WWE Elimination Chamber 2019: Star Ratings For All 7 Matches

7. KICKOFF: Buddy Murphy Vs. Akira Tozawa - Cruiserweight Championship Match

It was difficult not to sympathise with Buddy Murphy—again—when taking in this trademark Kickoff opener.

On RAW, the top full-time heels are somehow less interesting together than they are apart. Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley exist, some of the time, purely to “protect” a character, Braun Strowman, about whom WWE only selectively cares. The whole development is as cynical as it is chronically boring, and all the while, there’s Murphy—a performer who doesn’t benefit from RAW’s exposure, but generates far more heat from the coldest of beginnings.

Here, he built the match by casually dismissing Tozawa’s chances, using understated, glib facials to tell a story that McIntyre and Corbin tell with desperate shouting and easy smarminess. He physically acted out that story by catching Tozawa’s early suicide dive seamlessly, in a way that put over his strength more than it highlighted the cooperation. The narrative centred on the wrist Murphy injured through his own hubris, which informed the heft of Tozawa’s challenge—all of which led to a phenomenal spot in which Murphy was unable to complete his deadlift top-rope powerbomb, and instead ate a Frankenteiner.

Some obvious thigh-slapping and inconsistent selling on Murphy’s part—it’s hard to begrudge his hunger to get to the big moments, they’re so few and far between—let this down, if we’re being pedantic.

Star Rating: ***3/4