WWE Elimination Chamber 2015 Results: Biggest Winners and Losers from PPV

A clean victory over the biggest star in professional wrestling and a Match of the Year candidate was not a shabby way to kick off one's main roster career, and for that reason, no other Superstar on the roster emerged from Elimination Chamber a bigger winner than current NXT champion Kevin Owens.

The feel of a big match swept over the arena as Owens came face-to-face with John Cena Sunday night. There was an air of excitement and anticipation as the enemies clashed for nearly 21 minutes, with commentators Michael Cole, JBL and Jerry "the King" Lawler setting aside the bickering and nonsense to turn in one of their finest performances at the booth in months.

Owens withstood everything Cena threw at him, all the while proving why he was the greatest prospect in NXT and the biggest breakout star of the year.

The popup powerbomb secured Owens the win as a sea of shocked and saddened Cena fans watched on, their hero unapologetically jobbed out in order to firmly establish his opponent as a main event threat in WWE.

A post-match promo in which Owens used Cena's own catchphrases to insult him was not only a great heel move, it echoed back to the match, where he broke out the United States champion's finishers, the ultimate insult to WWE's supreme good guy.

As Owen's proved Sunday night, the good guy doesn't always win. He doesn't always ride off into the sunset on his white horse. Sometimes the bad guy reigns supreme, and that is exactly what happened in the highest profile bout on the card.

Who else joined Owens as monumental winners Sunday night, and which Superstars failed to leave the impression they hoped for?

Let's take a look.

Credit: WWE.com

Winner: Ryback

Ryback has been through so much adversity in his career—enduring injuries and falling prey to the politics that plague the industry—that to see him overcome it all and earn his first championship of any kind Sunday night at Elimination Chamber was a great feeling.

That he did so by knocking off Sheamus, who was a preeminent favorite to leave the Chamber with the vacated intercontinental title, only made the win that much sweeter.

The Big Guy just happens to be a company guy. For nearly a year of his career, he was stuck in midcard purgatory, partnering with Curtis Axel in what amounted to a jobber tag team in RybAxel. He never let that get him down and, in fact, actually improved as a worker.

His determination and dedication to be better, to work hard for his next opportunity, paid off Sunday night. And now, Ryback has been tasked with rebuilding the credibility and legitimacy of a title that management and WWE Creative certainly have brought back to the forefront, with its prestige restored.

A feud with the Celtic Warrior should go a long way in helping Ryback achieve his latest goal and curb his insatiable hunger for greatness.

Credit: WWE.com

Losers: The Fans

Go fire up the WWE Network and rewatch the moment that Dean Ambrose pins Seth Rollins to seemingly win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Go on. I will wait.

All finished?

Did you notice how the reaction to the Lunatic Fringe's supposed title victory was not met with the excitement that it should have been given considering how hot a character Ambrose is right now?

That is because every single one of the fans in Corpus Christi saw the screwjob finish coming a mile away. They recognized that the moment the second official hit the ring to make the count, it was merely a plot device to set up a screwy finish that would keep the title on Rollins without forcing Ambrose to eat a pinfall or submission.

For over a year now, fans have unfortunately become accustomed to screwy finishes in main events, thanks to the Authority angle, which has featured significantly diminishing returns as of late.

No match is allowed to run from start to finish without some sort of interference from Kane or J&J Security, or some sort of creative "out" to prevent one of the performers involved from winning or losing clean.

As a result, the main events are not nearly as hot as they should be, mainly because the fans know something is going to happen to prevent the happy ending, and instead of emotionally investing themselves in the show, they wait around for the chicanery they know is coming.

Credit: WWE.com

Winners: The Prime Time Players

Darren Young and Titus O'Neil may have spent the last two months making fun of their fellow tag teams in pre-taped vignettes but Sunday night, they backed up their jokes with a performance that saw them coming within inches of capturing the WWE Tag Team Championships and put an end to The New Day's clap-tastic title reign.

Midway through the bout, The Ascension was dominating the competition. Enter the PTPs, who exploded into the squared circle and eliminated Konnor and Viktor within seconds. Factor in Young's roll-up elimination of Cesaro and Kidd, and you have what was already a successful night for the underutilized duo.

That they came so close to knocking off Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E seems to indicate that a push may be in order for them. While that remains to be seen, it is difficult to argue that anyone got the show off to a better start than the Prime Time Players.

Credit: WWE.com

Loser: King Barrett

Can anyone supply a valid reason for Barrett's King of the Ring victory over Neville shortly after Extreme Rules?

Since winning the tournament in May, he has lost more than he has won and looks utterly ridiculous sporting the cape and crown that are now part of his character's wardrobe.

Sunday night, despite putting in an impressive performance early in the bout, he was pinned cleanly by R-Truth, making him the first man eliminated from the bout.

That's right, the 2015 King of the Ring was eliminated from the match by a perennial jobber like Truth.

Barrett has long been one of the most misused talents on the roster, and Sunday's handling of him suggests that WWE Creative will never, ever fully grasp the way to book someone with the talent of the former bare-knuckle fighter, making him another sad case of talent wasted by WWE Creative's ineptitude.

Credit: WWE.com

Loser: Neville

Sure, the former NXT champion picked up another pay-per-view victory Sunday night by defeating Bo Dallas, but he did so in the most uninspiring match on the card.

Not only was the build and story for the match weak, the crowd reception was as well, thanks to WWE Creative opting to place it right after the monumental war between John Cena and Kevin Owens. The crowd was burnt out and had no interest in investing themselves in a match that management could not even be bothered to make feel important.

And that is a shame.

Neville exploded onto the scene, working with main event talent and former heavyweight champions for weeks, but he suddenly found himself shuffled deep into the midcard, left to feud with a guy in Dallas who has been so inconsistently booked that he may never regain the momentum he had upon debuting last year.

It would be a real shame if the same thing happens to Neville.

The one silver lining in his otherwise disappointing night was the announcement that he will compete in the Money in the Bank ladder match in two weeks.