IWE Elimination Chamber (2011)

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Revision as of 18:32, 27 January 2012

Elimination Chamber (2011)
Promotional poster featuring Edge at No Way Out 2009
Theme song(s)	"Ignition" by TobyMac
Imformation
Promotion	International Wrestling Entertainment
Date	February 20, 2011
Attendance	11,500
Venue	Oracle Arena
City	Oakland, California
Pay-per-view chronology
Royal Rumble (2011)	Elimination Chamber (2011)	WrestleMania XXVII
Elimination Chamber chronology
Elimination Chamber (2010)	Elimination Chamber (2011)	Elimination Chamber (2012)

Elimination Chamber (2011) (also known as No Way Out (2011) in Germany) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by International Wrestling Entertainment (IWE), which took place on February 20, 2011 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. It was the second annual Elimination Chamber event.

The event received 199,000 buys, lower than the 285,000 buys that last year's event received.

Production and concept

• Elimination Chamber

In late 2009, International Wrestling Entertainment (IWE) held a poll on their official website to allow fans to choose a name for their February pay-per-view. The choices included Elimination Chamber, Heavy Metal, Battle Chamber, Chamber of Conflict and No Way Out, which had been the name of the preceding Elimination Chamber-based event. The name Elimination Chamber won, and the event was renamed. Despite this, the event was still promoted as No Way Out in Germany.

The concept of the show was that each main event match was to be contested as an Elimination Chamber match. The Elimination Chamber 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. Six wrestlers compete in the match; four are enclosed within the pods and released at random at specific time intervals, and two start the match. Wrestlers can only be eliminated via pinfall and submission, and the last wrestler left is the winner. For the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, both IWE world championships, the IWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship, were to be defended in separate Elimination Chamber matches.

Just prior to the commencement of the World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber match, The Undertaker was involved in a pyrotechnics accident during his ring entrance. He was temporarily engulfed in flames when the pyrotechnics were mistimed, and his jacket caught on fire. It was later reported that he'd suffered first- and second-degree burns to his neck and chest, and according to a IWE spokesperson the injury "looked like a bad sunburn". He was only allowed to participate in the match after being cleared by a ringside doctor and was given bottles of water throughout the match to douse himself with to attempt to alleviate the discomfort.

Background

• See also: Professional wrestling

Elimination Chamber featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from scripted feuds and storylines that had been seen on International Wrestling Entertainment's television programs – Raw and SmackDown. Wrestlers were portrayed as villains or heroes, or more ambiguous characters in scripted contests that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match on the pay-per-view. All wrestlers were from IWE's Raw and SmackDown brands—a storyline division in which IWE employees are assigned to a television program of the same name.

The main event matches for the Elimination Chamber event consisted of two Elimination Chamber matches, with Raw's IWE 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 IWE Champion Sheamus in Raw's Elimination Chamber match. In qualifiers, Dustin Simpson defeated Mark Semmler, Triple K defeated Charlie Wilson, Kevin McAlmond defeated Ryan Barnhart, Kyle Johnson defeated Steven Larson, and Jose Serrano defeated The Big Show by disqualification. In the weeks prior to Elimination Chamber the participants faced off in several matches, which included Johnson vs. Simpson ending in a no contest, Sheamus defeating McAlmond by disqualification, Johnson defeated Serrano via pinfall, and Simpson vs. Triple K 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. Joe Linderman defeated Dax Hoovestall and Kane in a triple threat match. Throughout the rest of the episode, this was followed by B-Truth defeating Alex Knox, Justin Eldridge defeating Batista via countout, Khris Jericho defeating Matt Hooper, and Scott Wright defeating Nick Kessler. In the following weeks, the six wrestlers faced off in different combinations in singles matches that saw Wright pin Eldridge, Linderman vs. B-Truth end in a no contest due to Linderman suffering a storyline ankle injury, and Jericho defeating The Undertaker. On the February 19 episode of SmackDown, Linderman and B-Truth teamed up to face Justin Eldridge and his 'follower' Luke Gallows in a tag team match, which Linderman and B-truth lost via referee stoppage.

In late December 2009, IWE Divas Champion Denise 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 Riley advanced to the semi-finals by defeating Crystal Gozelasnki. She was followed into the semi-finals by Lauren Ireland, Kassi Austin, and Nicole Bergman, who defeated Dixie Hooper, Kelly Kelly, and Katie Lea Burchill respectively. In the semi-finals, Riley defeated Nicole and Ireland defeated Austin. It was then announced on the February 8 episode of Raw that Riley and Ireland would face one another in the final at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

On the February 12 episode of Smackdown, the IWE Intercontinental Champion Dax Hoovestall faced Kane in a non-title match. After the match went to a double-countout, Kane chokeslammed Hoovestall. It was announced the following day on IWE's official website that Kane and Hoovestall would meet at Elimination Chamber for the Intercontinental Championship. The following week, on the February 19 episode of SmackDown, Kane defeated Nick Kessler in a singles match. Following the match, he was attacked by Hoovestall, but Kane was able to fight back and fend off the attack.

Event

Prior to the live broadcast of the pay-per-view, Khristian defeated Russell Dalton in a singles match by pinfall.

Preliminary matches

The first match that aired on the pay-per-view was the Raw Elimination Chamber match, which involved Kevin McAlmond, Triple K, Kyle Johnson, Jose Serrano, Dustin Simpson and the defending IWE Champion Champion Sheamus. Sheamus and Serrano started the match, while the other four competitors were locked inside 'pods'. One pod at a time opened during the match at intervals of five minutes, releasing a wrestler into the match. Triple K was the first wrestler released, followed by Randy Orton, Kyle Johnson, and finally Simpson. After Simpson entered the match, Mark Semmler, an ally of both Johnson and McAlmond went to ringside, and threw a steel pipe into the cage. Johnson used the pipe to hit both McAlmond and Simpson, and then covered McAlmond to eliminate him from the match after approximately 24 minutes. Serrano used his finishing move, "Trouble in Paradise" (a 540 kick) to eliminate Johnson after 25-and-a-half minutes. Immediately afterward, Sheamus eliminated Serrano by pinfall, before being eliminated himself by Triple K at approximately 29 minutes, leaving only Simpson and Triple K in the match. Simpson used a submission hold, the STF on Triple K to eliminate him from the match via submission. As a result, Simpson won the IWE Championship for the sixth time, his eight world championship overall.

Reception

Raw / Smackdown before Elimination Chamber

Monday Night Raw

Results

Elimination Chamber entrances and eliminations (SmackDown)

Elimination Chamber entrances and eliminations (Raw)

Note: Justin Eldridge was actually first to be eliminated after an RKO from Kevin McAlmond, but was reinstated due a fault with chamber door which hindered Eldridge's entrance.

See also

• List of IWE pay-per-view events
• IWE Elimination Chamber