Elimination Chamber (2025)

The 2025 Elimination Chamber, also promoted as Elimination Chamber: Toronto (known as No Escape: Toronto in Germany), was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It was the 15th Elimination Chamber event and took place on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions, featuring one wrestler from WWE's developmental brand NXT. 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.

This was the first WWE event held at the venue since WrestleMania X8 in 2002 and first Elimination Chamber event in Toronto. It was the second Elimination Chamber event in Canada, after 2023, and the fourth consecutive Elimination Chamber event held outside of the United States. This was also the first PPV and livestreaming event to not feature a championship defense since Survivor Series in 2021.

The event comprised four matches, including two eponymous matches, with one each for the men and women. The main event was the men's Elimination Chamber match, which was won by John Cena, earning a match for SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41, while the women's match, which was the opening bout, was won by SmackDown's Bianca Belair, earning a match for Raw's Women's World Championship at WrestleMania. In the other matches, Tiffany Stratton and Trish Stratus defeated Nia Jax and Candice LeRae in a tag team match while Canada native Kevin Owens defeated fellow Canadian Sami Zayn in an unsanctioned match.

The event saw the returns of Randy Orton and Jade Cargill and was notable for Cena's heel turn, as well as being his final Elimination Chamber appearance and last pay-per-view and livestreaming event appearance in Canada as an in-ring performer due to his retirement from professional wrestling at the end of 2025.

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, which is a type of multi-person elimination-based Steel Cage match in which championships or future opportunities at championships are at stake.

Announced on November 8, 2024, the 15th Elimination Chamber event, promoted as Elimination Chamber: Toronto, was scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This marked the second Elimination Chamber event to be held in Canada, after 2023, and the fourth consecutive to be held outside of the United States, after the 2022, 2023, and 2024 events, which were held in Saudi Arabia, Canada (Montreal), and Australia, respectively. This also marked WWE's first event to be held at the Rogers Centre since WrestleMania X8 in 2002 when the stadium was still known as the SkyDome. This was also the second Elimination Chamber event to have a subtitle named after its host city and to take place in an outdoor venue, both after 2024.

The event aired on pay-per-view worldwide and was available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, and the WWE Network in any remaining countries that had not yet transferred to Netflix due to pre-existing contracts. This marked the first Elimination Chamber to livestream on Netflix following the WWE Network's merger under the service in January 2025 in those areas. Rogers Communications, the owner of Rogers Centre, has been a longstanding partner of WWE and its parent company TKO, having been its broadcast and WWE Network distribution partner in Canada from 2014 to 2024, and continuing as the Canadian broadcast partner of co-owned mixed martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), WWE's sister company under TKO. The official theme song for the event was "New Way Out" by Poppy.

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 four matches 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 July 6, 2024, at Money in the Bank, John Cena officially announced that he would retire from professional wrestling at the end of 2025, having wrestled for WWE since 2002 (though part-time since 2018). Cena also stated that he would compete at Elimination Chamber, which would be his last Elimination Chamber event. After losing the Royal Rumble match at the 2025 Royal Rumble, during the event's post-show, Cena declared that he would compete in the men's Elimination Chamber match as it would be his last time at an opportunity to compete for a world championship in the main event of a WrestleMania. The next day, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced that qualifying matches for the remaining spots would begin the following night on Raw. CM Punk won the first qualifier by defeating Sami Zayn. The third spot was determined on the February 7 episode of SmackDown, where Drew McIntyre defeated Jimmy Uso and LA Knight in a triple threat match. The fourth spot was determined on the February 10 episode of Raw, where Logan Paul defeated Rey Mysterio. The fifth spot was determined on the February 14 episode of SmackDown by another triple threat match where Damian Priest defeated Braun Strowman and Jacob Fatu, while the final spot was determined on the February 17 episode of Raw where Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated Finn Bálor. As a result of Royal Rumble winner Jey Uso choosing to challenge Gunther for Raw's World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 41, this confirmed that the winner of the men's Elimination Chamber match would challenge Cody Rhodes for SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

Qualifiers for the women's Elimination Chamber match also began on the February 3 episode of Raw. Liv Morgan won the first qualifier by defeating Iyo Sky by disqualification due to inadvertant interference from Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley. The second and third spots were determined on the February 7 episode of SmackDown, where Bianca Belair and Alexa Bliss defeated Piper Niven and Candice LeRae, respectively. The fourth spot was determined on the February 10 episode of Raw, where Bayley defeated Lyra Valkyria. The fifth spot was determined on the February 14 episode of SmackDown, where Naomi defeated Chelsea Green, while the final spot was determined on the February 17 episode of Raw where NXT's Roxanne Perez defeated Raquel Rodriguez. As a result of Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair choosing to challenge Tiffany Stratton for SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 41, this confirmed that the winner of the women's Elimination Chamber match would challenge for Raw's Women's World Championship at WrestleMania.

In June 2024, Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax formed an alliance. During this time, Stratton won the Money in the Bank ladder match at the namesake event in July, while Jax won the WWE Women's Championship at SummerSlam in August. In October, Jax also formed an alliance with Candice LeRae. After months of teasing, Stratton finally turned on Jax and successfully cashed in her Money in the Bank contract on the January 3 episode of SmackDown to win the WWE Women's Championship. At the Royal Rumble on February 1, WWE Hall of Famer and Canada native Trish Stratus entered the namesake match at #25 and eliminated LeRae only for Jax to eliminate Stratus. On the February 14 episode of SmackDown, Jax had a rematch for the championship, however, the match ended in a disqualification win for Stratton after LeRae attacked Stratton. Following the match, Jax and LeRae continued to attack Stratton prompting Stratus, who was in the crowd, to come in and assist Stratton. Stratus then proposed to team up with Stratton at Elimination Chamber: Toronto, and a tag team match featuring Stratus and Stratton against Jax and LeRae was subsequently made official.