WWE Elimination Chamber review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections
By Luke Norris
Tag Team Turmoil Match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship
The Ascension vs. Heath Slater & Rhyno vs. The Usos vs. Breezango vs. The Vaudevillains vs. American Alpha (c)
What we learned: I think we learned that the tag team division on Tuesday nights really isn’t going well. And that The Ascension yell a lot.
I liked the idea of Tag Team Turmoil here but I just don’t think it went well. Starting with Heath Slater and Rhyno was at least the right move because they’re one of the only teams that’s actually over with the crowd. Tyler Breeze and Fandango are there merely for the comedy aspect, and while it is funny at times (those boots), it just doesn’t bring any real drama to the match. They rarely get more than five minutes in a match, and that was the case again here. But hey, at least they lasted longer than the Vaudevillains, who just really aren’t working out.
At least the champs looked good in this match, and Jason Jordan is going to be a freaking star when he goes out on his own in a few years. The only real chemistry in this match was when American Alpha and the Usos were in there together. And yes, that does include the beatdown following the elimination. You can just see that they’re comfortable working with one another. Nothing looks forced, and I think these two teams could have put on a great match on their own — but we’ll get back to that in a moment. As for The Ascension, the momentum they had from getting that big win recently is pretty much gone after they couldn’t capitalize on the wounded champs in the final portion of this match. And seriously, they yell A LOT. In the end, American Alpha retained. Pretty average stuff here.
What’s next: The seeds were obviously planted for American Alpha and the Usos to continue their rivalry and will likely lead to a match at WrestleMania, which I think could be very good if they’re given enough time. As for the others, they weren’t given much of an opportunity in this match to shine and don’t see any of them getting a chance to do that at WrestleMania either. They’ll all likely end up in some multi-team match on the pre-show.