2. Chris Jericho Vs John Morrison Vs R-Truth Vs Rey Mysterio Vs CM Punk Vs The Undertaker – ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2010
The Elimination Chamber’s position on the PPV calendar can render it a little obvious. We’re on the road to WrestleMania and whilst sometimes EC can be a pit-stop for a chance to move in another direction (see Kofi Kingston) sometimes the WWE can wilfully ignore what fans want to happen (see Daniel Bryan – although it all came good for him in the end) and carry on the same “obvious” path.
This match had some intrigue because everything pointed to an Undertaker / Shawn Michaels rematch at WrestleMania but few could see it being over the title. Edge was waiting in the wings but it seemed unlikely that him versus the Undertaker two years after we’d already seen it was the choice. Yet him against Batista on the other side didn’t strike as a money match.
So if nothing else there was intrigue here going into this one.
Punk opened up with R-Truth and dispatched him quickly – by design to Punk could repeat his mid-match promo’s from the Royal Rumble. Him and Rey had a great sequence too that was a step on their way to a Mania tussle. The final three of Morrison/Jericho/Undertaker seemed random but was a whole lot of fun (and again, was the chance for a hitherto underused guy to get a bit of the spotlight).
Whilst in some ways it goes against the grain of a Chamber match (i.e. no one should be able to interfere) the ending where Shawn Michaels makes his way in by surreptitious means to cost Taker the match (and therefore open up a Mania spot) is undoubtedly a creative one and, more importantly, makes sense in the storyline. Michaels had a clear reason for going to the lengths he did to cost ‘Taker the match.
So a match set up the Mania main event, allowed Edge to target his former tag team partner Chris Jericho for the World Title at that show and also helped move the Punk/Rey storyline ahead of them meeting at Mania. So a great match that also set up three Mania matches. That’s some great booking.