Elimination Chamber Thoughts

WWE presented their Elimination Chamber event last night from the New Orleans Arena in the Big Easy.

With WrestleMania XXX widely tipped to be held from the Superdome that sits yards away from the venue, I'm not quite sure, based on reading the results from last night, that WWE impressed the locals that might have been looking to attend the event next year. However, you can be the judge of the event for yourself.

Granted, Elimination Chamber has never really been known as a stellar event anyway. I attended the inaugural event in St. Louis in 2010, and aside from the two World Championship Chamber matches, it was nothing special.
And I know that this is going to sound awful, but it seems that the Elimination Chamber match came off as less-important on this night. And since the PPV is NAMED AFTER THE MATCH, that is really, really bad.

However, the Chamber match did have a very surprising winner: Jack Swagger.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Swagger has gone from the ultimate jobber to co-main eventing WrestleMania in the span of 5 months. And he was gone for 4 of those months. As a matter of fact, he's only been back on TV for 3 weeks. 3 weeks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for Swagger. I'm sure that he's thrilled. But this push to a World Heavyweight Championship match is coming much too fast. It'd be OK with me for, say, SummerSlam, but not WrestleMania.

I can see why they would like to do Alberto Del Rio(who retained his World title on the show via submission) vs Swagger. The story (Mexico/Immigration .vs. America/Anti-Immigration) basically writes itself. My problem isn't Del Rio .vs. Swagger at WrestleMania. My problem is Del Rio .vs. Swagger for the WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP at WrestleMania. It's an odd direction, especially since the Americans here are supposed to be the heels. If WrestleMania were be held in Mexico, I guess this would make sense. Not New Jersey.

On a related note, I just love Swagger's new manager Zeb Colter(the former Dutch Mantel). He's only been here a week today and he stands out. He looks different and he can cut a real kick-ass promo. Terrfic work so far.

In other noteworthy news, The Shield beat Ryback, Sheamus, and John Cena completely clean. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement, as I never expected The Shield to win this match, much less fair-and-square. The only problem I have is that it is difficult to see where they go from here.

It's clear where John Cena is going, however. As everyone and their momma predicted, Cena will be facing WWE Champion Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who retained his title in a good match with CM Punk, in a WrestleMania rematch. Only this time, the WWE Championship will be up for grabs.

I wonder who's gonna win that one. #Sarcasm