WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 Predictions: Wrestling Inc. Picks The Winners

WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 is nearly upon us, and as it does every year, the question looms — which remaining wrestlers are getting world title shots at WrestleMania? With both Royal Rumble winners having declared their respective challenges, Drew McIntyre and Jade Cargill still await their opponents; meanwhile, Roman Reigns waits to see if he will take on CM Punk as planned, or whether Finn Balor will throw a massive wrench in the Las Vegas gears by winning the World Heavyweight Championship in Chicago. Finally, AJ Lee looks to win her first championship gold in more than a decade when she takes on Becky Lynch for the women's Intercontinental title.

Who will win all these matches? That's the question we asked the Wrestling Inc. staff the moment the final Chamber spots were won. It's not the easiest question — Lynch vs. Lee was particularly tricky, and there was a significant split with at least one of our consensus Chamber predictions — but we just went 4-for-4 at the Royal Rumble, so we're feeling pretty good about our track record right now. Who's going to WrestleMania? Let's get to the picks!

Becky Lynch will be defending her Women's Intercontinental Championship for the second time in this reign against AJ Lee at Elimination Chamber, who will be challenging for her first title since the Divas Championship over a decade ago in her hometown of Chicago. Lynch won the title back from Maxxine Dupri on "WWE Raw" in January, having reigned for 163 days before Dupri unseated her. But Lee presents a new challenge entirely, despite this being their first-ever singles match against one another, having beaten Lynch at every turn last year.

Lee first teamed with husband CM Punk to defeat Lynch and her husband Seth Rollins at Wrestlepalooza, and then she was on the winning side beating Lynch and her team inside Women's WarGames at Survivor Series. However, the poll put to the Wrestling Inc. staff favors Lynch getting the upset victory in away territory, with 56% backing her to retain the title in Chicago. Of course, that definitely tells of a closely split vote, speaking to a belief that Lee stands a good chance of taking the title on the night.

It could be argued that Lynch needs this victory to sustain her feud with Lee, although as champion she may have her own claim to a rematch if she were to lose. And it does seem quite early in this title run, with Lynch having only defended the title one time against Dupri in their own rematch. It could be reasoned that she gets the win on this night to pull their ongoing saga back to 1-2, thus sustaining their feud along the road to WrestleMania.

Written by Max Everett

As much as we agree that Finn Balor is deserving of another world title, especially after his initial reign with one ended prematurely, the vast majority of us at Wrestling Inc. can't overlook the location and the timing of his upcoming WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against CM Punk.

WWE Elimination Chamber, of course, will emanate from Chicago, CM Punk's hometown. It's also the place that absolutely and naturally became unglued upon "The Second City Saint's" return to WWE in November 2023. As such, we imagine that WWE will want to capitalize on that electricity once again with Punk's first televised in-ring victory in his hometown since coming back to the company.

Another factor to consider here is the timing of Balor vs. Punk. Following the 2026 Royal Rumble, Men's RR winner Roman Reigns made it clear that he'd be challenging for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 42. In fact, Reigns declared that he personally chose to pursue the title because it was held by Punk, whom he "hates." WWE also made it clear, though, that "The Tribal Chief" wouldn't be on programming for the remainder of February, which meant that Punk wouldn't be able to directly bounce off of Reigns, his possible grand stage opponent.

In Reigns' absence, it seems that WWE has placed Punk in a feud with Balor that will simply fill time and end just before Reigns returns for the March 2 edition of "WWE Raw," when the already-advertised WrestleMania night two main event can formally begin its build.

Should Balor defeat Punk at Elimination Chamber, we believe it would serve as more of a complication, and frankly an unnecessary one, than a benefit to the story surrounding the World Heavyweight Championship this WrestleMania season. After all, Finn Balor vs. Roman Reigns doesn't scream "WrestleMania main event" to us. And even if Balor quickly dropped the title back to Punk beforehand, what would be the purpose of the reign in the first place?

Written by Ella Jay

Before the Royal Rumble last month, many believed that Bianca Belair would challenge Jade Cargill for the WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 42, but after Belair didn't return at the show and subsequently revealed she was undergoing surgery for her finger, the "EST of WWE" was seemingly ruled out of the two-night event. Therefore, with 2026 Royal Rumble winner Liv Morgan deciding to challenge Stephanie Vaquer for the Women's World Championship, the victor of the Elimination Chamber will determine Cargill's opponent, and our staff has chosen to pick the safe option heading into this weekend.

Out of the six women involved, Rhea Ripley, Asuka and Alexa Bliss are all seemingly tied up in tag team storylines, while a world title push for Kiana James would feel too early. With Raquel Rodriguez and Tiffany Stratton left on the board, 50% of us believe that the latter is heading to WrestleMania due to her history with Cargill. Last year, Stratton and Cargill faced each other five times, four of which were for the WWE Women's Championship. The feud finally ended when Cargill defeated Stratton for the title at Saturday Night's Main Event in November.

Although Stratton was sidelined with an injury for three months after the match, renewing the rivalry with Cargill at WrestleMania could be seen as a stale choice. With WrestleMania sales being disappointing, WWE could opt for Ripley's star power — she earned 38% of our vote, while Bliss got the remaining 12%.

Written by Julien D'Alessandro

With all due respect to the rest of the Men's Elimination Chamber participants, the injury to Bronson Reed robbed the match of any drama it could've possible contained. There could've been stuff going down with the Vision, maybe that masked man would show up, or multiple masked men. Either way, it would've given the match something to do until its inevitable conclusion, where corporate mascot Cody Rhodes wins the match and earns a world title match at WrestleMania.

He and Drew McIntyre have been on a collision course from the jump, and 88% of the Wrestling Inc. staff think that Saturday will be when it's all finally made official. The rogue votes for LA Knight and Randy Orton came from the subsection of the writers who dare to dream, and bless them for it, but this is going to be Cody's match, through and through, if only so that he can say that he's won one when all is said and done.

Again, Bronson Reed could've really thrown a wrench in things, and Brock Lesnar announcing an open challenge suggests to us that he won't be beating someone up to take their spot. So we're just left with Cody.

Written by Ross Berman