Ranking the 7 Best Elimination Chamber Matches in WWE History (2024)

The Elimination Chamber returns Saturday morning as WWE presents its namesake premium live event from Perth, Australia, an extravaganza that will have major WrestleMania implications.

The popular gimmick match has always carried high stakes with it, with championships and top contenders decided within its unforgiving confines dating back to the first one in November of 2002.

In celebration of the upcoming 2024 contests, which will see challengers for Seth Rollins' World Heavyweight Championship and the Women's World Championship decided, these are the seven best incarnations of the Elimination Chamber, all of which have helped forge a legacy of pain and punishment caused by miles of chain and tons of steel, ranked according to overall quality and historical significance.

The 2011 Elimination Chamber show is fondly remembered as one of the best in company history, thanks to both of the night's namesake matches delivering in spades.

Up first was the SmackDown brand's offering, which featured Superstars from all corners of the roster. There were the grizzled big men in Kane and The Big Show, promising young competitors Wade Barrett and Drew McIntyre, and respected workers Rey Mysterio and the defending World Heavyweight Champion, Edge.

The latter two started the match off and would go bell-to-bell, outlasting their opponents and setting up a show-stealing exchange that would see several reversals, counters, and near-falls leading up to The Rated R Superstar catching his former tag team partner mid-flight with a spear to secure a successful title defense.

In between those two Hall of Famers captivating the audience was a dominant performance by Kane, Big Show avenging weeks of torment at the hands of Barrett, and proof positive that McIntyre was a star of the future.

The quality of the match was ultimately determined by Edge and Mysterio's work throughout, and the exhausting exchange that put an exclamation point on it.

No championship is safe inside the chamber, something Edge learned the hard way in 2009, when he was one of the Superstars to start the match and quickly found himself cradled by Jeff Hardy for a shocking elimination.

Just minutes into the contest, fans knew there would be a new WWE champion crowned, despite the protestations of The Rated R Superstar as he made his way up the ramp in dismay.

From there, the match would unfold in stages, with Big Show and Vladimir Kozlov punishing Hardy until Triple H and The Undertaker brought star power and a red-hot crowd to their feet.

The seemingly unstoppable heels and Hardy would all be dispatched of, bringing the fight for the suddenly vacant title down to The Game and The Phenom. For several minutes, they would captivate fans, giving them a preview of the iconic bouts they would deliver years later on the WrestleMania stage.

They traded finishers, with each man narrowly staving on defeat, before Triple H executed a second Pedigree to his longtime rival and scored his 13th title reign.

It was a match that would introduce a popular formula for the bout, with intermittent storylines weaved into the action early and a final showdown between two stars vying for the ultimate prize at the end, often in an extended battle.

That that formula was introduced by two of the best to ever lace a pair of boots made it that much more effective.

Triple H gutted through a crushed trachea caused by an errant knee to the throat during a Rob Van Dam Five-Star Frog Splash in the inaugural Elimination Chamber from Survivor Series 2002, once again proving himself to be one of the gutsiest performers in WWE history.

The injury happened early in the 39-minute run time of the match and Triple H went coast-to-coast, one of the first two competitors in the bout and the last to be eliminated.

That night, The Game defended his World Heavyweight Championship against Van Dam, Kane, Chris Jericho, Booker T, and best friend-turned-hated enemy Shawn Michaels.

The match, the latest chapter in The Cerebral Assassin's rivalry with The Heartbreak Kid, featured brutal bumps as the competitors discovered just how unforgiving the grated metal flooring could be.

All competitors shined, getting their signature stuff in at different points, but it was the final exchange between Triple H and Michaels that would define the match. Their bodies battered and bloodied, they battled for several minutes before the latter uncorked Sweet Chin Music and put an end the most grueling performance of The Game's career.

The triumphant Michaels celebrating his first title victory in over four years remains an endearing visual.

Triple H entered the Elimination Chamber for the second time in his career at New Year's Revolution 2005, the first pay-per-view event broadcast from Puerto Rico. On that night, he defended against Chris Jericho, the only other man to have competed in all three chamber matches to that point, as well as Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, Edge, and Batista.

The match featured more crimson masks than its predecessors, as well as some expert grappling early from the Canadian Chrises. An errant spear from Edge to special guest referee Shawn Michaels would result in some Sweet Chin Music for The Rated R Superstar and the contest's first elimination.

From there, it was the Batista show.

The Animal exploded into the match amid mounting cheers from fans, obliterating Benoit and Jericho and sending them packing. His momentum was halted, however, when Orton delivered a low blow and RKO, and Triple H did nothing to help his Evolution teammate evade elimination.

Despite the lack of help from The Game, Batista did his duty as the enforcer of the faction, laying Orton out with a wicked clothesline, allowing a bloodied Triple H to retain his title.

A great match rife with physicality and the added bonus of the deteriorating relationship between teammates, the 2005 match was the best of the three Elimination Chamber matches to that point.

The Elimination Chamber for the WWE Championship in 2019 served as the official introduction to the KofiMania movement that would result in one of the greatest, most emotional moments in company history.

After a resilient, inspirational performance in a long gauntlet match on the SmackDown before the pay-per-view, Kingston entered the Elimination Chamber riding a wave of momentum, the elusive top prize in the company within reach.

To attain it, all he would have to do is defeat defending titleholder Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton, and AJ Styles.

With a crop of contenders such as those, one can imagine the quality of the bout was already high. It was not until Styles, Orton, Joe, and Hardy were all vanquished that the match earned its place on this list, though.

Kingston and Bryan proceeded to have a one-on-one showdown that engrossed the fans and had them hanging on every submission attempt by the champion and every dramatic near-fall by his challenger.

Late, Kingston sent Bryan off the top of one of the pods and attempted a crossbody. He crashed and the heel ended his night in disappointing fashion with the Busaiku Knee for the win.

As important to the story of the match as anything that happened between bells was the aftermath, with New Day's Big E and Xavier Woods consoling their best friend while chants of "thank you, Kofi" rained down from the stands.

It was proof of the unbreakable bond the dynamic underdog had formed with fans over the course of his career and, more importantly, evidence that there was a desire to see the career-long midcard and tag team specialist achieve the one goal he had yet to see through.

The chemistry between him and Bryan helped elevate the quality of the match exponentially. Kingston was great as the defiant babyface while the champion was in the midst of his "Planet's Champion" heel run that saw Bryan do some of the best character work of his celebrated career.

This built on the formula introduced in the 2009 chamber match by Undertaker and Triple H and reaffirmed the idea that, beyond the bells and whistles and multiple Superstars, the eventual quality can (and will) be determined by what those last two competitors deliver.

The worst kept secret entering the 2011 main event was that John Cena was headed to WrestleMania 27 to challenge The Miz for the WWE Championship. In many instances, the absence of predictability would adversely affect the quality of the match, due to the lack of fan investment.

That was not the case here.

Cena battled Randy Orton, CM Punk, King Sheamus, R-Truth and John Morrison for the right to head to the biggest show of the year and compete for the company's top prize.

Orton and Punk entered the match in the midst of a feud and it only intensified from here. Orton thought he got the last laugh on the Straight Edge Superstar when Punk became trapped between his pod door and its frame. The Viper teed off on him and when the heel staggered into the ring, dropped him with an RKO for what appeared to be an elimination.

The anonymous Raw general manager had other plans, chiming in with the ruling that Punk be reset and allowed the opportunity to re-enter the match. When he did, the then-leader of Nexus dropped Orton with Go To Sleep and put an end to The Legend Killer's night

A workhorse-like performance from Sheamus ensued as he began to show flashes of the in-ring worker he would become. From there, it was the Morrison show.

The Shaman of Sexy scaled the cage in ways that had never been seen before, his practice of parkour enhancing his creativity and ability within the steel confines. He threw himself off the top of the chamber, wiping out his opponent below, and won the crowd over in the process.

Ultimately, he would be the second to last competitor eliminated, but not before a breakout performance that really should have resulted in a main event run.

Cena would ultimately outlast Punk, the crowd would react with the typically split response, and WWE would have its best Elimination Chamber Match to that point.

The SmackDown brand in 2016-17 was a different breed, with a collection of top stars of different styles and backgrounds, resulting in some of the best in-ring action in modern WWE history.

That collection of stars entered the Elimination Chamber in February 2017 with the WWE Championship at stake.

John Cena and AJ Styles kicked things off, resuming a rivalry that included a five-star classic a month earlier at the Royal Rumble. Dean Ambrose brought his frenetic energy to the match next, followed by Bray Wyatt. Baron Corbin entered fifth and unloaded, demonstrating a dominance his main roster character would eventually lose somewhere along the line.

As he downed his other opponents and waited for a hesitant Miz to enter the match, Ambrose caught him with a rollup, making The Lone Wolf the first elimination of the bout. He returned the favor, laying Ambrose out and allowing Miz to pin him for the second.

Miz showed out, taking the fight to his opponents in an attempt to prove he belonged, only to be caught with the Attitude Adjustment by Cena and sent packing. It would be the defending champion who was shown the door next when, after another dazzling exchange with Styles, he found himself downed by Wyatt with Sister Abigail.

The Eater of Worlds would deliver another moments later, catching Styles during a Phenomenal Forearm attempt, to win his first WWE Championship.

Great action, an array of styles, some solid storytelling, and the unforgettable moment of the late Wyatt's first major triumph makes the 2017 tough to beat for fans looking for an example of a superb chamber match.