WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 Results And Biggest Takeaways

WWE Elimination Chamber emanated from Chicago on Saturday night, serving as the final Premium Live Event before WrestleMania. It’s a show that typically finalizes multiple matches for WrestleMania, as the men’s and women’s Elimination Chamber winners more often than not earn world title shots.

That was the case at the United Center, with the winner of the men’s match set to face Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship and the winner of the women’s match earning a shot at Jade Cargill for the WWE Women’s Championship.

Beyond that, two more title matches took place, as CM Punk and Finn Bálor battled for the World Heavyweight Championship, while Becky Lynch faced AJ Lee for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship.

So what stood out from these matches? Let’s take a look.

It’s Rhea Ripley’s World

Bianca Belair facing Jade Cargill for the Women’s Championship at WrestleMania would’ve been the tailor-made feud years in the making, but without the EST of WWE for the past year due to a slow-healing finger injury, that obviously couldn’t happen.

So that brought us to Elimination Chamber. There was a case for almost anyone in this match to win it. Alexa Bliss had momentum alongside Charlotte Flair. Asuka was in the middle of a charged-up heel run. Tiffany Stratton has become one of SmackDown’s top babyfaces. Rhea Ripley remains one of WWE’s biggest stars. And Raquel Rodriguez has come into her own over the last year and feels deserving of something bigger.

But at the same time, with WrestleMania ticket sales reportedly moving slower than expected, who would subjectively move the needle the most right now? Probably Ripley.

That’s the direction WWE went.

It’s hard to blame them. Maybe Ripley and Iyo Sky could’ve delivered an epic sequel to their WrestleMania 41 triple threat, but WWE simply hasn’t told enough strong stories in the women’s division to have multiple ready-made challengers for Cargill on the biggest stage. So it comes down to star power, and once again, that’s the Eradicator.

There was a case for Rodriguez to win after her stellar 2025. She had some of the best moments in the match, including the Tejana Bomb onto Asuka to pin both her and Kiana James, plus the running powerslam through the pod. Her time should come eventually.

The match really picked up once she and Ripley were in the ring. Something felt lacking beforehand in pace and urgency, and the crowd was relatively mild outside of a few “Asuka” chants. It was also a little confounding not to see Rodriguez and Ripley as the final two, especially with the crowd booing Rodriguez’s elimination to set up Ripley and Stratton as the closing stretch.

Overall, the match was solid. The Rodriguez and Ripley spots stood out, including Ripley’s cannonball off the pod. It worked as an opener, and now another WrestleMania title match is officially set.

AJ Lee’s Crowning Moment

Five months ago, Becky Lynch and AJ Lee had real steam for a singles match following their tag bout with their respective partners at Wrestlepalooza. WWE fans were hyped, and something many thought we would never see again, Lee in a wrestling ring, actually happened.

But then the appearances became sporadic. If that is the deal she worked out with WWE, fine. Still, it has been a long, stop-start road to get to this singles match with Lynch. The build over the last three weeks has been spotty too and never felt as connected as the mixed tag program did last fall.

At the same time, it is still a wild and welcome sight to see Lee in a singles match after all these years. She is one of the best of her generation, and now she gets to shine in an era where women are treated far more seriously than they were during her first run.

There was not much to write home about in the match until referee Jessika Carr got knocked down from a kick. The former WWE Divas Champion forced the Irishwoman to tap, but with Carr down, it went unseen.

Normally in WWE, that is the cue for the heel to steal momentum once the referee recovers and eventually win. Instead, Lee capitalized after Lynch was sent into the exposed turnbuckle and forced her to tap out to capture her first singles title, the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship, in over a decade.

It was a nice crowning moment for Lee in Chicago, a chance to celebrate someone who gave a lot during a bygone era of women’s wrestling. The fact she did this without wrestling a singles match in front of a massive crowd in more than a decade makes it even more remarkable.

With WrestleMania around the corner and neither woman having a ready-made opponent, it would not be surprising to see them run this back one more time at Allegiant Stadium. Maybe add a stipulation to give it another wrinkle, since they have now done both a mixed tag and a singles bout.

This WrestleMania card could use more intrigue and star power. A properly built rematch between these two would check both boxes.

CM Punk Crosses Hurdle To WrestleMania

FFirst, how about that epic CM Punk intro? For the uninitiated, the song he walked down the halls to was “Sirius” by The Alan Parsons Project, with former Chicago Bulls public address announcer Ray Clay doing the honors. Such a cool touch and a genuinely special moment.

This never really felt in doubt. WWE was not going to pass on CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns in the WrestleMania main event, especially with a title on the line. They tried to frame it in recent weeks as Punk risking his spot at the Grandest Stage of Them All, presumably on Night 2, which he has never headlined before. It was a nice layer to the story, but it did not fully land.

So yes, Punk won. He is headed to Allegiant Stadium in about seven weeks.

That does not mean this was a throwaway match. It was a strong, fundamentally sound bout with a big fight feel. It is hard to say Finn Balor has anything left to prove at this stage of his career, but matches like this reinforce that he still belongs in the title picture and can operate as an upper-card player.

After the post-match handshake with Punk, the next logical step feels like separating Balor from Judgment Day. Dominik Mysterio does not have a clear opponent for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania. The story writes itself, and there is enough runway to execute the turn and build to that match properly.

There Was A Better Way To Debut Danhausen, Right?

Everyone had their best guess about what was inside the crate dated “2.28.26” over the last three weeks, but Danhausen was long the leading speculation. Elimination Chamber was in Chicago, a city deeply ingrained in independent wrestling, so he figured to be known there. The enigmatic wrestler was also conveniently removed from AEW’s roster page earlier Saturday, which has historically been kept up to date.

Danhausen was indeed revealed as the man inside the mystery crate, walking to the ring with several women in similar face paint dancing alongside him. The reaction was minimal.

He handed Michael Cole a set of teeth at the commentary desk, and the announce team did little to amplify the moment. Then the lights went out, and Danhausen and the women disappeared to boos. It was not exactly the debut anyone would have envisioned.

For as popular as he is within a certain segment of the wrestling audience, this felt like a misfire. There was no vignette or proper tease to introduce him to fans who are unfamiliar with his character. Even in a wrestling hotbed like Chicago, odds are a sizable portion of the crowd did not know who he was. He also has not been featured prominently on television over the last five years, given how sparingly he was used in AEW, so there have been fewer chances for his personality to break through to a broader audience.

Add it all together and WWE debuted Danhausen to a relatively small corner of the fanbase that already understood him. Maybe that was intentional, but when you are catering to millions worldwide and placing him directly on the main roster rather than NXT, the introduction needed more care.

Even if Danhausen is not going to wrestle frequently, there is still work to be done to familiarize him with a broader audience. That is not on him. It is on the presentation. A backstage segment might have served this far better.

Overbooked With A Twist (Or Two)

There’s a lot to unpack from this match.

Start with Cody Rhodes, who long felt like the chalk pick to win the men’s Elimination Chamber. He and Drew McIntyre have been intertwined around the WWE Championship for months, and it was hard to imagine The American Nightmare not being part of the title picture at WrestleMania.

Rhodes entered first against Je’Von Evans and lasted until the end, when it came down to him and Randy Orton. It again felt obvious where this was headed.

Then McIntyre ran in with the WWE Championship and blasted Rhodes with it, sparking a brawl. Orton capitalized with an RKO and scored the three-count in a genuinely shocking finish. He is now headed to the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania, one year after losing his opportunity at the Show of Shows when Kevin Owens went down with a neck injury. It is a nice, unexpected wrinkle, even if the next step feels more predictable.

It is still difficult to believe Rhodes will be left out of the title match in Las Vegas. He is already scheduled to face McIntyre for the championship on Friday’s SmackDown, and with Jacob Fatu also having been cost his qualifying match for Elimination Chamber, there is room to reinsert him and potentially turn this into a Fatal Four-Way at WrestleMania.

That brings this to Logan Paul, who was the unexpected standout of the match. He pinned Evans, LA Knight and Trick Williams, which was mildly surprising considering he was not originally slated to be in the bout. Perhaps those eliminations were meant for Bronson Reed before his injury. It felt like a missed opportunity to give Evans and Williams a bigger spotlight, but there is still value in placing them in a main event setting. The main roster has needed fresh blood for months, and this experience should benefit both in the long run.

Then came the second mystery man of the night. He tried to enter the ring but was revealed to be a nobody.

A third masked figure made it into the chamber, hit Paul with a kick and a curb stomp, then unmasked to a thunderous reaction. Seth Rollins is back.

That raises several questions heading into WrestleMania. Does WWE pivot to Rollins vs. Paul, especially with Bron Breakker and Reed sidelined? What if Breakker’s return is closer than expected? And is Rollins truly cleared just four and a half months removed from shoulder surgery?

Answers should begin to surface Monday on Raw.

Overall, the match meandered early but landed in a compelling place. WrestleMania needed a jolt of energy, and the closing stretch delivered some of it.