Coming off the 2011 WWE Royal Rumble with Diesel blues and the Kingdom of Booka T reigning once again, a new semester started for me in St. Cloud, MN. With pushing aside my homework for a few thoughts, I wanted to come out of “retirement of blogging” to come back with this piece to give, simply and honestly, my thoughts on what’s coming next, the Road to WrestleMania 27. Well, not so much WrestleMania, but February’s pay-per-view, the WWE Elimination Chamber.
For those who aren’t subscribers to the Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Weekly website, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez have been talking about the past few weeks about how the Elimination Chamber could defer the last stipulation that matters in the World Wrestling Entertainment, Incorporated, and that’s the stipulation of the winner of WrestleMania going onto WrestleMania and facing one of the two World Champions in the main event on the biggest stage of all.
[adinserter block=”2″]To explain before I go further, what Meltzer and Alvarez mean that “the last stipulation that matters in the World Wrestling Entertainment” is, WWE Creative has, in a sense, killed most stipulations. How? Let’s look at the last stipulation that the WWE did this past year.
John Cena being fired from the WWE after counting Wade Barrett’s shoulders down for the three count at WWE Survivor Series 2010 to then WWE Champion Randy Orton. When Cena was “fired” for four weeks (roughly), he didn’t miss one Raw television taping. Do you guys realize how much it makes me sick, as well as Meltzer and Alvarez? Like said, if you aren’t a subscriber, Meltzer and Alvarez have similar views on me, especially when it comes to that stupid stipulation that Cena “went through.”
What about the retirement storyline with Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania XXVI, haven’t they kept him from coming back from retirement to wrestle? Yes, to give a short-hand answer. But the reason why Michaels haven’t came back is because he wanted to keep to his word, and not come back to wrestle because he gave his word to the Undertaker and his fans that he won’t come back. Check out http://www.theshawnmichaels.com/ for more info about Shawn Michaels.
Coming back to why I am doing this blog. My thesis is: Can the Elimination Chamber eliminate the stipulation that we came to love, and that’s the Royal Rumble? Let me restate my thesis this way: Can the dueling Elimination Chambers in the February pay-per-view do damage to the stipulation of the Royal Rumble and the winner at WrestleMania?
My answer: Yes, the dueling Elimination Chambers at the February PPV do damage to the Rumble stipulation and the main event picture at Mania. Why? For years (before 2003 where there was two World Champions running throughout the WWE) who won the Royal Rumble match and who walked out of the Royal Rumble as the World Wrestling Federation (then the WWF) Heavyweight Champion were facing each other in the last match at WrestleMania that year. Michael vs. Diesel in ’95, Michaels vs.Hart in ’96, Michaels vs.Austin in ’98, etc.
Here’s more proof for my answer. The past couple of years where the WWE and World Heavyweight Champions had to defend their titles in the Chambers, we didn’t know who was facing the Rumble winner until the night after the PPV in February. “Back in the day” we had two to three months to build up the WrestleMania main event, and now we have four to six weeks to build up for it. So it got cut down in half.
Does that mean it’s half as good as before? I thought the Chris Jericho versus Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship at last year’s Mania was good, but it was based on the feud that happened the summer prior, when Edge got injured when those two men were the Undisputed WWE World Tag Team Champions. But has there been any other main event that has been good that had only four to six weeks to build? I think the Eddie Guerrero versus Kurt Angle from WrestleMania XX was awesome. So it could be done, but it depends on who’s in the main event and if they can sell the main event like they used to.
[adinserter block=”1″]Philosopher’s Corner: I think WWE is trying to change it up this year, but I don’t like how Alberto Del Rio has to wait past this year’s Elimination Chamber to see who he’s challenging for the World Heavyweight title at WrestleMania. But I still don’t like that though; at least it’s better than years past. I hope it will be Del Rio versus Edge, because Edge has had huge main event matches at Mania in years past. What would I suggest to the WWE Creative team? Only have one Elimination Chamber match for the title that the Rumble winner isn’t facing at Mania. In other words, the Rumble winner should have his opponent picked for WrestleMania the night after he (or she) wins at the Royal Rumble. It would make sense. This is Eric Darsie from St. Cloud, MN, going back to do my philosophy homework, signing out.
Check out more of Eric’s blogs at http://vintagedarsie.wordpress.com/.
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i agree. there should be one elimination chamber match at the ppv
Mitch, if they cut it down to one Chamber, who should be in that Chamber match?