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Credit: WWE.com
The 2021 WWE Elimination Chamber was a unique show built on the promise of opportunity. Many had a chance to rewrite their future in The Road to WrestleMania. However, this also left many chances for the stars not to win.
It was a night when the wins and losses were greater than just one night. The Grandest Stage of Them All went on during WWE, with its signal looking at talent in every match.
The Elimination Chamber games were especially important. Many of the best men worthy of a shot at the title at SmackDown entered the structure and some really showed up. Cesaro and Daniel Bryan went almost to the end.
The WWE Championship was also at stake, with Drew McIntyre having to defend himself against five former WWE champions: Sheamus, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, AJ Styles and Randy Orton. As long as he stood strong against the field, he was not ready for what was to come.
Other great moments included Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler facing Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair in a competitive confrontation, and Bobby Lashley having to put his title on the line against Riddle and John Morrison.
The real winners and losers of this show are those who will take this moment to WrestleMania and those who missed a big spotlight in the blink of an eye.
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Cesaro had all the momentum for the SmackDown Elimination Chamber game. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to put him in charge.
Instead, however, The Swiss Cyborg fell to the combined effort of Daniel Bryan and Jey Uso before The Planet’s Champion defeated Uso.
Whether Cesaro or Bryan won, Roman Reigns would always remain champion that night. This was the time to establish future post-WrestleMania challengers 37. Reigns vs. Bryan was a story the WWE could always make, but Cesaro never had a great time like Bryan.
Like his former tag team partner, Shinsuke Nakamura, he is a veteran who could be sold as a potential world title contender. Instead, WWE has failed to deliver with him every year.
If Cesaro is not the future according to WWE, he shouldn’t have received so many spotlights until this match. He was sold as a special talent that could defeat anyone, a role that he won after years of working in whatever role was thrown in his path.
It is difficult to say what Cesaro will do in the future. He was the MVP in the Elimination Chamber match, but that kind of performance can be quickly overlooked without immediate opportunities to push him forward.
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Bobby Lashley was the champion of the United States for 175 days, dominating absolutely everyone. However, Sunday Night’s Triple Threat fight was set to take his title without ever making anyone look like they had a chance against him.
Riddle was established as a ridiculous character for months, losing to Lashley several times while making weird jokes behind the scenes. He was not well established to dethrone the champion.
However, it seems that the plan has always been to take the title from Lashley before WrestleMania. This may be because there are bigger plans for The All Mighty, although those plans are simply unclear now.
The certain loser was the prestige of the United States Championship. Lashley could have defended the title one-on-one at WrestleMania, but Riddle against anyone is probably not enough to get a spot on The Show of Shows.
It is likely that the US title will now be defended in a multi-player competition. The original brother probably shouldn’t have won the belt until Keith Lee got hurt. It is a pity that the title’s prestige was thrown away because of a history with Lashley going beyond gold.
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Although she needed Reginald’s help, Nia Jax managed to pin Sasha Banks. She and Shayna Baszler defeated two of The Boss and Bianca Belair’s best champions – the likely contestants in the WrestleMania Night 1 main event on April 10.
WWE women’s doubles champions have always been expected to have several other challengers waiting behind the scenes. However, this was a major victory for kingdom holders.
The women’s doubles division needs much more prominence. Belts need to be defended repeatedly. Combinations like this should be normal. Until that happens, these opportunities are special to continue to build the potential of this division.
Jax and Baszler are likely to leave this second title race fully established as dominant talent. Hopefully, the Queen of Spades in particular gets a serious run on Raw or SmackDown on her own, using this reign as a starting point.
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New Day has been a special part of WWE for some time now, but the group has only had a brief season of singles.
It looks like that could change soon. Big E holds the intercontinental title, and Kofi Kingston looked like a star when competing with several former world champions in the Raw Elimination Chamber fight.
Kingston was amazing in Sunday’s game, and his card showed what WWE knew he would be. He managed to defeat Randy Orton at the start and clean up the competition and did not seem to have lost the momentum of his race as a WWE champion in 2019.
WWE will know that he is still a special talent who deserved this opportunity. The veteran can make anything look great with the right spotlight. Hopefully, this is not just the unique moment that KofiMania has become.
However, Kingston was the second man eliminated in Sunday’s competition, indicating that he may be left out of the opportunities to come.
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After all the teasing and false hype, The Miz finally made it. With some brutal help from Bobby Lashley, The A-Lister dethroned Drew McIntyre to become a WWE champion twice.
This was an emphatic moment for a veteran who paid his debts at the company. He has gone through ups and downs and performs much better now than he did the first time he won the title in 2010.
It is unlikely that he will carry the title for a long time, especially with so many variables around him. McIntyre will want his title back, and it has been established that Miz cannot beat the Scotsman fair and just, while Lashley must also have his name on the hat for opportunities to come.
The new WWE champion still has a feud with 24/7 champion Bad Bunny. Although the rapper should not be in the running for the world title, he is still certain he will enter the scene somehow.
The WWE championship scene just got a lot more complicated. Before Sunday’s PPV, it was unclear whether anyone was ready to take that step forward to challenge McIntyre. Now, anyone can be a WWE champion or challenge the title via WrestleMania.
This was clearly the biggest story of the night and the moment that few saw coming. What comes next will keep the red mark relevant until The Show of Shows from April 10-11.