Off-Camera Elimination Chamber Notes: Signs Confiscated, Fan - Security Incident, Rock, More

Thanks to WrestlingINC.com reader Doug Rosenthal for sending along these off-camera notes from last night's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in New Orleans, LA:

The crowd in the arena was the most energetic I have ever seen at WWE show in New Orleans.

Alberto Del Rio's botch towards the end of his match was BAD! Half of the section I was sitting in was cracking up and making jokes about all the s–t he was probably going to catch in the back. It looked like he maybe misjudged the angle he was going to need to hit the bucket, but he just hit air and show was kinda taken aback from the miss. Probably screwed up the timing of the finish as a result.

WWE and New Orleans Arena security were out in full force confiscating signs, often just ripping them out of people's hands with no warning whatsoever. In the Rock's match, a fan ended up being ejected from the arena because he had a sign that an arena security guard just upped and grabbed the sign with no warning. The sign read, "Do you smell what the Rock is cooking, cookie puss?" The security guard, who admitted that he doesn't watch wrestling, said to me after that he thought the sign was offensive because of the puss reference, so he didn't fully understand the gimmick about the sign. Now, the guy with the sign was drinking all evening and was very inebriated, he went back to the trash can to retrieve the sign and that's when all hell broke loose. Security guard would not let it go and it devolved into a full out shouting match between the two which ultimately led to the fan being ejected by arena security. The guard and fan were both at fault, and the security guard should have asked him to put the sign down before just yanking it from him and the fan should have just let it go, but the alcohol wouldn't let him do it. Lesson to all you kids out there.

The Shield looked very impressive for only their second-ever pay-per-view match. Sheamus going through the guardrail really woke up the crowd and the look on Lillian Garcia's face was that of pure terror — I don't think she was warned before the spot occurred.

After the show went off the air, there was no post-show promo from The Rock. He just walked around ringside and slapped hands with the fans.

Biggest pops of the night came when Randy Orton was: (a) introduced to the chamber match, (b) actually allowed out of his pod and (c) involved in the frantic finish when he had that monster RKO to Mark Henry.

Overall, it was a decent show. A good solid B from me, the Chamber was entertaining and the highlight of the show for me.

Doug Rosenthal contributed to this article.