[2005-01-09-WWE-New Year's Revolution] HHH vs Batista vs Chris Jericho vs Chris Benoit vs Edge vs Randy Orton (Elimination Chamber)

[Vinnie B]

Brief thoughts:

 

-Wow was the Puerto Rico crowd hot for the this in the best way - they popped for nearly every spot, big or small.

-Benoit and Jericho's chops were insanely stiff throughout this match.

 

-You can say what you want about HHH, but he certainly was willing to take a bunch of brutal bumps in this match.

 

-The chamber seems to be, quality wise, the best gimmick match of the 21st Century (although I personally prefer many ladder matches). It's a fairly difficult match to get wrong, and these guys don't. Hard-hitting, big spots and an interesting story in Batista and HHH's teased split to carry us through. It's a really good match, but I don't think it's in the upper echelon of chambers matches for me.

 

****

[El-P]

They were in PR ? Ok, I get the counting in spanish then. I had no idea WWE ever ran a PPV over there.

 

So, they start with Benoit & Jericho. Wonder why. Damn, Benoit was good. *sigh* It's obvious though that these two are warm bodies at this point, playing the Arn & Windham of the EC gimmick. The real focus is on the Evolution guys. Which means HHH is next, because he has to teach these two how to work. Ah ah ah. Well, actually, Trip gives one of his best performance I've seen, bumping like a maniac on the steel, bleeding like a pig and playing off his relationships with his two Evolution (well, former for Randy) guys.

 

Edge is next. And honestly, he looks good here. This match never slows down thanks to the workhorse. Then we get to the hard stuff with Randy, who's all fiery babyface, which looks odd today. He's also less over than his finisher. People just want to see Batista. This guy was the Next Big Thing.

 

Fun spot where Trip is put in the Lion Tamer and the Crossface at the same time just before it's time for Batista to get out... and the ref can't seem to open the door. Let's pretend Trip ask the ref to do that on purpose so he could stay in both submission holds at the same time a wee bit more while not submitting. That would be so gloriously carny.

 

So there, the warm bodies are being disposed by Batista, who's not as impressive as Goldy but still quite the presence. Orton is clearly not on the same level, meanwhile, special ref-Shawn superkicks Edge, setting up their program. No idea how Flair got in at one point to fuck with Orton, that was weak camera shit there. Tension built between Batista and HHH, which will end up culminating at Mania in a star making moment and another one of HHH high point. Likewise, he's really the MVP in this match, which ends up with him winning, this time in a climatic finish.

 

Great match, best Elimination Chambers. No weak link really, although Orton was the worst guy in the ring overall, and that's counting Shawn as the ref who didn't take any attention before his spot with Edge.

 

Well, this was N°3 and it's only got better and better thus far...

[ohtani's jacket]

The WWE did an impressive job of setting all six guys up as legitimate title contenders. Pretty much everyone had beef with each other, and they all hated Michaels as well. I can imagine dyed-in-the-wool WWE fans having a favorite they wanted to see win. The fact that it was in Puerto Rico raised the bar fairly high for blood and violence. I'm not sure how much crossover there was with a typical WWA audience, but four out of the six guys bladed, so there was respect for the traditions of the island. The match was okay, but didn't live up to the pre-match hype. It wasn't laid out in a particularly compelling way. They favored Orton vs. Triple H and the Triple H vs. Bastia tease over the over three competitors, and the eliminations were weak. It didn't help that Batista and Orton gave subpar performances. I kinda wanted to see what was going to happen if Triple H and Batista were the final two since that was the tease, but instead Triple H deliberately failed to help Batista and Orton ended up being wedgied and pedigreed. Batista didn't turn on Triple H in the post-match, Michaels was barely a factor aside from the weak Edge elimination, and Triple H was once again the World Champ. It wasn't boring, but it could have been better.