Views From The Turnbuckle: Elimination Chamber Preview, Predictions And More

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of WrestlingInc or its staff.

In case you blinked and missed it, WWE quickly assembled a "special event" that they are going to broadcast Live on the WWE Network Sunday. For whatever reason WWE decided to rapidly cram another PPV-level event into May, bringing back out the Elimination Chamber gimmick and upgrading a simple house show into a card loaded with championship matches.

Despite the fact that the event is called "Elimination Chamber" the main event will likely not be an Elimination Chamber match, instead, Seth Rollins will defend his world championship for the second time in two weeks, this time against Dean Ambrose. Ambrose has gotten a pretty nice push in recent weeks, but in reality he has a very slim chance at winning the world title on Sunday. Ambrose is getting some decent reactions, and he and Rollins have a very honest, amusing feud that fans can sink their teeth into. I doubt Ambrose wins, but it should at least be entertaining.

My main issue with the feud is that WWE is so clearly treating Ambrose as a simple stepping stone for Rollins. Rollins and Ambrose has the potential to be one of the more enjoyable world championship feuds in recent memory, but instead, it looks like WWE is jamming this match into a hastily put together event because they need Rollins to take a breather from Roman Reigns before they face each other directly. As I write this, Reigns doesn't have any match set for the event, his current storyline is that he is lurking in the shadows, supporting Ambrose but really, we all know that Reigns is going to step up and defend his friend once Rollins and The Authority take care of Ambrose. I would guess that WWE was concerned with oversaturating Reigns in title matches and wanted to get each guy away from each other before Reigns and Rollins start having one-on-one matches against each other, which is likely what is going to happen throughout this summer.

Easily the most intriguing match on the card is the non-title encounter between Kevin Owens and John Cena. I already wrote about this at length, and after Raw on Monday things got more interesting. For the second week in a row, Owens got the jump on Cena and left him lying, which in wrestling lore, typically means that Cena is going to win at the PPV. Cena going over Owens would be an incredible fire-starter for hardcore wrestling fans, as Cena has garnered quite the reputation over the years for being a guy who defeats younger wrestlers. As I mentioned last week, Owens is a very intriguing opponent for Cena, and what could be a great feud for each man would be hindered by having Owens lose to Cena in their very first encounter.

The good news for Owens is that their match on Sunday will not be for the United States Championship. A problem with Cena defending the United States Championship during every one of his matches is that it makes the results of the matches very predictable. Cena is currently enjoying a monster push as the US Champion, to the point where he has his own merchandise labeling him as such, it is apparent to everyone that Cena isn't going to lose that title anytime soon, so every time he steps into the ring to defend it, the end result of the match is extremely predictable. Not counting his DQ loss to Neville a couple weeks ago on Raw, Cena has won 45 matches in a row, stretching all the way back to his loss to Rusev at Fastlane in February. With the title not being on the line Sunday, there is at least a glimmer of hope for Owens to avoid taking a loss.

The two Elmination Chamber matches are opposites, one of them looks very good and has had a solid build-up, while the other has fallen flat. The tag team chamber match should be very good. The tag-team division is very short on legit teams, which is why WWE was forced to insert Los Matadores and The Ascension into the match even though nobody cares about either team. However, The New Day is carrying the tag team division, really hitting it off as a reprehensible trio that refuses to accept the fact that fans dislike them. There is no good reason to take the championship off them right now. The match should be entertaining because they are in the Chamber, there will be more men in the chamber than ever before, and the match is filled with good bumpmen who will likely take some risks in the chamber.

The other chamber match is the one for the vacant Intercontinental Championship and it has been tedious watching WWE build it up. Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus being in the match is fine, Sheamus I would hesitate to guess, is the odds-on favorite. The rest of the men in the match are questionable. Ryback has no direction, and I guess that is why he is in this match. R-Truth? Enough said. King Barrett has the reputation of someone who WWE gives things to (The King of the Ring, Intercontinental Championship) and then jobs them out all over the place. Rusev, who is now back to being Bulgarian even though his name is RUSEV, has gone from feuding with John Cena, to competing in a match that has R-Truth in it.

I think having the Elimination Chamber at this greatly lowers the value of the Elimination Chamber match. Not only was the event hastily announced and put together, but also having the two chamber matches not be for the world title hurts the match. The Elimination Chamber is supposed to be a match that takes place when there are too many legit contenders for the world title, not when WWE throws a bunch of mid-carders with no storylines into it.

The Divas' Championship will be on the line, this time Nikki Bella (who is inching closer to the 200 day mark as champion) will defend against both Naomi and Paige. Most fans agree that it is only a matter of time before Naomi takes the championship, and this might be the time for her to do it. Nikki is a babyface that fans could care less about, and unfortunately, Paige is trending in that direction as well. Paige and Tamina had a match so bad on Raw that it should only be watched by masochists. Paige has never been the beneficiary of good booking, and right now it seems like she only exists to yell "This is my house" every time she is in the ring. When she first debuted, Paige was supposed to be someone who changed the Diva's division, but right now she looks less like the solution and more like the problem.

The final match is Bo Dallas vs Neville. Personally I am extremely disappointed that Neville is not feuding anymore with King Barrett. That was a feud that practically wrote itself, and how on earth is feuding with Dallas an improvement over feuding with Barrett? If we were trading stock on Neville, his shares would have taken a huge hit when it was announced he is going to work with someone as irrelevant as Dallas.

For an event that was constructed as abruptly as this one, the card isn't that bad. Sure, there are question marks everyone concerning the booking, but the main event and the tag team chamber match should be very good. Depending on how WWE decides to book it, I wouldn't be surprised to see Owens and Cena have the best WWE match of 2015, it has that much potential. The rest of the card is mediocre, but for an event with two weeks of build, WWE was able to create at least three matches that should be pretty interesting, which is fairly impressive.

You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter @JesseCollings