WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Elimination Chamber 2012 Review

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Elimination Chamber 2012. How did the PPV measure up as we get closer to WrestleMania? Let's find out and start the review. 

Match #1: CM Punk vs Chris Jericho vs Miz vs R-Truth vs Dolph Ziggler vs Kofi Kingston; Elimination Chamber match for WWE Championship

We open up with the Raw EC match. Really? Don't you think this type of match should be reserved for the main event? The first thought I had when I saw this was there was going to be some type of surprise. Did we get a surprise or not? I will get to that a little later in the review. Regardless, I would've put this match in the main event since it had the most stock going into it. As you already know, Jericho was the #6 entrant for this match. Jericho, Dolph, Truth, and Miz were in the pods for this match, meaning Punk and Kofi will start off the match. Interesting way of starting the chamber match. I kinda like it since it puts Kofi in the spotlight. It seems like WWE wants to try something with Kofi, and putting him up against the champ is not a bad thing to do. Kofi is looking like Super Mario in that ring. He's jumping all over the place. Let's-a-go!!! Dolph was the third entrant in the match. I like the spot were Punk and Kofi did a double cross body. Instead of a meeting of the minds, it was the meeting of the cross body. Truth would be the next entrant. Punk hits the Flying Elbow on Truth and the crazy man is out of the match. Truth lasted about 3-4 minutes in the actual match. When you have a match that's over 30 minutes long, that's kinda sad. Let's us have a moment for Truth……..Okay, that's enough. Kofi went on that cage like Spider Man and hits a jumping DDT. Kofi Man, Kofi Man. Does whatever a Kofi Man does. Oh, that's just terrible. I apologize for that. Anyway, Miz and Jericho eventually get into the match. Jericho hit the Codebreaker on Dolph, thus eliminating him. Jericho gets Kofi to tap out to the Walls of Jericho. After Kofi's elimination, Jericho decides to kick Kofi around a little more. Just as Kofi is about to leave, Jericho again punishes Kofi. What, did Kofi eat Jericho's dog? What did he do to deserve this? I guess Jericho is more of a Joker fan. Just as Jericho is taunting Kofi near the cage door, Punk kicks Jericho in the head. Jericho ends up falling out of the cage and into the cameraman. Jericho is down on the outside while the medics attend to Jericho. Jericho would not compete for the rest of this match. Based on how Jericho kept assaulting Kofi, this had to be planned. I have more thoughts on this spot, but let me wrap this up first. Because of the Jericho "injury", it's down to Miz and Punk. Miz almost pulls off a miracle by hitting Skull Crushing Finale, but he can only get a two count. Overall, this was a good match to open up the action. I wouldn't say it was one of the better EC matches, but it was entertaining to watch. Not sure if I can say this was the best match of the night. The finish comes when Punk hits the GTS and Punk retains the title. 

It was at this moment that I expected Jericho to get back in the ring and steal the title, but that wasn't the case. I can see some people being disappointed with the Jericho spot, but here's my thoughts on it. By taking Jericho out of the match, it only fuels the Punk/Jericho rivalry. Jericho's argument can be Punk proved nothing at EC since Jericho never lost and Punk got a tainted victory. Think about it? They are saving the real Punk/Jericho match for WM, so there's no need to give away too much tonight. Punk looks strong since he lasted over 30 minutes in the chamber and retained his title. Jericho also doesn't look weak because he never lost the match. The other thing with the Jericho spot is I thought they would book Punk vs Jericho for tonight, but that would make no sense since they should save the actual match for WM. It's the best in the world vs the best in the world and what he does. The winner will be the best……In the world……Hopefully……Er, I don't know. Punk vs Jericho should be good. So good……so very very good……

…..Um, sorry. 

Winner and still WWE Champion: CM Punk

Backstage where Santino Balboa is training for the EC match. He eats raw eggs and struggles to keep it down. Did anyone notice they were using Eugene's entrance music for these bits? Just something I wanted to point out. Santino would do these Rocky bits for the rest of the night. Yo, Adrian!!! There was a video package of John Cena training with local FCW talents. That was nice of him. Then again, I wouldn't get too caught up in bench pressing 575 pounds. I mean…..Look at Ezekiel Jackson? Hell, I just wish I can do something that cool. 

Match #2: Beth Phoenix vs Tamina; Divas Championship

It's amazing how the divas actually look like competitors on PPV, but then deliver one minute matches on Raw and SD. The wrestling logic is strong with this one. Beth was wearing Rowdy Roddy Piper…..Um, trunks? Well, they really weren't trunks. They were more like…..Underwear. Um….Let your imagination run wild. Anyway, Beth was paying tribute to Piper. That's interesting since one of Piper's rivals was Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. The two actually created one of the more famous spots in pro wrestling history when Piper smashed a coconut over Jimmy's skull. At least he didn't smash his face with an iron. Still, I like that trip down memory lane since you can make the argument that Beth was doing this to piss off Tamina. Tamina and Beth delivered a pretty fair diva's match. Tamina hit the Superfly Splash, but could only get a two count. The finish comes when Beth hits the Glam Slam and Beth continues to dominate the diva division. The booking made sense. Besides, they didn't make Tamina look bad. They made her look like a strong up and comer who just simply got beat by the better person. I hope they touch base with this rivalry since this match wasn't too bad and can do something even better. 

Winner via pinfall and still Divas Champ: Beth Phoenix

Backstage where Santino was in a meat locker room. Just like Rocky, Santino starts punching a chunk of meat. He hit the Cobra on the meat. Santino sure likes to beat his meat…. 

Oh, come on!!! They set me up for that one. 

We are back in the ring with John Laurinaitis and David Otunga. Roboinaitis talks about how Teddy Long is not doing a very good job as the SD GM and wants to be the GM of both shows on a permanent basis. Alberto Del Rio arrives and says Teddy likes to play favorites and is a piece of trash. Did I mention Del Rio made his return tonight? Are you excited? Of course not, but how can you be exciting when you're standing next to Mr. Excitement? That's just not fair. Mark Henry comes out and talks about how Teddy physically assaulted him. Wait, what? So, you're telling me that Teddy Long, a guy who weighs about as much as a paper weight, physically assaulted this grizzly bear? That kinda makes no sense. I understand what they're trying to say, but it's funny and mind blowing. Christian also makes his return and also seems to support Johnny Five. I'm disappointed with Christian tonight. Not because of his appearance, but because he didn't say what we want him to say. ONE MORE MATCH!!! If they printed that on a T-shirt, I would totally buy it. The announcement is nothing exciting, but it does show a bit of a power struggle that could be brewing between the current GMs. Not sure how they are going to move about this storyline, but we will see how it goes. I'll keep an open mind about this. With a robot and lawyer involved, how can it possibly go wrong? By the way, what's with Laurinaitis and picture time? That thumbs up was so stupid that it's hilarious. 

Santino's running up the imitation Rocky steps. Did anyone else expected Santino to fall down the steps after he ran them? What goes up, must come down. 

Match #3: Daniel Bryan vs Big Show vs Wade Barrett vs Cody Rhodes vs Great Khali vs Santino; Elimination Chamber match for WHC

Based on the fact this match is next, that means the Cena/Kane match will be the main event. I really have to question the WWE on that choice. I realize Cena is the face of the company, but it would've been smarter to have the Raw chamber match end the show. He's going to main event WM, so he doesn't need the main event tonight. Whoever designed the order of matches for tonight's PPV had to be completely high. Is Jeff Hardy around? Anyway, Bryan, Khali, Rhodes, and Santino are in the pods, so Show and Wade start off the match. I thought the SD chamber match started off pretty slow. Strangely enough, I thought the second Santino got in was the second the audience started to care about this match. Yeah, so nobody wanted Santino in this match? That didn't seem to be the case. Rhodes was the third entrant and Santino was the fourth. Khali got in next and starts kicking ass. He's chopping away. He's kicking people. He's pushing people around. He…….Just got Speared by Show and is already gone. Well, that was a short reign of terror. That Five Hour energy drink is full of s***. After Khali's elimination, Show goes over to Bryan's pod and starts to climb it. Oh my God, it's King Kong all over again!!! Show actually breaks open the top of the pod and actually gets inside the pod. Well, that's really fair? Still, I admit it was pretty cool to watch that spot. As soon as the timer allows for Bryan to escape, he does. Unfortunately, it didn't last long as Show would shot-put Bryan through the chamber pod. Wade and Cody work together to take out Show. Two eliminates and two giants are already out of this match? Being big is overrated. As soon as Cody pinned Show, Santino gets a rollup on Rhodes. After the elimination, Cody hits Cross Rhodes on Santino and finally leaves the match. Wade almost takes advantage, but Santino kicks out. The closing moments of this match were pretty good. The match started off pretty rusty, but it eventually started to pick up. This actually might've been the best match of the night. Santino looked good out there tonight. It was almost a "feel good" moment for Santino, despite many people not liking the idea of Santino competing in this match. Wade goes for a flying elbow on Santino, but misses. Bryan follows it up with a flying head-butt. With Bryan recovering, Santino actually gets the pinfall on Wade. Give Bryan the assist for that elimination. I'm telling you that the terrible entrance theme is a curse on Wade. Either get someone else to sing the song or get a new song. It doesn't fit Wade. Then again, maybe they don't care what you think of me. Haha, see what I did there? It's down to Bryan and Santino. The crowd is pulling for Santino and really wants to see the miracle of miracles come true. Santino actually hits the Cobra on Bryan, but he can only get a two count. Bryan immediately goes into the Le Bell Lock. It seems like Santino might be able to escape, but the hold was too much. Santino taps out and Bryan is still the WHC. After the match, Sheamus showed up and hit Finlay's Celtic Cross on Bryan. Or as I like to call it, the Celtic Plunge. 

Okay, so the first thing I want to address is the ending to the match. I remember someone talking about the possibility of Santino and Bryan being the final two competitors in the match and how Bryan would get the submission victory. Who in the world said that?

Previously on the WrestlingNerd show,

Smackdown Review 2/17/12

The other reason I'm not angry about this move is because it opens the door for Daniel to win this match in a better fashion. I can actually see a scenario where it's down to Bryan and Santino. The crowd is really pulling for the goofy guy, but Bryan ends up beating him with the Le Bell lock. Thus, Bryan is still WHC and continues to brag about how awesome he is.

That's right. I actually wrote this in my Smackdown Review. The first thing I want to do is this…

Okay, I've had my fun. Don't worry. I don't have that much of an ego, but people might have thought I was being unrealistic when I thought on that option. Bryan hasn't won a lot of matches via pinfall or submission since he became the champion. He's mostly bragging about his DQ victories, but they finally gave Bryan a decisive victory. Does it make him look strong? No, not really. In fact, Bryan looks like he got lucky since the cards lined up for him and Santino just happened to be the final superstar in the match. I know a lot of people want Bryan to get better victories, but he's the bad guy. His character is supposed to take the easy route and come off as a weasel. That's his character. As for the Sheamus/Bryan deal at the end, it appears we got our answer as to whom Sheamus would challenge. It really doesn't come off as a surprise since Punk/Jericho has been teased for the last few weeks. Oh, and Santino was the #1 topic on Twitter during this match. Yeah, nobody wanted him in the match? Yeah, I don't buy that argument. Santino's the underdog, and we love underdogs. He's also a goofy underdog, so it's easier for people to latch onto him.

Winner and still WHC: Daniel Bryan

To save time, I'm not going into detail on this scene. Here's a short version. Hornswoggle's eating cheese. Natalya cuts the cheese. Justin Gabriel finds his friend, Jack Swagger comes out just for the sake of being a douche. Jokes are exchanged. Hilarity is around, but crickets are chirping. Teddy makes it Swagger vs Gabriel for the US title. Swagger and Vickie Guerrero hate Teddy while Teddy seems to like the idea of being the GM of both shows. The farting deal is just ridiculous. In fact, it's redonkulous. It just reached a new level of…..somethinglous? Is that even a thing? I was feeling it?

Match #4: Jack Swagger vs Justin Gabriel; US Title match

This was the filler match for the night. It was brought in at the last moment and it just there to eat up the clock. To be fair, this was a fair match to watch. At the same time, I can see you not giving a crap about this one since it came out of nowhere. Swagger gets the Ankle Lock on Gabriel and Jack retains his title. I'm waiting for Kurt Angle to go on twitter and talk about how Swagger is mocking him. Then he will claim his twitter got hacked or some other bs. Seriously, don't be surprised if this happens. The US title has really lost a lot of steam ever since Zack Ryder dropped it. It's like they wrote up this plan to give Ryder more screen time, but completely forgot about the belt. Well….At least the champ looked impressive tonight. 

Winner via submission and still US Champion: Jack Swagger

Match #5: John Cena vs Kane; Ambulance Match

As I already said tonight, this was not a good choice for the main event. It would've made a lot more sense to roll with the Raw chamber match as the main event. This was a slow match. I'm not sure what it is, but Kane and Cena seem to lack chemistry in the ring. Don't get me wrong. The two told a great story with their promos and emotions, but something is off when they have to compete in actual matches. That was another reason to not make this a main event. You should end with some adrenaline fueling action, but Cena and Kane were just slow. It wasn't the worst main event ever, but it was pretty disappointing. I haven't been this disappointed in a WWE PPV main event since the Cena/Miz "I Quit" match. It didn't help that the audience was starting to die down during this match. I guessed they were exhausted over the almost miracle moment of Santino. For the most part, the live audience just wasn't feeling it tonight. I've always said that an electric crowd can really make a difference in a PPV. It just didn't seem like Cena and Kane went all out in this match. I think some of you were expecting them to go insane, but it was very tame. Keep in mind that Cena has a match against the Rock at WM, so they didn't want to overwork Cena too much and risk injury. They took the highroad here and kept their match safe. I'm perfectly fine with that, but that's an even bigger reason to not make this the main event. Okay, enough harping about this stuff, let's talk about the actual match. They fought in the ring and near the ambulance truck. I like how Kane gets a wheelchair and Michael Cole says it's Kane main weapon. How? He's used a wheelchair once. Remember? Kane shoved Ryder off the entrance ramp. Everyone was going, "WHEEEEEEEEE"? Oh, never-mind. I like the spot where Kane hit Cena with what looked like a laptop computer. It's like Kane was saying, "Tweet this!!!". That should be the name of a finisher. Kane hits Chokeslam through the Spanish Announce table. Take a look at the Spanish announcers. I bet they are saying, "Oh, here we go again", since they move away so effortlessly. Kane gets Cena on a stretcher. It's the Cena surfboard. COWABUNGA!!! Kane is about to win the match, but Cena fights out of it. They end up going on top of the ambulance truck. Cena hits Attitude Adjustment off the truck. He finally puts Kane in the truck and the match is over. Cena wins the match and it seems that the cub scout has overcome the hate once more. 

I can see a lot of people not being happy with this move because most people were thinking Cena would turn heel. I've said from the beginning that Cena would most likely NOT turn heel during this storyline. In fact, I can see a scenario where Cena finally turns heel at the end of WM, but I still don't see it happening. WWE just profits too much from the current Cena. Not to mention that Cena gets more boos than some of the heels on this show, so why change him? I think this whole thing was written in order to give Cena something to do between late last year and now. Cena needed to win this match since he has the Rock coming up, so the booking made sense. In that aspect, I'm not disappointed since I really didn't expect any major  change out of Cena. At the same time, I don't think we are out of the woods on this whole "Cena embracing the hate" deal since the Rock will start show up and he might start bringing this up. I guess we will wait and see what they got planned as we move forward. 

Winner: John Cena

Overall Impression:

This was a mixed bag PPV. There was moments that were entertaining and fun, but there was some moments where the flow just dragged and lost its excitement factor. The chamber matches were fun, but I've seen better chamber matches. Still, the chamber matches were exciting and interesting to watch. Santino proved a lot of people that he CAN work in the ring and you can make a strong argument of Santino being the MVP of tonight's show. This is a PPV that will get a mixed opinion. Some people will like it and some people will hate it. I thought it was right between the average/slightly above average territory. My score for WWE Elimination Chamber is a 6 out of 10. I give this PPV the slightly above average score. There was some decent action and progression of storylines tonight, but the presentation of the matches and the lackluster main event can really make you think twice about this show. This is a PPV I don't recommend ordering. I would say a DVD rental is better suited for this show. I was going to give this show a 5 out of 10, but the story being told in the chamber matches did raise up my spirits a bit. Still, this was an average performance by the WWE and I can consider that a disappointment. I was kinda expecting some type of special surprise like a late entrant, a return, or a fresh storyline. There was returns, but they were only there to give a bro fist to Roboiniatis. They did address a new Laurinaitis storyline, but it's too early to judge. It could be good, but who really knows. Definitely one of the weaker WWE PPVs I've seen in a while, but at least it was better than Against All Odds. Then again, a dump truck of garbage is more entertaining than Garett Bischoff. That's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show. See you next time. 

WrestlingNerd's Official Score of WWE Elimination Chamber 2012: 6 out of 10