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Elimination Chamber

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This article is about the professional wrestling match. For the pay-per-view event named after this match, see WWE Elimination Chamber.
The Elimination Chamber at New Year's Revolution 2006

The Elimination Chamber is a match type in professional wrestling, specifically seen in World Wrestling Entertainment.[1] Debuting at Survivor Series in 2002 at Madison Square Garden, it is a cage match along the lines of Hell in a Cell.

History

Origin

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) originally had only two matches in a caged environment, the Steel Cage and Hell in a Cell matches. The Steel Cage was the first type of match in a cage in professional wrestling and consisted of four walls of steel surrounding the ring apron, while the Hell in a Cell was a roofed-derivation that was taller and surrounded the ring on the ground as opposed to the apron. In 2002, WWE announced the creation of the Elimination Chamber, a match that combined elements of WWE's Royal Rumble match, Survivor Series matches and World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) WarGames matches, in that the countdown timer comes from the Royal Rumble and War Games, the enclosed cage format from War Games, and the elimination process from the Survivor Series.[2]

Brand and pay-per-view designation

In 2002, due to an excess of on-screen talent after buying World Championship Wrestling (WCW), WWE enforced its Brand Extension in which on-screen employees were assigned to work on one of two television programs that were promoted as "brands" (like conferences in the National Football League) of WWE, Raw and SmackDown!. Former WCW President and then Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff formally announced the creation of the chamber on an episode of Raw, and scheduled the match to feature Raw wrestlers at Survivor Series. The match was exclusive to the Raw brand for the first four matches at Raw and joint-branded pay-per-view events, but upon the creation of the ECW brand in 2006, the match was promoted for the newly created brand at their December to Dismember pay-per-view event. Beginning in 2008, the match became an exclusive to the No Way Out pay-per-view and two were featured annually for two years among the three brands. In 2010, WWE replaced their No Way Out event with an event named after this match, and continued the same tradition as its predecessor.

DVD release

In July 2010, WWE released Satan's Prison, an Elimination Chamber anthology featuring every Elimination Chamber match to date as of the Elimination Chamber ppv.[3] The European release of the DVD will be titled Iron Will.[4]

Match

Structure

According to a WWE Magazine article in 2009 by WWE's production designer Jason Robinson, who co-designed the structure, several designs for the Elimination Chamber were considered before settling on the final design. The structure was manufactured in Colorado Springs, Colorado, taking between six to eight weeks to fabricate from the design blueprints. The Elimination Chamber costs US$250,000 to construct. A 50-foot flatbed truck is needed to transport the chamber. Assembly in the arena takes eight hours to complete. When not in use, the structure is stored at a dock in Newark, New Jersey.[5]

The structure itself is made of black-painted steel with an outer structure of 16 frames, each weighing 300 pounds (140 kg).[5] The chamber is 36 feet (11 m) in diameter. The structure weighs 16 tons, 10 of which consists of steel.[6][5][7] Each inner chamber is made of three sheets of "bulletproof" plexiglass, costing US$225 per sheet.[5] 2 miles (3.2 km) of chain are also used.[6][7] Eight motors are used to suspend the structure over the ring before each event.[5]

Match rules

The Elimination Chamber match is a variation of the steel cage, War Games, and Hell in a Cell matches, in that the ring is surrounded by a circular steel structure of chain and girders, but instead of a standard steel cage, the Elimination Chamber is circular, allowing for four inner chambers (or "pods") to be placed on the apron behind the four ring posts, with platforms keeping the wrestlers from the floor.[1][8] The match is contested by six wrestlers, two beginning the match in the ring and the other four in the glass chambers.[8][6] After a pre-determined amount of time (three, four or five minutes), a pod opens at random and a wrestler is added to the two already competing, and this continues until all men are released.[8][6] Wrestlers are eliminated by pinfall and submission that count both inside and outside the ring. The winner of the match is the final wrestler left, who has not been eliminated.[8][6]

The Elimination Chamber is one of the most unforgiving structures in WWE history. Two Superstars start the match, while four others are held in chambers inside the structure. After a predetermined amount of time, one Superstar is released from his chamber and let out into the fray. This continues until all six Superstars have entered the action. A Superstar can only be eliminated when he is pinned or submits. The last man standing in this match is declared the winner.

— World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE.com, Specialty Matches[9]

Variations

The fifth match, held by ECW at December to Dismember, was a slight variation called the "Extreme Elimination Chamber".[10] In this variation of the match, each chamber would have one of four foreign objects for the competitors locked inside to hold on to. When each competitor's chamber opened, their weapon entered the match along with them.[11] The four weapons used in the match were a crowbar, a table, a steel chair, and a barbed wire baseball bat.[11]

Match history

The Elimination Chamber has been scheduled exclusively to WWE pay-per-view events and debuted at Survivor Series (2002) on November 17, 2002. Since the inaugural match, there have been ten other matches (eleven overall) as of WWE Elimination Chamber on February 21, 2010. Raw has been featured in the most matches, with seven; ECW has been featured once and in one joint-branded match with SmackDown for a total of two; SmackDown has been featured twice and in one joint-branded match with ECW for a total of three. No Way Out has featured the most matches than any other pay-per-view, with four. Triple H holds the distinction of being involved in the most number of Elimination Chamber matches to date, with six and the most number of victories, with four. Except for the 2008 matches which were fought for championship matches, each match has been contested for the top-tier WWE championship, with the World Heavyweight Championship (WWE) being fought for the most in five matches. The match has been contested only in indoor arenas in the United States and once in Puerto Rico. Since 2008, the match has been featured in February pay-per-view events.

Key
Symbol Meaning
# The overall match number
Brand The WWE brand which was featured in the match
Stipulation What each match was contested for
Match The officially promoted match with all the participants
Event The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title changed hands
History
# Brand Winner Stipulation Match Date Event Location Ref.
1 Raw Shawn Michaels World Heavyweight Championship Triple H (c) vs. Booker T vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Rob Van Dam November 17, 2002 Survivor Series (2002) New York City, NY [12][6]
2 Raw Triple H World Heavyweight Championship Triple H (c) vs. Goldberg vs. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Kevin Nash vs. Randy Orton August 24, 2003 SummerSlam (2003) Phoenix, AZ [13]
3 Raw Triple H World Heavyweight Championship [A 1] Batista vs. Chris Benoit vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton vs. Triple H
(with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee) 		January 9, 2005 New Year's Revolution (2005) San Juan, Puerto Rico [14]
4 Raw John Cena WWE Championship John Cena (c) vs. Kurt Angle vs. Carlito vs. Chris Masters vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Kane January 8, 2006 New Year's Revolution (2006) Albany, NY [15]
5[A 2] ECW Bobby Lashley ECW World Championship The Big Show (c) vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Hardcore Holly vs. CM Punk vs. Test vs. Rob Van Dam December 3, 2006 December to Dismember (2006) Augusta, GA [10]
6 SmackDown-ECW The Undertaker World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXIV Batista vs. Big Daddy V vs. Finlay vs. The Great Khali vs. Montel Vontavious Porter vs. The Undertaker February 17, 2008 No Way Out (2008) Las Vegas, NV [16]
7 Raw Triple H WWE Championship match at WrestleMania XXIV Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H vs. Umaga February 17, 2008 No Way Out (2008) Las Vegas, NV [17]
8 SmackDown Triple H WWE Championship Edge (c) vs. The Big Show vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Vladimir Kozlov vs. The Undertaker vs. Triple H February 15, 2009 No Way Out (2009) Seattle, WA [18]
9 Raw Edge[A 3] World Heavyweight Championship John Cena (c) vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane vs. Mike Knox vs. Rey Mysterio February 15, 2009 No Way Out (2009) Seattle, WA [19]
10 Raw John Cena WWE Championship Sheamus (c) vs. John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Kofi Kingston February 21, 2010 Elimination Chamber (2010) St. Louis, MO [20]
11 SmackDown Chris Jericho World Heavyweight Championship The Undertaker (c) vs. R-Truth vs. John Morrison vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk February 21, 2010 WWE Elimination Chamber (2010) St. Louis, MO

Notes

  1. ^ This match was for determining a new champion to the vacant championship.
  2. ^ This edition of the match was promoted as an "Extreme Elimination Chamber" because it featured a foreign object in each pod.
  3. ^ Kofi Kingston was originally scheduled to compete in this match, but Edge attacked Kingston while he was making his entrance and was allowed to take his place.

References

Notations

  • "WWE Elimination Chamber History (2002–2008)". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 14 February 2008.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b "Elimination Chamber Description". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  2. ^ Sforcina, Matther (2 February 2008). "Wrestling-Evolution Schematic: The Elimination Chamber". 411 Mania. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
  3. ^ http://www.wweshop.com/item/satans-prison--the-anthology-of-the-elimination-chamber-dvd/DvdCDs/35-00704
  4. ^ "Iron Will: The Anthology of WWE's Toughest Match DVD". Silver Vision. 24 June 2010.
  5. ^ a b c d e Robinson, Jason (2009). "Cold Steel". WWE Magazine: pg. 49. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b c d e f McAvennie, Mike (21 May 2007). "The painful process of Elimination". WWE. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
  7. ^ a b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts". Wrestling’s Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 119.
  8. ^ a b c d Cohen, Eric. "Elimination Chamber match description and history". About.com: Professional Wrestling. Retrieved 02 February 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ^ "Specialty Matches: Elimination Chamber". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  10. ^ a b Tello, Craig (3 December 2006). "Mission Accomplished". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2 February 2008. Cite error: The named reference "ECWChamber" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Tello, Craig (29 November 2006). "Chamber of Horrors". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  12. ^ "Survivor Series 2002 – Elimination Chamber match". WWE. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
  13. ^ "SummerSlam 2003 Main Event". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  14. ^ "New Year's Revolution 2005 Main Event". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  15. ^ "New Year's Revolution 2007 Main Event". World Wrestling Entertainment. 6 January 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  16. ^ "The Deadman doubles down". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2 February 2008. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  17. ^ "The Game gets his title match at WrestleMania". World Wrestling Entertainment. 17 February 2008. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  18. ^ Passero, Mitch (15 February 2008). "Regaining the throne". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  19. ^ Tello, Craig (15 February 2008). "Shameless in Seattle". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  20. ^ "Preview: WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
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