The WWE Elimination Chamber has always been a marquee match. It is up there with the importance of the Royal Rumble and Hell in a Cell, and WWE has treated it as such. There has always been a great aura around the match, with WWE using it to decide either a major championship or the number one contender for the championship.
As with WWE’s other major gimmick matches, the Elimination Chamber is sometimes fraught with questionable bookings. For as many times as WWE hits the nail on the head, there are other times that they miss the mark completely. Times when the man/or woman who walked out of the Elimination Chamber was not the one who should have taken the victory.
In fact, in the same match, there was a much better option that WWE should have called an audible one. Below are five times when the Elimination Chamber winner was the wrong option, with the correct one discussed.
WWE Elimination Chamber 2013 – Winner: Jack Swagger
WWE has failed twice with their push of Jack Swagger. His initial push happened too soon and was filled with booking mistakes. The company didn’t want to put all their eggs in the Swagger basket and he wasn’t presented as a credible champion. It was a reign that didn’t work out well for anyone involved.
Flash forward to 2013, and WWE thought it a smart idea to push Jack Swagger again, having him win the Elimination Chamber for a World Championship match at WrestleMania.
It was a surprise sure, but not a particularly good one. No fan was clamoring for Swagger to take the slot at ‘Mania, and the eventual contest between him and Alberto Del Rio was not one that anyone cared for.
Who Should Have Won: Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho had just recently returned to the company and was getting the usual tremendous reaction from the crowd. Seeing him win the Elimination Chamber and go up against Alberto Del Rio would have been a much better option.
Jericho can elevate anyone, and Del Rio was no slouch in the ring. Heck WWE could have kept their Dolph Ziggler cashing in on Raw the same. It would have probably created a bigger pop and a much better program between Jericho and Ziggler in the future.
December to Dismember 2006 – Winner: Bobby Lashley
The entire ECW experiment, from WWE, was an abject failure. The brand was treated as third-rate, and thus, the booking wasn’t up to par. No more is that clear than the abysmal Elimination Chamber match they put on. It didn’t capture any of the charm of ECW and having Lashley win was not the right idea.
The Almighty was already well on his way to the main roster and set to be pushed to the main event. He didn’t need to win as much as others in the match.
Who Should Have Won: CM Punk
CM Punk was the darling of ECW. He was a man that no one wanted with the talent to get over. That chance was not going to be afforded to him by WWE, so Paul Heyman took the coal and turned it into a diamond.
Punk was becoming the face of that brand and was going to be sticking around. It would have made much more sense to have him win and carry the brand forward. He embodied what the new ECW should have been and could have saved the brand.
SummerSlam 2003 – Winner: Triple H
Triple’s reign of terror has become a thing of legend, and for good reason. There wasn’t a man he was ready to bury during his World Championship run. Even those who managed to squeak a win over The Game would soon after be looking up at the lights. No one was going to come out of a program with him looking like the better man.
Headed into SummerSlam, Triple H’s reign looked to be in serious jeopardy. The Elimination Chamber housed five other men who could have easily wrestled the World Championship away from him.
Despite being in the match for minutes, and sporting some strange ring gear, Triple H, of course, prevailed and won the championship. It was a disaster considering the perfect option was standing across from him.
Who Should Have Won: Goldberg
Goldberg was brought into WWE to do one thing. Hit the main event scene hard and compete for the World Heavyweight Championship. His character was built for that purpose, and WWE needed to give him the win. Goldberg had begun his path after WrestleMania and the logical endpoint was supposed to be at SummerSlam.
It was downright criminal that Triple H used his clout to go over Goldberg. Sure, he did get his championship win at Unforgiven, but by that time, the damage had already been done. It was too little too late for Goldberg.
WWE Elimination Chamber 2022 – Winner: Brock Lesnar
Oh, WWE was just intent on shoving Brock Lesnar down our throats for several years. He had already been pushed into winning the Royal Rumble, a shock that no one wanted to happen, and now Lesnar was put in the position to win the Elimination Chamber and the WWE Championship.
Bobby Lashley was ruled out of the match due to a shoulder injury, so we were guaranteed a new champion at the end of the evening. The problem was that not a single person was interested in seeing Brock Lesnar become the new champ.
He had already been earmarked for a match with Roman Reigns and adding another World Championship didn’t carry any excitement. It was yet another example of Brock Lesnar getting opportunities that would have been better saved for someone else.
Who Should Have Won: Literally Anyone Else In The Match
We will take Bobby Lashley out of the match due to a legitimate injury, but there were still four other men who would have been much better served winning the WWE Championship.
AJ Styles and Seth Rollins were two former champions who would have been great representatives headed into WrestleMania. Seth could have taken the strap into his feud with Cody Rhodes or Styles into his program with Edge. The WWE Championship would have instantly created a larger buzz surrounding both those contests.
Riddle or Theory would have been interesting choices in their own right. It would have been the first major championship win for both men and could have gone a long way to helping create new main event stars for WWE.
WWE Elimination Chamber 2015 – Winner: Ryback
Daniel Bryan suffering another head injury was a huge blow to the mid-card scene. His Intercontinental Championship win at WrestleMania was the thing of legend, but WWE did have an interesting backup plan to fill that void inside the Elimination Chamber.
It was a great idea, but it was executed poorly, as Ryback was the one slated to win the match and the Intercontinental Championship.
Ryback was a popular enough wrestler, but his limitations should have kept the strap off his shoulders. His in-ring work left little to be desired and he could barely hold his own on the stick. WWE cashed in on his fan support, but that soon dwindled and Ryback was dropping the championship.
Who Should Have Won: Sheamus or King Barrett
A case could be made for Sheamus or King Barrett, who would be the ones to walk away as the champion. King Barrett was criminally underrated and was never given a full chance to run with the IC Championship. He would have been the perfect man to walk away the champion here, and it could have given his character a huge boost.
Sheamus was deep into his heel character which made him one of the more hated villains on the roster. He could have done so much with the IC Championship and given it a credible champion.
He had only recently come off an Undisputed Championship reign and would have been a great heel champion for the rest of the roster chase. It was the only championship to elude the Celtic Warrior and would have completed his championship collection.
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