A Chamber that Eliminates people.

We have just had the Royal Rumble and we are months away from Wrestlemania but the often overlooked Elimination Chamber takes place inbetween these 2 shows. I say overlooked because it becomes just another show you have to do and often very little will change on this show. I thought that I would have a look at the Elimination Chamber match and give a little history of it as well as some interesting facts. So before the history here are some facts on the Chamber. The chamber was made in 2002 at the cost of $500,00 and the story is that the developmental territory HWA was closed down that same year, WWE would pay that company $500,000 a year because of the relationship so in theory they destroyed a developmental company to get the chamber. The match starts with 2 men in the ring and the other 4 locked in pods with them being added to the match randomly every 5 minutes, this has changed from year to year.
A total of 44 wrestlers have competed in the chamber over 15 matches with 9 men winning. Triple H has the most wins with 4, John Cena has 3 and Edge has 2 besides that no one has won the chamber more than once. Chris Jericho has both the most appearences (with 7) and the most eliminations (with 10), Triple H & CM Punk both have 7 eliminations and Taker has 6. Big Show, Kane and Randy Orton all have 4 appearences and no wins, they also have very few eliminations between them. R-Truth probably has the worst luck when it comes to the chamber having appeared 3 times and having a total time of 4:45. Kevin Nash has the shortest time of 2:05 for one match while Jericho has the longest total time of 138:04. Triple H has the longest time in one match with 39:20 while Edge, Rey Mysterio & John Morrison all lasted over 30 minutes in one match. Goldberg, Carlito and Undertaker all have the most eliminations in one match with 3. The longest chamber match lasted 39:20 and the shortest match lasted 19:12. There is currently 2 undefeated men when it comes to the match, Bobby Lashley who won his one off appearence in 2006 and Daniel Bryan who won one of the chambers last year.
The chamber was introduced at Survivor Series 2002 as a Raw exclusive match, less than a year later the 2nd match would take place at Summerslam 2003. The match would then be "assigned" to New Year's Revolution for 2 years, the first year would be crown a new World champion after the title was vacated and it saw Triple H win 2 chambers in a row something that would only happen three times, two of those times by Triple H. The second chamber at New Year's Revolution was the first to see the WWE title be defended in the chamber and also had the first cash in moment prior when Edge won the title from John Cena.
The first non-Raw chamber would take place at December to Dismember 2006 which saw Bobby Lashley win the title in probably the worst chamber in history. Interesting note what was originally planned and what happened were 2 very different things, orginally CM Punk was meant to start the match with Big Show (then ECW champ) and Punk would make him tap out before anyone else would enter, Punk would go on and win the match. WWE wanted Lashley as the guy so he won, the fans disagreed and literally turned their backs on the show. This was also the only time that the chamber would have a twist as this was an "Extreme Chamber" with the 4 men in the pods having weapons they could use.

The chamber wouldn't return until No Way Out 2008 and would begin the 2 chambers in one night which the company would do from then. The 2008 show would decide who would challenge for the World titles at Wrestlemania, with Undertaker and Triple H winning. At No Way Out 2009 aka the night of Edge, both chambers would be for the titles. The show started with Edge defending the WWE title and losing it to Triple H, when the main event came about Edge would attack Kofi Kingston who was meant to be in the match and took his spot, Edge would end up winning the match and the title. Edge is the only one who has wrestled in both chambers in one night.

In 2010 the PPV was offically renamed Elimination Chamber and again saw both titles defended in the chamber. John Cena and Chris Jericho would win the matches that night. But John Cena would be the victim of another "cash in" moment when Batista was given a title match by Vince McMahon out of no where. In 2011 one match would decide the World title while the second would name the number 1 contender for the WWE title. Edge and Rey Mysterio would put on a match with 4 guys interfering with Edge retaining the World title in one of his last matches before retiring, while John Cena won the Raw chamber and it would be the third time someone would win back to back chambers. Last year saw both titles being defended in the chamber and both champions retaining with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan winning.
That's a brief history of the chamber. Looking forward to the upcoming show it seems that we will only be getting one chamber this year which will be to crown the number 1 contender to the World heavyweight title. Personally I'm very happy they've gone back to one chamber as having 2 in one night is a bit overkill and I've never been a fan of putting the titles in the chamber so close to Mania and I prefer that the chamber be used to name the contender for the title that the Rumble winner isn't going for. Also looking at the PPV the Rock/Punk rematch and the likely Show/Del Rio match have more importance & story behind them. We'll also likely get the Shield vs. Cena/Ryback/Sheamus in a 6 man tag.
The chamber much like the Hell in a Cell has become a trival note in WWE, it's a match that takes place in February and that's about it. Like the Cell they have a Chamber for a match instead of a match for the chamber. If you're interested in seeing the history of the chamber you can get Iron Will which has all the matches from 2002 to 2010.