It’s a little odd for WWE to come back with another major event two weeks after the Payback PPV, but it’s easier to understand when you realize that the WWE Network offered a free trial to subscribers for the month of May. Having a card like Elimination Chamber is the hook for grateful viewers to not cancel their subscription, and the live podcast after Raw the next night from Steve Austin and Paul Heyman is the icing on that moist and fluffy chocolate cake. All of that is trivial though unless Elimination Chamber is able to deliver from top to bottom, so let’s start from the bottom and work our way up with the latest odds. The red hot “Man That Gravity Forgot” Neville is taking on Bo Dallas. Do the odds makers “Bo-Lieve” in Dallas? Not according to the math. Neville is a heavy -750 favorite and Dallas is a +450 dog. Normally I’d tell you that Neville is a sure thing but the last time a match with nothing at stake but pride had that kind of line was Mega Powers vs. The Ascension, and we got a huge swerve with The Ascension going over clean. Lightning probably won’t strike twice, but if the fickle Vince McMahon believes something is too predictable, all bets are LITERALLY out the window. You just might want to “Bo-Lieve” and put $50 on him for an upset. There are no heavy favorites in the Divas Title triple threat match. Paige is a +195 dog against the field (-275) to become the new champion. Current champ Nikki Bella is +160 against -210. The closest to even money is Naomi, who is +130 with the field -170. That’s so wide open I wouldn’t even advise playing it except as a parlay, in which case I’d go with Nikki Bella to retain. And now to the meat and potatoes of this show, the stuff that matters, the stuff worth wagering on. Sheamus has emerged as the sports book favorite to be written in as the new Intercontinental Champion after a sure to be vicious chamber match. He’s -530 and everybody else is a dog against the field, so you’ve got to believe that the push Sheamus got since his return was meant to lead to this sooner or later. This isn’t one Vince or the writers are likely to change their mind about. As for the tag team titles, The New Day are small favorites at -180 with the field being +140. That makes the field tempting especially since a tag championship has never been decided inside the Elimination Chamber, so this is the kind of situation where “history gets made.” Finally there’s the WWE World Heavyweight Title match. Seth Rollins has been and continues to be the man in WWE, and the champion gets -455 on the initial ruling (+315 Dean Ambrose) and -650 on the final ruling (+420 Ambrose). The whole point seems to be to set him up for Brock Lesnar’s return, and that’s coming soon… so wait for “The Beast” before you bet on “Justin Bieber” Rollins to be beaten. Bonus line – Cena is the -260 final ruling favorite over Kevin Owens at +180. I actually like Owens as a parlay play though. Remember that sports entertainment is predetermined, but the writing isn’t, and that’s why we have odds to play. Wager only what you can afford and enjoy Elimination Chamber!
