The landscape of WWE is still feeling the ripple effect of John Cena’s industry-shifting decision to turn on Cody Rhodes—becoming heel for the first time in his career. Cena spoke about the close calls in his career on podcasts over the past few years—opening to Chris Van Vleet in one specific interview. He said there were shirts printed and an entire run built around his heel turn, but ultimately, it failed to make it to TV for the same reason that all Cena heel turns never manifested before Saturday.
Cena was seen as the “face” of the company” (that means two things), and his work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the millions of kids all around the world outweighed the creative benefits of a ‘bad guy’ Cena. Yet, neither Cena nor Rock were in attendance tonight.
There were plenty of other major moments at Elimination Chamber, including the return of both Jade Cargill and Randy Orton respectively, but the likelihood that Jade and/or Orton make appearances could make or break this episode. However, WWE Creative could use this opportunity to solidify other Mania programs in need of promotion, with superstars like Bron Breakker, Penta, and Bianca Belair reaping the benefits of an increase in eyeballs after Saturday.
CM Punk Wants Smoke; Seth Rollins Ready To Burn It For Him
CM Punk started the show in the absence of the company’s star power (Roman, Rock, and Cena not scheduled for the show) for this episode. Punk charged the table, grabbed a mic, and played his version of Wheel of Fortune when deciding whom to cut a promo on first. He called it a “State of the Union” address before alluding to the idea that he has not ‘exhausted all of his main event-ing WrestleMania.’
“Who do I start with? Give me a name,” Punk said as the fans screamed out names. It was Pat McAfee who consulted Punk to start with The Rock. Punk asked for the camera shot before calling ‘Dwayne’ a “bald fraud.” He concluded that The Rock must not ‘know who he’s dealing with’ if he thinks Punk won’t openly criticize him.
Punk called Rock “Mr. Mid-Life Crisis” before claiming the Hollywood Action star believes himself to be a bigger star than everyone else in the company. He mocked Rock’s own motions and claimed that he only “pretends” to care about this business while tearing down the idea that The Rock is the “People’s Champ” because he owns a ‘fake belt.’
“I don’t deserve it; I earned it,” he said while the fans chanted Cena’s name for Punk’s consideration. Punk took the bait and switched gears to Cena, whom he claimed “we can now all see through.” He poked at Cena’s ‘Make a Wish’ record, saying that now the fans see what he has known all this time, and that is Cena ‘sells bulls***’ to the fans. He lambasted Cena for ‘giving up’ on himself and all the kids. Without either Rock or Cena booked for the show, Punk settled for ‘seeing them down the road.’
“I’m going to get my hands on both of you bald frauds, and when I do, you’re gonna ‘make a wish’ that I never did,” Punk said before refocusing all his attention on Seth Rollins. Rollins cost Punk at EC by delivering a curb stomp that allowed Cena an opening to exploit.
“Becky Lynch, you better come get your man because if I do before you do, I’m going to put him in a wheelchair,” Punk was able to get off before Seth’s music hit. Punk did not wait for Seth to get to the ring, let alone hear what he had to say, and instead exited the ring to meet him on the entrance stage.
They fought for the remainder of the segment, and even when control was gained between the two, one of them would eventually break free and continue to fight. After it was finally broken up, the two would once again go at it as GM Pearce would finally have enough.
Pearce booked a steel cage match between Punk and Rollins next week on RAW. The thought on social media is that Roman will somehow be entered into this feud before Mania—making the entire program a triple threat match. With Punk and Rollins being featured again on ‘Free TV,’ it stands to reason that WWE can only justify a match between Rollins and Punk at Mania if Roman is involved, especially if we got the opening singles match and the elevated stakes of an added gimmick (cage) both on RAW.
We’ll see how it all plays out, but there is still plenty of time to work Roman into the story, especially considering he has historic heat with Seth and ‘main event’ heat with Roman.
Main Event: Rhea Ripley(c) vs. Iyo Sky—Women’s World Title (RAW)
The match had been building for weeks, ever since Rhea and Iyo bumped heads, and Rhea cost Sky an opportunity to be in the Chamber. Both working face, Rhea put Sky over as one of the best, considering she has never beaten the Japanese export in singles action. Sky has been over with the fans for a long time, but her recent heel work may have caused Creative to forget.
They ‘worked’ a stellar match that was competitive enough that, at times, you’d be forgiven for believing Sky might just dethrone one of the faces of the company with just over a month left till Mania. Both women hit big spots throughout the match, Rhea with devastating power moves and Sky with artistic acrobatics.
Bianca Belair said earlier in the night that she would not comment on the Jade-Naomi situation until she’s had a chance to ‘speak with both’ women and came out to observe from ringside. She sat next to them but was never actually on commentary. Her music hit, and she danced (seemingly forever) to the ring, which, combined with her backstage interview, suggests she’s still working face and has yet to be implicated with whatever reasons Jade had to attack Naomi.
You would not expect an interference angle as a face out at ringside watching two other faces battle, but Rhea matches don’t ‘do clean.’ She urged on Sky at one point in the match where the champ was inside the ring content to take a count-out victory. Sky was able to beat the 10-count, and Rhea felt as though Belair’s encouragement was the difference maker.
Rhea went out to confront Bianca, and the two broke out into a shoving match before the ref broke it up, hoping to protect the match’s integrity. Rhea was out of pocket and distracted, though Bianca’s good guy routine felt unauthentic to that situation. She was not cheering on a friend. Instead, she was declaring her opponent preference for Mania.
Still, Rhea’s lapse in focus felt for nothing because Belair did nothing different from the thousands of fans urging on Sky from their seats. Sure, Belair’s POV was much closer, but she was as physically involved with the match as the ‘Green shirt’ guy has been at every PLE he attends—that’s to say, not at all.
Rhea refocused on Sky as she set to drop a riptide from the middle turnbuckle on the challenger, but she refocused her attention to Belair for just a moment to say, “See ya at Mania,” to the winner of Saturday’s Elimination Chamber. Sky reversed the high-risk maneuver into a ‘hurricanrana’ before climbing to the top turnbuckle for a moonsault.
Iyo Sky hit the spot from the top of the turnbuckle, and it was enough to keep Rhea down for the 1-2-3. Sky took a (mostly) clean pinfall victory over Rhea to become the new world champion while simultaneously keeping her undefeated streak against Rhea. Fans rejoiced, and Bianca had a huge smile on her face.
Sky will now have to get ready for Belair on the ‘grandest stage of them all,’ but she has the experience of defending the title at Mania. In fact, this will be the second consecutive time she will defend a title at “The Show of Shows.” It was a huge upset victory on another shocking ending to WWE programming. Rhea was left reeling on the arena floor as Sky and Bianca gazed upon the Mania sign representing their destiny.
American Made
Chad Gable gave his American Made crew a single directive, the same for all—he demanded they win WWE gold by the time he returned from sabbatical. A vignette that offered more insight on Gable’s whereabouts and happenings since his self-imposed hiatus (more on that later) was shown tonight. Despite Ivy Nile and the Creed Bros failing spectacularly in previous opportunities, both would get to run it back with the same champs that beat them a few weeks prior.
No Smile For Nile
Ivy Nile lost her second attempt at IC gold in a highly competitive match. In the end, Lyra Valkyria hit her ‘Nightwing’ finisher for the successful retention by pinfall.
A Rocky Time For The Creed Bros
The tag match was even tighter than the IC title match. This was the second match between the two teams, and the Creed Bros were successful offensively in the match before using the tag belts as foreign objects and being disqualified. The Creed Bros have a high ceiling, but they are not able to find that next gear in title matches—the one that gets you over that ‘first strap’ hump. War Raiders successfully retained in this one.
Gable’s Task To Find A Mask?
The rest of American Made might not be successful with their current mandates, but Chad Gable appears to have retrieved the very thing he hoped his quest would provide. He found himself in front of a meat market (a staple of Hispanic hoods all throughout the Mexico-America border towns). Conversing with Spanish-speaking residents in this pre-recorded video vignette, Gable was on the hunt for someone with only an old dusty picture for reference.
Eventually, he found his man (an Asian man in traditional Mexican clothing because, of course, that’s how WWE would book it) in the alleyway of ‘Los Hermanos’ carniceria (meat market). Chad, who clearly never met the individual for whom he’d been searching, asked if he was ‘the guy that would help him beat the Luchas.’
“You can not fight what you don’t understand,” the mystery man said. “You must become Lucha.” Gable responded by claiming he’d ‘do anything,’ and the elderly man handed him a box reluctantly. After Gable gave what appeared to be $400 U.S. dollars.
“You now wield power beyond your understanding,” the man told Gable as he opened the box—the context of which emitted a bright light. It could be a lucha mask, especially considering Gable was told he must ‘become Lucha.’ This is an interesting turn in storytelling, and with the news that Rey Fenix is officially on his way to WWE, it could be him—he carries a gimmick that combines his Lucha background with a martial arts fusion.
Other Tidbits/In-Ring Action
It is weird to have the heavyweight champion in back-to-back weeks working with an opening act, even when that act draws pops from the WWE Universe (c) in every segment that they’re featured. Last week, Gunther worked with Tozawa in a pre-decided open challenge that did not last long before Gunther demoralized him.
This week, Otis was next up from Alpha Academy to face off with the red-brand champ. He achieved considerably more offense than Tozawa did, and the match lasted longer. There was even a great moment for Otis where he missed his ‘worm-to-elbow drop’ featured move when Gunther moved, but then later in the match, Otis dropped the elbow quicker, and it landed.
Still, he came in as a 10-1 dog and lost in that fashion, but Gunther attempted to continue the beatdown before Jey Uso came to make the save. We saw this exact booking last week, but A-Town Down Under came to the ring this time and threw Jey a beatdown. The tag team moved from SD to RAW a month ago, got into with Jey last week, and have been bumping heads since the transfer. The team decided to just stop talking as they continue to try to make a name for themselves on the red brand—I guess the tag titles aren’t as valuable to A-Town so long as the dominant War Raiders own the belts.
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