5 things to watch for at WWE Elimination Chamber 2018 event

The 2018 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view is fast approaching us and scheduled for Sunday, February 25th, which means it's time for us to start thinking about what will go down at the event and what special moments to look out for.

Generally speaking, almost every event has its fair share of key notes WWE wishes to hit—whether it's pushing a specific Superstar, instituting a swerve in a storyline, crowning a new champion or just setting up water cooler talk for the next day.

With this show, there are a few things in particular that may be happening that will have some serious consequences for the Road to WrestleMania and what transpires on Monday Night Raw over the coming months.

Here's a look at five things to keep your eyes out for when preparing yourself for Elimination Chamber 2018.

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#5 The Miz's elimination is important

The Miz will take a loss here, but who takes him out will be key

It's pretty safe to say The Miz isn't going to win the Elimination Chamber match, so if you're going into this event with hopes of that happening, you're awaiting disappointment.

What will be intriguing to watch, though, is who The Miz interacts with during this match and what eliminations are surrounding him.

It's extremely likely that the person who takes him out of this match will end up being the person who feuds with him for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 34, since pinning him here will cause enough contention between the two to prompt another confrontation down the line.

The Miz will probably call that person out on an edition of MizTV to rant about how it was a fluke that he was taken out of the match by that person—be it Finn Balor, Seth Rollins or Braun Strowman—and before long, they'll be on a path to a title match at the biggest show of the year.

This could also happen with someone The Miz eliminates, flipping the script a bit, as he could gloat that he took down that guy and proved he's better than him, gloating for the sake of repairing his ego following coming up short for the No. 1 contender's spot.

One way or another, the eliminations surrounding The Miz will dictate who he faces at WrestleMania and that may be the only feud to come out of this particular match itself.

#4 Lots of down time

Will you be Woken like Matt Hardy, or will this make you fall asleep?

The two Elimination Chamber matches on this card are going to take up the majority of the show, which is good in a way, but also mind-numbing for a good portion of the rest of the evening.

There aren't enough people left on the roster who are noteworthy enough to do something at this show to really make it seem like there are any other important matches to take notice of, which means the rest of it will feel like filler.

Perhaps Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt face off, but does anybody really care all that much about that at this point?

Maybe Sheamus and Cesaro defend the Raw Tag Team Championship against Titus Worldwide or The Revival or The Balor Club, yet that won't be something highly promoted and will get lost in the shuffle as a bathroom break segment in comparison to other things on the show.

Barring a tag team title change, the only thing that would truly matter that would be added to this card would be a round 2 match in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament, although nothing of the sort has been advertised at the moment and there aren't enough dates left before WrestleMania to play around with doing too many of these matches outside of 205 Live itself.

Don't be surprised if the pre-show is almost entirely video packages, panel analysis, recaps and little to no substance, even if there's a match that takes place and eats up 15 minutes for the sake of trying to wake people up from the boredom that comes before it.

#3 Asuka and Nia Jax shenanigans

Asuka and Nia Jax face off in a match that might do more harm than good

There are so many ways for the match between Asuka and Nia Jax to cause problems that it's hard to know where to start.

If Nia Jax wins, she gets inserted into a Triple Threat match for the Raw Women's Championship that Asuka hasn't even claimed to be in, yet, so if she were to challenge Charlotte Flair instead, it would render the Triple Threat idea a dead deal.

She would also be ending Asuka's undefeated streak in the process, even if it's by count out or disqualification, which would be underwhelming ways to have The Empress of Tomorrow suffer her first loss.

Worse, a true victory for Jax hurts Asuka's momentum, whether or not she stays on Raw or goes to SmackDown.

If Asuka wins, then Jax has nothing to do at WrestleMania, and that becomes just horrible if Asuka jumps over to SmackDown and leaves Raw without a strong Jax ready to take on Alexa Bliss.

Thus, watch out for WWE to overbook this match to some ridiculous level by having it either end in a no-contest or a draw of sorts, possibly not even get started in the first place if they begin to brawl before the bell rings, or for some kind of cop out finish that saves them from having to make a true judgment call.

This could be a segment everyone looks back on and wonders why WWE decided to do it in the first place.

#2 Possible outside interference

This is not the last we've seen of Kane

There are four people who could potentially pop up to interfere in the men's Elimination Chamber match in order to screw one of the seven men participating in the fight.

Picture above is Kane, who was last seen being taken out on a stretcher when Braun Strowman asserted his dominance on Monday Night Raw and sent The Big Red Machine to the hospital.

As a measure of revenge, The Devil's Favorite Demon could reappear to cost Strowman the match, giving the Monster Among Men someone to fight on the Road to WrestleMania. That is, of course, if the feud between Kane and Strowman isn't simply over and out of the picture.

There's also a chance Kane's brother, The Undertaker, steps out of the darkness to start a feud with John Cena and picks a fight with him here, for one reason or another that he would elaborate more on in the following edition of Monday Night Raw.

Assuming he's healthy enough to do so and WWE still wishes to see them clash, Samoa Joe could also pop up to cause issues for Cena, as they were clearly heading toward a confrontation several weeks ago before the Royal Rumble. Since the match with The Undertaker isn't a guarantee, it's possible Joe is another plan for Cena at WrestleMania and the angle could start here.

Lastly, while it seems extremely unlikely to happen, there is still a chance Jason Jordan shows up to support Seth Rollins in his quest to become the No. 1 contender and somehow gets in the way or purposely gets him eliminated from the match, continuing the storyline between those two.

The cage is meant to keep people out, most of the time, but there have been far too many instances in WWE's past where that hasn't stopped someone from causing interference, so it's worth mulling over the options for who might do that for this match.

#1 Ronda Rousey's enemies and partner

Let's hope this isn't the main event of the night

No contract signing ever goes down in WWE without some kind of confrontation taking place. It's a guarantee that we all expect at this point, so the idea of that happening is no shocker.

However, the details of what exactly takes place are up for speculation.

As it stands, Ronda Rousey has no current feud going on, since this will be the official start of her career as a Superstar.

With that in mind, this is being advertised as a simple signing and nothing more, but it can't possibly be a significant chunk of time dedicated to watching her scribble on a piece of paper and then leave. Something has to happen.

In all likelihood, the confrontation is going to come about from something Stephanie McMahon does or says, as it seems as though the goal in mind for WrestleMania is to have Rousey and a partner team up against Stephanie and Triple H.

While rumors still persist that The Rock will be her partner, I'm convinced Kurt Angle will be taking on that role, since he's had his problems with Triple H and McMahon over the course of his stint as general manager, but he hasn't been able to do anything about it.

This could end up being a brawl where Stephanie, Triple H and Kurt are all there for the signing, McMahon sparks an issue, Rousey strikes, Triple H steps in and Angle acts as the equalizer.

That would immediately set up the mixed tag team match for WrestleMania and assuredly be one of the primary talking points of the next night's episode of Raw and more, going forward.

Someone is going to push Rousey's buttons and regret it, and it looks like Stephanie McMahon is going to be that person at Elimination Chamber.