So I expected the women's chamber to be okay at best, but more likely mediocre. Those expectations are undoubtedly a huge reason why I thought this match was incredible. MOTY? Slow down. But a legitimately all time great Elimination Chamber and if its not MOTN this will be an incredible show.
Most importantly this was just about perfectly laid out. Every pairing and sequences had a purpose with a given individual or pairing designed to shine or get destroyed. It never felt lost, lacking purpose or killing time as matches of this length with this many participants usually do.
The symmetry of opening with Sasha/Bayley vs. Mandy/Sonya and closing with the same pairing. That Bayley neckbreaker to Mandy as Sasha kicked Sonya's head off. Liv & Sonya deciding to shoot and slapping the life out of each other. Liv with a couple trademark Liv Morgan sick bumps, particularly that snatch out of the corner. The Iconics -- THE ICONICS -- who have been nothing since coming up outside of perhaps a promo or two that prompted a grin -- being put in position to futilely try and capitalize on a ring full of corpses before getting a brief shine with double teams that while hardly flawless looked strong and most importantly well placed and perfectly opportunistic given everything that led to that brief run.
Nia & Tamina actually being presented and working as monster heels -- SAMOAN SLAUGHTERHOUSE -- what a name -- and just wrecking everyone upon entering in the way that monster heels should before they're eventually overcome was incredibly well done. They killed everyone in sight until Nia took a sick bump into the pod to set up Tamina's gang elimination.
I can't highlight it enough but the flow of this match as each team entered and was eventually eliminated -- which despite the ring filling up never felt rushed -- was pitch perfect. The timing was on point and I wouldn't change a thing.
When Nia & Tamina were eliminated before the finish I thought they were getting too cute for their own good, but that not only gave us the same final pairing we started with, but also a callback to last year's women's chamber where Sasha turned on Bayley and a finish playing off of Sasha's early arm injury.
Stiffness, slaps, bumps, psychoogy, callbacks, choice use of near falls and a fun, emotional post-match interview. I don't know what else they could've done here but I loved it the entire way.
****1/4