10 WWE Elimination Chamber 2019 Impulse Reactions
Banks, Bayley, Bryan and Kofi turn the Elimination Chamber into a cage of enlightenment...
The more things had changed, the more they'd stayed the same during the early stages of this year's Elimination Chamber Network broadcast.
Mustafa Ali was back on the Kickoff duties as if he still resided on 205 Live, but his moan in the snow was as much to trigger some conversation about Kofi Kingston as it was lament one of the worst-timed injuries in several years. Fresh from bantering off Bianca Belair on the NXT TakeOver: Phoenix pre-show, Sam Roberts callously brushed past the cruiserweight's exit from the contest, but he wasn't wrong in his assertion - fans really had forgot all about Ali by the time Kingston had gone an hour on the go-home SmackDown Live.
Elsewhere, the usual hype packages were buttressed by a bizarre discussion between The Bar and Heavy Machinery. This heavily-improvised hideousness begged another question - where the f*ck were The Revival? WWE gave with one hand when they finally delivered the Raw doubles straps to Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson, but used the other to snatch back the opportunity to see that switch pad out this pay-per-view.
The panel tried and failed to craft a sense of tension around the Ronda Rousey/Ruby Riott Women's Title match, but the less said about their takes on the company's hottest division, the better. "Becky Lynch was too big for her britches", so said the ancient-sounding Booker T - at least he was foreshadowing her appearance in the face of some pre-card pessimism.
The more things change...
10. Worst Kept Secrets
Akira Tozawa's first Cruiserweight title match in months and first ever one-on-one clash with Buddy Murphy was as much about again providing a bigger stage for 205 Live's 'Best Kept Secret' as it was the former Titus Worldwide challenger, but both again proved more worthy of the half-baked booking and half-filled arena they were forced to work with.
The pair looked like a severed tag team in their palette swap attires, but had all the chemistry of old friends in the biggest boy-popping spots from the match. Murphy catching a dive to the floor was another unique take on the size and strength advantage he wields over his challengers, whilst a series of nearfalls from Tozawa's wicked range of kicks and flips briefly proffered a possible switch.
A late counter of a top rope press slam into a hurricanrana got them a "This Is Awesome" chant, but the crowd bit less for a strikes battle that fed into the finish. To that end, Tozawa turned the volume up with a reverse hurricanrana and high angle senton to Buddy's back, but a Murphy's Law submission counter brought the curtain down on another mini-classic.