During Monday’s episode of Raw, it was announced that Alexa Bliss will defend the Raw women’s title against Mickie James, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mandy Rose, and Sonya Deville in the Elimination Chamber Match on February 25th in Las Vegas.
The same card will also feature a singles match between Asuka and Nia Jax and if Jax wins, it the women’s title match at WrestleMania that Asuka is part of will become a three-way match with Jax added to it.
Roman Reigns and The Miz also won the qualifying matches on Raw to join John Cena, Elias, and Braun Strowman in the men’s Elimination Chamber Match.
The women’s Chamber line up seems a little lacklustre to me but with it being a solo brand they did the best they could. Actually I’m being a bit unfair, I just think it’s a bit too early for Mandy & Sonya to be in such a high profile match. This match would be so much stronger if Paige was ok to work.
… or if they put Nia in there and didn’t faff around with a match that is entirely pointless between her and Asuka.
It’s weird coming out of the Rumble, where they had thirty women compete in one match, that they don’t have a large enough roster to find six strong female character’s for this match.
Which is disappointing because it does almost confirm that’s the direction and it means that their about to have the eventual number one contender lose to Asuka just to keep her out of a match that she’d a) make way more of an impression in, and b) where she could be kept separate from Alexa anyway; Alexa being the last entrant, Nia eliminating two of the other four and having to be double teamed by the remaining two to be eliminated herself just before Bliss is released from her pod.
…or they’re gonna have Nia end the streak… at Fastlane… because WWE.
Seriously though, take out the Absolution girls and place Nia and Nikki Cross in there - the whole match looks distinctly more enjoyable.
But then you have nobody to face Adil’s, not everybody in the chamber has to be a top star, back in 2006 Carlito & Masters we’re in ahead of Triple H because they didn’t want Haitch facing Cena before Mania.
As to the Jax vs Adil’s match you can have Alexa accidentally on purpose cost Nia the match because she doesn’t want to face both.
Of course every participant doesn’t have to be a top star in the Elimination Chamber, and it’s always been fun to see mid-card guys get a shot in there to see how they do, but this is the first women’s Chamber and the first instance of the men’s chamber having those lower down the card guys was that 2005 one with Masters and Carlito (who were both getting pushed hard by the company at the time, if I’m remembering correctly, so it fit in with that) and that was the fourth one. The first three were jam packed with superstars, big names, current and former champions, guys who were hugely over with the crowd. I’m not expecting the female equivalents of a Goldberg or a Shawn Michaels, that would be silly, but at least women who are getting focused on and have a strong record or fan base; Alexa is a dominant champion and an over character, Bayley and Sasha have the NXT history that has made them both names they can lean on in times like this, Mickie James is a legend… but Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville have done next to nothing in their time in NXT or on RAW to be considered for these spots from my perspective - especially when there’s such an easy work around for Nia to be in there and they have a huge list of legends and up and comers to choose from who could easily fill those spot. I’d even accept the likes of Nattie, Naomi or Becky making a plea from the SmackDown side of things to be a part of this history making match to really sell the idea this is something important to the women.
So are we saying someone like Dana Brooke should take Devilles or the hottest chick in wrestling MandyGAWD’s spot because. …???
Also why the hell would anyone call up an NXT girl to be a sacrificial lamb for this? I thought we wanted the main roster to actually promote call ups better or is that more online lip service?
In an Elimination Chamber match Nikki Cross would shine. Sure, she won’t win but neither will four other girls and they aren’t getting buried by that. I just laid out a scenario in which Nia Jax can be eliminated from the Chamber before facing off with Bliss to protect that match if they want to go in that direction, is Nia sacrificed by losing like that?
No one even mentioned Dana Brooke so I don’t even know what you’re on about there.
If Nia was involved I could see her getting the typical giant spot in the chamber where all the other women would hit their finish one after the other on her just to beat her.
Remember when Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens both challenged for John Cena’s US title while still working the NXT shows? Remember when Bayley worked one tag match with Sasha and then didn’t come straight over to RAW? Remember how all of those things were well received. Remember when I never called this a “call up” or “debut” for Nikki Cross? Not that it would be a bad debut if they booked it right… I’m merely pointing out that they have other women that are more suited to this kind of match, that will excite the hardcore crowd more and by association the casuals will pick up on that and the match itself would also most likely be far better.
