10: WWE Completely Miss Nikki Cross’ Elimination (EC ‘2023)

The Women’s Elimination Chamber match opened the highly anticipated 2023 Elimination Chamber show, and for the most part, the match delivered.

However, early on in the match, the WWE production team made a huge botch that made WWE look like amateurs.

Nikki Cross would be slammed through the pod by Raquel Rodriguez, and this would lead to Cross’ elimination. However, as Rodriguez was pinning the sinister Cross, WWE were too busy showing a replay of the exciting spot, meaning they completely missed the elimination.

Whilst this did give some weight to the ‘anything can happen at any time’ storytelling and marketing tactic WWE often use, this was a significant mishap from the WWE production team and could have easily been avoided.

9: Rhea Ripley’s Vision Is Impaired (Chamber ’22)

One of Rhea Ripley’s strengths as a performer, particularly on the WWE main roster, has been her ability to recover from botches without too much fanfare.

At the 2022 Elimination Chamber event, Ripley was competing in the women’s match, and Ripley and Bianca Belair would perform simultaneous vertical suplexes on Liv Morgan and Alexa Bliss. However, this spot didn’t go to plan, as Bliss’ skirt would go over Ripley’s head meaning she couldn’t see a thing.

Whilst visually this was hilarious, as Ripley looked rather comical, this could have been dangerous, and could have led to an injury if Ripley didn’t act quickly. Ripley simply moved Bliss’ skirt out of the way, and she played this off in such a cool manner, that it didn’t detract from what was a stand-out spot and moment in the matchup.

8: Mark Henry’s Pod Breaks (Chamber ’15)

In 2015, WWE decided to deliver something new when it came to the Elimination Chamber. Instead of the match being for the World Title or a number one contendership, one of the 2015 matches would be for the vacant Intercontinental Title.

Unfortunately, whilst this was a welcomed booking move, virtually everything went wrong in the match, and the match isn’t exactly considered to be an Elimination Chamber classic.

The match was sent into turmoil when Mark Henry’s pod broke. This meant that Henry was forced to enter the match way earlier than intended. The nature of the Chamber match means that most spots and timings are planned out way in advance; yet this sent everyone in the match into a panic, as they didn’t know what to do.

It was obvious watching as a viewer that the match had completely fallen apart, as for a portion of the match, the competitors were just standing there, seemingly waiting for instructions.  

Thankfully, former World Champion Dolph Ziggler managed to get the match back on track, as the seasoned wrestler began to call impromptu spots, and he did his best to try and make the match work. Ziggler deserves a ton of credit for his efforts in the match, and this was yet another case of Ziggler showing his leadership and professionalism in the squared circle.

7: Kane Enters Early (Survivor Series ’02)

The inaugural Elimination Chamber took place at the 2002 Survivor Series event, and it goes without saying that if this match wasn’t received as well as it was, then the Chamber wouldn’t be a WWE staple over two-decades later.

The match was universally praised, yet there was one major mishap in the match that most fans aren’t aware of.

The plan for the match was to see Kane enter last, yet when Kane’s pod opened instead of Shawn Michaels’ pod, the Big Red Machine was forced to enter the proceedings.

Amazingly, this is literally impossible to notice, and whilst this is a truly horrendous botch to happen in a Chamber match, everyone in the match was at the top of their game, and they managed to continue as if nothing was wrong.

During an interview with ESPN, Chris Jericho who was featured in the match stated that they were forced to call the match on the fly when the botch happened:

"They open the wrong door. They open the door for Kane to come out rather than Shawn Michaels, so all of the stuff that we had come up with in the back, and all this effort and time we'd basically wasted ... thrown out the window. We had to call it all on the fly…”

6: Brock Lesnar Goes Off Script (Chamber ’22)

The sight of Brock Lesnar causing bedlam in the 2022 Elimination Chamber was truly a sight to behold.

Whilst incredible to see, a mixture of a production error, as well as the event itself running low on time, forced Lesnar to go off script in the most insane manner imaginable.

When the next person in the match was revealed to be Bobby Lashley, he had already been taken out of the match due to a prior injury. Obviously, nobody was expecting WWE to act like Lashley could still enter the match, and Lesnar seemingly picked up on the fan response to this production blunder, as Lesnar decided to smash his way through his own pod and enter the match.

According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer, Lesnar knew he needed to act, and that’s why he forcibly entered the Chamber:

“At the 9:20 mark of the match, the idea was that Lashley’s pod would be opened since it was his time, but he wasn’t there. Lesnar obviously knew Lashley was going to be taken out and not in the match. But he didn’t know they were going to signal for Lashley’s pod to open and it not be Lesnar’s, as he figured he was next. He also knew that they were running low on time”.

5: Test “Eliminates” Hardcore Holly (December To Dismember ’06)

WWE’s reimagining of the ECW brand was realised with an infamous PPV in late 2006 known as December to Dismember. This show was evidence that WWE had no idea what made the original ECW product so special and so unique, and the backlash to the event was so overwhelmingly negative that the blame unfairly fell on Paul Heyman, as he was outright fired by WWE.

The PPV itself was headlined by a lacklustre ‘extreme’ Elimination Chamber match, and the match had a weird botch and it occurred during the elimination of Hardcore Holly. Test would hit a trademark Big Boot on Holly, and for whatever reason, Holly didn’t bother to kick out. As this was a scripted elimination, the referee ignored Holly’s lack of a kick-out, and declared that Holly had been eliminated to the utter confusion of the fans.

4: Kalisto’s Foot Gets Stuck (Chamber ‘2015)

WWE were rather ambitious in 2015 when they decided to book an Elimination Chamber match for the Tag Titles. A standard Chamber match can be rather frantic, and doubling the names involved had potential for disaster.

Whilst the 2015 Tag Title Chamber match did feature some bright spots, there were numerous terrifying botches that highlighted the dangers of a Chamber matchup.

When Kalisto climbed to the top of the Chamber pod, The New Day pulled his foot through. This was planned; however, what wasn’t planned was Kalisto legitimately getting his foot stuck.

Kalisto spent a long time trying to free himself, and the WWE production team actively tried to cut away, in order for Kalisto to have as much time as possible to free himself. Thankfully, after numerous attempts, the former US Champion managed to free himself, and he was able to complete his thrilling spots as planned.

3: The Undertaker Falls Through The Door (No Way Out ’08)

Throughout his career, The Undertaker hasn’t had much luck when it comes to the Elimination Chamber. In 2010, he suffered substantial burns during his entrance, and just two-years-prior, The Deadman fell through the Chamber door.

The latter botch occurred at the 2008 No Way Out PPV, and it took place when The Deadman sold a headbutt from Big Daddy V. The Undertaker would fall backwards and he was planning on falling against the Chamber door to sell the impact. For some reason, the Chamber door wasn’t locked, this meant The Undertaker fell through it.

This was a reckless error on WWE’s part, and The Undertaker even stumbled down the steel steps on his way out of the door, so it was lucky that one of WWE’s top performers wasn’t injured yet again due to WWE’s negligence.  

2: Sarah Logan Wipes Out Natalya (Chamber ’20)

One of the most popular spots in the Elimination Chamber match will see a wrestler jump from the top of a pod. This is made safe due to numerous wrestlers catching the wrestler in question, yet from time to time, this can go wrong, and this was most definitely the case with the 2020 Women’s Chamber.

When Sarah Logan jumped from the pod with a crossbody, she was caught by Ruby Riott and Natalya. Whilst it looked fine at first, it quickly dawned on everyone that the spot was botched, and Logan’s knee had hit Natalya in the face. In essence, this meant that Logan had performed a diving knee onto Natalya, and it was evident based on Natalya’s facial expressions, that she was in total agony.

It was reported that Natalya was officially checked over by the WWE medical team, and despite some bruising, she was thankfully fit and well.

1: Rob Van Dam Crushes Triple H’s Throat (Survivor Series ’02)

Triple H has made a career out of pushing through life-altering injuries in order to finish a match.

During the inaugural Elimination Chamber, The Game bravely took a Five-Star-Frog-Splash from Rob Van Dam who delivered the move from the top of the Chamber pod. This move was horribly botched, as RVD’s shin came down on Triple H’s throat.

RVD would reflect on the botch during an appearance on the Ruthless Aggression documentary, and this is what the WWE Hall of Famer had to say:

“It was not an easy calculation, and I was off. I think I overshot a little bit and, as I was coming down, my shin came right across his throat. I felt horrible about it, but of course he continued the match to the point where I don’t remember even knowing that he was hurt, at least not that bad.”

Triple H’s account on the botch from the aforementioned documentary is truly frightening:

“As I was laying there and I saw him go to the top of the pod, I was thinking, ‘Oh sh*t, he can’t stand up straight. I’m looking and I’m thinking, ‘That looks really awkward. I don’t know if he can jump from there.’ It was just going tragically in the wrong direction like I’d walk over to somebody and they’d hit me, and as soon as I’d take a bump, I can’t breathe again. It would all just inflame back up.”

The Game somehow managed to finish the match as planned, and when It came to taking time away from WWE to heal; this appeared to be out of the question for The Cerebral Assassin, as he would be wrestling on TV again within a few short weeks.