WWE
Quicken Loans Arena (Cleveland, Ohio)
Winning Team Qualifies for Elimination Chamber Match
WWE is slow-burning the Shield breakup angle, which is nice because we get a pseudo “Shield Break Up” tour as they put on a last run of quality trios matches before their inevitable demise. Everything about this match felt like – including the buildup – felt like something right off of a The Shield’s Greatest Hits collection. The group interrupted Daniel Bryan and Triple H randomly during the opening segment. Of course that was something that they did all the time upon entering the WWE, but have done with far less frequency lately. Then you had Sheamus and John Cena run out for the save and it really felt like March 2013 again. Only thing missing was Kane and Dr. Shelby.
This match is also your class Shield six-man RAW main event. The faces start off strong before the body of the match shifted to an extended segment with Cena being worked over. The crowd was pretty quiet during the heat segment prompting Bryan to play cheerleader on the apron by leading claps and chants. I remember seeing in the WON that Vince hates those spots (thinks the baby face looks lame leading cheers) so Bryan is probably not doing himself any favors, but it did get the crowd into the match at least a bit.
As with any Shield/Bryan six-man, the highlight was the hot tag to Bryan who ran through his usual hot tag sequence with great fire and completely woke up the crowd. We then got a cool, extended near falls segment with Bryan and Rollins. The entire finishing stretch – everything after the hot tag – was longer than usual and really good.
The ending came off oddly. The Wyatt Family ran in as everyone no doubt expected them to, but the match was simply thrown out right away and the Chamber spots were awarded to the babyfaces via disqualification. If this doesn’t lead to Cena, Bryan & Sheamus needing to jump through additional hoops to enter the match and/or a Shield versus Wyatts mini-feud, then I don’t quite see the point in the non-conclusive finish.
Match was great, though, and up there with the best RAW main events the Shield has put out their during their stacked one year+ run. Hopefully we get a few more of these before all is said and done.
Trios | Watch It | Quality
