WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 Review

Linus O'Howell
3 hours ago
4 min read

WWE Women’s Championship Number 1 Contender’s Elimination Chamber Match

This year’s Elimination Chamber kicked off with the women as Rhea Ripley, Asuka, Tiffany Stratton, Raquel Rodriguez, Alexa Bliss, and Kiana James all tried to earn their way to a WWE Women’s Championship opportunity at WrestleMania! This match started off with Tiffany and Kiana squaring off, before Asuka, Alexa, Rhea, and Raquel all entered the fray! Whilst there weren’t too many notable moments in this match, that didn’t mean it was poor, with multiple sections of this match flowing quite well! Kiana was able to score the first fall, eliminating Bliss (after The Goddess had been misted by Asuka), before both James and Asuka were swiftly eliminated by a rampaging Raquel Rodriguez! Raquel was on fire here, going after everyone, but eventually, after being dropped by a diving Ripley, Rodriguez was eliminated following a Prettiest Moonsault Ever by Stratton! This meant that this match came down to Rhea VS Tiffany, with both women going back and forth over the right to head to WrestleMania! It felt like this match was Tiffy’s to lose heading into Chamber week, but that sort of changed when RHIYO lost the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships the night before! So, as expected, Rhea Ripley came out victorious, flooring Stratton with a Riptide to book her ticket to a WWE Women’s Championship Match against Jade Cargill!

Grade: C+

Women’s Intercontinental Championship: Becky Lynch VS AJ Lee

AJ Lee was set for her first singles match in over a decade as “Chicago’s own” challenged Becky Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship! I have to say that I really like Becky as a Heel, and I’ve particularly enjoyed her work a lot more over the last couple of months than I did throughout 2025! However, Lynch has never been the best wrestler; that’s not who she is, and that’s a real problem when she’s facing someone with as few reps as AJ Lee has! Yes, AJ was a big star over a decade ago, but that was a period in time where women’s matches only lasted 90 seconds, so that, combined with such a long time away, meant it was always going to be difficult for Lee to put on a strong match! As a result, this all felt quite dull, and my biggest worry is that we’re going to see this match again at WrestleMania! After Jessika Carr was once again having fun screwing over Becky Lynch, AJ Lee took advantage and made Big Time Becks tap out in the Black Widow, meaning we now have a brand-new Women’s Intercontinental Champion! I mean, that’s a cool moment, but all of this was very missable!

Grade: C-

World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk VS Finn Balor

A proper hometown hero was out next as CM Punk returned to the Second City to try and put his issues with Finn Balor to rest! The whole story between Punk and Balor has been one of both success and failure; the idea that WWE kept putting over that Punk was jeopardising the Main Event of WrestleMania 42 was just stupid, because in what universe would a Champion not defend his belt for three months just to make it to the biggest show of the year?! However, the highlight of this feud has been centred around “home-field advantage”, with Finn coming close to becoming Champion in Belfast, whilst this match was taking place in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois! In fact, my favourite thing about all of this was CM Punk’s entrance, as that was by far the most exciting thing! The match was fine, but it wasn’t nearly as good or compelling as their Belfast match from January, and in a similar way to the previous match, it just felt very slow! Eventually, CM Punk was able to successfully retain his World Heavyweight Championship with a second GTS, and it was at least a nice visual to see Punk and Lee both celebrate as Champions together!

Grade: C+

Undisputed WWE Championship Number 1 Contender’s Elimination Chamber Match

After Danhausen was revealed as the mystery inside the box, in the Main Event, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, Logan Paul, LA Knight, Trick Williams, and Je’Von Evans went at it inside the Elimination Chamber for the right to challenge Drew McIntyre for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania! The entrances were far too long here; I’m all for people getting long special entrances at Mania, but to have such a long gap between the end of the Punk-Balor match to the start of this one was really poor! The match itself was alright; it was probably the best match overall, but even then, it wasn’t like the wrestling was must-watch! I expected Je’Von Evans to pull off a lot of ridiculous spots, but besides hitting a Frog Splash from the top of a pod, he really didn’t do much! Je’Von was also the first to be eliminated here, whilst Logan Paul followed it up with another two eliminations of LA Knight and Trick Williams! Firstly, Knight slipped just moments before he got eliminated, so that was a disaster! Secondly, for the second-straight PLE, Trick has got an amazing reaction, and yet he’s barely done anything in the actual match! Like, what are we doing here?! Anyway, Williams’ elimination led to the arrival of a masked man, but he was quickly dealt with by security, opening the door for THE masked man to enter the Chamber, nailing Logan with a Stomp to ultimately eliminate Paul! The masked man then revealed himself to be none other than Seth “Freakin” Rollins, and not only was this a great moment (with Paul Heyman’s reaction being priceless), but also, the fact that Seth inadvertently helped Cody Rhodes, the man he beat on the night he got injured, is fantastic! The drama then continued with Drew McIntyre arriving to whack Cody with his Undisputed WWE Title, only for both Rhodes and Orton to take out Drew! However, Randy then brilliantly did to Cody what Cody did to Sami Zayn, pulling the trigger with an RKO to get the win, meaning The Viper is officially heading to WrestleMania! Whilst the large majority of this show wasn’t good, the last few minutes of this match were great, with Seth and Randy proving to be the stars of the show! Unfortunately, it looks like Drew McIntyre might be set to lose his Undisputed WWE Championship this Friday, but hopefully Jacob Fatu gets involved!