ARN - Elimination Chamber 2011 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

The 2011 Elimination Chamber went down on February 20, 2011 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. 11,500 were in attendance that night, which is not a sell-out. The arena can do over 20,000 fans for basketball.

The show was promoted locally as the first time there had ever been a wrestling PPV show from the building, which is the case, amazing considering it’s been one of the major arenas in the country since 1966 and at this point one of the older arenas of its type still standing. When WCW ran PPVs in the Bay Area, they ran at the Cow Palace. WWE also ran the Cow Palace (most notably for the Eddie Guerrero title win over Brock Lesnar in 2004) or San Jose (most notably the 1998 Royal Rumble and Shawn Michaels’ back injury).

(Did you have any preference on arenas in California? Any fond memories of the Cow Palace?)

Although the show was known as Elimination Chamber in most countries, in Germany, for sensitivity purposes to the Holocaust, the name was changed to “No Escape.” 2011 is the first year it was called “No Escape,” having previously been called “No Way Out” in Germany in the past. Which was the name of the February pay-per-view before it was called Elimination Chamber.

(What would you call it if you were naming it? Name it after the match or name it something else?)

Pay-per-views are still the main method of delivery for WWE’s big monthly events and this show did 212,000 buys on PPV. That’s lower than the year before, which did 287,000. That’s the year that the pyro burned the Undertaker.

The show was headlined by two chamber matches, one at Smackdown for the World Heavyweight Championship and one at Raw for the number one contender position at Wrestlemania 27. Also, a very unique WWE championship match is on the card featuring The King.

(How did you like seeing this resurgence in the career of Jerry Lawler?)

News

Observer: The plan for the former Mistico is to bring him right to the main roster as opposed to having him spend time in FCW learning American style and English. I’m really surprised by this. The idea is that since it cost so much to get him, they need to make him a valuable player as soon as possible. Whether this is short-sighted thinking or not will be better viewed in hindsight. My impression is he will have a new name and a newly designed mask, but that they want to also make sure the Mexican-Americans and Mexican fans know it is the former Mistico under the mask. I don’t know that this is related to Mistico, but timing wise, would bet it is, as Jim Ross announced he would be part of a major groundbreaking WWE news event on 2/24 at Vive Cuervo Salon in Mexico City, open to the public. It’s supposed to be a press conference and I strongly suspect it will have something to do with Mistico, or whatever name he will be going under. The impression we’ve been given is that he will have a new mask design as the idea is for him to become the next Mysterio, given Rey being 36, often injured, and with constant speculation on how much longer he’ll stay full-time. Another reason the WWE deal is likely to have to do with Mistico is that CMLL has scheduled a press conference of its own a few hours before WWE, and that press conference will discuss Mistico. So either they’ll bury him on the way out, or with him well, and subtly say something because it’s a first strike save face press conference before the announcement their biggest star for the past several years is gone.

(The strange thing looking back at this is that Mysterio is still with the company and

Mistico is not, and neither is Sin Cara. What are your memories of Mistico? Why did the company lose faith in him?)

“The Chaperone” did so little in its only weekend of theatrical release that the weekend box office charts didn’t even list it, similar to “Knucklehead.” They don’t expect to make money on the theatrical releases, and only do a few markets just to try and position it as something other than a straight-to-DVD release.

(What kind of movie would have been right for Arn Anderson? I feel like you’d be good in a buddy cop movie!)

Right now the locker room level of smoking pot is probably the lowest in the history of the company. It’s a $2,500 fine plus if you test positive it’s kind of implied that you’re going to start losing matches. The testing has gotten stricter as with certain guys, they actually sent testers to their homes, and at other times, guys will get phone calls at random times when they are home and told they’ve got one hour to get to a testing facility. A lot of people are using a marijuana substitute that beats the test.

(Who was behind the idea of cracking down on marijuana? What did you think about it?)

A lot of the top stars who are making big money, like Show, Undertaker, HHH, Cena, Edge and Mysterio are traveling in tour buses like rock bands travel in. It’s all tax deductible as a business expense. For TV’s Cena travels with Michael Cole as the two are best friends.

(Who did you like to travel with during this period?)

Dwayne Johnson, reviving his character The Rock, made his first live appearance as a performer at a WWE live television event on the 2/14 Raw since his contract with the company expired at the end of 2004.

Johnson, 38, as expected, was revealed as the mystery guest host for WrestleMania. He came out in the final segment of the show, and cut about a 20 minute promo, delivering every single catch phrase in some form or other, and tore the roof off the Honda Center in Anaheim. Johnson, calling himself the most electrifying man in all of entertainment, teased confrontations with both John Cena and The Miz. The crowd didn’t know how to take the tease of Cena confrontation and his bad mouthing Cena, and there were some boos. Probably the vast majority of the audience had no idea of Cena, a few years back, knocking Johnson for never returning. Johnson claimed he wasn’t there because of the money and he wasn’t there to promote a movie. Johnson made fun of Cena’s bad movies as a receipt in 2008 when he inducted his father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame, but also noted that he did “Doom,” a Sci-fi flick that did weak box office numbers early in his career.

Johnson said that he would never leave again. It’s an interesting career decision, because for years he had phased out the name The Rock, going just by Dwayne Johnson in the movies, and did well as a kids star. But in returning to the action genre, brought The Rock name back, and part of this may be trying to reconnect with the wrestling audience. Since 2009, he had said he was interested in returning for a Raw episode, but wanted to do something with great impact. With WrestleMania needing a celebrity lure because it was missing the special spark that is there in the good years, the decision was made to go with him, which probably was the best choice possible.

(Talk to us about what the feeling was in the back toward Rock’s return here. We know later on people would get sour about him winning the title or main eventing shows, and a lot of that is probably unfair. Were people excited about him coming back here?)

(Any interesting experiences working with The Rock?)

Has the return to pro wrestling of The Rock made wrestling cool again?

It’s a question that is too early to be answered, but it was very clear that after Dwayne Johnson returned to pro wrestling with an appearance on the 2/14 Raw show from Anaheim, that a lot of people who have had little or no interest in wrestling suddenly took notice, particularly Johnson’s remarks saying that he would never leave wrestling again.

To the average person, they believed Johnson had not just returned to wrestling, but was back, as in would be on Raw every Monday. Of course, that makes no sense, but it did lead to super hot crowds at the Elimination Chamber PPV and a rare sold out Raw on 2/21 in Fresno, where the majority of those in attendance expected Rock on the show. Both arenas were filled with home made posters for Rock and chants of his name.

But at least he will be at Mania. No word on when he will be back on Raw, other than after his return drew almost no ratings due to lack of advertising it, you can be pretty sure next time it will be announced a head of time.

(What did you make of his remarks about never leaving again? What did that mean?)

(Do you think the Rock coming back had a positive impact on the company?)

Apparently, there was a plan to call the segment “Leave it to Bieber” and tease to the public that Justin Bieber was going to be the guest host. Meltzer wrote they were trying to get people in the company the day of the show to believe Bieber was the guest host that would be announced (which made no sense since the reaction in the building would have been disastrous), inside the production meeting itself, they did not pretend that to the inner circle. When it came to the final segment, they simply didn’t tell anyone what was going to happen and the script of the show only mentioned Guest Host coming out as the final segment.

(Do you remember the idea being to play like it would be someone else other than the Rock and that being pulled?)

Around the time of this show, signs were good for the upcoming Atlanta Wrestlemania…

Business signs for Atlanta are considered strong. Currently, ticket sales are said to have topped 50,000 and there is no concern over the Georgia Dome being full the night of the show. There probably will be papering, but it’s not going to have to be like 2008 in Orlando or last year in Phoenix where the papering had to be heavy. Ticket prices are the highest to date, so they’ll be close if not setting an all-time gate record. Between the return of Rock and the lack of having a UFC the night before like last year, the feeling is PPV will be up from last year. But last year’s lineup on paper looked at this point stronger than this year’s. It’s hard to call last year’s show a failure when it was very profitable, but Vince McMahon was pretty negative when the results came in saying it didn’t do what it was expected to do and blamed creative not putting together the right product mix. Doing less than 500,000 domestic buys, it was the lowest number for Mania since 1997.

(Did you take any special interest in seeing Wrestlemania come to your home state and the home of the Turner empire?)

There were also rumors that we would see Justin Bieber (likely singing “America the Beautiful” to open the show) and Bob Barker at the upcoming Mania during this time. In fact, there were loads of rumors about Bieber being there.

(Did you ever hear about Justin Bieber working Wrestlemania?)

Event Itself

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER PPV POLL RESULTS

• Thumbs up 181 (97.3%)
• Thumbs down 1 (00.5%)
• In the middle 4 (02.2%)

BEST MATCH POLL

• Smackdown Chamber match 143
• Raw Chamber 16
• The Miz vs. Jerry Lawler 15

WORST MATCH POLL

• Slater & Gabriel vs. Marella & Kozlov 135

Here’s what Metlzer wrote...

Elimination Chamber on 2/20 was the final PPV before Mania. It was one of the company’s best PPV shows of the past five years, as noted by the overwhelming thumbs up. Like with Royal Rumble, our volume of responses was way up from last year, which would indicate a good sign when it comes to PPV numbers. The results from the show were predictable, as they pretty much had to be without doing booking to hurt your cause just to be unpredictable. With the two title matches being Cena vs. The Miz and Alberto Del Rio vs. Edge, that meant Miz beating Jerry Lawler, Cena winning the Raw chamber and Edge winning the Smackdown chamber, since Del Rio won the Rumble to earn his title shot. Most expect Cena and Del Rio to both win at Mania and that the most looked forward to moment at Mania would be a Cena/Rock confrontation toward the end of the show.

(But having Cena win over Miz was never the plan, was it?)

The funny thing is, while results should have been obvious, real life threw an unfortunate curve ball. Lawler’s mother passed away a week before the show, which was well known since he missed Raw and it was brought up a few times.

There was no right or wrong booking at this point. The crowd badly wanted to see Lawler win in Oakland. They were far more into the match that any Miz title match thus far except the TV ladder match with Lawler that set this all up. The Lawler-Miz program originally was just an idea for television, but it got over so strong, both in the arena and in ratings, that the decision was made to go forward with it. At no point would Lawler have been considered anything more than just your usual challenger to put over the champion en route to the champion’s “real” defense at Mania. And given that Miz’s title reign and his segments have not done well in the ratings, beating him and having a short-term, as in a day or a week title reign made no sense. On the flip side, after Lawler’s family tragedy, interview, the entire dynamic was different, as evidenced by the entire crowd giving him a standing ovation as he came to the ring.

(Do you give him the belt here for a night and switch it back on Raw, or what?)

Whereas before, the crowd would have expected and accepted the come close and lose, perhaps with outside interference from Michael Cole, the crowd was behind this match at a different level. The first time Miz went for the skull crushing finale, the reaction was unique. People booed, but it wasn’t heat on Miz, but on the promotion, feeling Lawler had been booked as a job guy. The reaction wasn’t as bad when Miz actually used the move later in the match, and Lawler got a second standing ovation leaving. While normally at this time of the year, the last thing I’d ever suggest is to take away from building the big show, but this was not a normal situation. Yes, Miz needs strengthening and the title needs strengthening so I completely understand the decision for Miz to win cleanly. At the same time, WWE has not been much for creating moments that people remember after the end of the show, let alone for weeks or months. This would have created one of those wrestling moments that would have lasted a lifetime. Then again, you could argue, that was not the moment needed at this time. The moments needed for people to focus on were Rock’s return, Cena’s return promo, and Undertaker & HHH’s stare down. If the big story became Lawler’s title win, it would only get in the way and take focus away from the things you need to be strong in building the big show…

(What was the right call here? What did you want to see happen? A lot of fans, especially old school ones, would have absolutely lost their shit to see Jerry Lawler win that night.)

Meltzer went on to write about the angles coming out of the show and leading into Mania...

As far as an update on the show, past the big three, it will be Lawler vs. Cole. We’re not clear what stipulations will be involved other than Cole will be making demands before accepting the match. It’s been said that Vince McMahon is in love with this angle, because he is living vicariously through Cole. Most of Cole’s key lines on television are fed by McMahon, although he has been really great with his smug attitude. There is a real question of where good heat vs. bad heat stands when it comes to Cole. A lot of people talk about turning off their TVs and for months we’ve had subpar ratings and subpar numbers across the board since the role of the announcer is to get the angles and personalities over, and if your announcer has no credibility to the audience, he’s strongly compromised in his ability to do that. Whether that empirical talk is statistically significant in that, or these drops were going to happen anyway, is impossible to answer. But it is a concern to guard against Cole falling on the wrong side of this. Obviously this angle is being patterned after Lawler’s most famous career angle, the 1982-83 program with the late comedian Andy Kaufman.

(I’m sure we will talk about it more in the coming Wrestlemania 27 we do later this year but...give us your thoughts on the Michael Cole angle here in this era. Was it the wrong kind of heat? How can you tell?)

On the Chamber show, with Lawler doing a title match, the announcing was the Smackdown crew of Cole, Booker T and Josh Matthews. Booker, who has only been doing it for a few weeks, has one positive trait as an announcer and that is that he hasn’t gotten the enthusiasm beaten out of him yet. But he comes across as almost a parody of an 80s wrestling announcer, like he’s playing announcer as opposed to being an announcer. While not evident on the show, Booker actually left the table during the main event and then came back out. Presumably it was a bathroom break, and it must have been serious, but I’ve never heard of that done before in the middle of the main event on PPV and was considered across the board as unprofessional. Plus, Cole is in a tough position of having to play his character while at the same time get the matches over, and those two goals are often in conflict with each other.

(Why did Booker T get up and leave in the middle of the broadcast here, any idea?)

The crowd was different, very heel oriented. Cena, in particular, was booed like it was a few years ago. The most over babyface, except Rock, who wasn’t there, was Alberto Del Rio, followed by C.M. Punk. In the two Chamber matches, due to time constraints, they were shaving time throughout. Last year the 5:00 periods were usually longer than that, while this year they were usually shorter, sometimes considerably so. Even with the shaved times, the Raw chamber match went several minutes longer than it was booked and while they didn’t threaten the three hour time limit, they did so about five or six minutes longer then projected on the show.

A. U.S. champion Daniel Bryan beat Ted DiBiase in a non-title match with the LeBell lock in the dark match.

(Once upon a time, it would be hard to imagine the U.S. championship being defended in a dark match, right?)

1. Alberto Del Rio defeated IC champion Kofi Kingston in a non-title match in 10:28. The announcers were instructed not to talk about the title. Del Rio mostly worked over Kingston’s back, including tackling Kingston on the apron and driving him into the post, and then the ring steps. Crowd started going crazy for Del Rio, but they didn’t boo Kingston. Kingston came back with a forearm off the top, a high dropkick and a flying clothesline to lead to the Boom drop. He missed the Trouble in Paradise and then missed a charge into the corner. Kingston later came off the top rope into double knees. Del Rio went up for a superplex, but Kingston head-butted him twice and Del Rio took the bump. Kingston hit a high missile dropkick for a near fall. They traded near falls until Kingston hit a DDT. Ricardo Rodriguez distracted the ref for a long time allowing Del Rio to kick out. Kingston got another near fall with the SOS, but he missed a charge into the corner and jumped up and ended up sitting on the top rope. Del Rio did a hangman’s style neckbreaker taking Kingston off the top rope, and then put on the armbar. Kingston struggled to block the hold like in a Japanese style match, and struggled before taping. ***¼

(What was the purpose of not talking about the title here? And why have Kofi lose, anyway? Building Del Rio?)

2. Edge won the Smackdown elimination chamber match to retain the World title in 31:28 over Kane, Drew McIntyre, Rey Mysterio, Wade Barrett and Big Show. Dolph Ziggler had been advertised all along, but they did the storyline where Ziggler was fired. Teddy Long came out and announced Big Show as the replacement even though Show lost to Wade Barrett in qualifying. This was an excellent match–the best WWE match so far in 2011. The storyline was that Edge and Mysterio were the first two in, and the last two, going almost 9:00 by themselves at the end. Mysterio took a ton of punishment here. He took a back drop on the metal grating. He also used a huracanrana off the top for a near fall. Barrett came in at 4:25. Barrett tried the Wasteland, but Mysterio grabbed the chain-linked cage and started climbing up. Kane came in at 8:25 and cleaned house. McIntyre came in at 13:09 and threw Mysterio into the glass pod. McIntyre crotched Barrett and then threw Barrett threw the glass in the pod. It was a spectacular spot, but by the end of the night it meant nothing because it was done several times. But crowd popped real big for the first time it was done. Kane laid everyone out including throwing Mysterio head first into the glass pod. That was stupid because that kind of head damage really should be avoided, not to mention potential neck damage from that spot. Show came in at 17:12 and was cleaning house. Show hit Barrett with a punch and pinned him in 18:47. Then came the spot where everyone did big moves on Show. Kane came off the top with a clothesline. Edge came off the top with a Randy Savage elbow. Show kicked out of that big. McIntyre used his Future shock DDT, but Show kicked out of that as well. Mysterio came off the top of the pod with a Thesz press, but Show did a big kick out of that as well. But Show finally went down after a 619 by Mysterio, a spear by Edge and finally Kane pinned Show after a choke slam in 20:52. Kane then pinned McIntyre after a choke slam in 21:08. Mysterio went to town on Kane for some near falls. After a 619, he came off the top with a huracanrana, but Kane blocked it and was about to tombstone Mysterio, when Edge speared both and Edge pinned Kane in 22:49. Kane went crazy after being eliminated and choke slammed both Mysterio and Edge, leaving both laying and selling for about 2:00. Then the two did one near fall after another. Edge tried a spear but Mysterio leap frogged over and used a schoolboy for a near fall. Edge blocked a huracanrana and hit a power bomb for a near fall. Edge blocked a 619 and used a sharpshooter/boston crab type of submission, but Mysterio reversed into a cradle for a near fall. Mysterio kicked out of a pear. Edge kicked out after a 619 and springboard splash. Mysterio did another huracanrana and 619. He went to the top and came off with another Thesz press, but was nailed with a spear while in mid-air for the pin to win the match. The Edge vs. Mysterio last several minutes were awesome. One of the better chamber matches in history. ****¼

(I thought this was delightful to watch. Who was the agent on this match? Are there special challenges to putting together an Elimination Chamber match? How do you book one?)

After the match, Del Rio hit the ring and put Edge in the armbar until Christian returned, making the save. He got the usual surprise run-in big reaction. Unlike most angles of this type that are used to explain surgeries and then long forgotten when it should be payoff time, they did bring up the storyline that it was Del Rio’s armbar that led to Christian’s surgery. The refs all pulled Christian off, but he broke free, and laid out Del Rio with the killswitch. Very good post-match as well.

(Did you get to see Christian at the Royal Rumble this year?)

Matt Striker interviewed Lawler, who was low key and totally different than he’s ever been in WWE doing an interview. They talked about how this should have been a big week in his life challenging for the title and getting a ticket to Mania, noting he’s never won the title nor wrestled at Mania, but his mother passed away. Striker, usually a heel, said he was pulling for Lawler.

Booker T came to the ring and talked about coaching Tough Enough. He then introduced Trish Stratus as one of the coaches. She went out there and tried to do a Rock catch phrase, “Finally the Trish has come back to Oakland.” This was five star groaning reaction. The idea was horrible enough because the crowd was guaranteed to hate it, made worse by the fact she was clearly nervous and seemed like she herself knew better. Segment was bombing until Booker saved it, and pushed the premiere of the show. Stratus then said she came to Oakland to see Lawler win the title.

(Everything about Tough Enough seemed to be cursed. Are you a fan of the concept? Who would have been behind telling Trish to rip off Rock’s catchphrase?)

3. Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel beat Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov to win the WWE tag titles in 5:07. Nothing much to it. Kozlov had to sell, which normally isn’t good, but was better than usual here. Marella got the hot tag and used the cobra on Gabriel, which the crowd popped big for. Slater made the save. Gabriel then got up immediately, not selling a thing, which looked so stupid. Kozlov tagged in and went to powerslam Gabriel, but Gabriel was tagged by Slater before being slammed. Slater clipped Kozlov from behind and used a reverse DDT on him. He tagged in Gabriel, who got the pin after a 450. *1/4

(Would you rather see this match or Daniel Bryan vs. Ted DiBiase Jr?)

Vickie Guerrero came out to nuclear heat. She admitted that Ziggler had attacked Long. She said Ziggler was confused and only trying to show Vickie how much he loved her. She called it a crime of passion and asked Long to hire him back, saying he was sorry. She told people to twitter and facebook Long and ask him to bring Ziggler back. Long came out and said he was in a rehiring mood. So he rehired Kelly Kelly, who ran to the ring and chased Vickie. She caught her and was trying to bounce her head on the mat when LayCool came out. McCool was doing this while having to maneuver in a special boot to protect her injuries. She drove Kelly into the boards with a knee. Stratus made the save, in the same outfit she was wearing the last time out, with super high heels. The way she was moving in them knew this was ripe for trouble. She did a Thesz press in the heels which she pulled off fine. Then she went for a huracanrana out of the corner on Layla, but missed it completely, and Layla took the bump anyway and the crowd booed. Stratus bulldogged both Layla and McCool together at the end. Trying to do a bunch of spots in high heels was a bad idea. Not sure why she didn’t have someone go to a local shoe store and get her some tennis shoes, although I guess they wouldn’t go with her outfit. She knew it, as after the show, she tweeted: “Note to self. Always pack wrestling boots when u go to a WWE event-cause u just never know.”

(What’s the right way to handle it when a wrestler misses a move on you? Why do people take the bump anyway?)

Let’s talk about the next match…

After The Miz won the WWE Championship in November 2010, Raw commentator Jerry Lawler was given what was billed as his first WWE Championship match (not really) after criticizing Miz's win by using his Money in the Bank briefcase while former champion Randy Orton was injured. He lost to Miz in a TLC match after his fellow commentator Michael Cole stopped Lawler from climbing the ladder. On the January 31 episode of Raw, the Raw general manager announced a Raw Rumble match, to determine the WWE Championship contender at Elimination Chamber, while the losing participants would be entered into an Elimination Chamber match to determine who will face the WWE Champion at WrestleMania XXVII. The participants were CM Punk, Randy Orton, King Sheamus, John Morrison, John Cena, Jerry Lawler, and R-Truth. In a pretty freaking awesome moment, Lawler last eliminated Sheamus to win the battle royal to earn himself the title match, while the other six contestants went on to participate in the Raw Elimination Chamber match.

But as we talked about, going into this match, that week...Lawler’s mom died. So, of all times in history when he would normally be able to take off work...he has to be in the WWE championship title match tonight.

4. The Miz pinned Jerry Lawler in 12:07 to retain the WWE title. The whole place was standing as Lawler came out. He clotheslined Miz over the top. Alex Riley distracted Lawler allowing Miz to throw Lawler into the post. Lawler still sells the post better than anyone in the business. Riley interfered throughout. Lawler used a superplex for a near fall. Lawler then followed with two straight dropkicks. The second wasn’t too good. Lawler got a near fall after a fist drop. Riley tripped Lawler and this time the ref saw it and booted Riley out. Lawler used a schoolboy for a near fall. Miz went for a tackle and Lawler got out of the way and pulled down the ropes so Miz took a bump over the top. Lawler was outside and Michael Cole started yelling at him. This gave Miz the chance to attack Lawler from behind. Lawler came back and slammed Miz’s head into the table while Cole went crazy. Lawler then threw Miz over the top onto Cole, wiping both out. Back in the ring, Lawler used a punch off the ropes for a near fall. Miz twice tried the Skull crushing finale and the crowd had this unique collective groan reaction. It wasn’t heat at all on Miz, just groaning the company would book Miz to beat Lawler after his mom died. Lawler went for another fist drop, this time off the middle rope, and pulled down his strap, but Miz got his foot on the rope. Lawler tried for a piledriver, but Miz escaped. They went for a series of cradles until Miz kicked Lawler in the head, and then used the skull crushing finale for the pin. Very good match as the crowd was into Lawler’s quest to win the title far more than anyone chasing it in recent memory. Because of that story, every move in the match meant something. Cole then celebrated like crazy, saying that Lawler just showed he was an embarrassment to the company. The crowd gave Lawler another standing ovation when it was over. ***½

(I wanted the finish to be different. But I loved the match and loved the experience. What about you?)

We already talked about how the Raw elimination chamber match came about, so let’s get right to it.

5. John Cena won the Raw chamber match over Randy Orton, R-Truth, John Morrison, King Sheamus and C.M. Punk in 33:10. On his first night back as referee, Scott James (Scott Armstrong) got the main event.

(Any significance to that?)

Morrison started with Sheamus. Crowd didn’t care about these two, and were cheering for Punk and to a lesser extent Cena, who were still in their pods. Sheamus threw Morrison, who was the athletic star of the show, off the top rope but he did a Spiderman spot. Orton came in at 3:54. Orton threw Morrison through the glass, which as the second time done, got significantly less reaction than the first time.

(When you have two chamber matches like this in one night, how do you keep from repeating spots? Do the agents communicate and share notes?)

He did the draping DDT outside the ring onto the metal grating. He also did top rope superplexes to both Morrison and then Sheamus. Punk was to come in at 7:43. Supposedly the lock was jammed and he was stuck. Orton started pounding Punk as he was halfway in and halfway out. He continued pounding as Punk got free, and then Orton pinned Punk in 8:59 after an RKO. The reaction was not what they would have wanted. The crowd was absolutely livid that they beat Punk so quickly. The Raw General Manager then reversed the decision, saying Punk didn’t get a fair shake because of the lock being jammed. So the pin does not count and he’s back in the match. Punk started laughing, which was a cool visual. Cena came in at 12:29. Crowd booed the hell out of him. Cena back dropped Morrison over the top rope and Morrison was selling his left elbow. Loud chants for Punk and also “Cena sux.” R-Truth entered at 16:10. He slammed Sheamus’ head into the glass and hip tossed Sheamus on the grating. He used a diamond dust on Morrison and his spinning forearm on Cena. Usually when an underneath guy in a match like this gets this much offense, it’s bad news for him. And it was here, as Sheamus landed the Brogue kick on Truth for the pin in 17:30.

Orton threw Morrison through the pod. This got significantly less reaction than the second time it was done on the night. They built to an Orton vs. Cena spot as they were trading punches, with Orton hitting a high dropkick. Punk came in for a second time at 20:15. Orton used an RKO on Cena on the grating. Sheamus with a Brogue kick on Orton. Punk jumped on Orton for the pin but Orton kicked out. Punk then started mocking Orton, doing his punching the mat to set up the RKO spot, but instead used the GTS for the pin on Orton in 21:31. Crowd cheered Punk pinning Orton like crazy and they were super into the idea of Punk winning.

Sheamus and Morrison both ended up on top of a pod. Morrison kicked Sheamus, who took a big bump off the top of the pod into the ring. Morrison then started climbing the cage all the way to the domed part so he was climbing upside down. Not sure what his original idea was, but as he was near the top, with Sheamus underneath to catch him, he let go and basically fell on Sheamus for the pin in 25:16. This left Cena, Punk and Morrison. Cena took over on Punk, doing his trademark moves, all of which were booed heavy. Cena had him up for the Attitude Adjustment, but Morrison came off the top and wiped out both. Morrison tried the shining wizard on Punk, who moved and Morrison put his knee through the glass. This was the fourth time, and that made it ridiculous when Josh Matthews had spent the whole show trying to put over that this was unbreakable glass. With Morrison selling, Punk got Cena in an inverted triangle. Cole called it the anaconda vise. Punk was throwing elbows while holding the triangle. He thinks he’s Bryan Danielson and they are still in ROH where fans get that spot. Cena powered out, standing up with Punk holding the triangle. Morrison climbed to the top and they did the Road Warriors doomsday device. But Punk kicked out. Cena set up the Attitude Adjustment on Morrison but Punk gave Cena a kick to the head. Punk used a springboard elbow on Cena outside the ring and got a near fall on the grating. Punk then monkey flipped Cena through the glass. That was the fifth time and given it was to set up the finish, probably should have been the only time or at worst, the second time for the night.

(How the hell did this keep happening??)

Punk tried the same thing to Morrison, but Morrison held onto the pod and didn’t go through, and came back with a knee. Morrison missed Starship pain on Punk and was selling the knee that had broken the glass earlier. Punk pinned Morrison at 32:50 with the GTS. Cena immediately got Punk up in the Attitude Adjustment, threw him over the top rope onto the grating, and pinned him outside the ring at 33:10. ****

(How did you like the finish and was Cena the right guy to win here?)

(What were your overall thoughts on Elimination Chamber 2011?)