10 Things You May Not Know About The WWE Elimination Chamber

When the Elimination Chamber was introduced in late 2002 nobody - from the wrestlers in the match to WWE management to the fans - knew quite what to expect, and the gimmick's longevity wasn't guaranteed.

The Chamber has stood the test of time, however, and has certainly evolved over the course of its over twenty-year existence. It has gone from being a once-in-a-while stipulation used almost randomly, to having its own yearly namesake event, often with multiple Chamber matches on show.

The look and feel of the Chamber has changed and we've progressed from just having the men fight over a world title to having tag team and women's Chamber matches, too.

There have been close to thirty of the things now and they're usually a highlight, but just how much do you really know about The Devil's Playground?

There are some interesting backstories, titbits and shocking facts concerning the match and, as we get ready for the next instalments, why not whet the appetite with some little-known or perhaps long-forgotten Elimination Chamber anecdotes and footnotes?

10. It Was Triple H's Idea

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While on television the Elimination Chamber was touted as the brainchild of on-screen Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff, in reality the structure came from the mind of the then reigning World Heavyweight Champion Triple H.

According to The Game in this WWE.com article, he pitched the idea and drew a rough outline of what envisioned it to look like on a napkin.

What, and were the Hell in a Cell blueprints drawn in the dirt on the back of a white van?

The Cerebral Assassin was a major fan of classic NWA and had tried to convince top brass to revive the War Games gimmick in the past. When that fell on deaf ears, he dreamt up this atrocity instead.

Naturally, his basic idea was then turned into something altogether more extravagant and when he saw the finished product he wasn't asking for credit, saying:

"In typical WWE form, it was twice as big as I envisioned it and twice as elaborate. We don’t do anything small, so I should have known better. When I stood in it for the first time, I thought, ‘Jeez. Please don’t tell anybody this was my idea!'". 

It wasn't the only regret he would have after that first Chamber match was over...

9. Triple H Suffered Potentially Life-Threatening Injury In First Chamber Match

As one of the first men entered into the original Elimination Chamber match (alongside Rob Van Dam), Triple H knew he had a long night ahead of him.

Not only was he the first in, he was booked to go the distance and last until the very end, too.

His task got a lot harder when, midway through the contest, RVD nailed him with a Five-Star Frog Splash from the top of one of the holding pods.

Obviously, Van Dam had never executed the move off the pod before (and it's not like they practiced the spot earlier in the day). He couldn't even fully stand up on it without bumping his head off the roof of the Chamber, and it was clear that this was one of those ideas that was going to be better in theory than in actuality.

Regrettably, The Cerebral Assassin was positioned a little bit too close and when Mr. Monday Night dropped down he straightened his legs and caught his opponent in the throat.

The upshot was Triple H suffered a torn larynx and couldn't speak - and could barely breathe - for the rest of the match.

True to form he gutted it out and dropped the title to Shawn Michaels as planned, but he spent the next 24 hours in hospital, where doctors actually cut his throat slightly open in order to reduce the swelling.

The Game was informed by EMTs after the show that, had he fallen asleep at any point, the injury could have been fatal.

8. HBK's Wardrobe Nightmare

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Survivor Series 2002 was a big night for Shawn Michaels.

He was coming back for only his second match since his improbable return at SummerSlam a couple of months earlier, and he was booked to win the World Heavyweight Title, in Madison Square Garden, in the first-ever Elimination Chamber match.

Fairytale stuff, I'm sure you'll agree, but it wasn't exactly the best laid-out plan in the world.

In fact, HBK didn't even know he was going to be in the bout until a fairly late call from Vince McMahon informed him of the idea. The slapdash approach left Michaels with little time to prepare and that resulted in him showing up looking a lot less like his usual flamboyant self.

According to Shawn's autobiography, the born-again Christian's intent was to show up with earth-coloured tights in order to symbolise his creation by God.

Unfortunately, he put his request in to WWE's seamstress Julie Youngberg way too late and he ended up with a half-finished pair of poop-coloured pants that caused Stephanie McMahon to remark that he looked like a 'giant turd' and had Triple H laughing in his face.

Completing the cosmetic catastrophe, Michaels also sported a little Dutch boy haircut, wore black kneepads outside of his tights and was so unprepared for the occasion that he wrestled in his everyday cowboy boots, rather than actual wrestling ones.

7. The Cost

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When Triple H handed in his rudimentary napkin outline, I'm pretty sure he didn't attach a cost estimation along with it.

His idea was subsequently designed properly by WWE production designer Jason Robinson, which was then taken to a company in Colorado (Welder Express Inc.), who were tasked with making it come to life.

The original structure took between six and eight weeks to manufacture, eventually weighing in at a hefty ten tones of chain, structural-grade steel and plexiglass.

It was transported from Colorado Springs in trucks and stored in a warehouse in New Jersey ahead of the pay-per-view.

All told, WWE were given a bill of around $500,000 for the Chamber, which pretty much guaranteed it wouldn't be a simple 'one and done' gimmick.

6. The Undertaker Was Set On Fire In 2010 Accident

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One thing that those who were in the early Elimination Chamber matches agreed on was that the structure itself was unforgivable and genuinely hurt quite a lot.

The steel was solid, the chains had no give and the plexiglass, if broken, could cut you up (which happened to Chris Jericho in the first Chamber match).

While those entering the Chamber know the risks involved and expect to take a beating, they probably don't anticipate being thrown into harm's way while making their entrance before the bell rings.

But that's what happened to The Undertaker as he made his (usually slow) walk to the ring at the 2010 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

The Deadman was set to defend his World Heavyweight Title inside the Chamber and came out for his entrance last, when a fireball went awry and engulfed him.

Despite being in excruciating pain, 'Taker remained stony-faced and didn't sell the effects of the flames. Inside, however, he was livid and wanted to kill the person in charge of discharging the pyro who, incidentally, he had warned about the bursts being too close just a couple of weeks prior.

The Phenom repeatedly doused himself in water as he waited in his pod.

As revealed during an appearance on the Stone Cold Sessions, Undertaker had actually decided to enter in a long-sleeve, duster-style jacket rather than a short-sleeve one as planned, which prevented the incident from being much worse than it was.

5. Elimination Chamber MVP

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No, this isn't about the one Elimination Chamber match appearance of Montel Vontavious Porter (which was at No Way Out 2008).

Rather, this is looking at who the MVP is when considering Chamber match appearances and eliminations.

There have countless genuine legends entered into Chamber matches over its almost two-decade life, but not all of them have enjoyed great success in the Devil's Playground.

Kurt Angle, for example, entered the 2006 Chamber match at New Year's Revolution fourth, but he was eliminated first after a very brief flurry.

If we're looking at most Chamber match appearance, the record belongs to Chris Jericho. Y2J has been in a not-inconsiderable eight Elimination Chamber matches, including the very first one. His last Chamber appearance was in 2013.

Despite being in eight of the things, he's only won one - in 2010, when he beat The (extra-crispy) Undertaker to win the World Heavyweight Title.

As far as most eliminations go, that record also belongs to The Ayatollah of Rock 'N Rolla, who has notched ten.

The next closest to Jericho is match inventor Triple H, who has appeared in six and scored seven eliminations (but has also won four Chamber matches, more than anyone else).

4. Carlito & Chris Masters Didn't Know About Edge's 2006 Cash-In

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New Year's Revolution 2006's Elimination Chamber match certainly wasn't the best of its kind, but it did have a truly memorable ending.

John Cena won the match and retained his WWE Title, outlasting Kurt Angle, Kane, Shawn Michaels, Carlito and Chris Masters, but was then blindsided by Edge, who successfully cashed-in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the belt in a short, impromptu bout.

It was the first time it had ever been done and instantly overshadowed the action that had come before it.

It was also, apparently, something that was so top secret that it wasn't divulged to the other competitors in the Chamber match.

According to Masters, he and Carlito had no idea that the cash-in was going to take place and they were legitimately shocked by the scenes that unfolded.

Carlito, being a second-generation wrestler, had an idea that something was up due to the way the match was booked, but he didn't know the specifics.

As the old adage goes, if you can surprise the boys in the back...

3. Plans Change

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A few eyebrows were raised when WWE decided to resurrect the Elimination Chamber for a second time in less than a year after the original.

The Chamber was enlisted for the main event of SummerSlam 2003, which took place a mere nine months after Survivor Series 2002.

The reason was because WWE's original main event plan fell through due to an injury suffered by Triple H. The World Heavyweight Champion was going to defend (and lose) the title to Goldberg, but when The Game tore his groin weeks before the pay-per-view it forced WWE to go in a different direction.

They had wanted Goldberg's eventual title triumph to mean something and for it to be in a singles match, so in order to work around the injury, they dusted off the Chamber.

This allowed the other five competitors to do most of the heavy lifting, as Triple H himself was unable to do much physically (and was wearing those odd-looking compression shorts just to be able to walk).

The Cerebral Assassin retained his title in the match, last eliminating Goldberg with the held of his trusty sledgehammer. The planned singles match between the two took place the following month at Unforgiven, which Goldberg won.

As an aside, the SummerSlam 2003 Elimination Chamber featured the last in-ring WWE appearance of Kevin Nash for almost eight years.

2. The Wrong Pod

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As we've already seen, the original Elimination Chamber was wrought with issues, from HHH's freak injury to HBK's turdtacular threads.

But wait, there's more!

After carefully planning out who was going to do what where, whoever was in charge of opening the pods either didn't get the memo or something went wrong, because Shawn Michaels was supposed to enter the match fifth, only for Kane to be discharged instead.

The mistake caused those in the match to panic a little bit, but it turned out alright in the end, as the Big Red Machine came in and cleaned house and they managed to change things up on the fly.

Though everything ran as smooth as possible and only those in the ring knew about the mistake, it must have been a stressful situation.

1. Plans Change (Again)

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Possibly the least-loved Chamber match ever took place at the disastrous December to Dismember pay-per-view in 2006.

The first (and only) ECW-only pay-per-view after the relaunch was a mess, with only two matches announced ahead of time, one of which was the Extreme Elimination Chamber (a Chamber match with weapons inside).

And even that didn't go down as advertised, since Sabu was taken out of the bout during the broadcast and replaced with Hardcore Holly, supposedly due to the daredevil's poor backstage attitude and behaviour.

The Alabama Slammer didn't have a hope of winning the ECW Title, but there was some genuine intrigue when it came to who would leave with the gold.

Former champ Rob Van Dam, red-hot up-and-comer CM Punk and Vince McMahon pet project Bobby Lashley were all strong possibilities, as was Big Show simply retaining.

The decision about who was going to go over and the manner in which they were going to do it changed several times and eventually led to Paul Heyman leaving the promotion.

Heyman had wanted Punk to eliminate Big Show early and go on to win the whole thing (an idea endorsed by the World's Largest Athlete), whereas Vince and others wanted Lashley to get a dominating victory, as they envisioned him being the face of the brand moving forward.

In the end, Vince's word was final. Bobby won, while the Straight-Edge Superstar was eliminated first to a chorus of boos.

The resulting blowup between Heyman and McMahon, with the Chamber outcome a central issue, resulted in Heyman being sent home. It would be six whole years before we saw him again.