The 2011 Elimination Chamber (known as No Way Out in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) was the second

Elimination Chamber The Elimination Chamber is a professional wrestling elimination-based match held in the WWE. The match was founded by Chris Jericho , created and introduced by Eric Bischoff in November 2002. It features a large chain-linked circular steel st ...

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

(PPV)

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of eve ...

produced by

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

(WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

and

SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes simulc ...

brand divisions. The event took place on February 20, 2011, at the

Oracle Arena An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. This was the last Elimination Chamber held under the first brand extension, which ended in August, but was reinstated in July 2016. The concept of the event was that the two main event matches occurred in the

. The main event was Raw's Elimination Chamber match, in which

John Cena John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American part-time professional wrestler, actor, and former rapper. He is currently signed to WWE. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is tied w ...

defeated

CM Punk Phillip Jack Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler, sports commentator, actor, and retired mixed martial artist currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Best known for ...

John Morrison John Morrison or Morison may refer to: In politics * John Morrison (Manitoba politician) (1868–1930), politician in Manitoba, Canada * John Morrison (Saskatchewan politician) (1872–1950), Canadian Member of Parliament * John Morrison (intelli ...

R-Truth Ronnie Aaron Killings (born January 19, 1972) is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE, performing on the Raw brand under the ring name R-Truth. Killings worked for World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WW ...

Randy Orton Randal Keith Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and actor who is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw (WWE brand), Raw brand but is currently out of action due to a back injury. H ...

, and

Sheamus Stephen Farrelly (born 28 January 1978) is an Irish professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sheamus. Prior to joining WWE, he wrestled on the European indep ...

to become the number one contender for the

WWE Championship The WWE Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, representing the Raw brand division. It is one of two world titles on WWE's main roster, alongside SmackDown' ...

WrestleMania XXVII WrestleMania XXVII (also written as WrestleMania 27) was the 27th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown ...

. In SmackDown's Elimination Chamber match,

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

retained the World Heavyweight Championship against

Big Show Paul Donald Wight II (born February 8, 1972) is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as an in-ring performer, and as a commentator for its web television show, '' AEW Dark: Elevation,'' under ...

Drew McIntyre Andrew McLean Galloway IV (born 6 June 1985) is a Scottish professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Drew McIntyre. McIntyre is a two-time WWE Champion, one-time WWE Int ...

, Kane,

Rey Mysterio Óscar Gutiérrez (born December 11, 1974), better known by his ring name Rey Mysterio, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of the greatest profes ...

, and

Wade Barrett Stuart Alexander Bennett (born 10 August 1980) is an English-American professional wrestling commentator, actor, and former professional wrestler who holds both British and American citizenship. He is currently signed to WWE, where he is a colo ...

. On the undercard,

The Corre The Corre was a multinational villainous stable that wrestled on World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE's SmackDown brand in 2011. The group was a spinoff of British wrestler Wade Barrett's previous stable, The Nexus. The stable was formed after Ame ...

(

Justin Gabriel Phillip Paul Lloyd (born 3 March 1981) is a South African-American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, under the ring name Justin Gabriel. He is currently wrestling under the ring name P. J. Black. A second-generation ...

and

Heath Slater Heath Wallace Miller (born July 15, 1983) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where he performs mononymously as Heath, and is also active on the independent circuit. He is best known for his time in W ...

) defeated

Santino Marella Anthony Carelli (born March 14, 1974) is a Canadian judoka and semi-retired professional wrestler. He is known for his 11-year tenure with WWE where he wrestled under the ring name Santino Marella. He is the founder of and instructor at Battle Art ...

and

Vladimir Kozlov Oleg Aleksandrovich Prudius (russian: Олег Александрович Прудиус; uk, Олег Олександрович Прудіус, ''Oleh Oleksandrovych Prudius''; born April 27, 1979) better known by his ring name Vladimir Koz ...

to win the

WWE Tag Team Championship WWE (formerly the WWF, the WWWF, and Capitol Wrestling) has maintained at least one primary tag team championship for its male performers since 1958 (except for a two year interim between 1967 and 1969). During periods of brand division, separate ...

, and

The Miz Michael Gregory Mizanin (born October 8, 1980) is an American professional wrestler, actor, and television personality. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name The Miz. Mizanin first gained fame a ...

retained the WWE Championship against

Jerry Lawler Jerry O'Neil Lawler (born November 29, 1949), better known as Jerry "The King" Lawler, is an American color commentator and professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, although he has not performed as a full-time commentator since Apr ...

. The event received 212,000 buys, lower than the 287,000 buys that the previous year's event received.

Production

Background

In 2010,

(WWE) held an event titled

as a

gimmick A gimmick is a novel device or idea designed primarily to attract attention or increase appeal, often with little intrinsic value. When applied to retail marketing, it is a unique or quirky feature designed to make a product or service "stand ou ...

that replaced their previous event, No Way Out. The concept of the show was that the two main event matches were contested inside the

, with

and

's World Heavyweight Championship, respectively, at stake in each. The following year, WWE scheduled a second event to be held on February 20, 2011, at the

, thus establishing Elimination Chamber as a recurring pay-per-view. It featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown

brands A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

. The Elimination Chamber name was chosen by a fan poll, however, the inaugural show was promoted as "No Way Out" in

as it was feared that the name "Elimination Chamber" may remind people of the

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Histor ...

s used during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. For 2011, it was renamed to "No Escape" for the German broadcast.

Storylines

The

professional wrestling matches Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

at Elimination Chamber featured professional wrestlers performing as

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

, WWE. Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'' of the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs. After

won the

in November 2010, ''

'' commentator

was given what was billed as his first WWE Championship match, after criticizing Miz's win by using his Money in the Bank briefcase while former champion

was injured. He lost to Miz in a TLC match after his fellow commentator Michael Cole stopped Lawler from climbing the ladder. On the January 31 episode of ''

'', the Raw general manager announced a Raw Rumble match, to determine the

contender at Elimination Chamber, while the losing participants would be entered into an

match to determine who will face the WWE Champion at

. The participants were

, King Sheamus,

, and

. Lawler last eliminated Sheamus to win the battle royal to earn himself the title match, while the other six contestants went on to participate in the Raw Elimination Chamber match. At the

Royal Rumble The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle roya ...

Alberto Del Rio José Alberto Rodríguez Chucuan (born 25 May 1977) is a Mexican-American professional wrestler, professional wrestling promoter, sports commentator, and mixed martial artist, currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a c ...

won the eponymous match to earn himself a World Championship match at WrestleMania. He subsequently announced he would wrestle for the World Heavyweight Championship, held at the time by

. Edge was then embroiled in a feud with

Dolph Ziggler Nicholas Theodore Nemeth (born July 27, 1980) is an American professional wrestler and stand-up comedian. He is currently signed to WWE under the ring name Dolph Ziggler, where he performs on the Raw brand. After a prolific career in amateur ...

and his on-screen ex-wife

Vickie Guerrero Vickie Lynn Benson (formerly Guerrero, née Lara;Guerrero, Eddie. ''Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story'', p. 53. born April 16, 1968) is an American professional wrestling personality and manager. She is best known for her t ...

, who was also scripted to be dating Ziggler. The week before the Elimination Chamber Edge and

Kelly Kelly Barbara Blank Coba (born Barbara Jean Blank; January 15, 1987), known professionally as Barbie Blank and by her ring name Kelly Kelly, is an American professional wrestler and model. Blank has a background in gymnastics and cheerleading, an ...

defeated Ziggler and

LayCool LayCool (sometimes stylized Lay-Cool) was a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Layla and Michelle McCool. The team worked for WWE and were featured primarily on the SmackDown brand but appeared on the Raw brand on some occasions, while ...

, causing Guerrero to fire Kelly Kelly. At the pay-per-view, Kelly Kelly was rehired by Teddy Long and attacked Vickie, but was stopped by Laycool, who in turn was stopped by

Trish Stratus Patricia Anne Stratigeas (; born December 18, 1975) better known by the ring name Trish Stratus is a Canadian professional wrestler, actress and yoga instructor. She is currently signed to WWE. Often regarded as one of the greatest Women's Per ...

. On the final episode of ''SmackDown'' before the pay-per-view, acting general manager Guerrero stripped Edge of the championship and awarded it to Ziggler, only for

Theodore Long Theodore Robert Rufus Long (born September 15, 1947) is an American former professional referee and manager known for his work for WWE and WCW serving as an on-screen authority figure. Long began his career in the National Wrestling Alliance and ...

, the real general manager, to give Edge a return match which he won. After this, Long fictitiously Kayfabe fired Ziggler leaving an open spot in the Elimination Chamber match (which was subsequently filled by

). The other participants were Kane,

and

. After that event, Edge and Kelly Kelly defeated Drew McIntyre and Vickie Guerrero thus making Theodore Long fire Vickie Guerrero as the official consultant of

Event

Preliminary matches

The event opened with

facing

Intercontinental Champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, an ...

Kofi Kingston Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian-born American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Kofi Kingston. He appeared on WWE's NXT brand as one-hal ...

. Del Rio forced Kingston to submit to the Cross Armbreaker to win the match. Next was the

match for the World Heavyweight Championship involving

, Kane,

and

. Edge and Mysterio started the match. Barrett entered at #3, Kane entered at #4, McIntyre entered at #5 and Big Show entered at #6. Barrett was eliminated by Big Show after a KO Punch. Big Show was eliminated by Kane after a Chokeslam. McIntyre was eliminated by Kane after a Chokeslam. Kane was eliminated by Edge after a Spear. Edge executed a Spear on Mysterio for a near-fall. Mysterio executed a 619 and a Slingshot Splash on Edge for a near-fall. Mysterio executed another 619 and leapt off the top rope but Edge performed a Spear on Mysterio in mid-air to eliminate him and retain the title. After the match, Alberto Del Rio attacked Edge but

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

returned and attacked Del Rio, ending the attack with a Killswitch. After that,

and

defended the

against

(

and

). Gabriel performed a 450 Splash on Kozlov to win the title. In the fourth match,

faced

for the

. During the match, Lawler performed a Diving Fist Drop on Miz but Miz placed his foot on the bottom rope to void the pinfall. The Miz performed a Skull Crushing Finale on Lawler to retain the title.

Main event

The main event was an Elimination Chamber match for a

match at

Wrestlemania XXVII WrestleMania XXVII (also written as WrestleMania 27) was the 27th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown ...

between

, King Sheamus,

and

. Sheamus and Morrison started the match while the other four men were locked inside ''pods''. Orton entered at #3 and Punk entered at #4 but Punk's pod would not open, allowing Orton to attack Punk. Punk was eliminated by Orton after an RKO but the

Anonymous Raw General Manager The Anonymous Raw General Manager was a professional wrestling authority figure in WWE, who anonymously controlled the Raw brand from June 21, 2010 to July 18, 2011. The Anonymous General Manager controlled the show by sending emails to a laptop, ...

announced that Punk would re-enter the match. Cena entered at #4 and R-Truth entered at #5. R-Truth was eliminated by Sheamus after a Brogue Kick. Punk entered at #6 and eliminated Orton after a GTS. Sheamus was eliminated by Morrison after a Crossbody from the top of the chamber. Morrison was eliminated by Punk after a GTS. Cena eliminated Punk after an Attitude Adjustment onto the chamber floor to win a WWE Championship match at Wrestlemania XXVII.

Aftermath

After becoming #1 Contender to the

faced

for the title at

. The match ended in a double count-out but The Rock used his power as WrestleMania host to restart the match under no disqualifications and no count-outs. The Miz defeated Cena to retain the WWE Championship after The Rock hit Cena with a Rock Bottom. This would lead both Cena and The Rock to challenge each other to a match at

WrestleMania XXVIII WrestleMania XXVIII (also written as WrestleMania 28) was the 28th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on April 1, 2012, at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is the high ...

, which The Rock won. After Elimination Chamber,

defended the World Heavyweight Championship against

at WrestleMania XXVII where Edge retained. On the April 11 episode of ''Raw'', Edge retired from professional wrestling due to a legit neck injury and relinquished the World Heavyweight Championship on the April 15 episode of ''SmackDown'', thus retiring as World Heavyweight Champion. Edge's best friend

would go on to win the vacant title against Del Rio in a ladder match at Extreme Rules. That reign would only last 2 days, as on May 3, during the taping for the May 6 edition of ''SmackDown'', Christian lost the title to

. The 2011 event would be the final Elimination Chamber held during the first brand split, which ended in August. However, the brand split was reinstated in July 2016, and the following year's Elimination Chamber event was SmackDown-exclusive. Additionally, in April, the promotion ceased using its full name with the "WWE" abbreviation becoming an

orphaned initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

Results

Elimination Chamber entrances and eliminations (SmackDown)

Elimination Chamber entrances and eliminations (Raw)

References

External links

Official Elimination Chamber website
{{WWEPPV, Elimination Chamber 2011 in California

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Events in Oakland, California Professional wrestling in California 2011 WWE pay-per-view events February 2011 events in the United States es:WWE Elimination Chamber#2011