5 times the Elimination Chamber match shocked us

The Elimination Chamber
The Elimination Chamber

The Elimination Chamber match has been part of the WWE PPV landscape since 2002, debuting at that year's Survivor Series and was ultimately won by a returning Shawn Michaels for the World Heavyweight Championship. Each outing has top main event Superstars competing, usually for a title belt or a WrestleMania spot on the line. Such stakes on the line, however, mean there are often huge risks and dastardly deeds taking place in the matches and can often shock the WWE Universe.


#5 Kalisto from the top of the Chamber

Kalisto dropping from the top of the chamber
Kalisto dropping from the top of the chamber

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2015 saw a double entry for the Elimination Chamber match, with a debuting tag team edition of the spectacle. 2015 did not have the depth of tag teams it does now, so putting them all in a Chamber match was a ploy to ensure the WWE Universe had a reason to care. Kalisto at this point was still with Sin Cara as part of the Lucha Dragons, and given his little frame, needed a big move to take out much larger competitors such as Cesaro and The Ascension.

Cue death-defying leap from Kalisto as he scaled the structure, hung by his fingertips from the top, swung back and forth like a pendulum before falling onto a waiting crowd of people, nearly missing them and causing himself injury!

#4 HHH beats Goldberg

Goldberg destroying the field before HHH intervened
Goldberg destroying the field before HHH intervened

Summerslam 2003 hosted the second version of the WWE's Elimination Chamber match, and this one was star-studded with HHH, Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Kevin Nash and Goldberg being the lineup, all sure-fire Hall of Famer's. Goldberg had joined WWE in March of 2003 and the likelihood of him tearing through the WWE roster as he did in WCW was high. HHH had other ideas however and after Goldberg had made his way through the rest of the participants in the Chamber Match, HHH laid out Goldberg with a sledgehammer shot to the forehead.

The shock here was not that HHH would win, or he used a sledgehammer to do it, but that Goldberg lost in the WWE after a record-breaking undefeated streak in WCW only a few years earlier.

#3 John Morrison channels Spiderman

Is that Spiderman?
Is that Spiderman?

John Morrison / Johnny Nitro / Johnny Mundo has always been a hugely athletic individual and able to use real-life gymnastic and parkour abilities in his matches. He used this to great advantage in Royal Rumbles, and also in 2011's Elimination Chamber PPV in Oakland, California. With a WrestleMania XXVII Championship match on the line, John had to put everything on the line to try and make it to the 'Grandest Stage Of Them All'.

He did not give in easily, however, and at one point scaled the Chamber as Kalisto did a few years later, but hung from a very awkward angle before letting go and spiraling down onto the waiting Sheamus. Impressive in it's timing and ability to land on one man, Morrison would become synonymous with stunts like these.

#2 Rob Van Dam crushes HHH's windpipe

The very first WWE Elimination Chamber match
The very first WWE Elimination Chamber match

Going back to the inaugural Elimination Chamber in 2002, Shawn Michaels would make a triumphant return to WWE full time and win the World Heavyweight Championship from HHH. This was always the plan, however, HHH ended up being legitimately hurt in this match after taking a 5-star frog splash from RVD off the top of one of the pods.

Given the height from which Rob jumped, and the angle he had to come off the pod to hit HHH on the ground, it was a difficult task. Unfortunately for Hunter, Rob managed to catch his knee into the throat of HHH and render him unable to breathe.

HHH heroically finished the match after catching a second wind, but still ultimately spent the night in hospital to ensure he did stop breathing in the night.

#1 Edge cashes in

The ultimate opportunist cashing in with Mr McMahon
The ultimate opportunist cashing in with Mr. McMahon

Elimination Chamber wouldn't get it's own PPV until 2010 so was usually the main event on another PPV that year. 2006 would see the match on New Year's Resolution, with champion John Cena in the match with superstars like Kane, Shawn Michaels, and Kurt Angle. After a brutal match in which Cena was left bloodied, Vince McMahon came out and asked the officials to raise the chamber. Cena lay breathless on the ground whilst Mr. McMahon introduced the cashing in of the WWE Money in the Bank briefcase for Edge, who promptly speared Cena and won his very first World Championship.

This shocked many of the WWE Universe due to it being so late in the PPV, Edge not having had a World Championship before and Cena having been through hell to retain his Championship.

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Edited by Shiven Sachdeva
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