WWE’s road to WrestleMania is accelerating, and the next stop is Elimination Cage.
The past month or so has seen a slew of title changes, including Drew McIntrye finally taking the WWE Title away from Cody Rhodes, two new Royal Rumble Champions in Roman Reigns and Liv Morgan, and a massive retirement, once again in the hands of newly announced WWE Hall of Famer Gunther A.J. Styles.
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The card currently only has four events, with long runs of men’s and women’s chamber music competitions sure to take up much of the time.
Let’s take a look at what’s in store for WWE heading into one of the biggest PLE events of the year.
Punk’s return vs Balor’s chance
In the night’s two singles matches, CM Punk will defend the World Heavyweight Championship against Judgment Day’s Finn Balor in what may be one of the most predictable matches in WWE history.
It’s almost 100% guaranteed that Punk will win this match in his Chicago backyard, as WWE has advertised and promoted it between him and his WrestleMania opponent Roman Reigns. While Balor winning would be shocking, there’s no real plan after that.
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That being said, Balor’s current push is strong, and his fantastic homecoming match against Punk in Ireland a few weeks ago gave fans the chance to show him some love and hear his old theme music again. What this will do for Balor is unknown, but it could lead to him eventually breaking away from Judgment Day in the near future.
The women’s dream competition finally takes place
AJ Lee has been chasing Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch since her highly anticipated return in September. Six months later, AJ defeated Becky for the title, and the two met in a mixed tag team match and a War Games match, where the two would eventually go one-on-one.
A few weeks ago, AJ jumped in the ring and convinced Lynch to give her a title shot. Lee was very much the brains behind “The Big Baker,” which makes this build fascinating. This game is a must-see on Saturday night, and oh, I’m not just saying that either.
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Stackable Indoor Matches
The men’s and women’s chamber music competitions are exciting from top to bottom, with generations of talent set to impress in both events.
On the men’s side, the contestants include established superstars such as Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton and LA Knight, as well as young stars such as Je’Von Evans, Trick Williams and Logan Paul, with the winner heading to WrestleMania to face WWE Champion Drew McIntyre.
Paul was only added to the mix on Friday after Jey Uso defeated Jacob Fatu in an emergency qualifying match after he was attacked at the start of the episode.
Players like Evans and Williams, along with Paul, likely won’t win this game, but they will certainly add an element of high-flying and excitement to this fan-favorite game.
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Regardless of the outcome, SmackDown has recently seemed destined to have a multi-man match at Mania featuring four to six of the mentioned guys, which could create a huge stir. This seems like the best option right now rather than Cody Rhodes and Drew doing it for the tenth time in the past year.
The winner of the Women’s Chamber Match between Tiffany Stratton, Rhea Ripley, Asuka, Kiana James, Alexa Bliss and Raquel Rodriguez will face Jade Cargill at WrestleMania.
Ripley seems like the obvious choice here, especially after she and Iyo Sky lost the Tag Team Championship to the “Irresistible Force” of Lash Legend and Nia Jax on SmackDown. There’s already quite a feud between Stratton and Cargill, Asuka may soon be joining a project with Kyrie Sane, and James, Bliss, and Rodriguez don’t seem to be a good fit.
Regardless, this game is bound to be brutal, and that’s what The Chamber is all about.
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Mysterious elements
Beyond these matches, there are some mysterious stories in WWE that could come to a head on Saturday.
Yes, you guessed it, the “Masked Man storyline” of masked men attacking humans has been going on for way too long. The original masked man turned out to be Austin Theory, which turned out to be pretty underwhelming, and there’s another one who’s been attacking members of The Vision ever since.
On Friday’s episode of SmackDown, Logan Paul unveiled the mystery man, but no one (including the commentary team) recognized him. Presumably there will be another version attacking Paul tomorrow, but this narrative should end as soon as possible.
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WWE also recently introduced a large crate to the backstage area that says not to be opened until Elimination Chamber, and it’s unclear what that will entail.
To find out how these storylines will unfold, tune in to the Elimination Chamber PLE live stream on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET.