WWE Elimination Chamber 2018 Results: Reviewing Top Highlights and Low Points
The biggest roadblock for anyone's path to WrestleMania 34 is the Elimination Chamber as the cage can create some interesting shifts in the dynamic of the title scene.
This year, the extra added bonus of the first-ever women's Elimination Chamber match was thrown into the mix with the Raw Women's Championship on the line.
Meanwhile, as a SmackDown star was victorious at the Royal Rumble, seven men stepped inside the painful structure to do battle to determine the No. 1 contender to Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship.
With Ronda Rousey's Raw contract signing firmly set to plant her in the spotlight as well as Asuka's title opportunity in jeopardy of becoming muddled, plenty was at stake for this event, even if there wasn't significant buzz about how the quality would pan out.
Now that the pay-per-view has concluded, it's time to look back on what transpired to pinpoint the positives and negatives of the night that turned it into the overall presentation we witnessed.
Presented in order of appearance, here are those standout segments of the show, for better or worse, as we break down the highlights and the low points for Elimination Chamber 2018.
Low Point: Pre-Show Kickoff Hour
1 of 7
Nearly every WWE pre-show is comprised of filler content such as recaps of feuds, video packages of storylines and the panel talking in circles and effectively saying anybody can win any match.
This is a good source of catching up if you haven't been watching Raw and SmackDown for the past month, but if you're up to date with your wrestling, it is nothing but tedious and boring.
The saving grace is always a funny promo or a decent match, but this event had neither of those.
Instead of some entertaining social media lounge segment, there was yet another Matt Hardy-Bray Wyatt prerecorded promo that felt like the same thing that has happened every single week for months—certainly nothing special.
The Miztourage vs. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows was formulaic and bland, being immediately undercut by The Revival saying the tag team division is a disgrace.
This was an hour best served trying to figure out what to eat during the event more so than actually sitting down and watching.
Highlight: Raw Women's Championship Elimination Chamber Match
2 of 7
Starting the show was the first women's Elimination Chamber match for the Raw Women's Championship, which obviously had extensive implications for WrestleMania.
From the onset, it was already historic, but it also happened to be an entertaining match throughout.
Some particular highlights were Mickie James jumping from the top of the pod, the dissension between Bayley and Sasha Banks, and Alexa Bliss trying to keep her pod closed or escape the cage.
It was a smart decision to keep the championship with Bliss, who is just too hot a character to push aside for the biggest show of the year.
This was proved with the in-ring promo after the match, where she teased a babyface turn before solidifying herself as just as nasty as she's been, all to play with the crowd's emotions.
Where the title hunt goes in the future is up in the air for now, but at least this match kept it on the right path.
Middle of the Road: Raw Tag Team Championship Match
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In the grand scheme of things, the Raw Tag Team Championship match between The Bar and Titus Worldwide wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good either.
Since WWE waited until the last minute to try to set anything significant up about this feud, it became rather insignificant.
Little effort was put into the storyline, with a simple win from Titus Worldwide on Raw leading up to a confirmation of a match online, so there wasn't much to grab on to.
The match itself was just fine. It showed off a more competitive side to Apollo and Titus O'Neil than normally shown, but they were still unable to capture the titles.
Judging by its placement on the card, WWE's creative team must have viewed it as a potential bathroom break, which didn't help its cause.
Overall, it was just OK—not bad enough to be a low point but not good enough to be a highlight.
Highlight: Asuka vs. Nia Jax
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Asuka has had better matches and Nia Jax has looked stronger than their encounter here, but WWE was in a no-win scenario with how this match was booked.
Considering all the possible ways this could have been disastrous, the company opted for a finish that was about as good as anyone could hope for.
With Asuka getting the pinfall, her undefeated streak remains, but it also wasn't done in a way that puts Jax in a spot where she looks inadequate.
Following her loss, Jax was able to regain some momentum by attacking The Empress of Tomorrow and tackling her through the security barricade to make a statement.
There is a chance this isn't over between those two. If that's the case, it will be interesting to see if this was a mistake, but for now it seems like the best-case scenario.
Low Point: Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt
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The feud between Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt has simmered instead of bubbling over with intense heat, which is never a good thing to drag out as long as this has been going on.
By this point, there isn't much of anything holding it together to keep it interesting, so for this to be such a lackluster match with no oddball elements to spice it up didn't help things at all.
Hardy winning means nothing, which is exactly what would have happened had Wyatt won.
Nothing was on the line, no gimmick added for some fun and the in-ring action was pretty bland.
If you skipped this, you didn't miss anything but a chance to refill your drinks.
Middle of the Road: Ronda Rousey's Contract Signing
6 of 7
If you approach this from the angle of whether this was a big segment for the night and something WWE will be touting as incredibly important going forward—not just for publicity purposes—and for setting up a match at WrestleMania, this was obviously a highlight.
However, if you boil this down to a segment in its bubble without those external factors, it was somewhat long-winded and did nothing that wasn't predictable.
The acting in the segment was laughable at times and perfectly fine in other moments, and it was clear Ronda Rousey won't be lighting up the mic any time soon.
For the most part, this felt like a Monday Night Raw promo and not something that necessarily needed to be on a pay-per-view event.
It will be monumental in some ways going forward, but the point of this in the future will prove stronger than the actual segment itself.
Highlight: Men's Elimination Chamber Match
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While the outcome may not necessarily be something you're receptive to—and there's a good chance much of the WWE Universe is sour about it and WWE just simply doesn't care to listen to those criticisms after all these years—this match was a lot of fun for a main event.
A smaller segment that was interesting was The Miz hitting the It Kicks all around to four of his opponents, but the real standout was Braun Strowman's domination.
After eating all the finishers and eliminating nearly everybody in the match, there's no way The Monster Among Men can be ignored.
It's a shame he won't be prioritized heading into WrestleMania, as it can be argued he would have been a better choice to headline the Universal Championship match.
The outcome is something we all have to deal with for the next few months, though, and it will be rough at times. However, ignoring all the trials and tribulations to come, this was a solid main event and finish to the pay-per-view.
What were your highlights and low points of the event? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
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