrior' in an anaemic ending played out to a largely bored crowd. Only 'The Big Guy's crowning by former champion Bryan generated any sort of reaction Chamber matches usually generate.