WWE Elimination Chamber 2020 Predictions

So coming off a very bad pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia with the same name, same theme song and same "why should I care" attitude of the booking, this week is Elimination Chamber, the last stop on the road to WrestleMania.  WWE continues to bunch pay-per-views together, almost not focusing at all on storytelling, which continues to be the biggest problem in WWE, continuing to pose the question, "What is there to be excited about?", well there's very little to be excited for on this show but usually when that happens we get very surprised, so let's talk about the card and see if we can find a silver lining in the booking to get us here as we prepare for WrestleMania and have Part Time World Champions on both brands wasting spots on the show of shows.

Singles Match

United States Championship

(C) Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo

So usually when I put these prediction pieces together, I try to put the matches in order of importance, or in order of the quality of the story.  That should tell you exactly what I think about this match.  Another match between these two is ridiculous, I'm still not sold on Carrillo at all, and that shouldn't be surprising the way he's been booked before he "took out" Andrade a month ago (because Andrade failed a wellness policy test), my biggest problem with Carrillo is there's really no substance to him, he's a high flyer for the sake of being a high flyer.  He needs something more.  In the time Andrade was gone he partially feuded with his cousin Angel Garza, who I've said in the past has all the tools you look for in a star, all the tools Humberto doesn't have.  For me Andrade must win this and Carrillo should see that what he's doing isn't working, he should start questioning himself and in turn for a faction with Andrade and Garza, to not only put those three in a prominent group but to give Carrillo a reason for me to care about him and actually make him interesting, so for that reason I'm picking Andrade.

3-on-1 Handicap Match

Intercontinental Championship

(C) Braun Strowman vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro, and Sami Zayn

All of these men are better then this feud, Braun hasn't been interesting in quite a while, every match you get is what you expect, the usual, destroy everyone mow them down offense with no substance at all.  Shinsuke hould be an unstoppable cocky heel instead he is a cowardly heel who does everything Sami Zayn does without the talking.  Cesaro is way better then anything he's done in years, and the only reason he hasn't gotten that opportunity he deserves is because of Vince McMahon.  As for Sami Zayn, this role hasn't been working anymore, at first it was great because his mic work was off the charts, but he wasn't wrestling at all, and that made it less interesting, because Sami Zayn is that good that he can't not wrestle.  So for this match, I expect that something shady is going to happen like Nakamura and Cesaro doing all the work only for Zayn to get the pin, and some dissension to start building between Zayn and Nakamura, hopefully leading to a singles match between them or even a fatal four way between all four of these guys.

Singles Match

Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak

When WWE started teasing this match, I got excited because it's bound to be a technical master class of a match.  There isn't a lot going into it, Daniel Bryan has been having matches here and there, and Drew has been watching, almost like he was scouting Bryan for an impending match up.  As far as story goes like I said there's nothing there, but either way the match should be a great one that Bryan will probably win.  Gulak has always been underutilized and it's time for him to finally get something out of this, hopefully after a good showing in this match.  There's still no clear direction as to what these two will be doing going into WrestleMania, but I really, really, really hope Bryan isn't facing Sheamus.

No Disqualification Match

Aleister Black vs. AJ Styles

The way this feud started was kind of out of nowhere, but I'm happy that Aleister is finally getting a prominent role on RAW, he is very good and it's time that he show it instead of continuing to squash jobbers.  AJ started a feud with Undertaker in Saudi Arabia and he capitalized on that by having Aleister go through the gauntlet of all three members of The OC, and giving Aleister his first singles loss in almost two years.  Now where this goes I'm very unsure, I think it would make perfect sense for Undertaker to get involved in this match causing AJ to lose, that resulting in a WrestleMania match, where Undertaker teams with Aleister to face all three OC members.  That seems like the best situation because, you can't just push Aleister aside after this, and I don't if it's the best idea for Undertaker to have a singles match at WrestleMania anymore, considering his last few big singles matches haven't gone great.

Tag Team Match

RAW Tag Team Championship

(C) Street Profits vs. Seth Rollins & Buddy Murphy

I don't understand why the Street Profits are the champions, I don't understand why they even got another shot.  What did they do to earn opportunities at the titles.  They lost three tag title matches in a span of three months, then decided one day to help the crusade against Seth and his group, so for that reason they got a tag title shot?  I don't dislike them by any means they are good, but this doesn't make any sense.  What Seth is doing is my favorite thing he's done in a while, this character is fresh, he's a stellar heel, and it kind of bothered me him and Murphy won the tag titles in the first place while they also have AOP in their group, and thought this should have been Viking Raiders versus AOP for the titles at some point, but how can you not put a title on Seth when your world champion is never here, and the US title is being treated like a nothing title, right?  Street Profits need to win and move onto an actual feud with AOP, cause that's the tag team of this group.  Despite me hating the fact they are champions at all after they did nothing to earn it.  I expect Seth to finish this feud with Kevin Owens at WrestleMania, hopefully in a match with some kind of stipulation.

Elimination Chamber Match

Smackdown Tag Team Championship

(C) Miz & Morrison vs. New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) vs. The Usos vs. Heavy Machinery vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs. Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik)

First things first, it's a crime that the Revival are not in this match, but I guess when they are close to leaving, and WWE (Vince) is bitter, why would they be included right?  Regardless of that,  I really think they should have saved a multi-team match for WrestleMania, preferably a ladder match, but this should be an interesting match.  The only interesting thing going into this match is the Otis/Ziggler/Mandy storyline, other then that it just seems like put together because they weren't having a chamber match for the Universal title shot (which is what this should have been).  I really don't know where this is going but, it should be a good match.  I expect Miz & Morrison to retain, maybe leading to a triple threat between, them the Usos and The New Day at WrestleMania.  Also I think something between Otis and Ziggler will be put in place here, what that is I don't know but I don't know if a singles match is it.

Elimination Chamber Match

No. 1 Contender for RAW Women's Championship at WrestleMania

Natalya vs. Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka vs. Ruby Riott vs. Sarah Logan

From day one when this match was announced, it made me think, "What did anyone in this match do to get here?", the answer, nothing.  None of these people did anything to get here, and that's the problem.  Instead of holding qualifier matches, WWE decided this was the match, and that's annoying to me because, out of everyone in it, there's only one person who has the star power to win and face Becky Lynch one on one at WrestleMania, and that's Shayna Baszler (unless you believe reports that Vince has soured on her).  Everyone else, has literally done nothing.  Natalaya has been off TV and not in a feud, Asuka lost to Becky, twice in the last month which means she shouldn't even be in this match, Ruby just came back and has had one match since which is a result of her feud with Liv which she lost thanks to Sarah Logan who was the referee.  Liv has done nothing warrant a title shot, and Sarah Logan hasn't even been on RAW in months, so how does that warrant a title shot?  If there was qualifying matches that they all won at least that would explain it, but nothing.  Now if Vince is really souring on Shayna, that would mean that someone else would have to be in the match that deserves a feud with Becky.  There's only two names that could be, Nia Jax or Ronda Rousey.  My thoughts on this is, if Shayna isn't the one to win here, it just can't be any of the others.  Nia Jax is cleared apparently and has a legitimate gripe with Becky from a year back, and despite the fact I don't like her in ring work entirely at least it would be a good story.  Ronda lost her first match ever in WWE last year at WrestleMania last year and it would be the perfect chance for her to come out of nowhere and finally get her hands on Becky again by taking Sarah Logan's spot and winning here.  So that's what I'm going with, if neither of those two come back and take a spot, then it will be Shayna, because who else could have a WrestleMania caliber feud with Becky? 

So, that's gonna do it for me, hopefully this show goes well, despite the lack of real story going in.  A lot of times when we go into a pay-per-view expecting to be disappointed we get pleasantly surprised so I'm hoping that's the case here again.  We'll have to see tomorrow night, and hopefully we get some good wrestling, and we can enjoy it.  Like we should as wrestling fans, who just want to enjoy wrestling.