The day after Elimination Chamber

It's the day after Elimination Chamber and it still feels like wrestling Twitter continues to rampage in anger towards the end of the event. We'll get to that later on in the article as I indeed have tons to say on the matter.

Aside from that, Elimination Chamber did give us very few moments that had us in awe and more in "well, that was expected". In my first review post here on The Sports Mark, I take a look back at the card and give my two cents on the events that transpired.

"Woken" Matt Hardy defeats Bray Wyatt

If you read my preview article, you may remember I mentioned that any time any of these two men appeared on my television, I'd go for a walk. Surely enough I did just that. When I came back, however, I was still surprised the match was still happening so I have to say something about it.

This was odd, especially how Matt Hardy just looked absolutely delusional, something that TNA Wrestling fans are used to since the "Broken" character was a huge success during his time there. Not to mention the face that Bray made described all of us WWE fans when Hardy started applauding him.

Regardless of that, after its weird start of Hardy hiding and overall taking control of the match, "Woken" Matt Hardy did come out with the victory and just had fans getting ready for what came next.

Grade: D

Once again, I was fairly bored with the match. Nothing screamed out at me as this went on. I also wasn't the only one as fans inside the T-Mobile Arena were clearly bored too. A wave, beach ball chant, and Rusev Day chants stole the match.

The Bar retain their tag team gold

Titus Worldwide had the opportunity of a lifetime to walk into WrestleMania 34 as the Raw Tag Team Champions. The chance to bask in the sights and sounds of New Orleans with new hardware surely would have put Apollo and Titus O'Neil on top of the world!

Clearly, that didn't happen as The Bar left Las Vegas feeling like money and remained your Raw Tag Team champions. Was it expected? Probably. This was one of the four predictions I had right on the night in what was a simple bout for Sheamus and Cesaro.

Grade: C-

As I said, this was expected as the team that's been in the tag team title picture for so long deserves to enter WrestleMania as tag team champions. The one takeaway from this match, however, was the impressive performance of Titus O'Neil which had fans on Twitter wanting to see more of the leader of Titus Worldwide. Whether we see more of Apollo and Titus down the road and into a WrestleMania match is up in the air but that's one positive note that comes out of a losing effort.

Asuka defeats Nia Jax

Coming up third in this review was the shocking defeat of Nia Jax as Asuka unexpectedly came out on top to make sure it's just her alone in the Women's Title picture at WrestleMania.

.....okay time for me to be serious.

​Once again, this was another match that had fans expecting to see the Empress of Tomorrow come out on top. Despite that the majority of the match had Nia on the offensive, Asuka eventually found a way to sneak by and catch Nia off guard with a roll-up to secure the victory. Yet, it was the end of the match that told the bigger story once the bell rang.

Grade: C+

This match was what it was. I will say at one point I thought that maybe WWE could shock us and have Nia win the match but came up short. After the match, however, that's when things got fun and Nia took out her anger on Auska for losing a title opportunity. We saw that monstrous side of The Irresistible Force and sent Auska flying through the barricade. And yes, that was pretty cool.

Ronda Rousey sends a message to Triple H and Stephanie

Okay, you had NO idea how much fun I had with this segment. It was a weak start, but it turned into so much more. By the time the segment was over, it had me wanting more as Ronda Rousey officially became a member of the Raw roster.

With Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Kurt Angle all out to the ring to welcome Rousey to Raw, fans slowly started to wonder if this was the match we'll be seeing at WrestleMania. As the segment started, Rousey got on the mic and spoke about her dream and her journey to get to where she is today. As Stephanie and Triple H preached their excitement and what it means for Rousey to be in WWE, it wasn't until Kurt Angle started to look confused and had some side conversation with Triple H that had the fun get started.

Angle decides to throw Stephanie and Triple H under the bus and talk about how they've been wanting some sort of revenge after how Rousey treated the two at WrestleMania 31 (or 21 as Angle recalled). This, of course, infuriated Rousey and as Angle was being escorted out by Triple H, he throws one more jab that Stephanie called Rousey a "has-not".

As fans got on their feet and had me on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next, they got to see a small taste as to what fans might expect at WrestleMania.

Grade: B

​As I said, I had tons of fun with this segment. We're reminded of what Rousey's known for and that she's one tough cookie. However, still tons of improvement that can happen as she was easily nervous dealing with a WWE crowd. One might find that weird knowing her history in UFC and being upfront with her opponents. If they give her less of a talking role, or if she continues to work on her mic skills, I think she would fit right in with WWE with any of those results.

However, Kurt Angle? Look, Angle was my first favorite superstar when I started to watch WWE in 2001. He was a fantastic talker along with being great in the ring. As of late though, he has many fans wishing he would just drop the microphone or really calm down when he speaks. With his WrestleMania blunder and being unclear at the mic, it has me wondering if he's even the right man to be part of this now expected mixed tag match. As many would have wanted The Rock, looks like we're settling for the Raw General Manager.

Alexa Bliss retains Raw Women's Title and wins the first-ever Women's Elimination Chamber match

Boy, I was smart in picking Bayley to win. Right?

​Wrong. So wrong.

Anyways, in yet another expected result by most WWE fans (and clearly not yours truly), Alexa Bliss will once again be walking into WrestleMania as a champion. Bliss will become the first to enter back-to-back WrestleManias as Women's Champion since Trish Stratus did at WrestleMania 21 and 22.

The alliance picture easily came into play as Sonya Deville and Bayley started things off before Mandy became the first to be released from her pod to give Absolution the advantage before Sasha came in to help out her best friend.

After Mandy tapped out to be the first eliminated, Sonya getting pinned after a flying Mickie James, and Bayley eliminating James with a Bayley-to-Belly, Alexa Bliss came out and did not disappoint. Bliss immediately closed the pod door to prevent Sasha and Bayley to go after her and eventually started to climb the chain-link wall to avoid the best friends.

That's when things got interesting and had us getting excited when Sasha climbed a pod to meet Alexa Bliss. As Bayley was trying to climb the same pod, Sasha turned into Scar from the Lion King and kicked Bayley down to the ground showing that it's every woman for herself.

Soon after, Bayley and Banks were battling it out in the ring, with Bayley coming out on top and using her finisher on Sasha. However, Bliss took advantage and rolled up Bayley to send my prediction to hell.

As Banks and Bliss battled it out in the final two, Sasha tried to get fancy and climb a pod herself to finish Bliss off. Instead, Alexa took advantage, gave her a DDT from the turnbuckle, and held on with her women's title.

Grade: B+

​Not bad. Not bad at all. With many expecting this to be bad, you have to give props to the six ladies who did a great job in showing how tough a chamber can be and using its elements. Of course, probably the better of six in terms of using the chamber was Alexa Bliss who performed a Twisted Bliss from the top of the pod.

Regardless, the story that came out of this was not who will Alexa face at WrestleMania, but rather what's going to happen with Sasha and Bayley? The pieces continue to be set up and might have fans want to see this match rather than whoever Alexa might face at WrestleMania.

Roman wins the Men's Elimination Chamber Match

Look at it. Take a damn good look at the graphic above. Embrace it, be one with it, get used to it. Because in six weeks in New Orleans at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, we'll have Roman Reigns take on Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title at WrestleMania.

Dear God, why?

The men's chamber match was entertaining knowing that there were seven men inside for the first time.

The Miz, Finn Balor, and Seth Rollins started the match. After Miz tried to team up with Rollins and Balor to take out the other for some comedic effect, John Cena entered next surprisingly all nice and calm. Cena immediately went after Rollins after losing to him in the gauntlet match last Monday.

Reigns entered the match at number five, going after everybody, and had a small standoff with Rollins in the ring after Rollins also had his number in the gauntlet match.

Everything was steady during the match until the countdown for entry number six went off and everybody looked at the pod that contained the beast himself, Braun Strowman.

Strowman continued to show why he's "The monster among men" and actually set a record for most eliminations inside a chamber match. Braun eliminated EVERYBODY but Roman and made it all the way to the final two. With the record now at five eliminations in a single match, you would have assumed that Strowman would be the first to eliminate all of his opponents and win the chamber match, right?

NOPE!

Roman regained his superman strength and after what felt like 99 superman punches and 54,097 spears, Reigns took out Strowman and booked his spot to WrestleMania to face Brock Lesnar.

Grade: B+

​Again, not a bad showing on the men's side. Of course, it was the expected result that had many people groaning and set another wave of cancellations of subscriptions to the WWE Network. To have somebody so dominant in the match, making history from an individual standpoint, and come up short is brutal. Of course, no matter who you put in the final two with Roman, everybody would have wanted to see that person win.

One note to make was that standoff between Roman and Seth. This is yet another crossroad between the two which started at the Royal Rumble when Reigns eliminated Rollins. Of course, Rollins picked up a win back at the gauntlet match. This could be a sign of things to come after WrestleMania.

Overall grade of show: B-

Elimination Chamber wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. After a strong start and a mediocre middle, the Rousey segment and Men's chamber match (I thought) saved the show. The issue was the predictability for almost 90% of the card. Most fans had most of the winners picked out weeks in advance (one Twitter user even almost had the correct order of the eliminations, just off by one). As we now turn our attention to the final few weeks before the granddaddy of them all, hopefully, we're in store for a much better build than Elimination Chamber.