Report From Tonight's Elimination Chamber PPV: Batista Bombs, Fan Response To Ending, More
Thanks to WrestlingINC.com reader Finchy74 for sending in this report from tonight's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view:
Hey guys, here's a report direct from the Target Center where my son and my wife and I just got back from.
Horrible security setup at the Target Center. Waited in the freezing lobby for 45 minutes before getting into the arena. Several "yes!" chants in the lobby as well as four very loud "CM Punk" chants.
Pre-show match – The Brotherhood vs. Rybaxel
Nice pop for Larry "The Axe" Henning at ringside for his grandson. Brotherhood wins in a fun match.
Big E vs. Jack Swagger
BIG "We the People" cheer at the beginning. A loud "We Want Ziggler" chant started up at the beginning of the match. Crowd was involved with this one and split 50/50 on who they were cheering for. A strong, physical effort by these guys. Fun match that was well received by the crowd.
Usos vs. NAO
Good crowd response for both teams initially that just died as the match went on. Usos had to slow way down for the NAO's. Big CM Punk chant starts up in the middle of this one. Awful match and the crowd was dead afterwards until another loud CM Punk chant starts up.
Titus vs. Darren Young
"We want Lesnar" chants start up immediately and these guys never got the crowd back after that. Far too many rest holds throughout the match when instead they needed to fire things up to get the crowd interested. The crowd just wanted this one to end.
The Shield vs. The Wyatts
Absolute BUZZ in the air inside Target Center. BIG pop for the Shield and almost as big a pop for the Wyatts. Several "This is Awesome" chants throughout the match. The suicide dive by Harper was unreal. So many great spots and the crowd ate up every one of them.
AJ vs. Naomi
Can't comment on this one too much because I left to get more beers for the wife and I.
Batista vs. ADR
I cannot emphasize enough how much the crowd hated Batista. Absolutely dead crowd except when ADR got offense in. Then there would be cheers. At one point a "Si! Si! Si!" chant broke out for ADR. Another loud CM Punk chant. Then shortly after a loud Y2J chant. Huge boos for Batista after he won the match that lasted until he walked backstage.
Main Event – Elimination Chamber
Loud 50/50 split for Cena. Surprisingly loud pop for Christian despite the heel turn. Loud boos for Randy. Huge (as expected) pop for DBry. Surprisingly big pop for Shaemus. Decent pop for Cesaro (although he would get a lot of face pops the rest of the match).
Midway through the match, the crowd completely turned on Cena. Loud boos. A "p—y" chant broke out when Orton hid in the chamber. Huge boos with Cena eliminated Cesaro. Big pop when Cena was elminated after the Sister Abigail.
The big thing worth mentioning at the end is for the last 3 or 4 minutes, once Kane got involved with the match, the crowd was mostly silent. I looked around and I got this vibe that nobody in the place thought Daniel Bryan had a shot at winning this thing. All of the energy was just sucked right out of the place.
As expected, Bryan loses and people just immediately started heading to the exits. Bryan posed at the end of the runway after recovering but not many people cared. A voice on the PA thanked everyone for coming and to drive safely, he was loudly booed.
It was a very, very different crowd leaving the building compared to the Smackdown taping back in October. As we made our way out of the Target Center, I didn't hear a single positive remark from anyone within earshot. Very, very disappointed crowd.