RELATED: WWE 2K22: All The Bundles And Everything They Come With
It gives six wrestlers a shot at a World Championship, allowing people who don’t normally get a chance in the main event scene a big spotlight. It allows multiple storylines to come together in one match, creating a lot of interlocking narratives, and most importantly, it allows for plenty of memorable high spots.
10 Summerslam 2003
Participants: Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Kevin Nash, Triple H(c) & Goldberg
Stipulation: World Heavyweight Championship
Winner: Triple H
Slap-bang in the middle of Triple H’s infamous reign of terror on Raw with the World Heavyweight Championship, he got the opportunity to put down all the pretenders to his throne in one fell swoop. This is perhaps one of the more controversial matches, though, purely because Triple H won.
While there were six other men in the match, who did plenty of great wrestling throughout the match, this was really all about Goldberg. He was still fresh in WWE, and all the memorable moments in this match involve Goldberg absolutely annihilating everything in his path, especially Chris Jericho. Unfortunately, it ended in such a lame fashion, with Triple H bonking Goldberg with the sledgehammer and getting the win.
9 Elimination Chamber 2014
Participants: Cesaro, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, Christian, John Cena & Randy Orton(c)
Stipulation: WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Winner: Randy Orton
Another Elimination Chamber match that ended in disappointment, yet everything leading up to the finish was utterly brilliant. Early 2014 was when Daniel Bryan and the “Yes!” Movement was at its peak, and fans grabbed onto every glimmer of hope that Bryan would finally get the win.
There’s some spectacular action throughout the match. Cesaro & Sheamus start things off, and they’ve always had incredible chemistry, then Bryan gets thrown into the mix and things become so fun to watch. Even Christian gets a high spot. There are a bunch of memorable moments, including the Wyatt family teleporting in to eliminate John Cena, and although Kane cost Daniel Bryan the match in the end, it was one hell of a ride to get there.
8 No Way Out 2009 - Smackdown Chamber
Participants: Edge(c), Jeff Hardy, Vladimir Kozlov, Big Show, Triple H & The Undertaker
Stipulation: World Heavyweight Championship
Winner: Triple H
As weird as it is for anything involving Vladimir Kozlov to be considered a “best”, this match had a lot to love. Edge & Jeff Hardy were a great choice to start out, as they can easily put on an entertaining match, but things immediately got exciting as the defending champion, Edge was eliminated in less than five minutes.
This immediately gave the match a heightened sense of excitement, as a new champion was guaranteed to be crowned. It lulls a bit in the middle but is entirely made up for by the ending section, which features Triple H and The Undertaker battling it out in brilliant fashion before Triple H finally slips away with the win.
7 No Way Out 2009 - Raw Chamber
Participants: Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Kane, Mike Knox, Edge & John Cena(c)
Stipulation: WWE Championship
Winner: Edge
As it turned out, that night in 2009, the first Elimination Chamber match was just the first part in Edge’s story for that night. After being eliminated in such quick fashion earlier in the night, Edge attacked Kofi Kingston, who was supposed to be in the second Chamber match, as he was coming to the ring, stealing his spot.
RELATED: WWE Games That Deserve A Remake
After having injected himself into the match, he secured his reputation as the “ultimate opportunist” by coming in late and controlling the match. When John Cena enters and goes on a tear, Edge coordinates the efforts of everyone else in the match to get rid of the champ, leaving the door wide open to end the night as WWE Champion.
6 Elimination Chamber 2021
Participants: Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, King Corbin, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens & Jey Uso
Stipulation: Match for the Universal Championship immediately after
Winner: Daniel Bryan
One of the best stories during Roman Reigns’ run as Universal Champion so far, the Tribal Chief orchestrated a scenario to be the ultimate bad guy. Rather than defend his championship inside the Elimination Chamber, he manipulated the situation so that he’d have to wrestle a weakened opponent, immediately after they survived a Chamber match.
The action inside the Chamber was great, especially with Daniel Bryan & Cesaro starting things off. Jey Uso was there to play spoiler, intending to win and then lie down for Reigns in the title match. The story culminated beautifully, though. Bryan got the win and pushed Roman Reigns to his limit. Ultimately coming up short, but setting in motion an incredible story for WrestleMania a month later.
5 Elimination Chamber 2011
Participants: Edge(c), Rey Mysterio, Wade Barrett, Kane, Drew McIntyre & Big Show
Stipulation: World Heavyweight Championship
Winner: Edge
The lineup for this match doesn’t look too spectacular, but it delivered. Drew McIntyre was still a long way off from his popular current iteration but showed that he had the potential. Kane and Big Show were slowing down but hadn’t quite run out of steam just yet, and Wade Barrett was still a hungry newcomer.
Then there’s Edge and Rey Mysterio. These two all-time greats carry this match on their backs. They start as the first two in the match and survive all the way until the end, dealing with the other threats as they come and go. They even get a whopping 10 minutes in the end with just the two of them in the ring.
4 New Year’s Revolution 2005
Participants: Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Triple H, Edge, Randy Orton & Triple H
Stipulation: World Heavyweight Championship & Shawn Michaels as Special Guest Referee
Winner: Triple H
Towards the tail end of Triple H’s reign of terror, the King of Kings got another Elimination Chamber win under his belt. Triple H had been stripped of the championship after some shenanigans in a match in December, and this match was designed to crown a brand-new champion.
RELATED: WWE 2K22: MyGM Mode Is A Huge Step In The Right Direction
There were a lot of moving parts in this match, and it led to plenty of great wrestling. Jericho & Benoit started things off, and they’ve always had great chemistry. Shawn Michaels as referee added some intrigue, he was there to keep Triple H from cheating but ended up screwing over Edge to eliminate him. In the end, Triple H came out with the win after Ric Flair and Batista got involved to screw over Randy Orton in the match’s dying moments.
3 Survivor Series 2002
Participants: Rob Van Dam, Triple H(c), Chris Jericho, Booker T, Kane & Shawn Michaels
Stipulation: World Heavyweight Championship
Winner: Shawn Michaels
The very first Elimination Chamber match had a lot riding on it, needing to prove the gimmick had staying power. While it seems ridiculous now, at the time the idea seemed reminiscent of some of WCW’s more ridiculous attempts at reinventing the cage match.
Thankfully, it blew audiences away, with just about every moment being memorable from start to finish. Kane went on a tear, Booker T got the spotlight, and Rob Van Dam showed the potential for high spots with a splash off of the pod (which accidentally crushed Triple H’s throat in the process). In the end, the match came to an emotional conclusion, as Shawn Michaels won his first world title following his 2002 return.
2 Elimination Chamber 2019
Participants: Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan(c), Kofi Kingston, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy & Randy Orton
Stipulation: WWE Championship
Winner: Daniel Bryan
This match is one of the magical moments in recent WWE history where lightning struck a bottle. Originally, Mustafa Ali was supposed to be in the match, but he suffered a concussion and was replaced with Kofi Kingston, and no one really thought much of it. However, on the Smackdown before the show, Kingston competed in a gauntlet match involving all the participants and Kofi put on the most incredible performance of his career, wrestling for over half an hour and beating Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy, and Samoa Joe in that time.
Kofi became a start like never before, and this match solidified the fan’s desire to see Kofi succeed in a way that would eventually lead to his world championship win at WrestleMania that year. This match is filled with great wrestlers doing great wrestling, but the story between Kofi & Daniel Bryan is the start of the show. Kofi would come up short in this match; the final sequence was incredibly booked that blew everyone away.
1 Elimination Chamber 2017
Participants: John Cena(c), AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Baron Corbin & The Miz
Stipulation: WWE Championship
Winner: Bray Wyatt
There isn’t any complicated story reason making this match so great, it’s just 34 minutes of clean and brilliant wrestling. John Cena and AJ Styles started things off after putting on a match of the year candidate just a couple of weeks earlier, and each new entrant changed the dynamic in exciting ways.
Everyone filled a different role, and it kept the action building and building to its peak. Cena ended up being eliminated 2nd to last, leading to a fantastic final sequence to crown a new champion between fan-favorite wrestlers, AJ Styles, and Bray Wyatt. In the end, Bray Wyatt won, claiming not just his first world championship, but ending what, as of 2022, is John Cena’s final world championship reign.
MORE: Best Wrestling Games On The PS2
