I love that promo! The first thing that happens this week (after the recap of Undertaker's return) is Triple H's entrance. He explains that he had intended to fire He of the Overly Long Title, and he spends a little bit to insulting Johnny Ace. Sadly, the Board of Directors has asked Triple H not to make a decision until they review it. Thankfully he quickly moves on to talk about the Undertaker returning last week. He describes exactly how it feels when the Undertaker walks to the ring, and I find myself agreeing with everything he's saying. And then HHH says that he feels sorry for Taker, and plays a short montage of the Undertaker being awesome – it looked like a series a clips from the Streak. He then plays a few clips of the aftermath of last year's match, where Undertaker was unable to walk away from the ring, which he says is not how he wants to remember him. Triple H turns down the rematch to a huge negative reaction. He quotes Lovecraft, but doesn't understand what the quote means at all. His music starts, but cuts out right as he goes to leave the ring. The lights go out, the crowd goes wild, and the titantron shows the Undertaker watching footage of last year's match. This is an awesome promo. 'Taker barely says anything, and he doesn't need to. I'm starting to like this – it's a great set up. WWE seems to be learning how to build stories slowly – first they let Jericho to come back for over a month and only say a single sentence, and now they're doing something similar with the Undertaker.
Big Show comes out and they show the footage of him running over AJ again. He'll be facing Daniel Bryan in what I believe is a non-title match. I'm really enjoying him as a heel. AJ comes out to accompany him, still wearing a neck brace. This really feels like Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth, which is good. And oddly, this whole angle has Michael Cole supporting a face, which is a refreshing change. Big Show dominates the early portion of the match.
We come back from break to show Big Show regain control of the match, after having dominated for the entire break. Big Show goes for a chokeslam, which Bryan counters into a sleeper hold. Big Show throws him off, but Bryan is able to turn the match around. He goes to the top rope, but Big Show scares him off with the threat of a big right hand. AJ stands between Bryan and Big Show outside the ring, and eventually almost gets sandwiched between Big Show and the steel steps. Bryan uses AJ as a human shield and loses due to countout as he walks AJ away. Bryan gets a microphone and claims that the fact that Big Show was able to stop this time proves that he could have stopped last time. This is a good promo, and a good angle for Bryan.
After the match, they claim that Jericho is going to break his silence, and announce a six-man match where the winner will enter the Elimination Chamber last.
When we come back, there's a bit of a promo for a Nascar driver and... I don't care at all. John Cena gets to start the Daytona 500, and I struggle to care. It is interesting to note that he'll be done with his feud with Kane at that point, because it's after Elimination Chamber. It's kind of strange how it's basically an after thought of a pay-per-view, and yet it's amazingly important. This is a good promo – my favorite picture from any Elimination Chamber is Edge biting the chains. They talk about the six-pack challenge again. Punk won't win, but I'm not sure who will win. Possibly Jericho, maybe the Miz if they're going to try and push him at all, but I doubt that. From what I've heard, he's not doing well backstage.
Huzzah, David Otunga comes out. He'll be lost if Laurinitis loses his job. He talks up Johnny Ace, and then gets put in a match starting immediately against Sheamus. Watching them circle is amusing – they look like exact opposites – spiky red hair vs. black buzz cut, suit vs. trunks, black vs. white... The suit gets torn off fairly quickly. Otunga only briefly gets any sort of advantage before meeting Sheamus's foot in the form of a Brogue Kick, giving Sheamus the win. Otunga's a pretty good wrestler, but he doesn't have great mic skills yet.
We come back from break to be greeted by Chris Jericho! The moment he starts talking I get excited, and his new character seems fantastic. He insults everyone by calling them wannabes, and focuses in on CM Punk for claiming to be the best in the world. I can't recap what he says, because it's so good and I could never do it justice. CM Punk interrupts him (wearing a nifty new t-shirt) to confront him, and doesn't say a word, simply holding up his title. In doing that, he proves that he's as good as Jericho, able to get as big a reaction without saying a word. This is going to be the best feud going into Wrestlemania.
Not sure if I like Wade Barrett's new theme music. It feels too light for him. He's part of a tag match, teaming with Cody Rhodes against the Great Khali and Randy Orton. They seem to be building some heat between Khali and Orton – Orton slaps Khali's chest to tag him in, and Khali returns the favor, nearly knocking Orton off the apron. There's some good back and forth when Orton is in the ring, but Khali's contributions are boring at best. Orton starts hulking out, but Khali tags himself in and picks up the win by chopping Cody Rhodes in the face as he goes for the beautiful disaster. Khali and Orton have a brief confrontation after the match, leading to Khali getting an awkward looking RKO.
I enjoy this Cena promo and the matching one for the Rock. There isn't a whole lot to say about it, except that I hope Cena wins.
Time for a bathroom break – an eight diva tag match. Eve, Tamina, Alicia Fox and Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix, Natalya and the Bellas. The brief interview that they show with Beth Phoenix makes it clear that she's going to feud with Kharma. The only amusing part of the early part of the match was when Beth tagged a Bella by slapping her breast. Tamina gets gets a Superfly Splash for the win in a match that lasted roughly two minutes.
We get a backstage segment between Triple H and John Laurinitis (blah blah blah). Johnny Ace reveals that Shawn Michaels will be on Raw next week, which is enormously exciting. They also reveal that Kane and Cena will be in an ambulance match at EC. Triple H makes a few decent jokes before we go to commercial. Josh Matthews asks Laurinitis a few questions after they come back from the break.
Now we get to the main event – R-Truth, CM Punk, the Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston and Chris Jericho in a six-pack challenge to determine the last entrant in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match. The match starts with everyone except CM Punk beating on Jericho. Punk then goes for a sneaky win on the Miz, leading to a general brawl. There looks to have been a botch when R-Truth goes to the outside of the ring – Miz looked like he was supposed to catch Truth but wasn't in the right position.
When we come back to the match, it's confirmed that R-Truth was injured – it looks like he got whiplash and possibly a concussion. The match goes on, with the match getting mostly cleared, leaving only Punk and Jericho in the ring. They face off, but Miz and Ziggler interrupt them before anything happens. Miz and Jericho knock each other out, leaving Ziggler and Punk to brawl. This leads to an assisted superplex by Punk on Ziggler, almost leading to a double 3-count. Jericho brawls with Miz, leading to Miz almost landing a Showstopper on Jericho, interrupted by Kofi getting a Trouble in Paradise on the Miz. We get a period where Kofi and Jericho are alone in the ring, and they work very well together. Jericho nearly lands a Lionsault, which I didn't think he would be able to pull of anymore. Punk lands a GTS on Ziggler for a near fall, but Jericho pulls him off, throwing him over the announce table and pinning Ziggler for the win. Jericho grabs the WWE Championship belt and sits in the center of the ring, imitating Punk.
We go backstage to see Kane tormenting Eve, promising that Cena will embrace the hate soon and threatening that something bad will happen to her if he doesn't embrace it soon.
A good episode, though the last bit with Kane was rather lame. Jericho proved why he's the best in the world at everything he does, while Undertaker makes an impact without actually appearing.
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