Cody Rhodes will be making the trip when WWE travels to Australia for Elimination Chamber.
WWE Elimination Chamber is being held at Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia on Saturday, February 24. While sharing his schedule for February today, Rhodes confirmed that he’ll be appearing at the Chamber event.
Elimination Chamber is WWE’s last premium live event before WrestleMania 40. After going back-to-back with Royal Rumble wins, Rhodes is set to headline his second straight WrestleMania.
Following his Rumble win, Rhodes indicated that he’ll again challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania. But WWE hasn’t made that official yet. There was a segment on Raw this week where World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins stated his case for Rhodes to challenge him at WrestleMania. Rhodes told Rollins that he respects him and will think about it.
Rollins vs. CM Punk was originally scheduled for WrestleMania, but that won’t be happening due to Punk’s torn triceps.
No matches have been announced for Elimination Chamber yet. The show will air live on Peacock starting at 5 a.m. Eastern time/2 a.m. Pacific on February 24.
Elimination Chamber 2024 will officially have an early start time for viewers in the United States.
On Friday, Paul “Triple H” Levesque revealed the poster for Elimination Chamber. It lists that the premium live event will air live on Peacock starting at 5 a.m. Eastern time/2 a.m. Pacific on Saturday, February 24.
Elimination Chamber is taking place from Optus Stadium in Perth, Australia. Australia native Rhea Ripley is featured on the poster.
No matches have been announced for Elimination Chamber yet. WWE has confirmed that CM Punk and Logan Paul will be appearing at the show.
It doesn’t look like Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will be appearing at Elimination Chamber. Meltzer wrote last week that Reigns has never been advertised for Elimination Chamber and there are no plans for him to be added to the show right now.
Elimination Chamber is WWE’s last PLE before WrestleMania 40. It follows the Royal Rumble which is being held at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Saturday, January 27.
It doesn’t look like Australia will be the venue for Roman Reigns vs. The Rock.
While there has been speculation that the Reigns vs. Rock match could take place at Elimination Chamber, Dave Meltzer reports in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Reigns isn’t scheduled for the event and there are no plans for him to be added right now. The show is being held at Optus Stadium in Perth, Australia on Saturday, February 24.
Meltzer wrote:
Regarding the Reigns vs. Rock match, while I presume it’s WrestleMania (and could possibly be a three-way with Rhodes but I don’t think that will come out until many weeks from now), what we did have confirmed is the Australia rumors aren’t accurate. Reigns is not even scheduled for the show. He’s never been advertised and there are no plans for him for that date right now.
The Rock made a surprise return to WWE on the Day 1 edition of Raw. At the end of his appearance, Rock teased that he wants to face Reigns and take his spot at the Head of the Table.
Paul Heyman cut a promo on SmackDown last week responding to The Rock’s comments. Heyman said Rock hasn’t been invited to the table, nor will he be.
A Reigns vs. Rock match was planned for WrestleMania 39 last year at one point but didn’t end up happening. Instead, Reigns retained his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Cody Rhodes.
Rhodes told Sports Illustrated earlier this week that, despite the returns of The Rock and CM Punk, he isn’t flinching on his goal of headlining WrestleMania 40 against Reigns.
“The Rock is The Great One–he’s still electrifying,” Rhodes said. “CM Punk is one of the greatest stars in the history of wrestling. I know what I’m up against. Look at the roster–it’s loaded with stars. But that doesn’t bother me. I’m not flinching. I’m not rooting against anyone else, I’m just working to make it happen.”
WrestleMania 40 is taking place at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7.
Reigns’ next Undisputed WWE Universal Championship defense will be at the Royal Rumble later this month. He’s defending against Randy Orton, LA Knight, and AJ Styles in a fatal four-way match.
The yearly tradition of the JNPO pro wrestling year in review series has returned: a month-by-month look at nearly everything that happened in 2023.
This episode covers February which was dominated by the run-up to WWE Elimination Chamber in Montreal and the discussion of whether Sami Zayn could leave his home country with the undisputed WWE Universal title. Spoiler: he didn’t.
Joining me to discuss is F4WOnline writer and proud Canadian Ian Carey.
Along with all EC talk, we discuss how Vince McMahon was continuing to embed himself within WWE after forcing his way back in January, in addition to the build to WrestleMania 39 as several new matches were made.
While it was mainly a month of transition for AEW, Jay White was making news in NJPW by losing both a loser leaves Japan and loser leaves NJPW match during the course of the month.
It was also a good month for Mercedes Mone who followed up her debut at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom with a victory over KAIRI for the IWGP Women’s title.
Ian and I talk about all that plus hundreds more topics over the course of an hour. Come relive wrestling history with us, won’t you?
Logan Paul will be in action when WWE comes to Perth, Western Australia in February 2024.
WWE has announced that Paul will be appearing at Elimination Chamber 2024, which is taking place from Optus Stadium in Perth. The premium live event is set for Saturday, February 24.
Elimination Chamber is the first major WWE show to be held in Australia since Melbourne hosted Super Show-Down in 2018. The Elimination Chamber event is in partnership with the Western Australian Government through Tourism Western Australia.
In what was his eighth-ever pro wrestling match, Paul captured his first championship gold at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. Paul defeated Rey Mysterio to win the United States Championship.
Paul vs. Mysterio happened just three weeks after Paul defeated Dillon Danis in a boxing match.
Crown Jewel was Paul’s fifth WWE match of 2023. He also competed at the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, Money in the Bank, and SummerSlam.
Dave Meltzer has reported that, with the show taking place in Australia, Elimination Chamber is expected to have an early start time on Peacock for those in the United States.
Tickets for Elimination Chamber went on sale to the general public on November 10.
WWE’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view from Australia will have an early start time for viewers in the United States.
It was announced this week that WWE is bringing Elimination Chamber to Perth, Australia in February 2024. The event is taking place from Optus Stadium on Saturday, February 24.
In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer confirmed that Elimination Chamber will air in prime time in Australia. That means the show will have an early morning start time in the US. Meltzer noted that it will likely begin at around 6 a.m. Eastern time/3 a.m. Pacific time for US viewers.
Meltzer wrote:
It will be a very early morning show, likely starting [on Peacock] about 6 a.m. Eastern and 3 a.m. Pacific on a Saturday morning. When UFC goes to Australia they run the show early morning in Australia so it’s at 10 p.m. Eastern in the U.S., but WWE confirmed to us the show will air in prime time Australia time. Peacock these days doesn’t care as much about live viewers of the WWE PPV shows. The number they are most concerned with is viewership over the first 24 hours as opposed to live. That early a time slot may hurt a little, but they already do that for the Saudi Arabia shows and even on PPV the Saudi shows do about the same as the B shows.
This is the first time WWE has been back to Australia since 2019. In 2018, WWE’s Super Show-Down PPV took place from Melbourne. That event also had an early start time for those in the US.
Elimination Chamber being held in Perth is the result of a deal between WWE and the Western Australian Government.
The company has announced that Elimination Chamber 2024 will take place from Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia on Saturday, February 24. It will be the first time WWE has run a show in Australia since 2019 and the first PLE since 2018’s Super Show-Down.
WWE had been negotiating with the Western Australian government to run an event in the region, as was reported by our own Dave Meltzer in the March 13, 2023 edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Meltzer wrote:
The state government of Western Australia is negotiating with WWE to run a major stadium show. This would be similar to when the city of Melbourne made a deal with WWE twice to run stadium shows, one of which was a PPV show. The likely city would be Perth, which recently hosted a UFC show and many of the UFC shows outside the U.S. are basically local governments bringing in UFC for tourism or other reasons.
Nick Khan has said WWE will look to gain subsidies for more of its PLEs in the future. The company received nearly $3 million in subsidies from the Welsh government for Clash at the Castle and roughly $1.5 million from the Puerto Rican government for Backlash.
Optus Stadium, commonly referred to as Perth Stadium, has a capacity of 60,000 for Australian Football League Games but can hold over 70,000 for concerts.
“Perth is the perfect location for a major WWE Premium Live Event in Australia, following a series of record-breaking WWE events in iconic international destinations,” said WWE Senior Vice President Chris Legentil. “With a week full of WWE events and experiences, we hope to leave a lasting memory for Western Australia and the entire WWE Universe.”
“Hosting WWE in Perth is a real coup for our state as it will shine a global spotlight on Western Australia to billions of viewers worldwide, attract thousands of out-of-state visitors to WA and create an incredible atmosphere in the city for the local community and visitors alike,” said the Hon. Rita Saffioti MLA, Western Australia’s Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism. “The WA Government, through Tourism WA, is proud to support this exclusive event that will generate millions of dollars for the local economy and highlight WA as a world-class events destination. I encourage everyone to Western Australia for WWE to extend their trip to explore more of our wondrous state as part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The Western Australian reported on Saturday that WWE was “just days away” from announcing a major show in the region. The report stated the event would take place in early 2024 before the start of the AFL season.
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were in Australia on Thursday to help announce the news.
It’s a brand new We’re Live, Pal! as Andrew Zarian and I talk the latest news in wrestling.
We discussed all the reasons why Cody Rhodes needs to beat Roman Reigns for the undisputed WWE Universal titles at WrestleMania. We also talked about “Moonshine Brock” as well as wondered who in the fanbase Bray Wyatt is for.
During the Monday edition of The MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani went into detail about how his WWE experience in Montreal came to be, including his infamous reply-tweet to AEW head Tony Khan and some pointed barbs at his critics.
Helwani said he didn’t know until Wednesday of last week that he was even going to Montreal. Following January’s Royal Rumble, he had reached out to WWE about writing something to honor the event in Montreal and WWE took him up on it, but he didn’t hear back after he submitted it.
He later followed up and an agreement was made for him to do the voiceover and then attend both Elimination Chamber and SmackDown over the weekend, but there was nothing else arranged.
He said he talked to someone backstage Friday who suggested that due to him being so tied to Montreal and for this being a big event, he should be part of the broadcast.
He credited Paul “Triple H” Levesque for making this happen and also shouted out Paul Heyman with helping him out with specific terminology and how he would deliver his message on Friday.
He said he initially made it a point to not look at his phone backstage or while he was in the Gorilla position and just let the moment be.
However, when he did after his first appearance, he saw Tony Khan’s tweet calling him a fraud and originally thought it wasn’t him.
Helwani said the tweet was an “own goal” and feels Khan is still upset about Helwani’s criticism about his 2022 interview with him being a bad one. He said Khan had turned down interviews in the past because of trepidations with Helwani’s relationship with Nick Khan and BT Sport.
He then debated about whether he should reply and wanted to wait until after his second hit during SmackDown. He said Khan’s tweet would have ruined the night for the “old Helwani” but he wasn’t going to let that happen. Meanwhile, he said people were buzzing backstage about Khan’s tweet toward him.
Helwani said he tweeted his reply on the way back home that night and felt bad for Tony Schiavone being mentioned by Khan. He never addressed why he specifically called Khan “snowman.”
He also threw a jab that the only reason Khan was able to launch AEW was due to the finances of his father and that while his own father is an immigrant, what he’s built as an MMA journalist and personality is his own.
After the second hit, Helwani said he was invited back the next night. When he arrived at Elimination Chamber and was told he would be out in the crowd as part of a celebrity shot with Georges St. Pierre, he saw Michael Cole and Cole said, “Just wait until you hear how I introduce you.” It wasn’t until Helwani went backstage that he saw what Cole said and said people were giving him high fives. He joked his tweet toward Khan “popped the boys in the back.”
“I felt like I was part of the team,” he said, later addressing his critics, “If I disappointed you by doing this (WWE appearance), I don’t give a f**k.”
He said this was a one-off and there are no plans for him to do anything further. He even joked that he is up for hire for AEW and that they should do a “fraud” t-shirt.
He thought Khan tweeting that actually helped him be featured on the Elimination Chamber.
Helwani reiterated that, “I am not a wrestling journalist,” saying for MMA, he will not break that rule of working for a promotion and revealed he was offered the change to do a voiceover for Fedor Emelianenko’s last fight for Bellator MMA and turned it down.
He said he wants to have fun and do things that give him joy and that’s what this WWE appearance was all about, reiterating he doesn’t do daily wrestling news or have a website like Dave Meltzer and didn’t understand the constant comparisons on social media all weekend.
He did get paid by WWE whereas he initially turned it down for his first video package voiceover that he offered last year.
He said when he was hired by BT Sport, it was primarily for UFC but Dana White “threw a fit” and they then moved him to do WWE interviews instead.
Helwani added he thinks Sami Zayn should have beaten Roman Reigns for the WWE undisputed Universal title.
The Bryan & Vinny Show is back with tons to talk about as we break down the WWE Elimination Chamber show! All the matches and angles, and then BRYAN CONFRONTS HIS CRITICS who argue that there was JUST NO POSSIBLE WAY Sami could win the title in Montreal. A fun show as always so check it out~!
I am back with another Sunday edition of Wrestling Observer Live and a busy Saturday night that saw both WWE and NJPW pay-per-views.
At WWE Elimination Chamber, Roman Reigns retained the Undisputed Universal title over Sami Zayn in Montreal. I talk about whether or not this was the right call and discuss the rest of the night’s results.
Nearly at the same time, New Japan Pro Wrestling held Battle in the Valley in San Jose, California, which saw the promotional in-ring debut of Mercedes Mone as she defeated KAIRI for the IWGP Women’s title.
Also on the show, Eddie Kingston’s win over Jay White means he can no longer wrestle in NJPW and Okada defeated Tanahashi in the main event to retain the IWGP World title.
Plus, I talk the build to AEW Revolution, Tony Khan’s Wednesday announcement and this week’s Dynamite lineup, and more.
Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
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If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
Sunday Update
Both of our weekend shows are up on the site now. Garrett and I did a show talking about the news of the week, the WWE sale price, how Saudi fits in that is unique and talked to Rocky Romero in a fun interview taking New Japan, CMLL and his duties as the New Japan American rep. Bryan and I did a show on Elimination Chamber, Sami Zayn, Battle in the Valley and also talked the Saudi interest in WWE and what that’s all about.
I loved the crowd last night at the Chamber show. Crowds like that make a show fun and the performance by the talent was off the charts. The less matches but better matches and keeping the show at just over three hours from that standpoint works well. You can debate the finish of the main event, and I would as well, but Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn as performers put on a memorable match. I loved the pacing as they went very long and it never felt long. A lot of that was also how hot the crowd was. When you have a crowd like that you can wait 5:00 to touch and work slower early on. . Stories this hot are rare. It’s been years and that also gave them the latitude of all the ref bumps and run-ins that often detract from a match and are so overdone, but in this match it worked. Also, they didn’t give away the Jey Uso decision or the Kevin Owens hug that people expected, so they have plenty for the Mania build.
The XFL debuted yesterday. Dwayne Johnson was promoting it and gave a big speech at the start of the first televised game yesterday on ABC, but it didn’t feel as big to me as the first two launches of the league. Ratings will tell the story. The XFL was the No. 4 searched topic yesterday on Google at 500,000, with Elimination Chamber No. 5 at 200,000. The top three were Jimmy Carter, the Daytona 500 and Arsenal vs. Aston Villa. UFC did not crack the list and No. 16 was only 20,000. So there was no real interest in that event.
The XFL championship game will take place on 5/13 on ABC at 6 p.m. Eastern , from San Antonio at the Alamodome. Dwayne Johnson made the announcement at the San Antonio Brahmas home opener toady.
Mercedes Mone’s next New Japan match will be on the 4/8 show at Sumo Hall. That will be her first IWGP women’s title defense after winning last night. It was a very emotional deal in the building and it was amazing how hot the crowd was for Kairi. It was a unique crowd in the sense they wanted Eddie Kingston to beat Jay White in the loser leaves town match, but when it was announced before the match that all Bullet Club members were barred from ringside, which you would think the crowd would cheer, they booed that announcement heavily. Nobody in WWE has confirmed Jay White coming in, but they are certainly the favorite. One would think if White was going to AEW, he’d be able to work big shows with New Japan and would continue to do so, but they wouldn’t do the loser leaves for good stipulation.
Richard Belzer, best known for Law & Order: SUV, but having a wrestling connection since Hulk Hogan legit put him out with a guillotine on his old nationally syndicated TV show the week before the first WrestleMania, then let him go and he landed on his head and split his head open. He ended up suing WWF and Hogan and did a comedy routine about the incident noting that he bought a house with the money he got in the suit.
Yuji Nagata beat Kento Miyahara to win the Triple Crown earlier today at Korakuen Hal. Nagata had never won that title previously. We’ve heard lots of great reviews of that match.
The other indie match we’ve heard about from different people was El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Black Taurus vs. Aero Boy vs. Aramis from Warrior Wrestling last night.
Names at the New Japan show in San Jose included C.M. Punk with Rancid’s Lars Fredericksen, Bayley (who was cheering in the crowd and chanting during the Mercedes Mone match and I saw a photo of her with Stanford professor and sports business expert George Foster), Scott D’Amore, Tamina, Naomi, Lou D’Angeli and Gisele Shaw.
Pat Laprade noted that Friday night’s ovation for Sami Zayn on Smackdown was the longest known in history at the Bell Center, lasting 5:12, longer than Hulk Hogan in 2002, Saku Kolvu i 2002 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997. The Montreal record was set at the old Forum by Maurice “Rocket” Richard, the hockey legend.
Dickie Davies, a name well-known in the U.K., passed away today at 94. He was the legendary host of the ITV World of Sport block from 1965 to 1985. He was affiliated with soccer, the Olympics and the five hour sports show on Saturday afternoons on ITV that included wrestling. He also hosted the wrestling DVDs from the ITV days produced a few years ago. (thanks to Bradley Craig and Stephen Lyon)
Brian Bukantis, who published Stranglehold and Body Press magazines in Detroit and was a photographer and writer for national wrestling magazines and newsletters passed away on Friday at the age of 73.
Want to thank everyone for the nice comments on the current Observer with the Jerry Jarrett lead story. Want to make one clarification. When about Roy Welch and Jarrett-Welch promotions, this was the situation. When Jarrett split from Nick Gulas in 1977, Roy Welch sided with Jarrett. His health had declined by that point and he passed away later in 1977. The Jarrett-Welch name for the promotion on television after that point was for Edward Welch, better known as Buddy Fuller, the father of Ron & Robert Fuller (whose real last name is also Welch).
A celebration of life for Jerry Jarrett takes place Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, TN. Visitation will be at 10 am. The family has asked in lieu of flowers for memorial donations in Jerry’s name to the St. Jude Christan’s Hospital.
Jerry had 14 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
The 2022 Observer awards issue comes out Friday.
We’re looking for your thoughts on both Elimination Chamber and Battle in the Valley, so you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, plus and best and worst match from each show to [email protected]
In the U.K. the AEW PPV shows starting with Revolution are available on DAZN. If you are a DAZN subscriber, you can get the PPVs through DAZN, but not as part of the package. It’s a separate price. You can also get the PPVs in the U.K. through FITE, which I believe is the better option because it doesn’t come with a $19.99 per month subscription fee.
I don’t know if this is related to Tony Khan’s new announcement on Wednesday, but AEW did file a trademark this week for “AEW Collision” which would be for a television/streaming show.
A study at Wrestling-World.com listed the 15 biggest social media reach personalities associated with pro wrestling as Dwayne Johnson, Logan Paul, John Cena, Ronda Rousey, Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Roman Reigns, HHH, Randy Orton, Saraya, Alexa Bliss, Eva Marie, Steve Austin, Mercedes Mone and Becky Lynch.
The death of Raquel Welch this past week brings up the Roller Games movie “Kansas City Bomber” which she starred in. The movie story was always said to be based very loosely on Joanie Weston replacing the older Annis “Big Red” Jensen as the top woman star of the Bay Bombers of the rival Roller Derby promotion. However Irv Muchnick noted and likely so, that the single mom from a divorced family with the young child is likely influenced by Ann Calvello, who was another skating star who was one of the greats at different times in both Roller Derby and Roller Games.
Other Notes
Invicta runs 3/15 from Reelworks in Denver at 9 p.m. Eastern on AXS TV. The main event has Valesca Machado vs. Danni McCormack for the strawweight title.
Sean Waltman appears for AIW with a meet and greet as part of its 3/24 show in Cleveland, OH at the Temple Live Asylum Room.
Glory has announced a return of the eight-man one-night heavyweight kickboxing tournament, which was a giant event annually in Japan in the K-1 era. Like with K-1, there will be qualifying matches throughout the year and the tournament will be an annual event in December, just like it was for K-1. The winner will get $500,000. There will be a four-man tournament on 4/29 and the winner will face interim heavyweight champion Antonio Plazibat.
Aja Kong vs Vert Vixen was announced for West Coast Pro on 4/7 in San Francisco at The State Room.
Insane Wrestling Revolution on Wednesday night in Monroe, MI: Benjamin Boone b Tanner Nix, Hannah Henderson b Kelly Moore, Kyle Barrett & Big Flex b Rhino & DBA=-DQ, Buckeye Sam b Ace Evans, Trey Miguel & Myron Reed b Aaron Orion & Tommy Vendetta to win the tag titles, Kamille b Shawna Reed, Jason Hotch b Rich Swann, Bry Sullivan & Damian Chambers b Kenny Urban & Rod Lee, Madman Fulton b Sam Beale Thomas Latimer b Dread King Logan to win the heavyweight title. Next show is 3/23 at F.O.P. Hall in Monroe, MI. Rhino promotes this group (thanks to Leonard Brand)
Dungeon Wrestling in Calgary from Friday night at the Pavilion before 900 fans: Chris Cutthroat Knight b Shaun Moore, Tiger Raj Singh b Michael Allen Richard Clark, Zoey Zager b Nicole Matthews, Harry Smith & Billington Bulldogs b Bruno the Cuban Giant Blanco & Michael Blais & Karou, Mighty Mo Jabari b C.K. Krimson-DQ in a tournament match for the world mid heavyweight title, Nick Aldis b Chris Masters to keep the Stu Hart Heritage title (thanks to Ross Hart)
Tanner Boser vs. Ian Cutelaba is expected for a 4/15 UFC show in Kansas City at the T-Mobile Center. This was reported by MMA Fighting.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about about including both Elimination Chamber and New Japan Battle in the Valley, Sami Zayn and the main event finish, WrestleMania, tons of weekend news and so much more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Sami Zayn loses
26:20: The rest of Elimination Chamber
40:02: Yuji Nagata wins Triple Crown title
41:18: Ariel Helwani and Tony Khan on Twitter
52:12: What Saudi Arabia is looking for with potential WWE purchase
In a match that featured a raucous Montreal crowd, two referee bumps, and appearances by both Kevin Owens and The Usos, Roman Reigns retained the WWE Undisputed Universal title by defeating Sami Zayn at Saturday’s Elimination Chamber.
Zayn was looking for his first WWE Championship while Reigns’ multi-year run at the top of WWE continues. He now moves on to defend against Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles.
For Zayn, his path to Los Angeles will likely be by Owens’ side but how they get there isn’t yet clear.
Reigns picked up the win after multiple chair shots and a spear to Zayn.
As expected, the atmosphere in Zayn’s hometown for the match, and especially at the start, was unlike anything WWE has experienced in quite some time. After the bell rang, the two just stared at each other as the crowd got louder and louder with chants like “F**k you, Roman.”
It only grew as the match went on which included Reigns talking to Zayn’s wife and his family that were sitting at ringside. Reigns played to the crowd throughout the match, both soaking in the atmosphere and taking time to antagonize the fans.
Zayn had his moments, hitting a sunset power bomb for a close near fall and later countering a Superman punch with an exploder suplex. However, Reigns countered a helluva kick attempt with a Superman punch for a near fall.
Zayn nearly had the match won, landing another exploder suplex, followed by his own Superman punch followed by the helluva kick for another near fall. Zayn had another opening when Reigns ran through the ringside barricade followed by Zayn quickly getting him back in the ring and getting another near fall after a blue thunder bomb.
The first referee bump came when he was crushed in the corner, followed by a Zayn helluva kick and a visual pinfall on Reigns. That sequence led to Jimmy Uso running in and delivering three superkicks and a frog splash. A second referee entered the fray and counted a close near fall to the chagrin of Paul Heyman and Uso.
Reigns had another close pinfall as he connected on a spear after Zayn helluva kicked Uso off the apron. Later, the second official was taken out of the match following an accidental Reigns Superman punch.
Heyman then gave a chair to Reigns which led to the reappearance of Jey Uso. He and Reigns stared each other down and Reigns then handed him a chair to finish Zayn off in a scene reminiscent of the end of the Royal Rumble. Uso teased hitting Reigns and after the two argued, Reigns facepalmed him and questioned why he was hesitating. Uso then got speared by Zayn after Reigns moved out of the way and was out of action the rest of the way.
Multiple chair shots followed to Zayn and after a spear, the first official got back in the match to count the pin to give Reigns the win.
After the match, Jimmy Uso got back into things and attacked Zayn, leading to Kevin Owens coming out. As Jimmy Uso went out to meet him, Owens threw him into the barricade. He then delivered a spear and stunner to Reigns before delivering another stunner to Jimmy Uso and then a pop-up power bomb through the announce table.
Owens then began stalking Reigns back inside the ring with a chair, leading to Heyman punching Owens’ back to distract him. Owens then gave him a stunner and after deliberating, he stepped out of the way to allow Zayn to hit one more helluva kick.
Zayn then stared at Owens who stared back at him going to the back as the show came to an end. The next stage in their post-Bloodline relationship is expected to lead into WrestleMania as the assumption is that they will challenge The Usos for the Tag Team titles.
Logan Paul has once again prevented Seth Rollins from picking up a big win.
Rollins was on the verge of winning the United States Championship at Elimination Chamber on Saturday night, but Paul interfered to cost him the match. After Paul attacked Rollins, Austin Theory hit A-Town Down on Rollins to retain the US title.
Theory, Rollins, Montez Ford, Damian Priest, Johnny Gargano, and Bronson Reed were the Elimination Chamber match participants. Ford had a strong performance in the match but was eliminated after being given a stomp onto the Chamber platform. When that happened, there was an angle where the Chamber door was opened so medical personnel could tend to Ford. That allowed Paul to enter the ring and attack Rollins. Paul gave Rollins a Buckshot Lariat and then laid him out with a stomp.
Paul also eliminated Rollins in January’s men’s Royal Rumble match. It’s expected that this is leading to Rollins vs. Paul taking place at WrestleMania 39.
I don’t really like Logan Paul. I’ll just say it, a lot of us don’t really like Logan Paul. I don’t like Logan Paul. I don’t really need him in my locker room, in my space. Guy’s ultra-talented as far as athletic ability is concerned. Snuck up on me at the Rumble and dumped me – fine, whatever. I took my eyes off the ball, that one’s on me. But don’t go bragging about it like you did something otherworldly. It’s probably the coolest thing Logan’s ever going to do in his life is throw me out of the Rumble.
I just advise him to stay in his lane, I guess is what I would say. Because he’s had what, three [or] four matches? And again, athletic freak, no doubt about it. But at the end of the day, he’s not a wrestler. He doesn’t want to be a wrestler. He just wants to be famous. He doesn’t care about the industry. He’s not a wrestler. And so I think best for him to just stay in his lane, whatever his lane is. I don’t know, like buying counterfeit Pokemon cards – if that’s your lane, stay in that lane. But don’t come knocking on my door because I will knock you out. And you don’t have your brother for backup because he’s about to get cooked by this dude coming up in a couple weeks or whatever and he’s not going to be around. So at some point we’re going to have to come face-to-face. And I just really don’t think he wants to – I don’t think he wants none, as they say.
