WWE Elimination Chamber 2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s review of WWE Elimination Chamber 2026, the show that — depending on a few remaining variables — officially determined the remaining world championship matches for WrestleMania 42. After the carnage of two Elimination Chamber matches had come to a close, Rhea Ripley and Randy Orton had punched their tickets to "The Showcase of the Immortals." In between, AJ Lee won her first title in over a decade and got to celebrate with CM Punk about it after he retained his own championship, Seth Rollins returned, and Danhausen made a truly bizarre WWE debut, befitting the former AEW star.

Do the WINC staff have thoughts about each and every one of these things? You bet we do! Feel free to check out our Elimination Chamber results page if you missed the show and need to catch up, but if you want to know what we thought about it, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE Elimination Chamber 2026!

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Loved: Women's Elimination Chamber hits a home run

If there's one thing about Rhea Ripley, Tiffany Stratton, and Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, it's this: they will go out there, on less than a day's rest, on a night with championship implications, and absolutely tear the house down.

Ripley, Stratton, Kiana James, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, and Raquel Rodriguez all took to the opening match of Elimination Chamber, and while Saturday's festivities weren't quite as important or esteemed as Game 7 of the World Series, Elimination Chamber carried all the pressure of it. Tonight was the final night for all of these women to make an impact ahead of WrestleMania, either through victory or a dominant performance. I'm happy to report that they did not simply make an impact ahead of WrestleMania. They knocked this performance right out of the ballpark, and made a case for every one of them to be featured on this year's upcoming WrestleMania card.

Saturday's starting lineup was strong, as Stratton and James opened the match. Chicago, you all are wrong for not cheering for James louder (though, to their credit, they ended up whistling and hollering for her later). I remember when James used to be that girl in NXT prior to her main roster debut and unfortunate injury, and I'm glad to see her returning to her former glory. She and Stratton had great chemistry in the match's opening number — makes sense, both have gymnast backgrounds — and this was accentuated by the introduction of veteran Asuka.

Asuka's interactions with Stratton and James were so good. She effortlessly mingled with WWE's youngest stars, and nailed them with her technical prowess. While other veterans of her age are prone to being slow, stomping dinosaurs, Asuka never showed — has never shown thus far — even a fraction of that rust. Asuka is a beast.

While fourth entrant Alexa Bliss slowed the match down just a little bit, Stratton, James, and Asuka managed to keep the momentum going as Ripley entered the frey. I always knew Ripley was good, but I was absolutely captivated tonight. She wrestled well with pretty much everyone. Final entrant Raquel Rodriguez has also improved significantly, as exemplified by her Double Tejana Bomb save.

Speaking of the Double Tejana Bomb: this match had plenty of particularly ambitious spots, from mist sprays to pod Powerslams. While some were definitely better than others, I don't think there was a spot that completely failed in this match. LA Knight can't say the same, so that's another W for the women's division!

The Women's Elimination Chamber set a high bar for the night — one that nobody could quite clear. If there's one thing about the WWE women's division and Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, it's this: they're the GOATs.

Hated: CM Punk obvious winner in match simply for Chicago

I know it's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of CM Punk (probably a massive understatement), and that of course probably plays a big factor into my "hated" tonight, but his World Heavyweight Championship match against Finn Balor wasn't for me. I'm not sure who it was for, outside of the city of Chicago, and that's fine, but compared to the two Chamber matches tonight, and the big moment of his wife capturing the Women's Intercontinental Championship, this match just wasn't anything special.

Sure, Punk got his cool Chicago Bulls-inspired entrance, which I'm sure was special for him and a lot of folks in attendance, but the fact he was emerging victorious here was just so obvious it was almost painful and it was certainly a boring watch. I will say one good thing, however, and that was that there was no Judgment Day involvement in the bout, for once. Balor said he wanted to go out there and do it himself, and he certainly tried.

If Punk winning in the city of Chicago wasn't obvious enough, and I believe he also even played a factor in getting WWE into that arena in the first place, he's got a huge WrestleMania 42 match set up already against Roman Reigns. Sure, some fans thought maybe Punk was looking past Balor, who would get the victory here, leading to a story where Punk would have to chase the title to get it back to be the man to face Reigns, but I just don't feel like his title reign was ever in danger.

WWE reportedly still has so much story writing to do ahead of WrestleMania that writing something else crazy convoluted for Reigns just was not happening. So, Punk got his victory in Chicago, got to celebrate with AJ Lee as a champion in WWE once again, and the crowd got their moment in their city. I, however, was bored at home and was ready to get the show on the road with the men's Elimination Chamber match after the women tore the house down in their bout. Punk vs. Balor was fine, I suppose, but it just really didn't need to happen outside of filling a spot for a match in Chicago.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Hated: Little Dealhausen for Danhausen

This should be prefaced with the fact that this writer actually really enjoys, even if he doesn't truly understand it, the Danhausen act. And actually WWE seems, on the face of it, like the best place for him to be, considering the emphasis on entertainment above all else.

That said, it all felt kind of rushed and throwaway when he did debut. For the past couple of weeks a mysterious box has been bounced between "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown" by Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis, with it eventually being determined that they will open it together at the Chamber event.

They did, and the occupant of that box turned out to be Danhausen, and that bit in itself would have been all fine and entertaining. It was great to see him back. But that was it. He literally walked to the ring flanked by women who will likely never join his entrance again, did a whole lot of pointing and posing, and that was it.

One would presume in the venue there would have been a little more fan interaction, but for a viewer watching at home it just came off as a little random and inconsequential.

One could have easily mistaken him for the mascot of a sponsor, never to be seen on programming again. One could have thought he was a fan that paid or won a VIP package and had to parade in some form of advertisement. Those aware of Danhausen would have found it either a pleasant surprise or a rolling of their eyes. But the casual viewer, the demographic WWE consistently touts as its primary, would have been none the wiser.

That could have easily be remedied by having any one of a number of WWE superstars in the ring or emerging from the back to address the newcomer. But when all was said and done Danhausen debuted in what was essentially a cameo. And that doesn't exactly bode well, comedic act or not.

Written by Max Everett

Hated: Logan Paul scores three eliminations, gets dunked on by Uncle Seth

You can't even be surprised at this point. We at Wrestling Inc. are Division I Logan Paul haters.

Okay, I can't speak for all of us here at Wrestling Inc., but I am certainly not a fan of "The Maverick —" never have, probably never will be. While this will mostly be a petty, fueled-by-vitriol rant about The Vision's mopheaded member, I do have some semi-professional gripes with how he was booked, during Saturday's Elimination Chamber main event. I know that he is more of a wrestler than most of us and most of WWE's celebrity guests will ever be, but I just cannot wrap my head around how Paul "Triple H" Levesque allowed a Youtuber to score three out of five Eliminations, only to get murdered in fifteen seconds by Seth "Sheisty" Rollins.

Would I have given his role in tonight's Chamber festivities to Jey Uso (the man originally slated for Paul's spot)? No, but that doesn't negate the fact that Paul shouldn't have been as dominant as he was tonight. I get that he's part of The Vision, and he's bound to get booked powerfully, but three eliminations? Three eliminations, in this economy? At that point, it's big and greedy. You have meteoric stars like Trick Williams (that guy is the definition of meteoric), young stars with huge potential like Je'Von Evans, and LA Knight — you mean to tell me all of them will get buried by a man who is banned in Egypt? Even if getting pinned by Paul isn't so embarrassing it's actually momentum-harming, WWE could have distributed those eliminations more fairly. Paul doesn't need to the huge push. He literally is backed by The Vision. I would've much rather have had Williams, Evans, or even Knight get those pins. Way before I would've picked Paul to have that honor.

Obviously, Paul wasn't going to win. He was going to get eliminated at some point, and, to some extent, I'm very excited for the return of Rollins, and the juicy revenge plot that will spawn. However, I don't know if making him a plot device for Rollins' return, after he's been so dominant, was necessarily the right move. If Rollins was going to return tonight, non-negotiable, then I guess I wouldn't have booked it differently. Just...don't give Paul so many eliminations and him up so much, just to have him be a footnote in the Rollins return headline (and he absolutely was a footnote in the Rollins return headline, because I wrote it).

I don't like Logan Paul, and I don't like how he was booked in the Chamber's main event, which was already a dumpster fire to begin with. He made an unlikeable match near-unwatchable.

Written by Angeline Phu

Loved: Randy Orton shocks Chicago as Elimination Chamber winner

I was absolutely convinced that Cody Rhodes was winning the Elimination Chamber tonight, though I did somehow think we were going to get some Jacob Fatu involvement or something to lead to a triple threat match at WrestleMania. That thought was solidified when Rhodes came out to open the Chamber alongside Je'Von Evans. I was fully convinced he was going to go the distance, as Rhodes has never won a Chamber match in his career.

I was shocked, and delighted, when it was Randy Orton to score the victory, and I also liked everything involving Drew McIntyre and Nick Aldis during the post-show. Orton has always been one of my favorites, ever since I was a kid, so him getting on the road to win his 15th world championship will be pretty cool to see, and that all started with his shock win tonight. He deserves it, especially after last year, when his match against Kevin Owens didn't happen after Owens' injury, though he did end up having a pretty cool 'Mania moment with Joe Hendry. Orton has been through a lot, even in recent memory with his spinal fusion surgery, and I think he deserves that final reign.

I didn't love that McIntyre got involved in the match and clocked Rhodes with the Undisputed WWE Championship and started to beat him down. Why the hell was the Chamber door, once again, as it happens every year, left wide open for both Seth Rollins and McIntyre to waltz in to get involved? Thankfully, that was rectified pretty quickly with something I did love, with McIntyre and "SmackDown" General Manager Nick Aldis getting into it backstage. That led to Aldis making the announcement on the post-show that McIntyre will be facing off against Rhodes on Friday in a title match. Aldis and McIntyre had to be separated by officials, further teasing Aldis getting back in the ring.

I don't mind if Rhodes gets the title back to go onto WrestleMania to face Orton. "The Viper" has been caught subtly staring at the gold while it was on his friends' shoulder multiple times, and I think they'll have a fantastic 'Mania match if Rhodes wins on Friday. Orton winning, setting up the McIntyre and Rhodes title match on TV, made things much more interesting in the Undisputed WWE Championship scene going in to "The Showcase of the Immortals," and his shock victory was something I really loved on tonight's show.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Loved: We were wrong

We here at Wrestling Inc. were pretty certain we knew who was going to walk out of Chicago with gold around their waist, or WrestleMania title matches to their name. Now that Saturday's Elimination Chamber festivities are over, I'm happy to report that we got 75% of our match predictions...wrong.

Yes, I love being wrong, when the right option is this interesting. Elimination Chamber was set up to be another predictable WWE affair; we expected to see champions retaining (due to Paul "Triple H" Levesque's trend of long title reigns), long-standing feuds reigniting, and predictable marquee 'Mania matches being made official. What we got in Chicago, however, was anything but. AJ Lee dethroned Becky Lynch to walk into WrestleMania as a champion, even though we thought WWE would wait until Vegas to give Lee her big babyface win. Rhea Ripley beat out overwhelming favorite Tiffany Stratton to secure a match against Jade Cargill for the WWE Women's Championship, even though we thought we were heading straight for Stratton and Cargill II (however bad it was the first time around). Randy Orton is now looking for number 15 at WrestleMania 42 after pinning near-untouchable Cody Rhodes to win the Elimination Chamber and become Drew McIntyre's Vegas date, even though we thought WWE would revive McIntyre and Rhodes (a feud so dead that it would've been borderline blasphemous to revive it). WWE, a company that is known for playing it safe, for not taking risks, thoroughly surprised us tonight with their winners. I am over the moon.

I don't know if the Ghost of Wrestling Future came to scare Levesque last night or what, but having such an unpredictable night like this was sorely needed — especially when Chamber typically sees the status quo being upheld, so close to WrestleMania. I cannot undersell how much I didn't expect Lee, Ripley, and Orton to win it big tonight. Yes, they're big stars, but they were not the write-ins you would expect, judging from the storylines WWE tends to gravitate towards. Levesque would much rather revive an old feud than start new ones. Levesque typically has champions retain if it's any event other than WrestleMania or Summerslam. To have him completely 180 and shock us with a title exchange and new challengers for champions? This is what makes wrestling exciting. Obviously you want to build storylines and victors, but a rug pull like Ripley and Orton winning the Chamber is fun and thoroughly appreciated every once in a while. It seems like Uncle Levesque has a moment of clarity every once in a while.

Were tonight's winners groundbreaking, underrated, underground picks? No. However, they were different from what we expected from WWE. That's a win.

Written by Angeline Phu

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