If I Were Booking – Elimination Chamber

One more pit stop for Raw!

The Road to WrestleMania is making its final major Team Red stop this Sunday with Raw’s last pre-WrestleMania pay-per-view – Elimination Chamber.

For the first time ever (somewhere Vince’s ears are tingling after hearing someone utter those words) the demonic structure will play host to SEVEN superstars who will all be vying for a chance at Brock Lesnar and the Universal Championship at April’s WrestleMania.

Since its creation in 2002, the Elimination Chamber has given us some memorable moments and
great matches. The main draw of the match is that since there are so many superstars in the match (the most this year) there is no telling who will win!

Well…except this year.

It has been a foregone conclusion for quite some time now that the Universal Championship match at WrestleMania will see Lesnar defend against Roman Reigns, one of the seven men in the Chamber match. Hopefully we will at least get some entertaining moments throughout the match before the expected ending takes place.

You never know though! Many thought that Reigns would win his second Royal Rumble match last month but The Big Dog ended up being the last one eliminated by eventual winner Shinsuke Nakamura. Could the same happen Sunday?

Again, you never know! (though…chances are…we do know)

But let’s say the unthinkable happens and one of the other six competitors walks out of the Chamber straight to the WrestleMania championship match. Here is how I could see it happening –

First off, the seed for what would end up be the end of this story may have already been planted. As I mentioned before, Reigns was eliminated in the Royal Rumble by the fan-favorite Nakamura. In the Chamber in what would look pretty similar, Reigns would end up being pinned by Finn Balor, whose
career has almost mirrored Nakamura’s – huge star in Japan comes over to WWE and instantly becomes a top draw.

Side note – pinning Reigns would just be the start as I would book Balor to win and face Lesnar. The Beast vs The Demon would be a classic on the biggest stage of the all! Balor is the kind of star that WWE needs to get behind right now. He needs the Universal Championship. Balor would give the title the credibility that he gave it when he became the first Universal Champion before relinquishing it due to injury.

After being eliminated by Nakamura and Balor over the last two months, Reigns would start acting slightly different. Just trying to be a good friend, Seth Rollins comes in over the next few Raw’s and tries to calm Regins down. And he does…to a point. The interaction would lead to a one-on-one match at WrestleMania between the two former Shield mates.

That was the original plan for Rollins anyway – kind of. Plans called for a Rollins/Dean Ambrose match at WrestleMania which was thrown out after Ambrose’s injury. After that, Rollins was penciled in to face Kurt Angle’s “son” Jason Jordan…obviously not happening either for very similar reasons. So Rollins has to face someone!

At WrestleMania, the two put on a great match as they can. In the end, Rollins ends up hitting the Curb Stomp (or whatever they are calling it now) and picks up the win. The two shake hands after the match and all is well…

…until Raw the next night.

The Raw after WrestleMania is always one of the craziest Raw’s of the year and includes a big moment or two – Lesnar returning to WWE in 2012, Dolph Ziggler cashing in Money in the Bank in 2013 and the five-minute ovation for The Undertaker last year to name a few.

Rollins and Reigns come out together and talk about how great their match was – but that is in the
past and they are moving on to bigger and better things together.

This is when it happens.

What we have been waiting on for years – it happens.

Rollins turns his back to Reigns and Reigns takes Rollins out! Fed up with coming up on the short end against the top fan-favorites (Nakamura, Balor now Rollins) Reigns is done trying to make the fans happy and gives in to the boo’s.

This would be the perfect time to do it. Raw doesn’t really have too many top heels right now. Reigns would be amazing as a heel! Whether you want to admit it or not, The Big Dog is solid in the ring and can produce high-level matches. He already has with the likes of AJ Styles, Kevin Owens and even Rollins to name a few.

Again, this is all wishful thinking. Prepare yourself for Reigns wining this Sunday and beating Lesnar at WrestleMania.

But what if…