Instead of telling you what my predictions will be for the WWE Elimination Chamber 2011 pay per view, I’m going to tell you what the results SHOULD look like. At the end of the article, you can give me your predictions or explain how my views are lame or talk about how my version of the pay per view would be awesome.
WWE Unified Tag Team Championships
SantiKoz (c) {Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov} vs The Corre {Justin Gabriel & Heath Slater}
I don’t like it when things get stale, and I do like it when stables are validated by getting championship belts. The first order of business in helping The Corre get an increased amount of credibility would be to make the switch here. I like Santino & Kozlov as a long-term tag team, but I don’t think they need to keep this reign going any further. In fact, I would setup a four-way tag match at Wrestlemania, including two members of New Nexus and also toss The Usos in there as well to round things out, but I would have The Corre hold the championships as tonight’s match is completed. If they don’t get the belts, they lose an incredible amount of credibility and should basically consider switching around members of the faction’s tag team.
WWE World Title
The Miz (c) vs Jerry Lawler
This one is simple. There’s no way in hell that Lawler will take the belt into Wrestlemania, and there’s no way he should come out of this pay per view as the champion. 87% of the voters in a poll I ran last week felt there wasn’t even a chance Lawler would beat The Miz at Elimination Chamber. I expect The Miz to win without too many shenanigans, thus ending his claim to a title shot once and for all.
Kofi Kingston vs Alberto Del Rio
Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that Del Rio has this one locked up? I fully expect him to either flat-out win, or to get himself disqualified or counted out. I like the potential for a Kofi / ADR feud after Wrestlemania sometime, preferably with the championship on the line. The result of this match has to do something to give ADR a little bit of momentum, but also keep things open for a future match between the two.
Elimination Chamber for Smackdown
Edge. That was easy.
Actually, I’ll go more into depth than that. Edge has been feuding with Alberto Del Rio for a few weeks, and it’s going to continue into the biggest pay per view of the year.
Frankly the WWE Creative team made a mistake on Friday by having Edge win the title right back from Dolph Ziggler, especially if they were going to acknowledge Ziggler’s title reign. There’s no chance that a replacement superstar is going to win the match. The Big Show? He wouldn’t be worthy of a title match with Alberto Del Rio at Wrestlemania. Jack Swagger? Kofi Kingston? Come on… And not even The Undertaker would be a valid title holder to face ADR at Wrestlemania, even though he’d be the best option to show up in the Chamber as the replacement. He’s got beef with Kane and Wade Barrett to sort through.
The other folks who are already scheduled for the match:
Kane – no way. Kane was lucky to get his title reign in 2010, and it sure won’t be happening in 2011… at least, not until spring or summer (which I still highly doubt)
Drew McIntyre – you’re kidding, right? This guy’s starting to show more depth, and has improved quite a bit on the microphone, but he’s still not ready.
Rey Mysterio – I wouldn’t pick him to win. How many times can they put Rey Rey up against ADR? It detracts from the luster of a Wrestlemania title match if it’s something we’ve seen SOOO many times already.
Elimination Chamber for RAW
The winner of this match gets a World Championship match at Wrestlemania against The Miz (or Lawler, if Jerry wins the belt from Miz, which defies logic), so that sets it up to where you need the winner to be a good feuding partner heading into the biggest show of the year.
Sorry R-Truth, CM Punk and Sheamus. Not going to be your years, but Wrestlemania still has a spot for you.
That just leaves Randy Orton (with whom The Miz has already feuded nearly ad nauseum, making him a poor choice to win Elimination Chamber), John Morrison (there’s already one up-and-comer in a World Title match at Wrestlemania – Alberto Del Rio – so you don’t need RAW’s match to have TWO fresh faces) and John Cena (with whom The Miz has a long-standing rivalry). It’s clearly setting up to be Cena’s match, having not been directly in the World Title picture for several months given his feud with Nexus. The Rock did say he was targeting Cena, so you could understand why John might have other things going for him this year. If that’s the case, I’d go with John Morrison. Quite frankly, I’d go with a four-way title match at Wrestlemania, with Cena / CM Punk / Randy Orton all trying to get their shots at one another AND the World Championship The Miz is holding… but that’s just me.
So there you have it. What are your thoughts?
