WWE Elimination Chamber 2012: Gimmick PPV Will Lessen WrestleMania Hype

WrestleMania has a chance to be the biggest show in WWE history, but it is not going to get a lot of help from the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on Feb. 19. 

Through no fault of its own, the Elimination Chamber is not going to do anything to increase the build for WrestleMania. In fact, it is going to hurt the anticipation for WrestleMania on April 1. 

The problem with Elimination Chamber is, there is only one main-event match that is going to have any bearing on WrestleMania. All of the top matches for 'Mania are already set or will be set after the Chamber show. 

The top three matches for WrestleMania will be The Rock vs. John Cena, Triple H vs. The Undertaker and CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho (likely for the WWE championship).

How many of those matches are going to have storylines affected one way or another at the Elimination Chamber? One. 

The Raw Chamber match features Jericho, Punk and four dorks. The only way that Jericho and Punk gets properly built would be to have Jericho go over with Punk chasing the title for the next six weeks before the big show. 

Other than that, name the match on the Elimination Chamber that is going to resonate with fans and get them pumped to see WrestleMania?

Kane vs. John Cena? They already had a bad match at the Royal Rumble. The ambulance stipulation doesn't really strike me as the missing piece to get this thing over.

WWE has tried the ambulance match before with little success. That was a Kane-Shane McMahon match in 2003. You can argue that one didn't work because McMahon isn't a wrestler, but he is not that much worse than Cena. 

The SmackDown Chamber match does have some potential, but even that will be watered down thanks to the presence of the Great Khali. Unless Randy Orton is champion, casual fans aren't going to care. 

Daniel Bryan is great, but he doesn't resonate with the mainstream audience. Big Show is going to do a match with Shaquille O'Neal at WrestleMania, so he has no chance to win. Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes are not ready for a title run, though that doesn't stop WWE from putting the title on someone. 

The problem is WWE has set the top matches for WrestleMania, and those will have no bearing on what we will see at Elimination Chamber. This is very much just a show that is being done because the calendar says it has to happen. 

It's too bad, because the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view could be a great springboard into WrestleMania if done right. The problem is, WWE has so many outside stars coming in for 'Mania that the Chamber gets the short end of the stick. 

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