WWE are travelling down the Road to Wrestlemania and the Raw brand only has one stop left, the Elimination Chamber…
As of the time of writing this there are currently only 5 matches announced for the PPV; the two elimination chamber matches and Nia Jax vs. Asuka. So I’m going to take the liberty of assuming that a Cruiserweight Championship Tournament match and The Club vs. The Revival are added to the pre-show.
So, on with the predictions!
Pre-Show
Match 1: Cruiserweight Championship Tournament
Cruiserweight No. 1 vs. Cruiserweight No. 2
Winner = Take your pick
Match 2: Tag Team Match
The Club vs. The Revival
The two teams have been trading wins back and forth since Raw 25, so it only makes sense that they’re relegated to pre-show fodder in order to fill out the card a bit. The two teams are capable of putting on a great match, show expect this to be a pretty solid pre-show match.
Winners= The Revival
Main Card
Match 3: Raw Women’s Championship – Elimination Chamber Match
Alexa Bliss (C) vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Sonya Deville vs. Mandy Rose vs. Mickie James
Whilst the women’s Royal Rumble match headlined the January PPV, I fully expect the men’s Elimination Chamber match to have the honour this time around. This isn’t to say the women couldn’t do it, because they certainly can at this point, but I think the story and star power in the men’s match is far superior. With pacing in mind it’s therefore probably best for the women to open the show.
I expect a good match. It will be interesting to see how the women make use of the Elimination Chamber that makes their match feel different from the many that have come before it, but there is more than enough talent in there to pull it off.
Order of entry = 1. Sonya Deville 2. Bayley 3. Mickie James 4. Mandy Rose 5. Alexa Bliss 6. Sasha Banks
Order of elimination = 1. Bayley 2. Mandy Rose 3. Mickie James 4. Sonya Deville 5. Sasha Banks
Winner = Alexa Bliss
Match 4: Singles Match
“Woken” Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt
I want to care about this match, I want to care about Woken Matt Hardy, but I really don’t. This watered down version of what we saw outside of the WWE is a really poor portrayal of what made Broken Matt Hardy different and interesting. Hopefully there is some kind of trickery involved in the ending of this match that sets up a compelling Wrestlemania storyline for Matt… doubt it though.
Winner = “Woken” Matt Hardy
Match 5: Raw Tag Team Championships
The Bar (C) vs. Titus Worldwide
To be quite honest this match might end up on the pre-show instead of The Club vs The Revival. But for now I’m going to roll with the idea that it’s bound for the main card. These two teams have good chemistry together, and it’s hard for The Bar to have a bad match at the minute, so expect a fun outing from the 4 men.
Winners = The Bar
Ronda Rousey Contract Signing
Probably the most unpredictable part of the night. You can certainly expect Ronda’s Wrestlemania match to be set up here, but who that will be against I really have no idea. There are of course the reports that she will be teaming with a currently mysterious tag partner to take on HHH and Stephanie McMahon, but that just seems like a waste of her drawing power. Then there was the long rumoured match with Charlotte, or even a potential match with Asuka. The bottom line is that I simply can’t predict what will happen during this segment, but it will certainly be one to watch out for.
Match 6: If Nia wins she is added to the Raw Women’s Title match at Wrestlemania
Nia Jax vs. Asuka
You can’t have Asuka lose here. It would be one of the worst booking decisions that the WWE have ever made if they were to throw away Asuka’s streak the PPV before Wrestlemania. But with that being said they did it with Charlotte’s PPV winning streak, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if Nia does take the win. With all this being said, Nia shouldn’t really be losing either. It’s about time that Nia had a title run, and the obvious match of Alexa vs. Nia Jax at Mania should be where they head towards. So the WWE have really dug themselves into a hole.
Winner = Asuka (With Nia to do something deadly in the coming weeks to earn a match against Alexa at Mania and with Asuka going on to face the SD Women’s Champ)
Main Event: The winner faces Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania – Elimination Chamber Match
Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns vs. John Cena vs. Elias vs. Finn Balor vs. The Miz vs. Braun Strowman
What a match we could have on our hands here. If we learned anything on this past week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, it’s that these seven men can tell an outstanding story when they are given the capacity to do so. Whilst the result may seem pretty damn predictable, I think Seth Rollins did enough on Raw to warrant placing a seed of doubt in everyone’s minds that he just might be given the victory here. Because let’s face it, the concept of Roman vs Seth vs Brock 2 sounds far more enticing than Roman vs Brock 2.
This isn’t to say I don’t think Roman deserves it. In fact, whilst I may be in the minority, I think that he has performed so well this year that maybe for the first time since joining the main roster, he has actually earned the right to main event Wrestlemania. He’s been that good. But there are 5 other guys in the match, so let’s see where I think they’ll end up.
Order of entry = 1. The Miz 2. Finn Balor 3. Seth Rollins 4. John Cena 5. Roman Reigns 6. Braun Strowman 7. Elias
Order of elimination = 1. The Miz 2. Finn Balor 3. Braun Strowman 4. John Cena 5. Elias 6. Seth Rollins
Winner = Roman Reigns
I think this show could be a sleeper hit. The main event has the potential to be phenomenal, and with the potential breaking news factor of the Ronda Rousey segment as well as the first ever women’s elimination chamber match this could be a show well worth the cost of the WWE network to watch.
WeAreNiche 