WWE Elimination Chamber 2011 review (DVD) ★★★

It may have been a cold February evening outside the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, but it was as hot as hell inside as WWE had arrived at the final pay-per-view stop on the road to the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania 27. It would also be the most barbaric as the Elimination Chamber was lowered twice on the same evening at the titular event that would decide two of the 'Mania main events. Would Edge outlast five other Superstars to retain his World Heavyweight Championship and go on to defend it against Alberto Del Rio? And who would survive and endure so much inside the steel prison as to earn the right to face the WWE Champion for all the gold? It was all on the line at Elimination Chamber, the only show of the year of its kind, and it delivered.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Kofi Kingston ???
The thunderous cheers of the fans in attendance quickly turned to boos once the opening ballyhoo had settled and Ricardo Rodriguez, Del Rio's personal ring announcer, was introduced. Yes, kicking the show off was a non-title match between the Mexican aristocrat and Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston. Also known as the calm-before-the-storm match, this encounter featured the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship who would main event WrestleMania 27 after winning the Royal Rumble back in January, although Del Rio ended up “jerking the curtain” against Edge. There's always a lull in the middle of the road to 'Mania with the Royal Rumble victor as they can't chase main event-level feuds nor championships, but as silly, throwaway and forgettable as this rivalry and its impetus was, it lead to a very strong back-and-forth bout at this show in which both Superstars shined and kept the action exciting despite the elephant in the room so to speak being a predictable-from-the-start win for the cocky heel.

World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match ????
The Superstars of SmackDown were the first on the night to enter the callous coliseum that is the Elimination Chamber, with Edge successfully defending his World Title in the penultimate pay-per-view match of his career against Kane, Rey Mysterio, Wade Barrett, Drew McIntyre and The Big Show, who was the surprise replacement of Dolph Ziggler since he had been “fired” a week prior by General Manager Theodore Long. Culminating in a fantastic little skirmish between the Rated R Superstar and Mysterio – the two who had also began the bout – this match-up was chaotic excellence that broke down into sheer action-packed carnage by the time the World's Largest Athlete was released from his Lexan-encased pod 15 minutes in; a theme that continued until the climax, which was quickly trumped but moments later when Christian made his valiant return from six months of sitting on the sidelines through injury by saving Edge from a post-match assault by Alberto Del Rio.

WWE Tag Team Championship: Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov (c) vs. Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel ?
While this would have been a half-decent match at a time where we hadn't seen it occur on a number of RAW episodes in the prior weeks, that just wasn't the case and at Elimination Chamber we simply saw this tag team bout rehashed for the umpteenth time, except with probably the weakest and most unemphatic finish of the series and of course the result of new champs in the form of The Corre's Slater and Gabriel.

WWE Championship: The Miz (c) vs. Jerry Lawler ???
Lawler finally had his opportunity to headline – let alone compete at – WrestleMania when he faced off against The Miz for the WWE Title. Although he was unsuccessful, his clean loss to the champion was but a sour conclusion to a solid, old school-style match. Miz was left to go it alone after the referee ejected his apprentice Alex Riley from ringside but still managed to pull out the upset. This was a contest charged through with excitement and drama, with Lawler's very personal interview with Matt Striker earlier in the evening adding a lot to the atmosphere of the eventual clash. The Miz has sure come a long way since languishing on last year's card with Montel Vontavious Porter.

WWE Championship #1 Contendership Elimination Chamber Match ???
Not quite as engaging as the first of the event, RAW's Elimination Chamber battle was still by and large a very good match if also one that was capped off with a rather anticlimactic finish as John Cena pinned CM Punk after an Attitude Adjustment from inside the ring to the steel grating, just seconds after John Morrison was defeated by the Nexus leader's GTS finisher. Once Randy Orton was unexpectedly taken out of the picture thanks to Punk, it was immediately obvious that Cena was going to end up getting the victory and head on to WrestleMania to meet The Miz for the WWE Title, but the punishment-laced road to the win was still enjoyably brutal. John Morrison pulled off arguably the spot of the night when he threw himself off the chain-link ceiling with a suicidal crossbody onto Sheamus to eliminate the Celtic Warrior and more or less himself. Overall an entertaining spectacle as the match usually is – sans R-Truth's purely filler and lame role – and a tight way to enter the final few weeks of build-up to 'Mania, with both the WWE Championship and Orton/Punk feuds leading out of the show.

EXTRAS ? Footage from The Rock's WWE return on Valentine's Day of this year when he was announced as the guest host of WrestleMania 27 and confronted John Cena. This is a fantastic, memorable segment. But still, just one feature?