The Match
![It really seems like this match is made for the audience at home at the expense of the live crowd; sound off in the comments if it's as difficult to follow live as it seems.](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/2f998-1511232488-800.jpg?w=190 190w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/2f998-1511232488-800.jpg?w=720 720w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/2f998-1511232488-800.jpg?w=640 640w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/2f998-1511232488-800.jpg?w=1045 1045w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/2f998-1511232488-800.jpg?w=1200 1200w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/2f998-1511232488-800.jpg?w=1460 1460w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/2f998-1511232488-800.jpg?w=1600 1600w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/2f998-1511232488-800.jpg 1920w)
Since the match owes so much to the three speciality contests that inspired it, it's only right to look at how Elimination Chamber compares to those match types and how it uses their elements to tell its story.
Beyond the match beyond
WarGames generously lends its two calling cards (a unique use of space and sheer bloody violence) to the Elimination Chamber, and it pays off well. Jericho, Michaels, and Helmsley bleed amply (HHH finds himself "busted wide open" before the first pod even opens, and he and Jericho call back to the two-ring spectacle by excruciatingly working Michaels's forehead to increase blood loss).
The grids of black steel chains that make the Chamber's walls add an extra "oomph" to the "throw to the cage" spots; Van Dam slams Trips into those grids repeatedly to get the red stuff flowing, then finds himself slingshotted into those same walls several times during a shocking (and short-lived) Jericho-Helmsley alliance.
In fact, RVD is the MVP of the structure, using an early Spiderman jump to (and from) the walls to launch his signature sidekick, then hitting a trachea-crushing Five Star Frog Splash to HHH off the top of a pod (after Jericho thwarts an earlier attempt by pulling Van Dam down through the roof of Jericho's pod).
Other classic uses of the Chamber itself include HBK's flying elbow off a pod during the closing sequence and, in the most enduring (and repeated) spot in the match, Kane sending Jericho through the plexiglass wall of a pod (showing more brutality in four seconds than the pair showed in their entire Last Man Standing Match).
![This match is ALSO not about coffee.](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/ab0f3-1511232398-800.jpg?w=190 190w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/ab0f3-1511232398-800.jpg?w=720 720w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/ab0f3-1511232398-800.jpg?w=640 640w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/ab0f3-1511232398-800.jpg?w=1045 1045w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/ab0f3-1511232398-800.jpg?w=1200 1200w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/ab0f3-1511232398-800.jpg?w=1460 1460w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/ab0f3-1511232398-800.jpg?w=1600 1600w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/ab0f3-1511232398-800.jpg 1920w)
Selfishly, though, I have to complain that the brutality the match promised isn't visited well enough (in kayfabe, at least) on the match's most heinous heel: The Game. That elevated frog splash did legitimate and serious damage to The Cerebral Assassin's throat, and it seems like a lot of the punishment his character was due didn't come because of legitimate concerns to Paul Levesque's trachea.
Handed a title or not, the man has twice wrestled with a torn quadriceps and once with a crushed trachea (not to mention other in-ring injuries, or that one time he willingly wrestled in pig faeces with a large cut on his back). Question his place, but never his commitment.
Countdown to a Clash
The staggered entrances and countdowns work well, but mostly because the MSG crowd adding their voices to the addition of superstars also adds to the anticipation.
HHH and RVD start and the War Games inspiration hits again as Jericho enters to give the heels an advantage; Booker T follows up, then Kane, and by the time The Big Red Machine tears up and tears through the remaining men in the match, The Garden is practically beating down the door to get Michaels into the ring.
![This is probably worth at least a](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/7bfe3-1511232727-800.jpg?w=190 190w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/7bfe3-1511232727-800.jpg?w=720 720w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/7bfe3-1511232727-800.jpg?w=640 640w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/7bfe3-1511232727-800.jpg?w=1045 1045w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/7bfe3-1511232727-800.jpg?w=1200 1200w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/7bfe3-1511232727-800.jpg?w=1460 1460w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/7bfe3-1511232727-800.jpg?w=1600 1600w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/7bfe3-1511232727-800.jpg 1920w)
Like with a Royal Rumble, each entrance is greeted with a flurry of big spots and ring-clearing assaults; also, unfortunately, another Rumble trope rears its ugly head as the competitors tend to sell exhaustion like Flair at the end of a sixty-minute Broadway after mere minutes out of the pod.
Michaels uses this most flagrantly, as a single Flair flip in the turnbuckles seems to sap all of his energy after literally flying all over the ring mere minutes before (although the story of his back injury excuses it somewhat).
The Eliminations
The first elimination in Elimination Chamber history is met with a resounding chorus of boos, and it's not hard to figure out why. RVD is the first to go, having been dispatched by a Booker T missile dropkick moments after the top-of-the-pod splash; eliminating a favourite of the "smart" fans that early costs this one some serious goodwill that doesn't fully build back up until Michaels enters.
Jericho then gets successive eliminations with his patented Lionsault, over Booker T and Kane; the second is particularly impressive because The Big Red Machine was roughly six feet from one set of ropes but Jericho flips off the opposite side of the ring in a great display of acrobatics.
With the match down to Y2J, HHH, and HBK, some odd booking decisions lead to Michaels eliminating Jericho with the Sweet Chin Music, set up only because Helmsley prevented Jericho from eliminating Michaels so that Trips could do it himself; one of my pet peeves in elimination-style every man for himself matches is when elimination attempts are thwarted by another competitor. It makes little to no storyline sense, and Triple H's hatred of Michaels doesn't seem like it would outweigh his desire to leave The Devil's Playground with his championship.
![Michaels does it, too; it's like no one told him that, if he waited another minute or so to do this, he would only have to eliminate Jericho to win the strap.](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/d0240-1511232160-800.jpg?w=190 190w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/d0240-1511232160-800.jpg?w=720 720w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/d0240-1511232160-800.jpg?w=640 640w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/d0240-1511232160-800.jpg?w=1045 1045w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/d0240-1511232160-800.jpg?w=1200 1200w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/d0240-1511232160-800.jpg?w=1460 1460w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/d0240-1511232160-800.jpg?w=1600 1600w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/d0240-1511232160-800.jpg 1920w)
At this point, the match has lost its younger up-and-coming talent to pare down to a part-timer with only two matches that calendar year versus Triple H, a pattern which nobody would be foolish enough to ever replicate later on, right? Michaels and HHH set a template which Helmsley and Daniel Bryan would replicate to perfection at Wrestlemania XXX as the plucky babyface kicks out at two after a Pedigree before reversing a second to rush to the nearest corner and set up his signature strike to The Game's ample chin.
![What is it with returning legacy acts and Raw's top title? At least HBK would stick around long enough to become more than a nostalgia attraction (and, to some, outdo the first portion of his illustrious career).](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/6e8b5-1511232296-800.jpg?w=190 190w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/6e8b5-1511232296-800.jpg?w=720 720w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/6e8b5-1511232296-800.jpg?w=640 640w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/6e8b5-1511232296-800.jpg?w=1045 1045w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/6e8b5-1511232296-800.jpg?w=1200 1200w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/6e8b5-1511232296-800.jpg?w=1460 1460w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/6e8b5-1511232296-800.jpg?w=1600 1600w, https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2017/11/6e8b5-1511232296-800.jpg 1920w)
Confetti falls on a bloodied Heartbreak Kid while my 17-year-old self-joins with my 32-year-old self in elation at a childhood favourite returning to golden glory.