WWE's disappointing Elimination Chamber had only one real aim — selling WrestleMania tickets

WWE via Getty Images

We heard it from Michael Cole a couple of times Saturday night: That we're just 50 days away from this year's WrestleMania. And 2026's installment of the Elimination Chamber played out like a show written with that sole marker as a guiding principle — and not in a good way.

It's no secret that tickets for this year's WrestleMania have been moving slower than last year. If the reports are true — and we've heard no denials — then WWE even held an unscheduled meeting a few weeks ago to address the slow demand for this year's stadium show.

There are plenty of theories about why sales have slowed, but one thing that stands out is the lack of obvious marquee matches. This year's 'Mania is the first show since the pandemic where we didn't start the year either with an obvious headliner match or a veritable A-lister attached to the show.

Think about it: In both 2023 and 2024, we had the highly-anticipated clashes between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes. In the second of those years, we also had the involvement of The Rock, who ended up wrestling his first match in eight years. And 2025 was the year of John Cena, who we knew would have his last-ever WrestleMania match.

This time around, it's very different. After the Royal Rumble, the first bout we had confirmed was Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk — a match that felt slightly overshadowed by the fact that it was essentially a smaller version of last year's Night 1 main event (Reigns vs. Rollins vs. Punk). Not a terrible prospect by anyone's standards, but not exactly a stadium-filler either.

Over the past week, WWE seems to have woken up and smelled the coffee on this one. If they want fans to shell out $300 — per night — to attend WrestleMania 42, they need to offer fans some matches worth showing up for. On this week's "Raw," we finally had confirmation that Liv Morgan will indeed be challenging Stephanie Vaquer for the Women's World Championship, thus adding only the second confirmed match for Las Vegas.

That's where this weekend's Elimination Chamber comes in. From multiple masked men to a weirdly rushed finish for the main event, there was a lot of messy stuff in the show. But the consistent thread that ran through WWE's major booking decisions was the desire to flesh out that all-important WrestleMania card — and give fans a reason to attend.

Take the women's Chamber match, for example. Two days ago, I still figured they were building toward a big RhIyo tag match at WrestleMania. But when WWE creative had Ripley and Sky drop the belts Friday on "SmackDown," it seemed obvious that the plan was to jettison "The Eradicator" from that tag scene and instead use her truly massive public profile to reinvigorate the women's main event scene.

That's no bad thing. But while running Ripley vs. Cargill might give you the sort of star-studded encounter that will look like a million dollars on Vegas billboards, it's also a contest that hasn't even been so much as hinted at over the past few years. Until now, both women have trodden completely different paths — even competing on different brands. But the need to book a suitably big match put an end to that.

We saw that in the men's match too. Even after Jey Uso was shunted from the lineup, most of us figured there were only ever two plausible winners: Cody Rhodes or Randy Orton. Why? Because they were the only men loved and respected enough among casual fans to make for a proper WrestleMania match. When nosebleed seats are $200, you can't take any risks on that front.

So it prevailed on the night itself, even if Orton did emerge as the surprise victor over Rhodes. And if the idea of Drew McIntyre vs. Orton wasn't enough to end the WrestleMania malaise, WWE finally decided to have "The Viper" attack his longterm friend, thus adding some much-needed intrigue into the main-event picture.

Don't get me wrong — it was far from a satisfying ending. Even as someone who has long been begging Triple H to pull the trigger on the whole Rhodes vs. Orton tensions, I was left underwhelmed. But it was still better than nothing — and it at least showed that the creative team realize they need to start making good on all these teases.

Even then, things might not be what they seem. Just see Nick Aldis's big announcement that we're getting one final showdown between Rhodes and McIntyre for the Undisputed Championship on "SmackDown." Will the plan be to switch the belt back to Rhodes (groan), or to set up some kind of convoluted multi-man match at 'Mania with Rhodes and Fatu involved as well? Come Friday night, we'll know the answer.

Until then, it looks like WWE's creative strategy for the next few weeks is crystal clear: To fill up April's 'Mania card with as many marquee names and matches as possible, thus giving us a reason to care about this year's event. Oh, and if they can sell another 20,000 tickets across two nights, that's even better.