Elimination Chamber (2024)

The 2024 Elimination Chamber, also promoted as Elimination Chamber: Perth (known as No Escape: Perth in Germany), was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It was the 14th Elimination Chamber event and took place on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Perth Stadium in Perth, Australia, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was WWE's first event to be held in Australia since Super Show-Down in October 2018, and the company's only event in the Asia–Pacific region in 2024. This was also the third consecutive Elimination Chamber to be held outside of the United States as well as the first to take place in an outdoor venue.

The event is based around the Elimination Chamber match, a type of multi-person elimination-based Steel Cage match in which championships or future opportunities at championships are at stake. The 2024 event featured two such matches, one each for the men and women with wrestlers from both brands in each, and the respective winners earned matches for the Raw brand's men's and women's world championships—the World Heavyweight Championship and Women's World Championship—at WrestleMania XL. The men's eponymous match was won by Raw's Drew McIntyre, while the women's, which was the opening bout, was won by Raw's Becky Lynch. Three other matches, including one on the pre-show, were also contested at the event. 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 time women main-evented a WWE main roster PPV and livestreaming event since WrestleMania 37 in April 2021.

Production

Background

Elimination Chamber is a professional wrestling event first produced by the American promotion 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.

Announced on September 21, 2023, the 14th Elimination Chamber event, promoted as Elimination Chamber: Perth, was scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Perth Stadium in Perth, Australia, and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This marked the first Elimination Chamber event to be held in Australia, and the third to be held outside of the United States, after the 2022 and 2023 events, which were held in Saudi Arabia and Canada, respectively. This also marked 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 also the first Elimination Chamber event to have a subtitle named after its host city and to take place in an outdoor venue. The event aired on pay-per-view worldwide and was available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Binge in Australia, and the WWE Network in most other international markets. Tickets went on sale on November 10, 2023.

In 2011 and since 2013, the event 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 five matches, including one on the pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

On the February 2 episode of SmackDown, the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Contender Series began, featuring two fatal four-way tag team matches, one for SmackDown and one for Raw, with the winning teams then facing off to determine who would challenge reigning champions The Judgment Day (Finn Bálor and Damian Priest) for the title at Elimination Chamber. Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate won the SmackDown bracket that night, while on the following episode of Raw, #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) won the Raw bracket. On that week's SmackDown, Dunne and Bate defeated #DIY to face Bálor and Priest for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at Elimination Chamber. Dunne and Bate subsequently took on the team name of New Catch Republic.

On February 5, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced that due to the women's Royal Rumble match winner choosing to challenge for SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania XL, Rhea Ripley's challenger for Raw's Women's World Championship at WrestleMania would be determined by an Elimination Chamber match. The first qualifying match took place on that night's Raw, where Becky Lynch defeated Shayna Baszler. Bianca Belair then defeated Michin on the February 9 episode of SmackDown. The next qualifier took place on the February 12 episode of Raw, where Liv Morgan defeated Zoey Stark. The fourth and fifth qualifying matches took place on the February 16 episode of SmackDown where Tiffany Stratton and Naomi defeated Zelina Vega and Alba Fyre, respectively. The last spot was determined by a Last Chance battle royal on the February 19 episode of Raw, which was won by a returning Raquel Rodriguez by last eliminating Chelsea Green.

On the September 11, 2023, episode of Raw, Nia Jax made a surprise return to WWE and helped Rhea Ripley retain the Women's World Championship, only to attack Ripley after the match. At Crown Jewel on November 4, Ripley retained the title in a fatal five-way match, also involving Jax. Since then, Jax continued to target Ripley, vowing to win the 2024 Royal Rumble match to face Ripley at WrestleMania XL, but failed. On the next episode of Raw, Jax viciously attacked Ripley and said she would not make it to WrestleMania. On the February 5 episode, Ripley called out Jax, however, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce appeared, trying to prevent a brawl between the two, and announced that Ripley would defend the Women's World Championship against Jax at Elimination Chamber. Despite this, a brawl still occurred.

On the February 9 episode of SmackDown, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis and Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced that due to the men's Royal Rumble match winner choosing to challenge for SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania XL, Seth "Freakin" Rollins's challenger for Raw's World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania would be determined by an Elimination Chamber match. The first qualifying matches took place on that same episode, with Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton defeating AJ Styles and Sami Zayn, respectively. The next qualifiers took place on the February 12 episode of Raw, with Bobby Lashley and LA Knight defeating Bronson Reed and Ivar, respectively. The last two qualifiers took place on the February 16 episode of SmackDown, where Kevin Owens and Logan Paul defeated "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio and The Miz, respectively.

During the February 14 episode of The Bump, SmackDown and Australian wrestler Grayson Waller announced that he would be hosting a special edition of his talk show, "The Grayson Waller Effect", at Elimination Chamber, with special guests from Raw, 2024 Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes and World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins.

During the Elimination Chamber press conference on February 22, it was announced that The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) would defend the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell on the Kickoff pre-show.

Cancelled matches

Brock Lesnar, who last appeared at SummerSlam in August 2023, was planned to have made his return at the Royal Rumble in the men's Royal Rumble match. It was also planned that he would have been eliminated by "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio to set up a match between the two at Elimination Chamber. However, due to Lesnar being referenced in a sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon, Lesnar was pulled from the Royal Rumble and all planned storylines for him leading into WrestleMania XL were scrapped.

Australia native Bronson Reed was also originally planned to be involved at Elimination Chamber. It was reported that Reed was originally supposed to challenge Seth "Freakin" Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship, however, due to Rollins's injury, plans were changed. Reed ultimately would not participate at all as his wife gave birth to their son early.

Event

Early storms in Perth, which caused the Rottnest Channel Swim to be abandoned, created some concerns about its potential impact on the Elimination Chamber event going ahead. The weather cleared as day progressed with 52,590 fans attending the event in person.

Pre-show

There was one match that occurred on the Elimination Chamber: Perth Kickoff pre-show in which The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against Candice LeRae and Australia native Indi Hartwell. The Kabuki Warriors retained after Sane performed an Insane Elbow on LeRae for the pin.