Roman Reigns Dominating Goldberg And 5 Smart Booking Moves

WWE is hosting Elimination Chamber in Saudi Arabia as the final stop on the road to WrestleMania 38, and the pay-per-view will be an important one for stars like Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch.

The event has a loaded card, featuring a star-studded Elimination Chamber match for the WWE title and Reigns defending his Universal Championship against the legendary Goldberg. Elimination Chamber is shaping up to be exactly what wrestling fans have come to expect out of WWE’s Saudi Arabia shows: One that relies heavily on nostalgia and stars from the past.

Still, the possible WrestleMania ramifications for this one are quite clear, and with this PPV likely serving as the platform for several final pre-WrestleMania title defenses, the booking decisions made here are going to have long-term effects on WWE programming.

So, let’s hope WWE makes the right chess moves at Elimination Chamber with these wise creative calls.

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Seth Rollins Cements His Babyface Turn

Is Seth Rollins a heel or a babyface? That seems to flip flop every week, but the Elimination Chamber match is tailor made to transform him into the latter.

Rollins has been arguably WWE’s best overall performer in recent months, and despite his heel tendencies as an on-screen character, he’s gotten mega over as a fan favorite following his spectacular performance against Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble. Now, WWE must go all in on a babyface Rollins at Elimination Chamber.

This, after all, is the perfect type of match to turn an in-ring workhorse into a sympathetic star. That happened a few years ago when Kofi Kingston delivered an epic-and-unexpected performance in a gauntlet match on SmackDown, an unforgettable outing that ignited the “Kofi Mania” movement and propelled him to a WWE title victory at WrestleMania 35.

Win or lose, Rollins can follow a similar path inside a star-studded Elimination Chamber match with a show-stopping performance that catapults him into a marquee WrestleMania match.

Naomi Pins Sonya Deville

Outside of the Four Horsewomen, Alexa Bliss and Asuka, very few female stars have been able to advance up the totem pole in WWE’s division in recent years—with Bianca Belair being perhaps the lone exception.

One fan favorite could stop that trend at Elimination Chamber: Naomi. The former SmackDown Women’s Champion has the best ongoing storyline in WWE’s oft-poorly booked women’s division as she attempts to take down the evil authority figure Sonya Deville. Though Elimination Chamber isn’t exactly WrestleMania in the eyes of fans, it’s a big money-making show that presents WWE with a solid opportunity to catapult Naomi up the card.

While it would be easy for WWE to give Ronda Rousey, who will soon main event WrestleMania, the victory here (and it wouldn’t surprise anyone, either, even despite the ridiculous arm-tied-behind-her-back stipulation), the smart move is for Naomi to get the pin on Deville in this star-studded tag team match. That way, both Rousey and Charlotte Flair are protected in route to their WrestleMania match while Naomi gets a big momentum-building moment that she deserves and needs.

WWE Sets Up Becky Lynch Vs. Bianca Belair

There is no perfect WrestleMania scenario for Becky Lynch and the Raw Women’s Championship. In an ideal world, Lynch would be facing Rousey at WrestleMania 38 in the biggest possible women’s match WWE could do right now, but that blockbuster bout is reportedly slated for WrestleMania 39 as WWE hopes to make that the biggest—and highest-drawing—WrestleMania in history.

As a result, Raw’s women’s division is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Assuming Lynch beats Lita as she should, there isn’t a truly fresh or exciting rivalry waiting in the wings for “Big Time Becks.” She’s crossed paths with virtually all of the women in the Raw Elimination Chamber match several times already, and the one she hasn’t done much with—Rhea Ripley—isn’t exactly red hot at the moment.

That makes Bianca Belair, essentially by default, the most logical choice to face Lynch at WrestleMania. A wildly popular fan favorite and strong overall performer, Belair may not necessarily be a riveting pick to face Lynch given that they’ve already feuded and Belair had her Cinderella story during last year’s WrestleMania season.

But the final chapter of of Lynch vs. Belair clearly hasn’t been written yet, and given the current landscape on RAw, there isn’t a bigger match on that side of the roster—save for a surprise return from Bayley.

Roman Reigns Dominates Goldberg

Goldberg’s WWE contract is up after his Elimination Chamber match against Roman Reigns, and his schedule indicates he won’t be around for WrestleMania season.

Perhaps that’s for the best, too. WWE has been paying Goldberg big money for what has been—for the most part—a mundane and predictable run over the past few years, a stretch that has largely been defined by lackluster matches and underwhelming promos. The aura that Goldberg once had is well in the rearview mirror, and his only role should be to put over WWE’s full-time stars.

That is precisely what needs to happen at Elimination Chamber with Reigns, who is in the midst of an incredible run as Universal Champion and certainly shouldn’t be dropping the title to a past-his-prime Goldberg. In fact, Reigns should absolutely decimate Goldberg at Elimination Chamber on the way to his main event clash with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38.

Bobby Lashley Retains

It would be easy—and such a WWE move—to put the WWE title on Lesnar at Elimination Chamber in order in order to set up Reigns vs. Lesnar in a title vs title match at WrestleMania 38.

Given that Vince McMahon reportedly sees nothing wrong with WWE’s booking style (and just think about how ridiculous that is for a second), it feels like a shoo-in that Lesnar is going to outlast five of Raw’s top stars at Elimination Chamber and end Bobby Lashley’s second WWE title reign after just a few weeks. While, on the surface, that would make sense given what transpired between the two behemoths at Royal Rumble, it would—for so many other reasons—be one of the most shortsighted booking moves in recent memory.

“The Beast” vs. “The Tribal Chief” certainly does not need to be a title vs. title encounter, and if it is one, it will come at the expense of the entire top tier of Raw’s men’s division.

After all, what are all of Raw’s top singles stars going to do at WrestleMania if they have no title to fight for? Nothing compelling, that’s almost guaranteed.