Elimination Chamber (2018) (also known as No Escape (2018) in Germany) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for the Raw brand. It took place on February 25, 2018, at T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas Valley, in Paradise, Nevada. It was the eighth event under the Elimination Chamber chronology and the final Raw-exclusive pay-per-view under the second brand split as following WrestleMania 34, all WWE pay-per-views will be dual-branded, featuring wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown brands. The 2018 event was also the first to feature a seven-man Elimination Chamber match, the first event to include a women's Elimination Chamber match and the first Raw-exclusive pay-per-view since the 2016 reintroduction of the brand extension to not feature any cruiserweight division matches.
Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns won the first-ever seven-man Elimination Chamber match to become the number one contender against Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34. On the undercard, Alexa Bliss retained the Raw Women's Championship in the first-ever women's Elimination Chamber match, and Asuka defeated Nia Jax to extend her undefeated streak and to keep Jax from being added to her WrestleMania 34 championship match. The event was also notable for Ronda Rousey signing her WWE Raw contract, where she had a confrontation with Chief Operating Officer Triple H and Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon, which was the former's first appearance since the night after Survivor Series.
Preshow/Kickoff Match: Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson def. The Miztourage (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel)
For once, I actually had the preshow/kickoff streaming live on the Network. Much like the bulk of this broadcast, there wasn't really much to write home about this one. Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel were clearly here to take the L.
First Ever Women's Elimination Chamber Match for RAW Women's Championship: Alex Bliss retains after def. Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James, Sonya Deville, and Mandy Rose
Let's be honest here, Absolution was in this to be the sacrificial lambs to the slaughter. I was fine with this match for the most part, but I had a small issue with how they did the last four eliminations. I would have had Mickie James survive at least until Alexa Bliss got into the match then have her confidence shattered (the shots of her facial expressions/reactions throughout this match were great) when it boiled down to every woman for themselves. Then once Mickie James was eliminated, you do the Sasha Banks turning Bayley spot and go with Alexa Bliss retaining as planned. The best part of the match for me personally was Mickie James running the train on everyone that ended with that Diving Lou Thesz Press she does as her signature to eliminate Sonya Deville. That's why I was disappointed when she got eliminated shortly after that burst of fire from her. The other highlight was Bliss getting the heck out of dodge as soon as her pod opened and she was climbing all over the Chamber to get away from Sasha and Bayley. I would give Bliss props on that Twisted Bliss from the top of the pod, but the modern day Chamber has so much padding around that thing at ringside that it's like working in the normal ring anyway. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad that the talent is MUCH more protected in this match than were a decade and a half ago when it first came into fruition, but damn a lot of the drama is taken out of it as a result when you can clearly see all of that safety padding all around the ring and between the pods.
In all honesty, it wasn't a bad match at all for the ladies' first time in this match type. They played it a little too safe for my taste, but then again, there's no need to go nuts in the first one of these.
The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) def. Titus Worldwide (Titus and Apollo Crews w/ Dana Brooke) to retain the RAW Tag Team Championships
This was pretty much your bathroom break match right here. No offense to everyone involved here, but there was just no helping that fact. People weren't into this one - even though Cesaro and Apollo did their best to keep it interesting. Not even oogling Dana Brooke at ringside didn't make me want to care about this match in the least.
There's no doubt in my mind that this feud is merely filler for whoever is going to step up to challenge the Bar at WrestleMania for the RAW Tag Team titles. I got my money on The Revival taking that spot as that could be a very fun match to watch.
Asuka def. Nia Jax
Not a bad match, but definitely nowhere as good as their past encounters. Nia made up for her loss with great post-match attack while managing to still look strong following the loss to Asuka. I have no doubt in my mind that Asuka is going to challenge Charlotte for the SmackDown! Women's Championship, leaving Alexa Bliss to have to defend against Nia Jax to have her world crumbling down against her. If anything, that match will be worth it just for Bliss' facial reactions going into it.
Woken Matt Hardy def. Bray Wyatt
WWE has done nothing to make me care about the Woken/Broken Matt Hardy gimmick in their company. After Anthem gave the Hardys free reign over it, you would think that WWE would have went balls to the wall with it, but week-in, week-out it's the same old shit. I don't know why they keep dragging this feud out for. Bray Wyatt is almost at the point of Dolph Ziggler where no one cares about him when he has these feuds as even Ray Charles can see that he's not going to win. My only guess on why they keep dragging this feud out is that they are end it with a Final Deletion style vignette at WrestleMania and if they are going to keep milking this that long then it's going to be a LONG 45 days until WrestleMania. Seriously, anything has to be better than that House of Horrors match between Bray and Orton last year though...
Ronda Rousey WWE Contract Signing
It took only two appearances and they've already brought Rousey down to the level of everyone else on the roster not named John Cena, The Undertaker, and Brock Lesnar where Stephanie McMahon has slapped the dignity out of whoever she wants under her thumb. Rousey was no different here, even though she shows up on RAW the following night looking like Goku after Frieza killed Krillin looking for an apology. Rousey seemed like she had completely no idea what to say during that segment while Triple H and Stephanie were doing their damnest to sell her as a big deal to this crowd. Kurt Angle didn't come off much better as he stood there looking like he was spacing out until Rousey called him out. If they are building towards a Rousey and Kurt versus Steph and HHH match at WrestleMania then they are definitely off to a bad start. The stupidest thing they did here was having Rousey sign the contract anyway after hearing how Stephanie and Triple H were belittling her from Kurt Angle. It's not like they held a gun to her head and made her sign it anyway. For me, that part made not one bit of damn sense. Rousey could've torn up the contract and told Triple H and Stephanie to shove it.
After the March 5th episode of RAW, the show kicks off with the announcement that Rousey and Kurt will be facing Triple H and Stephanie at WrestleMania, but goddammit that attack on those two looked so bad. I get it - Kurt's not as spry as he used to be after all of those neck surgeries and spending the last part of his golden years in TNA/Impact Wrestling, but Ronda Rousey's so-called Samoan Drop looked horrible on Stephanie there. It was bad enough that it was looking like she was about to yank Steph's arm out of the socket to force her to stand up for it. It was also very telling that Stephanie was wearing street clothes/casual wear instead of her usual dolled up business suit/dress/skirt combos with heels so you knew she was ready to take a bump or two.
First Ever 7-Man Elimination Chamber Match for WWE Universal Championship #1 Contender Spot to headline WrestleMania versus Brock Lesnar: Roman Reigns def. Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, John Cena, Elias, and Intercontinental Champion The Miz
I don't see why people were saying this match was inferior to the women's chamber match that kicked off this show. Outside of the bloody obvious finish (the trend with this ENTIRE card to be quite honest...), this match was a lot of fun to watch. It kicks off with Elias in concert despite the fact that he was the one who earned the right to enter the match last. It were up to me, I would've had Elias playing all night in the pod like that one Rumble Match where SES CM Punk was trying to recruit people between eliminations. The MVP of this match was Braun Strowman. I thought I was going to die laughing when everyone hit that man with all of their finishers only for him to kick out at 1. Strowman definitely has The Big Show beat in that regard in terms of endurance. I remember The Big Show being put through something along the lines of that during Survivor Series 2005 and he went out like it was just another day in Jobberville. If you don't see Braun Strowman as a star here after this performance then you clearly need your eyes checked. Massive mistake on WWE's front to go with Reigns again, even if he had to hit Strowman with like 5-7 signatures/finishers like it was a WWE video game to keep him down.
If Vince wants everyone to shit all over his WrestleMania main event and walk out, then be my guest. I damn sure don't have to like it. I get it - Brock Lesnar could be out of the door after WrestleMania and they want him to drop the title to Reigns like they wanted in the first place before Rollins cashed in Money in the Bank at WrestleMania a few years prior and pissed in Roman's Cheerios.
I just don't understand why Vince is so dead set on Reigns as "the guy" when it's so obvious that people aren't going to accept him. On top of that, you got two other guys who are over like Rover on RAW - Seth Rollins (especially after running the gauntlet that week prior to the Chamber) and Braun Strowman - that would make much more sense logically in terms of booking. Alas, like the joke goes online, "If you're looking for logic in WWE programming, then you're running a fool's errand."
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