With WrestleMania around the corner, it’s time for the other wintertime PLE to determine who gets the other world title matches for their respective brands.
Although Elimination Chamber still doesn’t have the history the Rumble does, it still serves the same function to facilitate the course of the world title picture in the men’s and women’s divisions. With Roman Reigns and Liv Morgan having set their sights on the world championships of Raw, that leaves Drew McIntyre and Jade Cargill without challengers for the time being.
But before we dive into the 2026 Chamber’s four matches, let’s recap my utter predicting failure from the Rumble.
- Drew won.
- AJ Styles lost
- Roman won the Rumble (I should get partial kudos for Bron being reportedly the original choice. That was nice though, what with my pick being annihilated before the match even started. Good stuff.)
- …and I kind of cheated on the women’s Rumble with two picks
So if we’re being generous, that’s at best 1.5/4. For fun I’m going to track this throughout the year and we’ll see if by the end of the year I’m a savant-adjacent genius, or the far more likely blistering dunce cap.
Onto the show!
Elimination Chamber 2026
Men’s Elimination Chamber Match – Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Trick Williams vs. LA Knight vs. Logan Paul
The safe pick here is Cody, so in the interest of ego due to past imbecility, we’re going with him officially. I think there’s a lot more that can be done here though. Originally I got it into my head that Jacob Fatu would also be in this match and that we would somehow end up with controversy that leaves it unclear between who wins between them. That feels less the case now, but I suppose you can still have Fatu interfere during or after the match to either rope himself into a potential triple threat between Rhodes and McIntyre. It could be something as simple as a post-match beatdown to goad Rhodes into agreeing to lessen his chances of regaining the WWE championship, or more likely now it’ll come out that it was McIntyre who attacked Jey Uso. So the impetus would be Rhodes earned it, Fatu demands it, and they both get it.
Conversely, I think they could go with Orton, and just straight up have Fatu cost Rhodes to remove him completely and they match up at WrestleMania. I think those are all valid possibilities. I don’t think they will over complicate the result here, but Uso being down muddies the waters a bit coupled with Logan Paul being added. Overall there’s not a lot here that’s captivating. There are two legit options for the winner between Rhodes and Orton. I just worry anything involving Rhodes with Fatu in the mix is going to get convoluted. Given the end of Smackdown, it could frankly be as simple as Rhodes wins in combination with Fatu interfering in some capacity to help him directly or even indirectly. There are some WrestleMania options that can come out of this whether it is actually Fatu joining the WWE title match or not. I’m also down for Fatu equalizing Paul if it was actually the Vision who attacked Uso. Prediction: Cody Rhodes
Women’s Chamber Match – Tiffany Stratton vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Asuka vs. Kiana James vs. Raquel Rodriguez
I think the winner here characterizes how WWE views Jade Cargill at this point, and it should also be pointed out that only two members of the field appear on Smackdown weekly. Let’s process and eliminate these up front. I think we can remove Bliss, James and Rodriguez, and I think Asuka has a lower chance than Ripley and Stratton. In my opinion Bliss and James are here to fill out the field without question. And if either were to somehow win this and challenge Cargill, then it’s because WWE wants to feed the champion someone who is frankly expendable for one the next title defenses of her 120+ day reign. The selection means they frankly want a squash for her, and I think that’s a) a bad decision, and b) ultimately serves no one. It’s WWE and Cargill just leaning into her presentation of the last several years across her combined AEW and WWE run.
Rodriguez feels somewhat the same, but I think with Liv Morgan vying for the world title on Raw, Rodriguez winning is a longshot. In terms of optics, she starts to veer into the realm of credible physical threat that Cargill wouldn’t just outright squash, but likely should still lose. However anytime we run these matches there are always people who are included, but you know likely aren’t winning. Rodriguez is the same, but I can see value in her winning because the outcome would be a good physical match with a former champion that would give Cargill some credibility to complement her win over Jordynne Grace. That’s something Cargill needs for her lackluster reign. The question is: would she be a better choice over Ripley? No. I somewhat feel the same about Asuka in that with her we start to veer back into threats to Cargill. Asuka would give her a good showcase match, and carries value as a 4-time world champion, but I don’t think the heel vs. heel dynamic works here. It’s a match worth the effort, but I don’t think there’s “WrestleMania value” with it since they don’t have history.
That leaves us with Ripley and Stratton. I feel like they are the top two picks to win the match. Ripley is the biggest name for WWE audiences in this Chamber, who was recently co-tag team champion and a former three time world champion. Ripley vs. Cargill also feels like a WrestleMania marquee match. I think if you want to aura farm for the match, that’s your pick. The caveat though is that there’s a built-in story with Stratton as the person who Cargill took the championship from. Less aura, but there’s the element of unfinished story whether or not Cargill ultimately wins. Much like Ripley, Stratton is a marquee choice that might be less heralded despite her recent 302 day reign that Cargill ended in 5:33. With that said, I think Ripley vs. Cargill is an eventuality, but for the moment, Stratton and Cargill is the match to make. It’s a credible opponent with recent accolades who has history with Cargill, and importantly they can build on their history with a match that exceeds the initial blowout and makes them both look better even if the expected happens and Stratton loses. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but that’s simply the situation WWE has painted Cargill into. Ripley should still be considered a viable choice, but I think she and Iyo Sky losing the tag titles on Smackdown is just a red herring. Prediction: Tiffany Stratton (for the WrestleMania rematch).
WWE Women’s IC Championship – Becky Lynch vs. AJ Lee
It’s hard to place this one since I think they’re going to be matching up again in April. This is the latest phase of their story that launched off the CM Punk and Seth Rollins feud from late last year. I frankly think Lee is taking this one clean in Chicago for the hometown win. This is an easy layup for a WrestleMania rematch that I otherwise don’t see where they’d continue to go if Lynch wins. The feud would probably end unless Lynch cheats to launch off into a stipulation match in April. But I think this one ends clean, because SPOILER, I don’t think Balor vs. Punk is ending cleanly. Punk is even more so the hometown hero, but Lee is beloved in her own right and the pop she would receive would be quite loud. I think Lynch takes it back in a month and a half, but for now, I think Lee wins the IC title to prolong their feud with a win in Chicago. Prediction: AJ Lee
World Championship – CM Punk vs. Finn Balor
We’ll do this backwards. Balor could very well win this because there’s still an avenue to turn WrestleMania into a Punk vs. Reigns vs. Balor showcase. However, I think there’s a high probability Rhodes vs. McIntyre vs. Fatu becomes a reality, and it seems unlikely WWE would run two triple threats for the men’s world championships. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it seems unlikely and unnecessary to run two triple threats. Balor may very well end the year as a world champion, but as much as I think he deserves the chance to run with it, I don’t think it happens right now. I think the Judgment Day schism is real, and I think that’s backed up on the recent episodes and interactions between the team members on Raw. The hook for me was Balor’s comment to Mysterio about needing to grow up some time, and I think at a minimum that leads to Mysterio costing Balor the match. I think this match has a lot more to do with Judgment Day reshuffling than it does Punk and the title on its own. Normally I wouldn’t like that, but I think Reigns and Punk needs to be the marquee match one on one, built off their own story for six weeks, without Balor. The WWE title scene is already muddied and this would compound it. I’d expect a similar template to the one Punk and Styles followed where by the end of a competitive match Mysterio (at a minimum) appears and costs Balor the championship to both setup Balor and Mysterio, and Reigns and Punk for WrestleMania. It seems like the smart play, and I think the writing is on the wall for Balor’s face turn and probable removal from the stable.
What are your thoughts? Regardless, I think we need to start discussing the value of Elimination Chamber for setting up Mania matches. It does have some worth in my view if the stories around it are built well and serve the concept, but the Chamber dynamic just for the sake of it feels redundant and forced being so close to the Rumble. In some ways it almost undercuts the Rumble’s prestige. As last year showed as well, they felt the need to play the John Cena heel turn ace card to give the show virality. That doesn’t exactly demonstrate confidence. We’ll still be about six weeks out from Mania after this, so there’s still plenty of building to do one way or the other on the Road to WrestleMania.