After a hiatus of two years, the Elimination Chamber is back on the WWE’s PPV calendar. The audience just loves this gimmick match around the steel structure with four pods inside it and hence it is back to create the final set up for Wrestlemania. This time it’ll be a brand-exclusive PPV from Smackdown Live on February 12 at the Talking Stick resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
The PPV was put back to its usual spot that is just prior to Wrestlemania to make changes to the future options, for sure. The six contestants are finalized on last week’s Smackdown episode. John Cena is the champion and AJ Styles is a deserving candidate for his championship rematch and hence these two were automatic choices. Dean Ambrose, The Miz, Bray Wyatt and Baron Corbin are the rest four to join them.
The recent reports have already guaranteed that Cena will lose his WWE championship at the Chamber match. Cagesideseats.com reported most likely it’ll be Bray Wyatt who will pick up the title at the Chamber. This will set up a match between Wyatt vs. Orton match at this year’s Wrestlemania.
The reason behind Cena dropping the title just 14 days after winning it due to the downplaying of the fact that Cena has tied the record of the legendary Ric Flair at Royal Rumble. The original plans were to let Flair come to the ring for making the moment even more auspicious.
However, the creative did not want to portray it that way and hence canceled it to make the celebration shorter. They knew that this title reign would not last long and so there’s no pint of making it a grand one. The Nature Boy instead met Cena at the backstage area and congratulated him. This was the picture that was posted by him after the win.
Another point to be noted here is that John Cena is now holding his 13th WWE championship gold (excluding the world championship reigns) which is a record too. Nobody in the history of the company has held the gold for these many occasions.