With everyone eyeing the opportunity to face WWE Champion “The New” Daniel Bryan at WWE Fastlane, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy & Kofi Kingston took on The Planet’s Champion, Randy Orton & Samoa Joe in thrilling Six-Man Tag Team action in the main event of SmackDown LIVE.
Though all six Superstars battled through the treacherous Elimination Chamber Match just two nights prior, the competitors fought at a furious pace while looking to make a major impression en route to WWE Fastlane, except for Bryan, who made it clear prior to the match that he didn’t think anyone from this contest was worthy of facing him in three weeks, as he had already defeated them all.
However, after a brutal contest that saw everything from Orton twice dropping Kofi on the announcer’s table to a Twist of Fate to a LeBell Lock, Kingston pinned Bryan for the second time in two weeks, putting the WWE Champion down with the Trouble in Paradise for the win.
The WWE Universe roared in approval, but the good news was just beginning for a euphoric Kingston. Moments after The Dreadlocked Dynamo’s monumental victory, Shane McMahon arrived to inform everyone that Bryan’s WWE Fastlane opponent had been decided … and his name, yep, is Kofi Kingston.
Credit: WWE.com
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For those of you who believe in miracles, the bad news first: Kofi Kingston did not win the WWE Championship. And if you were hoping for that outcome, that’s a somewhat dispiriting result on its face: The Dreadlocked Dynamo’s unexpected sprint to the Elimination Chamber technically only lasted five days — he was named to the match on Tuesday and went an hour in a Gauntlet Match to remind everyone why — but it felt like he had been fighting for the entire 11 years he’s been here, or maybe even longer.
On paper, he was a sentimental favorite, but that doesn’t seem to capture the respect and adoration the WWE Universe showered on him as a result of his week, his evening and his entire career; when the final pinfall was counted, you got the sense that if the WWE Universe could have entered the ring and borne his body to the locker room in magnificent defeat, they would have. Instead, The Dreadlocked Dynamo left under his own power with The New Day at his side, but moments earlier he jumped, he punched, he invited punishment to psych himself up and he even got the ceremonial Edge pose where he made a lunatic face and pressed it up against the edge of the Chamber. The man earned his moment and was more than ready for it; that Kofi didn’t win is in no way a knock on his performance. He went as big as he could, and then he went home.
The end result was, however, a rousing (if potentially begrudging) testimony to the man who walked into and out of the Chamber as WWE Champion, “The New” Daniel Bryan. If Kingston the WWE Universe’s sentimental favorite to leave with the title, the champion himself was the polar opposite for the competitors with which he shared the Chamber. Samoa Joe mottled Bryan’s chest with chops just seconds into the match, AJ Styles slapped him square across the face, and the only reason Randy Orton didn’t eat him alive was because he never really got the chance. That Bryan survived was a credit to his tenacity (Rowan was pre-emptively ejected from the match, leaving him stranded), his tolerance for pain and, yes, his in-ring skills, which have not diminished in the slightest because he stopped chanting “Yes.” Bryan won this one straight down the middle, biding his time and outlasting Kofi down the stretch. His eco-advocacy can be on the aggressive side, but the man can go.
The field thinned quickly, or quicker than the Women’s Elimination Chamber earlier in the night. Like the kaiju monster that inspires his theme song, Joe left chaos in his wake and was felled from above, courtesy of a Phenomenal Forearm from Styles. Jeff Hardy, far from obsolete, was dropped by a Running Knee from Bryan — though not before he landed a Swanton Bomb off the top of a Chamber pod to the lumbar of The Phenomenal One, who was draped face-down across a top turnbuckle. And Orton, who snatched AJ out of midair with an RKO to eliminate the two-time WWE Champion, was a little too impressed with himself and wandered right into a Trouble in Paradise from Kofi that took him out of contention and teed up the final battle with Bryan.
They fought. Goodness, did they fight. Sometimes they fought straight up — Kofi escaped the LeBell Lock via a good old-fashioned rope break, which surprisingly exists in an Elimination Chamber. Sometimes they fought dirty, slamming each other’s heads into a glass pane while slugging it out atop an empty pod. And in Kofi’s case, they fought risky; he attempted to follow up that hockey fight with a splash that carried him from the pod to the ring, where he had hoped a downed Bryan would be waiting. He wasn’t: The Beard dodged the maneuver, clambered to his feet and drilled Kingston with his Running Knee for the second time, sealing his victory and snapping Kofi’s dream of championship glory – at least for now.
“For now” being something of the operative words. As Big E and Xavier Woods rushed into the emptied-out Chamber to their brother’s side, the WWE Universe continued to show respect. “That’s for you,” Big E said to Kingston as he rose to his feet, and Kofi’s reaction before he finally walked back behind the curtain was one of respect returned, mutual gratification and seeming determination; the lasting impression of his latest attempt at the WWE Title was that it may not be his last. The night didn’t go his way, but it felt like a new day all the same.
Credit: WWE.com
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WWE Champion “The New” Daniel Bryan and his intellectual peer Rowan arrived at the onset of this Gauntlet Match that would determine who would enter last in the WWE Title Elimination Chamber Match this Sunday with a very simple and direct message: Bryan was trying to inform the WWE Universe about how he was a martyr for competing in the Elimination Chamber Match this Sunday, but he was soon interrupted by his first opponent in the Gauntlet Match, Kofi Kingston. Kofi was chosen as The New Day member to replace Mustafa Ali after Ali was injured by Rowan in last week’s melee between the Elimination Chamber Match participants.
Bryan and Kingston went at it ferociously, with Bryan trying to wear Kingston down and Kofi pulling out all the stops to take down the WWE Champion. In the clutch, after several brutal exchanges, Kingston survived the LeBell Lock and interference from Rowan (who was quickly neutralized by Big E & Xavier Woods at ringside before the official threw them both out) and then hit a picture-perfect Trouble in Paradise to eliminate Bryan.
Kofi couldn’t bask in the shocking moment for too long though, as next out was Jeff Hardy. The two dynamic competitors went back and forth, but an exhausted Kingston put him down for three with the SOS.
Kingston would then attempt to continue his hot streak against Samoa Joe. The Samoan Submission Machine used his fresh legs to wear down the New Day member, but Kofi somehow countered the Coquina Clutch into a pinning attempt that shockingly defeated Joe. Samoa Joe viciously attacked Kingston after his elimination and once again trapped him in the Coquina Clutch on the outside of the ring. However, Kofi’s next opponent AJ Styles came rushing out to get Joe off The Dreadlocked Dynamo, chased him off and then checked on the downed Kingston.
Even with all the damage he had suffered, Kingston insisted on carrying on with the Gauntlet Match. A hesitant Styles complied after a passionate Kofi aggressively got in The Phenomenal One’s face, shouting “Fight me! I’ve been doing this for too long!” and shoving him in the face. Kofi gave it everything he had, battling through fatigue at every turn, but when Styles applied the Calf Crusher with nowhere for Kingston to go, he was forced to tap.
The New Day came rushing down to pick up what was left of the drained Kofi. Styles then waited for the arrival of the final entrant, Randy Orton, but The Apex Predator never made the walk down the ramp. No, instead, Orton came from behind The Phenomenal One, hitting an RKO out of nowhere to claim the victory in an absolutely unbelievable match.
With The Viper securing his position as the final entrant into the Elimination Chamber Match, is he now the favorite to leave as WWE Champion this Sunday?
Credit: WWE.com
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Clearly still displeased with his WWE Championship being on the line inside the Elimination Chamber, “The New” Daniel Bryan looked to take out some of his frustrations on fellow Chamber competitor, Jeff Hardy.
However, even with Rowan lurking at ringside, The Charismatic Enigma wasn’t interested in being a vessel for Bryan’s frustrations, coming at the WWE Champion with his dynamically unique offense in this non-title affair. Just when it appeared that Hardy was closing in on victory after connecting with the Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb, Rowan intervened, pulling Hardy out of the ring and throwing him into the steel steps to prompt a disqualification.
Bryan then locked in the LeBell Lock onto Hardy, but Samoa Joe quickly hit the scene to eliminate Rowan and trap Bryan in the Coquina Clutch. Randy Orton hit the ring and threw fists with Joe until Mustafa Ali showed up and cleared house until Rowan viciously hit him with the Claw Slam onto the announcer’s table. Up next, AJ Styles took out everyone except Bryan, who got out of dodge. The Phenomenal One eyed Bryan down, with Bryan insisting backstage that Rowan wasn’t there to protect him; he was there because they are intellectual peers and the planet needed him as WWE Champion. In less than two weeks, however, Bryan will compete inside the chamber, where Rowan won’t be able to assist him.
Credit: WWE.com
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What started off as WWE Champion “The New” Daniel Bryan revealing a new eco-friendly WWE Championship — but not before throwing the old title, which Bryan claimed “was bound from the skin of a cow that was taken from her,” in the trash, and re-introducing his new running buddy Rowan to the WWE Universe quickly turned into something that changed the landscape of SmackDown LIVE.
Bryan stated that Rowan wasn’t the mindless grunt that everyone perceived him as, but an enlightened man of Earth, and that is why he sees through the “façade” of AJ Styles, who would soon hit the scene to call out Bryan for Rowan’s involvement in their WWE Championship Match at the Royal Rumble event. Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, Mustafa Ali and Samoa Joe all hit the scene, and Joe ran down everybody before a brawl broke out between all five Superstars, all eager to get their hands on Bryan’s WWE Championship.
Bryan, who was keeping a safe distance away from the insanity by standing on the announcer’s table with Rowan in front of him, soon took the microphone and refused to defend his championship against any of the Superstars in the ring. However, Triple H appeared on the TitanTron with some news for Bryan and all the Superstars: Bryan would not be defending the WWE Title against any one of the men … because he would be defending it against all of them inside the Elimination Chamber on Sunday, Feb. 17!
From there, the chaotic brawl inside the ring continued, with all five Superstars still going at it and an enraged Bryan and Rowan getting out of dodge while they still had the chance.
Credit: WWE.com
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