WWE Elimination Chamber 2018: Reactions & Review

Here’s my final thoughts on WWE Raw’s Elimination Chamber 2018!

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. The Miztourage (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel)

Reactions: Basic tag team action that’s a staple of the last hour of Raw? CHECK! Only moment worth caring about here is the notion that The Revival and Gallows and Anderson are still at each other’s throats. The match as a whole was as bland and generic as it gets, though…

Rating: 1 & a Half out of 5 Stars

Cesaro and Sheamus (c) vs. Titus Worldwide (Apollo and Titus O’Neil) (with Dana Brooke) (WWE Raw Tag Team Championship)

Reactions: This was just alright, I guess. It didn’t veer too far away from the type of match we’ve seen from both men on previous editions of Raw. “The Bar’s” tag team mastery, Titus’ hot streak of moves, and Apollo’s hype inducing maneuvers are always fun to watch, of course. But all four men didn’t do anything that much different from what I expected of them. The winners were never in doubt, which made this match a little less interesting too. “The Bar’s” reign rages on…

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

“Woken” Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt

Reactions: I gotta give props to Bray and Matt for at least making the start of this rematch a fun affair. It may have taken forever to finally hear “Woken” Matt Hardy’s twisted theme song, but at least it was finally delivered during this PPV. As for what both men did in the ring, it was par for the course. It was miles better than their Raw 25 meeting, but not exactly a barn burner of epic proportions. I wasn’t all that into it to be honest, as was the live crowd (who got into some beach ball antics and started chanting “CRUI-SER-WEIGHT!” all the while). Matt wins, Bray continues to look worthless, and…yeah, that’s all there was to it.

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Asuka vs. Nia Jax (If Nia Wins, She’ll be Added to the WWE Raw Women’s Championship Match at WrestleMania 34)

Reactions: This grudge match was pretty intense! While it wasn’t as great as their NXT encounters, this hotly contested bout still provided some good action. Nia’s unbridled rage pushed her to power down Asuka over and over. Asuka was quick to the punch at certain points of the match as she utilized her many strikes and submissions. But Nia proved to be as formidable as she usually is and stuffed Asuka into the ground. Both women never slowed down the pace as they laid into each other with big move after big move. Nia looked great in defeat and Asuka once again toppled her much bigger opponent. This was a fun sprint that thankfully provided a shocking post-match assault.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars