WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2023 HITS & MISSES: Men’s and Women’s Chamber Matches, Lesnar vs. Lashley, Mr. & Mrs. Edge vs. Rhea & Finn, Sami vs. Roman

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2023 HITS AND MISSES
FEBRUARY 18, 2023
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA AT THE BELL CENTRE
AIRED ON PEACOCK, 8:00 p.m. EST, 7:00 a.m. CST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole and Corey Graves

Asuka defeats Raquel Rodriguez, Carmella, Nikki Cross, Liv Morgan, and Natalya to win the Women’s Elimination Chamber Match. Asuka to face Bianca Belair at WrestleMania for the Raw Women’s Championship – HIT

I went into this match anticipating grading it a miss because of the parties involved. Watching the match, I can’t do it. I enjoyed it.

These days it’s hard to be in awe of these matches for a number of reasons. First, we’ve seen so many of them, and we get a lot of the same spots such as running into the plexiglass as what happened with Rodriguez and Cross. Brandon LeClair talked about this in his report and I’m sure he won’t mind me highlighting his point when he said, “it’s hard to reconcile the stark contrast between the way the announcers sell the structure and how polished it physically appears and sounds.” I agree with him, as well as his point about making the action safer.

The action was still good. Liv got some shine and I have to say, I’m happy to see it. The pass out spot may have been a bit much as it would have been fine had she tapped to either the sharpshooter or the Asuka lock, but that’s a small quibble at best. They want to protect her. Rodriguez got some shine as well, although I might have had her with Asuka as the final two instead of Carmella. With Carmella, there was no doubt that Asuka was winning. At least with Rodriguez there may have been some suspense.

These are small quibbles at best. I’m very much looking forward to Asuka vs. Bianca and whom the crowd will favor. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that they’re with Asuka

Bobby Lashley defeats Brock Lesnar via DQ – MISS

I didn’t know what I wanted out of this match, but this wasn’t it. It’s not so much the DQ finish (although those for the most part is unsatisfactory). It’s that this feud has gone on for some time and I thought it needed a conclusion. Now it is possible they were planning something with either guy and Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania, and they changed their mind based on the lack of reaction to Wyatt’s challenge on Smackdown. I’m speculating at best there and have no inside knowledge, so take that for what it’s worth.

This finish suggests another match at Mania with a stipulation. We’ll see what happens.

Edge & Beth Phoenix defeat Finn Balor & Rhea Ripley – HIT

As expected, Edge & Beth got a nice reaction. It was cool to see the work between Beth and Rhea and one that I had looked forward to as this feud has moved along. They worked towards the superplex by Beth off the top rope which was a cool spot. The dual Edge-u-cator worked for me as well.

Montreal certainly didn’t mince their words expressing how they felt about Dominik along the way didn’t they, especially when he interfered with the brass knucks. He continues to be a key ingredient in what the Judgment Day does in their matches.

Overall, I enjoyed this match more than I expected as it felt like a fight which is what it should have been given the history between the sides. They called back to the spot where Rhea hit Beth with the chair, only this time Beth got out of the way as expected. Edge & Beth Phoenix using the Shatter Machine as a nod to their friends FTR was cool. I don’t know how I feel about another potential match between Edge and Finn for WrestleMania, but we’ll worry about that later.

Austin Theory defeats Johnny Gargano, Bronson Reed, Seth Rollins, Damian Priest, and Montez Ford in an Elimination Chamber Match for the U.S. Championship – HIT

I was a little surprised to see Theory come in at #3, figuring the champ may enter last, but it made sense given the history between Theory and Gargano in The Way as well as his history as Rollins’ “understudy” a few years ago when Rollins was The Messiah. Theory played his part as the heel trying to get Gargano to work with him and later Damian Priest.

I liked double backdrop by Bronson Reed and running into the pod with Priest in it. He looked like a monster until he was stopped by Rollins and Gargano. Then the highlight went to Montez Ford with his unique dive off the top of the chamber. I liked how he got the pin over Reed after getting the Stomp and Final Beat. It was going to be tricking getting Reed out of the match, but they handled it well. I liked the eventual Hurricanrana off the Powerbomb off the top of the pod by Gargano on Rollins. I’ll admit I got a little emotional seeing Gargano eventually falling to the Razor’s Edge by Priest.

Montez was a highlight for me in this match as I expected he would. He pinned both Priest and Reed and got some incredible work in before his “injury” spot. While they did all they could to make it look legitimate, it was clear as day that it was there to set up Logan Paul interfering and costing Rollins the match. I understand setting up feuds with interference, but it defeats the purpose of an Elimination Chamber match (as it does with Hell in a Cell and Steel Cage matches) when people can just get in and without consequence I might add. (Wil there be any repercussions for Logan’s actions?)

With that said overall, I was fine with this match. The people who needed some shine got as such and the result was expected. I hadn’t been a fan of Gargano’s work in recent times, but I didn’t think about that in this match. He got some good moments, as did everyone else.

Roman Reigns defeats Sami Zayn to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship – HIT

I don’t know about you, but man was I excited to hear Sami’s first WWE theme Worlds Apart. This Is It grew on me after a while, but Worlds Apart better suits babyface Sami. I’m not afraid to admit I love Sami and he may be my favorite wrestler next to Kevin Owens. Those guys are so key to this company when you sit down and think about it. What they bring to the table cannot be understated. With that said, I know I’m not alone in saying I was anxious for this match.

The facial expressions by all especially Paul Heyman and Roman really added something before the match started. Of course, the Montreal crowd not mincing words with Roman, like they did with Dominik earlier, was a nice touch. The camera panning around the crowd to get the full effect of the molten hot crowd was cool, and I loved the “ole ole ole ole” chant. I thought Roman and Sami were also smart to let the crowd chant before they got into the action.

The question was not who was winning. We knew Roman was going to retain. It was a matter of how the finish and post-match would be handled.We’ll get to that. I liked the spot where Roman was talking to Sami’s wife saying that it didn’t have to be like this. It felt like an “old school” feud at that point. Stuff like that is what I have always loved about wrestling feuds and that’s the personal touches.

The match was intense as anticipated. The near falls were believable. Then we got to the ref bumps which set up both Jimmy and Jey Uso’s interference. (I’m glad they were able to get Jimmy cleared to get into Canada). Jimmy’s interference made sense. He’s clearly with the Bloodline. Jey’s interaction was interesting. There has been some doubt as to his loyalty lately, and tonight highlighted that. I think he’s in a weird spot. He doesn’t agree with Roman, and it looked like he was going to do the exact same spot Sami did to Roman at the Rumble. That didn’t happen. He’s conflicted. That happens in real life, so I’m ok with that. My preference would have been to make it clear where Jey lies, but they have television time to fill, so they need get you to watch in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania.

Kevin Owens coming out was expected too. They are clearly working towards he and Sami reuniting. I thought they could have done that clearly here, given they were in Montreal. An embrace would have brought the house down. That said, they’ll work towards that moving forward, and the crowd seemed happy with praising Sami after the match.

Hits 4
Misses 1

Closing Thoughts

WWE had a tough task in that they knew they weren’t going to have Sami Zayn win in front of his hometown crowd. They did a nice job, but it will be interesting to see what happens moving forward. Is Sami the guy the crowd wants like they wanted Daniel Bryan in 2014? If so, do they turn on Cody Rhodes if he’s the one to take down Roman Reigns? That to me is the story as we move forward towards WrestleMania and beyond.

This was an enjoyable show to watch both from an in-ring perspective and the crowd. They were into the entire show and seemed happy with what they got. There is intrigue on a lot of fronts coming out of the show which makes television important to watch (build-up towards Bianca vs. Asuka and Rollins vs. Paul, what happens with Lesnar and Lashley, what I mentioned about Sami & Kevin and Cody Rhodes, Austin Theory defending the US Championship against Edge, Montez Ford’s trajectory, and more).

That said, the hits have it and this report is adjourned. See you in early April for WrestleMania.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!