Elimination Chamber (2018)

The 2018 Elimination Chamber (known as No Escape in Germany) was a professional wrestling event produced by WWE. It was the eighth Elimination Chamber and took place on February 25, 2018, at the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada. The event aired via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and exclusively featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw brand division. It was the final Raw-exclusive pay-per-view under the second brand split as following WrestleMania 34 in April, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive pay-per-views. The 2018 event was also the first to feature a seven-man Elimination Chamber match, the first event to include a women's Elimination Chamber match, and the first Raw-exclusive pay-per-view since the 2016 reintroduction of the brand extension to not feature any cruiserweight division matches.

Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns won the first-ever seven-man Elimination Chamber match to become the number one contender against Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34. In other prominent matches, Alexa Bliss retained the Raw Women's Championship in the first-ever women's Elimination Chamber match, and Asuka defeated Nia Jax to extend her undefeated streak and to prevent Jax from being added to her WrestleMania 34 championship match. The event was also notable for Ronda Rousey signing her Raw contract, where she had a confrontation with Chief Operating Officer Triple H and Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon, which was the former's first appearance since the night after Survivor Series in November 2017.

Production

Background

Elimination Chamber is a professional wrestling event first produced by WWE in 2010. It has been held every year since, except in 2016, generally in February. The concept of the event is that one or two main event matches are contested inside the Elimination Chamber, either with championships or future opportunities at championships at stake. While the 2017 event was a SmackDown-exclusive event, the 2018 event was held exclusively for the Raw brand division. Announced on December 6, 2017, the 2018 event was the eighth Elimination Chamber and took place on February 25, 2018, at the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada. The event aired on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and was livestreamed on the WWE Network. Tickets went on sale on December 15.

In 2011 and since 2013, the show has been promoted as "No Escape" in Germany as it was feared that the name "Elimination Chamber" may remind people of the gas chambers used during the Holocaust.

Storylines

The event comprised six matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television show, Monday Night Raw.

At the Royal Rumble, Shinsuke Nakamura won the men's Royal Rumble match and decided to stay on SmackDown to challenge for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34. This left Brock Lesnar, who retained his Universal Championship in a triple threat match against Braun Strowman and Kane at the same event, without an opponent at WrestleMania. In response, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle scheduled an Elimination Chamber match to determine the number one contender for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania. Six qualification matches were scheduled. The first three were contested on the January 29 episode of Raw. In the first, Strowman defeated Kane in a Last Man Standing match to qualify. Elias then qualified by defeating "Woken" Matt Hardy after a distraction from Bray Wyatt, and free agent John Cena defeated Finn Bálor to qualify. The following week, Elias defeated Cena and Strowman in a triple threat match to determine who would enter the chamber last. That same episode, Roman Reigns and Intercontinental Champion The Miz qualified by defeating Wyatt and Apollo Crews (whose ring name was later shortened to Apollo), respectively. On the next episode, Cena defeated The Miz in a match where the loser would be one of the starting participants in their chamber match. Later, the final qualification match took place in what was originally a second chance fatal four-way match between Bálor, Wyatt, Hardy, and Apollo. However, Angle added Seth Rollins, thus making it a fatal five-way. Rollins and Bálor both simultaneously pinned Wyatt, and it was decided that both would be a part of the Elimination Chamber match, marking the first seven-man chamber match. The following week, all seven men participated in a gauntlet match that began with Reigns and Rollins. Reigns was eliminated followed by Cena. Elias then eliminated Rollins, but was in turn eliminated by Bálor, who was eliminated by The Miz. Strowman won the gauntlet match by pinning The Miz in what was the longest match in WWE history, lasting nearly two hours.

On the January 29 episode of Raw, Commissioner Stephanie McMahon convinced Asuka, who won the inaugural women's Royal Rumble match the previous night at the Royal Rumble, to wait until after Elimination Chamber to pick which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 34, as Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss was scheduled to defend her title in the first-ever women's Elimination Chamber match. The following week, General Manager Kurt Angle announced that Bayley, Mandy Rose, Mickie James, Sasha Banks, and Sonya Deville would be the other competitors in the match. Bliss came out and questioned Angle as to why she had to defend her title in the Elimination Chamber match while Universal Champion Brock Lesnar did not and accused Angle of sexism. Angle retorted that Lesnar retained his title at the Royal Rumble, but Bliss had not defended her title since TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in October. Bliss made the point that she was not the one who schedules matches. Angle then took an audience vote if Bliss should defend the title, and the audience agreed that she should.

On the January 15 episode of Raw, Asuka defeated Nia Jax after the referee stopped the match, who deemed Jax unable to continue. Both then competed in the inaugural women's Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble, which Asuka won for the right to challenge for either the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania 34. On the February 5 episode of Raw, General Manager Kurt Angle announced that Jax would face Asuka at Elimination Chamber and if she were to defeat Asuka, Jax would be added to Asuka's championship match at WrestleMania to make it a triple threat match.

Following Asuka's Royal Rumble match victory at the Royal Rumble, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) star Ronda Rousey made an appearance and interrupted Asuka, Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss, and SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair. Rousey's appearance confirmed that she had signed full-time with WWE. On the February 12 episode of Raw, it was announced that Rousey would sign her Raw contract at Elimination Chamber.

After losing a feud to Elias, Matt Hardy was defeated by Bray Wyatt on the November 27, 2017, episode of Raw. Following the match, Hardy had a mental breakdown where he sat in the corner and repeatedly shouted "delete" with an arm gesture. This would be the genesis of Hardy's transition into "Woken" Matt Hardy (WWE's version of his "Broken" gimmick from Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) where he debuted as the character the following week, interrupting a promo by Wyatt. Over the following month, the two went back and forth in promos as well as a couple of in-ring confrontations, and they finally had a match on Raw 25 on January 22, 2018, in which Wyatt defeated Hardy once again. The two then faced off in the Royal Rumble match, where they eliminated each other. On the February 19 episode of Raw, another match between the two was scheduled for Elimination Chamber.

Prior to the Royal Rumble, Titus Worldwide (Apollo and Titus O'Neil) gained two consecutive wins over number one contenders Cesaro and Sheamus. At the Royal Rumble, Cesaro and Sheamus eventually won the Raw Tag Team Championship to become record four-time champions as a team, and a record fifth reign for Cesaro individually. Titus Worldwide received a title opportunity on Raw immediately following the Royal Rumble, but were unsuccessful, and Cesaro and Sheamus also retained their titles that same episode. On the February 19 episode of Raw, Titus Worldwide defeated Cesaro and Sheamus in a non-title match. Afterwards, they challenged Cesaro and Sheamus for the Raw Tag Team Championship at Elimination Chamber for being 3–1 over the champions, which was made official on February 23.

On February 23, Bálor Club members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were scheduled to face The Miztourage (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel) on the Elimination Chamber Kickoff pre-show.

Event

Pre-show

During the Elimination Chamber Kickoff pre-show, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson of the Bálor Club faced The Miztourage (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel). In the climax, Gallows and Anderson performed the "Magic Killer" on Axel to win the match.