Why SmackDown Elimination Chamber Match Was Changed

What could have been. We are just over a week away from Elimination Chamber and the card is mostly set. A lot of the building was done this week with the announcement of both Elimination Chamber matches. The two matches are both stacked, but they are both being put together a little bit differently. Now we know what is different about the match and it is because of one person.

This week’s SmackDown saw Roman Reigns being told that he was to be in the Elimination Chamber, but Reigns’ advocate Paul Heyman disagreed. Instead, the match was changed to a #1 contenders match with the six wrestlers vying to face off with each other for the right to challenge Reigns for the Universal Title later that night. Now we know why the change was made.

According to Wrestling Observer Radio, the change was made to get additional heat on Reigns for not wanting to defend his title inside the Elimination Chamber. The original plan was to have Reigns as a participant but WWE may not have wanted to run the same story for both the Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Elimination Chamber matches. WWE changed to the new story to build Reigns up instead.

Opinion: This makes a good deal of sense as Drew McIntyre and Reigns are different kinds of World Champions. McIntyre is the kind who would gladly defend his championship in such a match while Reigns using Heyman to get out of the match makes all the sense in the world. This worked out well and if Reigns spears someone down and retains the title in fifteen seconds after the Elimination Chamber, it will be even better.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books.

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