The Real Winners and Losers from 2022 WWE Elimination Chamber

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Credit: WWE.com

WWE Elimination Chamber was the final premium stop on the road to WWE WrestleMania 38. This show had a chance to redefine the most important night on the WWE calendar.

Brock Lesnar ran through the field inside the Elimination Chamber. After Bobby Lashley was injured due to a plexiglass accident, The Beast Incarnate eliminated the other four men to win the WWE Championship and earn his Champion vs. Champion match with Roman Reigns.

Bianca Belair overcame a fresh Alexa Bliss and motivated Rhea Ripley to win inside the Elimination Chamber. Big Time Becks survived a game Lita to keep the Raw Women’s Championship. This set up a huge rematch between these long-time rivals.

Goldberg challenged Reigns, hoping to get one last run as WWE universal champion. Instead, The Head of the Table may have sent him into retirement with a statement win, dominating the veteran and making him tap out.

Naomi teamed with Ronda Rousey against the dangerous duo of Charlotte Flair and Sonya Deville. While she was not the biggest star in the ring, she felt like it given her performance and the crowd reaction behind her.

This show did not pull out any major surprises, but the show solidified the trajectory of key stars on the road to WrestleMania.

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Every time Goldberg steps into the ring, there is a danger that he could tarnish his legacy. After starting his new run in WWE well, he has fallen apart in the ring often. WWE has limited him to a few minutes per match, even when it meant he was basically squashing young talent.

This match with Roman Reigns was a slow-motion experience. Consistently throughout the match, The Head of the Table had to put himself in position for Goldberg, who was not moving well.

Luckily, there were no truly bad spots. It was the first time The Head of the Table has had to keep a veteran safe in a match, so he did his job.

It is likely this is the last time Goldberg will step into a wrestling ring. If so, he went out submitting to Reigns, his first submission loss in his career. That’s a great way for a veteran to put over a younger star.

In that way at least, the WWE Hall of Famer did his job one last time and got a final big paycheck for his family. He would consider that a win, even if the performance was not great.

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At WWE SummerSlam 2021, Bianca Belair lost the SmackDown Women’s Championship in 26 seconds to Becky Lynch. It seemed to be the abrupt end to The EST’s run at the top of WWE.

Since that time, Belair has lost a few more cheap moments to Big Time Becks and largely been unstoppable otherwise. She has waited patiently for a clean, fair shot at Lynch, who now holds the Raw Women’s Championship.

After an impressive run in the women’s Elimination Chamber match, she now stands as the most likely woman to dethrone Lynch.

WWE could have easily gone in many different directions on this journey for Belair, but the focus remained consistent. It was always leading to WrestleMania, the second match on the Grandest Stage of Them All that can help define The EST’s career in WWE.

Belair has proved again and again that she is one of the best female wrestlers in WWE. She has been on an absolute tear and deserved this huge moment.

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Naomi was not walking into WWE Elimination Chamber as the star, but she left as the most popular woman in a ring that included Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair.

While the focus was The Baddest Woman on the Planet, who was forced to wrestle with an arm tied behind her back, every time The Glow got involved, the crowd lit up. The energy in the match was focused on her.

She made every moment matter, and on the road to WrestleMania, that means a lot. She does not have a match yet on the card, but her rivalry with Sonya Deville needs to make to The Grandest Stage of Them All.

The future for Naomi should be bright. WWE has unfortunately wasted her for a long time. If the crowd reaction for her at WWE Elimination Chamber was not enough to get her a main event push, it’s likely nothing will get her there again.

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Lita is a WWE Hall of Famer. She is a four-time WWE women’s champion. Many would argue she and Trish Stratus laid the foundation for the women’s evolution. She has nothing to prove, yet she showed something at WWE Elimination Chamber.

She performed against Becky Lynch in her first one-on-one match in over 15 years and went 11 minutes without showing much ring rust. If she had wanted to, it was clear Lita could have returned at any time to compete against the best in WWE.

While she lost her title shot against Big Time Becks, most in WWE can say the same. Lynch has defeated everyone at one time or another. What mattered was that Lita showed she still has it.

She looked like she could compete again at WrestleMania if she can find an opponent. There are plenty of exciting possibilities for her, and there are a wealth of women that would jump at the opportunity.

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Brock Lesnar won the WWE Championship at WWE Day 1. Thanks to Roman Reigns, he lost it to Bobby Lashley at WWE Royal Rumble. He would then win the men’s Royal Rumble to get a shot at Reigns at WrestleMania then win back the WWE Championship at WWE Elimination Chamber.

That’s an eventful two months to start 2022 for The Beast Incarnate. It is also a showcase of little WWE sees in anyone else in the main event scene. Even The All Mighty was disrespected quickly after regaining the WWE Championship.

All these moments could have gone to another star. WrestleMania is a two-night event, yet only one match will feature both world championships.

Lashley deserved to go to WrestleMania as champion. Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Austin Theory and Riddle all could have run with the gold in a surprise result. Instead, WWE took the most predictable and single-minded of directions for The Grandest Stage of Them All.

Everyone on Raw that was just passed over should feel disrespected. Even those with certain WrestleMania spots know they will be overshadowed by a match that had already main evented twice at The Show of Shows.

This was WWE doubling down on its decision that caused wide-scale backlash, and that is so typical WWE that is more than a little sad.