4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 (Results & Review)

If you love chaos and uncertainty, WWE's build to WrestleMania 42 has been a dream come true. But if you favor linear storytelling with some logical twists and turns along the way, then you probably have been throwing your hands up in the air, wondering how a billion-dollar company is more indecisive and noncommittal than a teenager standing in front of their closet before a big first date.

Elimination Chamber is billed as the final major stop before WrestleMania, a PLE that will determine who will challenge for the two world titles that don’t yet have opponents. But even after Saturday’s PLE, the Undisputed WWE Championship picture remained unclear and fraught with controversy. Even the proposed course correction announced in the aftermath of the show left the door open to more chaos that could turn the title match into a multi-man affair.

The women’s chamber match fell short of expectations, dragging along to a mostly predictable finish, underwhelming along the way – save for one standout performance from Raquel Rodriguez.

AJ Lee’s first singles match in more than a decade left you wishing she had had a couple of warm-up matches on Raw in the lead-up to a major PLE title match, though her win still produced a feel-good moment.

CM Punk fared better in his title defense against Finn Balor, with both men delivering a gritty, tough fight for the World Heavyweight Championship.

And then there was what was in the crate…

Let’s get to it…

DOWNS…

5. Very Nice, Very Disappointing Debut

Danhausen is a great character, is great fun, and hopefully his WWE run is extremely successful. However, WWE badly botched his introduction Saturday night, and it showed in the reaction from the Chicago fans at Elimination Chamber.

WWE spent weeks promoting a mystery crate on Raw and SmackDown that each GM passed back and forth, seemingly not wanting to deal with it themselves and having no interest in learning what was inside. This allowed for weeks of speculation: Was it Chris Jericho? Was it the Cleopatra Egg making a vaunted return to WWE television?

Instead, it was Danhausen (who was strongly rumored as well), whose AEW contract had recently expired. He and a phalanx of female dancers bounded out of a coffin that was contained in the crate and paraded their way down the entrance to the ring to perform.

Here’s the problem with these “mystery” debuts: They rarely work because people get locked into other ideas, so unless it’s truly a huge moment, it’s going to fall flat. And while Danhausen could (and hopefully will) have a great run, fans didn’t react the way anyone in WWE would have hoped, booing him after an initial pop. It didn’t help that, in addition to weeks of speculation, all Danhausen did was dance for 90 seconds, hand Michael Cole a container of teeth, and then disappear.

This was closer to the Gobbledy Gooker than to The Undertaker. It was a real disservice to Danhausen. But truthfully, he should bounce back fine and win fans over in no time.

4. Heyman’s ‘Acting’

For all the talk about how Paul Heyman does a masterful job of acting and helping to elevate the drama of WWE’s storylines into “cinema,” we’ve got to call out his pure ham from Saturday night.

When the masked man revealed himself to be Seth Rollins, Heyman went into overdrive with his wide-eyed, mouth-agape face, screaming, “Oh my God!” over and over as Rollins left the chamber.

First, this is a ridiculous reaction, even by wrestling standards. Rollins was drummed out of The Vision more than four months ago. Unless he was put six feet under, that’s more than enough time for most injuries to heal. He was hurt, not dead.

Even if you weren’t expecting Rollins, screaming and waving around with all the histrionics isn’t “acting” – it’s the kind of routine you’d expect from the guy who bombed his audition for “Surprised Onlooker #4” in a high school play. Be surprised and then pissed. Yell, “You sonovab*tch!” after Seth. But acting like you’re Sarah Connor and the Terminator just reappeared is about five levels too far.

3. A Lot Of Nothing

One big problem with WWE doing these large gimmick matches that promise brutality is that they rarely – if ever – deliver on that promise.

When they break the Elimination Chamber out of storage every year, WWE talks about how it shortens careers, rips flesh and breaks bones, but unless a spot goes horribly wrong, nothing even remotely approaching that ever happens.

The women’s chamber match suffered greatly from that, with large segments of the match just dragging along with little-to-nothing of note happening. Kiana James and Tiffany Stratton opened the chamber match, and those five minutes were completely forgettable. Asuka felt like a breath of fresh air simply because she moved with urgency with her strikes.

The match, for the most part, followed a muddled template of wrestlers attacking each other in various indistinguishable combinations (save for one entrant, who will get her praise later). Honestly, the first 15 minutes of the chamber match could have been clipped and the match start with Ripley entering from her pod, and that would have been lightyears better.

2. Becky Wrestles Herself

Even if you grade on a curve, acknowledging that Saturday was AJ Lee’s first singles match in more than a decade, it’s hard to consider the Women’s Intercontinental Championship match anything other than a disappointment.

AJ had a better night than she did in WarGames and at Wrestlepalooza (those windmill punches…), but her Elimination Chamber match against Becky Lynch might as well have been The Man wrestling against herself. Lynch carried the match as best as possible, but it was a long 15 minutes with a fair amount of shenanigans to try to hide the shortcomings.

Lee looked out of place a few times, most notably at the worst possible moment: the finish. Lynch charged at AJ, but rather than sidestepping and letting Becky hit the exposed turnbuckle as planned, she ran and met her in the center of the ring, forcing them to collide awkwardly, reset, and repeat the spot.

As someone who loved AJ Lee during her initial run, this writer would love for her return to be a huge success. But when you’re calling balls and strikes, you have to point out when things don’t work well. It wasn’t embarrassing or anything like that, and had they shaved five minutes off and just hit all the highspots, it might have worked, but that’s not what happened.

1. Rollins Revealed As Masked Man

In what might be the least surprising story development in recent history, the masked man who had been attacking members of The Vision for the past several weeks unmasked Saturday night, revealing himself to be none other than Seth Rollins.

The former leader of The Vision was by far the obvious – and really the only logical – choice for the attacker. Rollins was drummed out of the group in October, so he naturally would want revenge on the group for expelling him.

The problem is that The Vision consisted of Paul Heyman, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed when they put Seth on the shelf. The version of the group that Rollins targeted Saturday boasts Heyman, Logan Paul, and Austin Theory, with Breakker and Reed injured.

Rollins is attacking people (unless he decides to target Heyman) who had nothing to do with his injury, treating Paul and Theory as proxies for the two Bronnys. This is a case of WWE having a storyline that has a lot of moving parts, and they really can’t toss it aside until Breakker or Reed are healed enough to become the main target again.

Unless Breakker returns in time, this likely means we will get Rollins versus Logan at 'Mania for the second time in four years (they squared off at WrestleMania 39). That’s not exactly a compelling match.

This really was a no-win situation for WWE due to the injuries, but maybe that was a sign that they should have just shelved the angle rather than forcing it. Maybe Breakker is fully healed and he and Rollins have a banger in April. More likely, though, this is going to feel like a stale midcard bathroom break match.

UPS…

4. CM Punk, Power Forward

If you didn’t grow up watching sports in the '90s, it’s understandable if you missed the significance of CM Punk’s pre-entrance theme at Elimination Chamber.

Punk made the walk backstage to the entrance to the strains of Alan Parsons Project’s “Sirius” while the Chicago Bulls’ public address announcer Ray Clay introduced him. Sirius was used as the hype theme as the Bulls were announced before games during the '90s, when the team three-peated as NBA champions twice – the latter three-peat taking place in the United Center.

That theme is synonymous with Chicago sports and the United Center, so Punk, an avid Chicago sports fan, knew exactly what he was doing in stirring up those emotions before his big hometown title defense.

For longtime WWE fans, that song probably stirs up different memories, as Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat used Sirius as his entrance music in the '80s, including for his Intercontinental Championship match against Randy “Macho Man” Savage at WrestleMania III.

3. A Short, But Dominant Run

Aside from Rhea Ripley, who won the Women’s Elimination Chamber match, Raquel Rodriguez had probably the best night inside that chamber.

Rodriguez entered the match last and ran roughshod over everyone. She immediately took over the match, attacking everyone and then welcoming them to all gang up on her. She threw Rhea into the cage, then Asuka, and then Kiana James. She caught multiple women who thought they could hit her with a hurricanrana, and instead they were hit with a powerbomb or swung into the cage.

But the most impressive sequence came when Raquel hoisted James up and hit a running powerslam through an entire pod, slamming her on the floor. Kiana would roll meekly back into the ring, where Rodriguez would grab Asuka and hit a Tejana Bomb onto James, pinning both women at the same time.

Raquel would continue to maintain control against Tiffany Stratton and Ripley until Rhea hit a cannonball off the top of a pod onto Rodriguez, allowing Stratton to nail a Prettiest Moonsault Ever for the pin.

While it was a short run for Raquel – she was in the match for about seven minutes – she made the most of that time and looked dominant while she was involved. A true bright spot in what was otherwise a pretty dull match.

2. Arriving At A Different 'Mania Match

Ever since Drew McIntyre won the Undisputed WWE Championship, many have groaned at the idea of the Scottish Warrior facing Cody Rhodes yet again for the title – this time at WrestleMania.

Fans and armchair bookers have mulled several different ideas, and rumors began emerging recently of a multi-man match that would involve four, five, or even six men.

Then, in the span of 20 minutes Saturday night, the outlook for the WWE Title match changed dramatically.

First, McIntyre interfered in the Elimination Chamber match, costing Cody and paving the way for Randy Orton to win, punching his ticket to 'Mania. Then, moments later on the WWE post-show, an irate SmackDown GM Nick Aldis announced that because Drew couldn’t help himself, he will face Rhodes in a title match on SmackDown on Friday.

It’s not hard to draw a line to Cody winning the title and then WWE booking a student-versus-teacher match, with Orton vowing to use his killer instinct to bring down his former mentee. One also could see a scenario with a shmozz ending to the title match, with some combination of Jacob Fatu, Sami Zayn, Trick Williams, or Aleister Black getting involved, thus triggering the rumored multi-man match.

The reality is that the WWE Championship picture for WrestleMania 42 is anything but settled coming out of Elimination Chamber, and won’t be until at least next weekend. Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen, but no one can deny that it won’t make for must-see television.

But there also is a very real possibility that this “up” could become a pretty big “down” in hindsight.

1. Another Stellar Punk/Balor Battle

Despite it being one of the most predictable outcomes in recent memory, CM Punk defeating Finn Balor to retain the World Heavyweight Championship was the match of the night by miles.

Punk brought back his tired gunslinger routine, struggling through a war of attrition with Balor as the two battled back and forth for 20 minutes. Finn zeroed in on Punk’s midsection early on with punches, knees, an abdominal stretch, and stomps, all to set up the Coup de Grace.

Both men repeatedly went for their signature offense, with Balor using the Slingblade and shotgun dropkicks to cut off Punk’s attacks, and Punk attempting a GTS numerous times before finally connecting – though Finn fell outside the ring the first time.

The final moments, which saw Punk lock in the Anaconda Vise and Balor hit the Coup de Grace, were excellent. Balor blocked a GTS with a Slingblade, drilled Punk with a shotgun dropkick, and then attempted another Coup de Grace, only for Punk to catch him with a Sharpshooter. He then proceeded to repeatedly kick Finn into jelly before putting him away with a GTS.

This was an extremely gritty match, eschewing flashy offense and intricate sequences for a more grounded, rough feel, like both men were in a fight.

Afterward, Balor – who resisted the temptation to call for Judgment Day help – shook Punk’s hand, which should factor into some discussion in the clubhouse on Monday night.