8 Things You Learn Re-Watching The First WWE Elimination Chamber Match

2. The Crowd Didn’t Care At All

Booker T Elimination Chamber Survivor Series 2002
WWE.com

The most jarring thing about watching the inaugural Elimination Chamber isn’t the match itself. It isn’t the six men taking part, it isn’t the setting, it isn’t even the excessive blood drawn from the performers: it is without doubt the Madison Square Garden crowd. They simply did not give a sh*t about this match.

There were 17,930 members of what became known as the WWE Universe in attendance on November 17, 2002. They were sat in the most famous arena in the world, as close to a home ground as WWE can get. The card was packed but far from stacked, but that still isn’t an excuse for the sheer apathy that the fans showed towards this match.

They absolutely got into it towards the end, giving HBK’s win a major reception. There were many times during the bout when lone voices were audible however, as everyone in the arena bided their time before the finish. There was no chance of the match ending in the first 20 minutes, so there was little reason for the crowd to be invested.

And that is one of the major flaws of the Elimination Chamber. Until all six men have entered, nothing really matters. Even at this early stage, the crowd were becoming conditioned to care only about the finish.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.