WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will defend his title at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view but will not be in the match itself.
Instead, Reigns will defend against the SmackDown Chamber winner on Sunday, February 21st, following the events of Friday’s SmackDown which saw Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, King Corbin, Cesaro and Daniel Bryan added to the match in various ways.
This is one of two Chamber matches that night as the WWE Championship will be on the line in the other.
Early on, Adam Pearce and Paul Heyman were having a disagreement about whether Reigns had to be in the Chamber match with Heyman claiming he had to defend the title on the show, but not in the match itself. Pearce then said there would be qualifying matches, but the first two entrants (Uso and Owens) didn’t have to qualify. He later added that two tag team matches would determine the final four entrants with the winning teams qualifying.
In the first match, Zayn & Corbin defeated Rey & Dominik Mysterio to earn their spots while in the show’s main event, Bryan and Cesaro defeated Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler to qualify, overcoming a Cesaro knee injury at the hands of Seth Rollins earlier in the show. The participants closed the show with a brawl that saw Owens standing tall after delivering stunners to everyone.