The 2010 Elimination Chamber (known as No Way Out in Germany) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the inaugural Elimination Chamber and took place on Sunday, February 21, 2010, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event centered on the men's Elimination Chamber match, a type of roofed steel cage that surrounds the ring and ringside area with no disqualifications; the objective is to eliminate all other opponents either by pinfall or submission with championship implications at stake.
Six matches aired during the pay-per-view while one dark match occurred prior to the live broadcast. The two main event matches, one each for Raw and SmackDown, were both contested as Elimination Chamber matches with six competitors each. In SmackDown's Elimination Chamber match, which was the final match on the card, The Undertaker defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Chris Jericho, John Morrison, Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, and R-Truth, which was won by Jericho, who last eliminated Undertaker. In Raw's Elimination Chamber match, Sheamus defended the WWE Championship against Triple H, Ted DiBiase, Randy Orton, John Cena, and Kofi Kingston, which Cena won by last eliminating Triple H. On the undercard, Drew McIntyre retained SmackDown's Intercontinental Championship against Kane, The Miz retained Raw's United States Championship against Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), and Maryse and Gail Kim competed against LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool) in an interbrand Divas tag team match.
The event replaced No Way Out as the annual February PPV, which had also featured the Elimination Chamber match on its last two events. This was WWE's first PPV event held following the discontinuation of the ECW brand the week prior. The event received 285,000 pay-per-view buys, an increase on the figure earned by the 2009 No Way Out pay-per-view. Despite the increased number of buys, the event received generally negative reviews, with reviewers criticizing the undercard of the show as being "weak" and consisting of "filler" material.
Production Background
In late 2009, the professional wrestling company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) ran a poll on their official website to allow fans to choose the name for the February 2010 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which would feature the Elimination Chamber match. The choices included Elimination Chamber, Heavy Metal, Battle Chamber, Chamber of Conflict, or continuing with No Way Out, which had been the annual February PPV since 2000 and had featured the Elimination Chamber on its last two events. The name Elimination Chamber won, but the event was still promoted as "No Way Out" in Germany as it was feared that the name "Elimination Chamber" may remind people of the gas chambers used during the Holocaust. The event was scheduled to be held on February 21, 2010, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands—this was WWE's first PPV event held following the discontinuation of the ECW brand the week prior.
The Elimination Chamber match was originally created in 2002 and held at various other PPV events, including the preceding two No Way Out events. The Chamber itself is a circular steel cage, consisting of chains and girders that surrounds the ring. Four pods are enclosed within the chamber, one behind each ring post, which are on a steel platform surrounding the outside of the ring. Typically six wrestlers compete in the match; two start the match while the other four are enclosed within the pods and released at random at specific time intervals. Wrestlers can only be eliminated via pinfall or submission, and the last wrestler left is the winner. For the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, both of WWE's world championships—Raw's WWE Championship and SmackDown's World Heavyweight Championship—were scheduled to be defended in separate Elimination Chamber matches.
Storylines The professional wrestling matches at Elimination Chamber featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, WWE. Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown of the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs.
The main event matches for the Elimination Chamber event consisted of two Elimination Chamber matches, with Raw's WWE Championship defended in one and SmackDown's World Heavyweight Championship defended in the other. Qualifying matches were held on the February 1 episode of Raw to determine the five challengers who would face the WWE Champion Sheamus in Raw's Elimination Chamber match. In qualifiers, John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes, Triple H defeated Jack Swagger, Randy Orton defeated Shawn Michaels, Ted DiBiase defeated Mark Henry, and Kofi Kingston defeated The Big Show by disqualification. In the weeks prior to Elimination Chamber the participants faced off in several matches, which included DiBiase vs. Cena ending in a no contest, Sheamus defeating Orton by disqualification, DiBiase defeating Kingston via pinfall, and Cena vs. Triple H ending in a no contest due to Sheamus interfering and attacking both participants. The February 5 episode of SmackDown saw the five wrestlers qualify to challenge The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship in a similar fashion. John Morrison defeated Drew McIntyre and Kane in a triple threat match. Throughout the rest of the episode, this was followed by R-Truth defeating Mike Knox, CM Punk defeating Batista via countout, Chris Jericho defeating Matt Hardy, and Rey Mysterio defeating Dolph Ziggler. In the following weeks, the six wrestlers faced off in different combinations in singles matches that saw Mysterio pin Punk, Morrison vs. R-Truth end in a no contest due to Morrison suffering a storyline ankle injury, and Jericho defeating The Undertaker. On the February 19 episode of SmackDown, Morrison and R-Truth teamed up to face CM Punk and his 'follower' Luke Gallows in a tag team match, which Morrison and R-Truth lost via referee stoppage.
In late December 2009, WWE Divas Champion Melina tore her anterior cruciate ligament, and was forced to vacate the championship. As a result, it was announced in January 2010 that a single-elimination tournament would be held to determine a new champion. The tournament began on the January 4 episode of Raw, when Maryse advanced to the semi-finals by defeating Brie Bella. She was followed into the semi-finals by Gail Kim, Alicia Fox, and Eve, who defeated Jillian Hall, Kelly Kelly, and Katie Lea Burchill respectively. In the semi-finals, Maryse defeated Eve and Kim defeated Fox. It was then announced on the February 8 episode of Raw that Maryse and Kim would face one another in the final at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
On the February 12 episode of SmackDown, WWE Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre faced Kane in a non-title match. After the match went to a double-countout, Kane chokeslammed McIntyre. It was announced the following day on WWE's official website that Kane and McIntyre would meet at Elimination Chamber for the Intercontinental Championship. The following week, on the February 19 episode of SmackDown, Kane defeated Dolph Ziggler in a singles match. Following the match, he was attacked by McIntyre, but Kane was able to fight back and fend off the attack.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael ColeJerry LawlerMatt StrikerSpanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraHugo Savinovich Ring announcersTony Chimel Justin Roberts Backstage interviewerJosh MathewsRefereesCharles RobinsonJohn ConeJack Doan
Prior to the live broadcast of the pay-per-view, Christian defeated Ezekiel Jackson in a singles match by pinfall.
Preliminary matches The first match that aired on the pay-per-view was the main event of Raw, which was an Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship, which involved Randy Orton, Triple H, Ted DiBiase, Kofi Kingston, John Cena, and defending champion Sheamus. Cena, DiBiase, Orton and Triple H all made their entrances and entered their pods individually, leaving Kingston and Sheamus to start the match. Sheamus attempted to finish Kingston off early by executing a Brogue Kick, but Kingston avoided it and immediately began attacking him. Sheamus would eventually get the advantage. After around five minutes, Triple H's pod opened first and immediately set his sights on Sheamus. After a back and forth between the three men. Orton's pod opened and he quickly attacked the three men, five minutes would pass and DiBiase's pod opened. Orton and DiBiase worked together to take out Kingston and Triple H (The latter would receive a DDT on the chamber floor, taking him out for majority of the match.) Orton and DiBiase began staring down on Cena, who was still in his pod. When Cena's pod opened, Cena would manage to get the upper hand for a while before eventually getting taken out by Orton. As Orton prepared to eliminate Cena, Cody Rhodes, an ally of both DiBiase and Orton appeared and tried to help Orton by giving him a steel pipe, but Orton refused. Rhodes would throw the pipe in anyway, leading to DiBiase to take it instead. DiBiase tried to hit Cena with the pipe but struck Orton instead. Cena performed an Attitude Adjustment on Orton. DiBiase struck Cena with the pipe, and then covered Orton to eliminate him, leaving Rhodes stunned. Kingston performed his finishing move "Trouble in Paradise" to eliminate DiBiase. Immediately afterwards, Sheamus eliminated Kingston after a High Cross. Sheamus tried to plant Cena with a High Cross, but Triple H emerged and hit a low blow on Sheamus, Triple H would then deliver a Pedigree to Sheamus, which would eliminate him. This left Triple H and Cena as the final two, guaranteeing a new WWE Champion. Both men slowly attempted to pick themselves up, with Cena managing to apply his submission hold, the STF. This forced Triple H to tap out, finally ending the match and leading to Cena winning the title, his eighth world championship overall.
Immediately after the conclusion of the match, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon told Cena that he would be going to WrestleMania XXVI, only if he could beat Batista, and then ordered Cena to face Batista in an impromptu match for the WWE Championship. Batista speared Cena and then performed a "Batista Bomb" on him to earn the pinfall victory, making Batista the new WWE Champion.
The third match featured Drew McIntyre defending the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Kane. The match began with Kane taking the advantage over McIntyre by clotheslining him over the top rope to the floor. Towards the end of the match, McIntyre attempted to leave the arena and lose via countout, which would have allowed him to retain the championship, but Kane brought him back inside the ring. When re-entering the ring, McIntyre poked him in the eye and then performed his "Future Shock DDT" to win the match by pinfall and remain the Intercontinental Champion.
Main event matches