WWE Elimination Chamber (Feb. 17, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Elimination Chamber (2019) (also known as No Escape (2019) in Germany) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It took place on February 17, 2019, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. It was the ninth event promoted under the Elimination Chamber chronology.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the pre-show. In the main event, Daniel Bryan defeated AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, and Jeff Hardy in an Elimination Chamber match to retain the WWE Championship. On the undercard, The Boss 'N' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) won a women's tag team Elimination Chamber match to become the inaugural holders of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, Finn Bálor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a 2-on-1 handicap match to win the Intercontinental Championship, and Ronda Rousey defeated Ruby Riott to retain the Raw Women's Championship.

Cruiserweight Championship -- Buddy Murphy (c) def. Akira Tozawa via pinfall to retain the title (Kickoff Show)

For once, I actually had the kick-off running on my TV, but I admittedly was half paying attention as I was preparing dinner. From what I did watch, I enjoyed, but I feel sorry for the 205 Live guys wrestling in front of a half-empty crowd while the arena was still piling up. I still feel like Tozawa was only in this position to show Hideo Itami what he missed out on after departing from the company last month. Don't forget WWE is petty enough to do shit like that.

Women's Tag Team Championship (Elimination Chamber) -- Boss 'N Hug Connection vs. Riott Squad vs. Nia Jax & Tamina vs. The IIconics vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville vs. Naomi & Carmella

ORDER OF ENTRY	ORDER OF ELIMINATION
Boss 'N Hug Connection	Naomi & Carmella (IIconics)
Fire & Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville)	IIconics (Jax & Tamina)
Riott Squad	Riott Squad (Jax & Tamina 2)
The IIconics	Jax & Tamina (Boss 'N Hug)
Naomi & Carmella	Rose & Deville (Boss 'N Hug 2)
Nia Jax & Tamina	Winners: Boss 'N Hug Connection

If I'm perfectly honest, I didn't care for this match at all for the bulk of the first half of it.

(Whistles) Boy that was an UGLY execution there on that Tower of Doom spot. 

Fire & Desire definitely held their own in this match to say that they started the match with the Boss 'N Hug Connection, but I'll admit that I was impressed with the Riott Squad's performance over any other team in this match. Someone must have told Naomi and Carmella that they were going to be the first ones out of this match right before their entrances because damn they looked pissed throughout this match, especially while standing in their pods together. I can't blame WWE for that decision as that team made little to no sense anyway. If anything I thought they would have teamed up Naomi with the SmackDown! Women's Champion Asuka that WWE keeps forgetting about in relation to all of this Charlotte, Becky, Ronda stuff going on. It's not like they had R-Truth on television the last few weeks since winning the United States Championshp, so it wouldn't have been a massive loss for Carmella to not been in this match when they were going to shoehorn her in as an afterthought anyway.

Looked like Liv tried to do a MaTrish evasion and gave up halfway into that thought process.

When they went through majority of the entrants into this match and there weren't any eliminations when the countdown started for Nia and Tamina to enter, I figured they were saving all of the eliminations for when they came in here to clean house. WWE does the same thing in Royal Rumble matches where the powerhouses come in and clear out the ring once there's a ton of bodies in there for they can toss around like lawn furniture. It wasn't much different here. I'll be lying if I didn't admit that I enjoyed the IIconics' antics in this match, especially once Nia and Tamina got involved. Regardless of that, I don't see much novelty about keeping them around. I suppose WWE had to keep up their international signees quota up so that's the only reason the Australian chicks have a spot on the main roster over some of the MUCH more talented women still in NXT. Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan couldn't promo if their lives depended on it, but they impressed me a little with their tag team offense here. Liv is still botch-tastic as ever, but both of the IIconics are worse than her in my eyes. I hear podcasters talk about how bad they are all the time, but this is my first exposure of how bad they've gotten since being on the main roster because y'know, I don't watch RAW and SmackDown! weekly anymore. A part of me feels like a bulk of these women wouldn't even be employed if WWE weren't just stockpiling talent just for no one else can hire them.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship -- The Usos def. The Miz & Shane McMahon (c) via pinfall to win the titles

First off, congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Mizanin for It Baby #2 on the way. I would do the same thing if I was in Miz's shoes and married to Maryse.

Following that lukewarm crowning of the Women's Tag Team Championships, this was mediocre follow-up. I thought it was pretty embarrassing that Shane McMahon was showing up The Miz here for the bulk of the match, holding up his team together against the Usos. The Usos had a great showing here and actually got me into the match by the time it was over. Color me shocked to see the Usos recapture the gold after Jey Uso was arrested over the past weekend. Then again, the Usos contracts are up in April and this just might be WWE's way of keeping them happy for they won't jump ship to AEW afterwards.

Shane always has to hit that elbow on someone in these matches and I'm always asking myself how much longer can he keep doing this to himself when it's not a full-time member of the roster, especially when it looks like he's gassed within the first 5-10 minutes of action?

As for Miz and Shane, I think a WrestleMania match between them is in the cards. Congratulations are in order for Mr. and Mrs. Mizanin too with It Baby #2 on the way. Miz ain't playing around about keeping Maryse's baby-making oven cooking - not that I blame the guy...

Intercontinental Championship -- Finn Balor def. Bobby Lashley (c) & Lio Rush via pinfall to win the title

Goddamn this was a complete waste of time to watch. It's matches like this is why I don't watch Monday Night RAW. This is the definition of a bathroom break on the middle of this card.

Finn with this tired looking flip out of the ring that somehow kept Lashley down long enough for him to thrash Lio Rush some more before hitting his finish...

The only good thing to come out of this match is seeing Lashley beat the shit out of Lio Rush afterwards. Sadly, they already put the two back together on Monday Night RAW the next night as they faced the team of Finn Balor and the debuting Ricochet.

Raw Women's Championship -- Ronda Rousey (c) def. Ruby Riott via submission to retain the title

Complete squash here. That's all she wrote really. Ronda came out here cosplaying as Sonya Blade (Ronda's voicing her in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 11 video game FYI...) and promptly beat Ruby Riott in dominating fashion, despite a lot of bullshitting around at ringside during the opening moments of the match.

The biggest story of this match is what transpired afterwards with Becky Lynch limping through the crowd on crutches and hopping over the ringside barricade to confront both Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair (who was watching at ringside). Over the past weekend, WWE filmed an incident where Charlotte Flair re-injured Becky Lynch's ailing knee (the same one that Nia Jax targeted during the finish of the 2019 Women's Royal Rumble Match), so Becky was here to confront Charlotte about that while she was staring down with Ronda Rousey. Of course, things go south as Becky wails all over Charlotte with her crutches and invites Ronda Rousey to join in with her. Y'know as payback to what Charlotte did to her at Survivor Series. Instead, Becky attacks Ronda from behind and gives her an even more vicious assault than she gave Charlotte Flair. You can see that Ronda got hit all over her head here and I'm surprised she wasn't concussed from the blows Becky was landing here. By the end of it, Ronda was bleeding from the head and the arms. Holy crap they are going all in with this angle.

Becky nailed Ronda good there on the side of her head and she wasn't prepared to take that shot at all.

The only thing I can nit-pick here is that while Michael Cole is shouting on commentary about "Becky's not supposed to be here!!" that it took at least another five minutes before security came out to restrain her from assaulting Ronda and Charlotte further. It just came off really stupid in that aspect.

Baron Corbin def. Braun Strowman via pinfall (No Disqualification)

This was another complete waste of time here. I went into this match thinking it was going to be a squash but nope seems like WWE has given up all hope on Strowman. Corbin defeats him in dominating fashion as he's promptly driven through several tables with a Shield-style Triple Powerbomb, assisted by the unlikely of allies in Drew Galloway and Bobby Lashley. I don't like Lio Rush either, but how is working for Corbin in what seems like a rehash of that epic failure that was the League of Nations faction any sort of an upswing for Lashley's career?

Whether that was a stack of tables or an open dumpster, they aren't doing Strowman any favors here. IMO it should have been all of those guys ganging up on Corbin and dumping him into a dumpster fire where he belongs.

Outside of Kurt Angle putting over Galloway clean, it seems like WWE Creative doesn't know jackshit on what to do with Drew and Lashley. Lashley should be presented here like a monster and being groomed to be the guy to face Brock at some point - with or without the title. If they aren't going to do that at WrestleMania then when are they going to put some steam back on Lashley before people don't even care anymore? It saddens me to see so many of WWE's top tier talent on the main roster being reduced into mere afterthoughts. There's no excuse to have this many people on their roster(s) and not knowing what to do with them.

Lacey Evans catwalks

Yep, that's ALL she did too before the cameras faded out into another video package to promote the main event. I'm guessing Lacey Evans is going to be the new Emmalina since Mandy Rose has that Eva Marie gimmick down.

WWE Championship (Elimination Chamber) -- Daniel Bryan (c) vs. AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton vs. Samoa Joe vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Mustafa Ali Kofi Kingston

ORDER OF ENTRY	ORDER OF ELIMINATION
Daniel Bryan	Joe (Styles)
Samoa Joe	Hardy (Bryan)
Kofi Kingston	Styles (Orton)
AJ Styles	Orton (Kingston)
Jeff Hardy	Kingston (Bryan)
Randy Orton	Winner: Daniel Bryan

Bryana and Samoa Joe started things off, but things really didn't pick up until Kofi Kingston entered shortly thereafter. Following his massive upset over Bryan on the go-home edition of SmackDown!, Kofi has garnered a lot of steam - convincing a lot of people that he may do the impossible on this night and become the WWE Champion. If this was any other PPV before WrestleMania season, I would buy into that hype too, but no, I can't believe that here. Look, I get people want to see Kofi win the big one after roughly a decade or more within the 'E Machine. He was added into this match as an impromptu replacement for Mustafa Ali getting injured the week prior. Everything that they have been doing here and in this match was meant for him. Now if they gave Kofi his own program and actually built towards a match between him and Daniel Bryan with a good narrative behind it, then yeah I can buy into it. Otherwise, I'm not getting my hopes up. You don't just stop being a traveling goof overnight and become WWE Champion... well, unless you're Jinder Mahal, but that's a totally different story altogether there. 

I'm starting to feel like Samoa Joe coming to WWE was a waste of his talents - at least on the main roster. Joe would spit hot fire in his promos then come out to a massive dud of a match when it comes to putting his money where his mouth is. It's getting tiresome to hear him always talk a big game but never live up to his promises/claims. It's definitely not doing him any favors with those fans who aren't familiar with his work prior to coming to WWE or even NXT for that matter. 

Goddamn that RKO counter there to the Phenomenal Forearm was pretty sweet. If they don't have any big plans for Styles at WrestleMania then I wouldn't mind seeing him versus Randy Orton one on one. Doesn't even have to be for the title either. 

Seeing Jeff Hardy doing shit like this just makes me mad, knowing how his body is already in rough shape from the years of abuse in crazy matches and taking insane bumps. I don't know what possessed him to do that. I wonder what WWE is going to do with the Hardyz' contracts expiring within the next few days and they haven't renewed them yet? 

Speaking of stupid bumps, look at that shit by Kofi. He could have EASILY concussed Daniel Bryan and put him back on the shelf for good. On top of that, that landing could have been a lot worse as Joe narrowly helped him avoid landing on the ropes behind him. A 10+ year veteran being that careless blows my mind to do something like that without any qualms about his own safety or better yet, his own fellow competitors here. 

I remember that sounding like a gunshot live during the broadcast. Can't imagine how that sounded and looked like in the arena.

The shining moment/highlight of this match was the finale between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston one-on-one. It's 2019 and by luck of the draw (namely Mustafa Ali's untimely injury) that we're getting a Kofi Kingston main event push. 

When Kofi splatted into the canvas here, that's when I KNEW he wasn't winning shit. I was with everyone else being fooled by that near-fall earlier though.

Sadly, it ultimately fell flat - just like like Kofi's diving splash attempt there - and Daniel Bryan hit the Knee Plus (or whatever they are calling that move nowadays) to retain. 

Closing Thoughts

Take a bow, Kofi. This night was your shining moment. 

By this posting, WWE already made the rematch between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston for Fastlane next month, so we might see Kofi capture the WWE Championship either there or at WrestleMania. With the exception of this match, the tail end of the Women's Tag Team Championship Chamber Match, and the bit between Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, and Charlotte Flair, the majority of this show was a massive dud and complete waste of time. So much for gaining traction for the road to WrestleMania. If Fastlane is going to be another 2-3 match show, then I'm actually dreading that coming up next month. 

What happened to the years in days of old when we actually looked forward to the annual hype train and storylines that were built up to WrestleMania? Not this crap where it seems like they are throwing shit at the wall, week-in, week-out, every single week on a whim without a rhyme or reason.