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Elimination Chamber: Perth (known as No Escape in Germany) was the 14th Elimination Chamber professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia, Australia, marking WWE's first event to be held in Australia since Super Show-Down in October 2018, and the only WWE event in the Asia–Pacific region in 2024. This was the third consecutive Elimination Chamber to be held outside of the United States, and it was also the first Elimination Chamber event to take place in an outdoor venue.
Five matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The event featured two Elimination Chamber matches, one each for the men and women with wrestlers from both brands in each. The men's eponymous match was won by Raw's Drew McIntyre to earn a match for Raw's World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XL, while the women's match, which was the opening bout, was won by Raw's Becky Lynch to earn a match for Raw's Women's World Championship, also at WrestleMania XL. The main event was between two Australian natives where Rhea Ripley defeated Nia Jax to retain the Women's World Championship, which was the first women's main event for a WWE main roster show since night one of WrestleMania 37 in April 2021.
This was the epitome of a television match and there wasn't any harm in doing this match on the kick-off show no less, especially to say that this was already a pretty short card for this event. It gave Indi Hartwell (another Australian-born talent on the current WWE roster) the chance to shine in front of her natives. You could tell that the nerves were getting to her at first, but she found herself by the time it was all said and over. I thought it was in great taste that Candice LeRae ate the losing pinfall too if they had to lose here. In either case, I don't think the Kabuki Warriors should be losing anytime soon, especially when they only got the Women's Tag Team titles roughly a month ago. I honestly can easily see them defending those at WrestleMania XL in some clusterfuck of a multi-team match against a number of women's tag teams that they slap together on a whim who don't have a match or anything else going on like they tend to do every year.
Asuka and Kairi seem to be having a ball hamming it up and heeling it up for these crowds. I really hope so as they are one of the few believable pairings in this division. I wish WWE would give more attention to the tag team divisions as a whole in this company. Tag team wrestling always tend to feels like it is just filler to take up time on these shows instead of any sort of draw. I can easily see why tag team purists, such as FTR, were frustrated in this company as WWE tends to put little to no importance into tag team wrestling, except when it had a minor role to play into the Bloodline storyline going into last year's WrestleMania.
(Laughs) Folks on social media spitting facts about Becky's 2023 year.
I should have mention that I did NOT watch this PLE live at 5AM EST time as it aired on Saturday morning. I watched this entire show over the duration of two separate days. Between the kickoff that was tacked onto the start of the replay on Peacock and this match, this was putting me to sleep watching it. I'll say it like I said in my write-up of the Royal Rumble last month. This wasn't bad, but at the same time, it wasn't well executed either. There were some fun and creative spots in this match, but a lot of it looked rushed or sloppy. I could credit that to a lot of these women probably haven't worked together before and others being new to the Elimination Chamber format to begin with.
I know Naomi just came back to the company last month at the Royal Rumble but I totally forgot about that just that fast when she was announced to start this match with Becky Lynch. I couldn't be surprised about that as there's a trend in these matches to allow the workhorses to start this match off to set the tone while sprinkling in the rest of the competition periodically. I thought Tiffany Stratton had a good showing in this match for her debut PLE on the main roster, even though it looked like they were bullying her in terms of how many brutal looking bumps that she was on the receiving end of lately. I was a little surprised to see Naomi get eliminated first, by Stratton no less, but Liv Morgan would eliminate her shortly thereafter.
I will admit that I enjoyed the creative string of offense to take out Raquel Rodriguez though. Raquel will more likely be noted for working this match with a "natural" look, meaning sans any makeup. I'm guessing that is credited to the personal journey she has been undergoing with her health lately that she has shared on her social media. She looks fine without it, so I hope she doesn't shy away from continuing the trend. It looked like she was a tad awkward coming down to the ring without it but she really warmed up as the action played out here though.
The final sequence/exchange between Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, and Becky Lynch had me sighing loudly as I honestly didn't want any of these people to win this match - or anyone in this match TBH. Becky had already got in Rhea's face at the WrestleMania XL press conference so I don't see why it was any shock that she was winning this match. They had already set the match up not once but on several occasions in terms of teases on RAW for the past month or so. Liv Morgan has the perfect story to line her up into facing Rhea, but she's definitely not getting a one-on-one match against her. Bianca versus Rhea at WrestleMania could be good, but let's save that for another year with a proper build. Becky's resume over the past year speaks for itself and lends itself as another Horsewoman that Rhea can add to her resume for putting down. Becky SHOULD lose at WrestleMania given the list of accolades that were compiled on social media from her 2023.
I feel bad for this match as it was a showcase for tag team wrestling for WWE on this show as the finalists for this tag title shot got to challenge the reigning tag team champions who have been in the same position as reigning Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley in terms of a lack of viable opponents. In that regard, it is looking like they are leaning towards Awesome Truth (R-Truth and The Miz) reuniting to dethrone the Judgment Day at WrestleMania.
Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate are spectacular talents; I thought that much of them since they were among the MANY highlights as part of that NXT UK roster when it was on fire a few years ago. I just couldn't see them dethroning the Judgment Day on this show, especially when WrestleMania is right around the corner. It was the same feeling as with the Kabuki Warriors during their defense on the kick-off show.
There were a lot of great spots in this match, including a lot of the near-falls and WWE blackening out the screen and muting the crowd when they were flipping off Dominik Mysterio at ringside and chanting "FUCK YOU, DOM!" at one point. All of that being said, the end result was never in question.
This was only on this show just to have Cody to lay down the challenge for a one-on-one match between himself and The Rock for any time, any place between now and WrestleMania. Seth Rollins interjected and reminded Cody that NOTHING involving the Bloodline is one-on-one, so proposed a tag team match. There you go - Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins against Roman Reigns & The Rock for Night 1 of WrestleMania XL. It's not official, but I wouldn't be surprised that it will be by the time the Chamber fallout edition of Friday Night SmackDown! rolls around.
Outside of that announcement, there was no other purpose for this segment other than giving Rollins and Cody a reason to beat up Austin Theory while Grayson Waller to stand by and watch it happen.
I feel like deja vu in terms of comparing this match with the women's match in the opener. I feel the same way about this match as I did about the Royal Rumble this year. The women had the better match in terms of spots and memorable moments while the guys felt like they were just going through the motions. I don't fault the guys for that as the pool of competition here wasn't much to write home about. When Lashley got eliminated early on I checked out mentally as I knew Kevin Owens and Logan Paul weren't winning this. LA Knight is obviously being steered towards facing AJ Styles at WrestleMania; something they clearly set up further here with his interference that cost him the match. So it came down to either Randy Orton or Drew McIntyre winning this. McIntyre has been tailor made to face Rollins at WrestleMania after the tear that he has been on since CM Punk's injury and the promos that he has been giving as late. This company would be insane NOT to have him going for one of these two major titles at WrestleMania.
I will admit that seeing Logan Paul coming back and laying out Orton with the brass knuckles was a tad surprising, but then again, I haven't been keeping up with watching next to any WWE programming outside of clips on my social media feeds or stuff that friends link me. Does this mean that WWE are setting Paul up to defend that United States Championship in a triple threat against both Orton and Owens?
I think they SHOULD have Drew McIntyre beat Rollins, but have Priest cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to have the last laugh. Maybe they could get CM Punk distract him or something to pour salt in the wound to give Priest the win. Punk wouldn't have to get physical in his condition, but still have some presence at WrestleMania. If McIntyre isn't renewing his contract then that's one way to pay off this storyline in a big way at WrestleMania.
Before I even comment on the match itself, I want to say this much. Rhea Ripley deserved this main event spot on this PLE. It's in front of 50,000+ people of her homeland and she's been undefeated for a little under a year, despite the lackluster competition that she's had in this title reign, so I don't see any reason not to give her this spot, especially when the Bloodline and Roman Reigns were nowhere to be found on this show. Nia Jax has been undefeated too, but I feel her inclusion in this match was more proof of nepotism (thanks to The Rock's new position on the TKO Board of Directors) that has been going around for The Rock's family members.
As for the match itself, I'll go ahead and say it - it was fine for what it was worth, but my god, Nia didn't make this easy for Rhea and I don't mean that as a compliment. Nia Jax isn't a good worker at all in my eyes and she doesn't come across as safe when working with any of the women on that roster, no matter what the size difference is. There were several moments in this match where I cringed out of fear thinking that this woman was going to injure Rhea. That running senton splash was definitely the first one as I was sure that Nia was going to break Rhea's wrists from dropping her full weight onto her, especially when it looked like she wasn't ready to take that bump in time. That elbow drop off the chair through the commentary table was another that comes to mind when it looked like Nia didn't get enough air and momentum for that, even though the bump was comical regardless. Even during the finish, Nia couldn't even give Rhea a hand in getting her weight into the air by jumping up with her for the Riptide. That's why that Riptide looked like a sack of shit as I'm sure Rhea was exhausted at that point since Nia had "boo-boo job face" on from the moment she came through the entrance curtain.
All of that really didn't matter as Rhea got to perform in front of her friends and family, retain her title no less. On the downside, I could EASILY see WWE using this as a viable excuse to quell the argument for the women not getting to main event one of the two nights at WrestleMania XL since they gave Rhea Ripley the main event spot for this show. There's always going to be that vocal minority who throws a fit when the women don't get to main event WrestleMania and in this case, I'm not on their side. Cody and Seth against The Rock and Roman should main event Night 1 while Cody/Roman II should main event Night 2. There's no argument here as those are the two biggest matches on that card and the most captivating storyline. What WWE has been doing with the women in terms of storylines has been vastly regarded as an afterthought in comparison.