With the spur of the moment announcement of the return of the Elimination Chamber PPV, I decided to take some time over the next few weeks and review several past Chambers. First up is the 2005 edition where the main story heading into was that of Evolution. Would Batista stay loyal to Triple H or would he take the chance to become World Heavyweight Champion? The title was vacant at the time so we knew there would be a new champion. Who would come out on top? Did Batista turn on Triple H? Was it as good of a match as it sounds like? Let's find out!
Triple H vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Edge - Elimination Chamber Match for the World Heavyweight Championship - New Year's Revolution 2005
This one started off much slower than expected. It wasn't particularly bad, but they didn't have the most intricately thought out opening sequence either. Benoit & Jericho had a solid exchange to start albeit a bit rushed with the climax coming before another entrant came into the match as Benoit suplexed Y2J off the top rope. Triple H came in next followed by Edge who began cleaning house when he entered. Three of the four guys get busted open and things start to pick up just before Orton's pod opens. Triple H hits a vicious pedigree on a bloodied Jericho and Orton hits the ring. Orton goes right after the man who ruined his first World Heavyweight Title reign. As said before, this is where things really picked up. Great brawl between Orton & Hunter followed by some awesome exchanges by all the guys in the match at the time including HHH going for a pedigree only to be caught by a german suplex from Benoit and Orton catching Benoit with an RKO out of nowhere while he was applying a sharpshooter on HHH. Edge ends up getting eliminated first and the match continues at a good pace afterwards. There was a fantastic spot with Jericho holding HHH in the walls of Jericho while Benoit had him in the crossface. This takes place as the clock is winding down for Batista to enter the match. Batista strolls in and takes out both Jericho & Benoit. Up next is an epic foreshadowing segment with Batista & Triple H coming face to face and JR calling it like only he can, to the point that it gave me chills, even 10 years later. Before either man could make a move, Orton & Y2J break things up. Batista regains control and cleans house with a spinebuster on Benoit followed one on Jericho ONTO Benoit. This leads to the elimination of Benoit and eventually Jericho as well, but not before Batista threw him outside onto a cameraman. It's down to all three members of Evolution which is something that didn't surprise although it was still cool. HHH & Batista team up on Orton. Orton somehow comes back, RKO on Batista! Triple H watches in the corner as Orton eliminates Batista. The crowd boos as HHH jumps Orton immediately after sandbagging when Batista was down for the count. Batista still shows his loyalty though and comes back in when HBK had his back turned. Wow, just realized I totally forgot to mention that Shawn Michaels was the guest ref for this! Yeah, that was his role her. Not exactly sure why, but it happened. Flair distracts HBK, Batista nails Orton with a brutal lariat. HHH takes advantage and pedigrees Orton to become the World Heavyweight Champion. Batista, Flair, & Orton celebrate together to close this one out. This match was pretty great for what it was. I feel like if I was watching this when it happened, I would have marked out more than I did during this viewing a decade later however there are still moments like Batista & HHH facing off with JR calling it that will send chills down your spine. The action wasn't out of this world outside of one or two cool exchanges and the blood being involved, this one was more about storytelling, I think and did a perfect job of telling the story that it was supposed to by foreshadowing the forthcoming feud between HHH & Batista.
Match rating - ****
Which Elimination Chamber should I review next? I'm going to add a poll to the front page of the site where you can vote. I have the anthology set so I can review any of the ones included in that, those being 2002-2010. So feel free to vote in that or tweet me your vote on Twitter @ThePWTruth!
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