10 Awesome Wrestling Matches From 2017 (That You've Already Forgotten About)

6. WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match - WWE Elimination Chamber

Wyatt Styles EC
WWE.com

The WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match has essentially been retconned out of existence. It was designed to put Bray Wyatt over huge in the lead-up to WrestleMania 33 - well, Randy Orton, indirectly - and now his brief time at the top is over. The 34:27 match when revisited is haunted by meaningless at times, but as a self-contained story - or rather an anthology of interlocking subplots - it is the best Chamber match in years.

WWE has taken to laying out multi-man matches to antagonise of late - Roman Reigns' Extreme Rules smirking, Baron Corbin's pre-match assault on Shinsuke Nakamura at Money In The Bank - but the first ten minutes here were hugely entertaining fan service, defined by two great hyper sprint matches between AJ Styles and John Cena, and Styles, Cena, and Dean Ambrose.

It's Bray Wyatt who made best use of the (excellently redesigned) structure, foiling Styles' springboard by grating him on the mesh. The middle portion advanced the Baron Corbin and Dean Ambrose feud while reinforcing Miz's opportunistic pr*ck character - but his stupidly quick exit triggered grim echoes of Super Cena, enhanced when he initially got the better of Wyatt and Styles in the final act. These echoes lulled when Wyatt, who looked as monstrous as he did at Royal Rumble '14, quickly pinned him - before dispatching of Styles right at the last. That choice was more superb plotting; coming so close to overcoming this "injustice" rankled with Styles, adding more dramatic weight to his WrestleMania bout with Shane McMahon and painting him as a battling challenger, foreshadowing his imminent face turn.

With as many story beats as insane spots, this was near-perfect. A shame it means next to nothing now.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!