WWE: Elimination Chamber: Perth (2024) [Premium Live Event]

The Elimination Chamber PLE is routinely among WWE's most popular events, headlined by its two namesake matches, inside a huge steel and plexiglass structure. This year's event emanated from Perth, Australia, which marked the WWE's first premium live event there since 2018's 'Super Show-Down'.

The in-ring action actually started on the Elimination Chamber Kickoff Show, with the Kabuki Warriors defending the Women's Tag Team Championships against Candice LeRae and Australia's Indi Hartwell. It was a fast-paced match that had some decent spots and a really invested crowd, considering it wad before the main show. As you can imagine, Hartwell, in front of her home crowd, got a particularly loud reaction, and performed suitably. The winners were never really in doubt, but I'm glad Hartwell got her moment in front of her friends and family.

The main card kicked off with the women's Elimination Chamber match, which was certainly exciting. It had an electric pace, and saw six of the company's best female competitors battle it out for the chance to face the Women's World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania. The eliminations came in, near enough, the order expected, with the winner being the correct choice to come out on top. My only let down, as far as the match was concerned, was that they underutilised the cage environment, in my view.

The second match of the night saw the young English duo of Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne challenge the reigning Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions; Finn Balor and Damian Priest. It was a solid tag team match, with plenty of fun spots, including two convincing false finishes. However, it was hard to imagine a different result than what would ultimately happen - not that this was a bad thing - the right team won.

Splitting the matchcard, near enough down the middle, was The Grayson Waller Effect; an interview segment run by, of course, Australian native Grayson Waller. The segment also involved World Heavyweight Champion Seth 'Freakin' Rollins, Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes and, former United States Champion, Austin Theory. I think it was clearly a crowd pleaser and time user, because, truthfully, there wasn't much of note to emerge from this, beyond a couple of corny jokes.

Following this, came the men's Elimination Chamber match, in order to determine who will face the World Heavyweight Champion. It was a thrilling match and clearly the best of the night, although there was a concerning injury scare for the recently returned Randy Orton. The action was great, the eliminations were all pretty good, and the cage was utilised much better than in the first match of the night. There was only likely to be one winner, based on storylines, but the wrestlers did a good job of creating doubt with false finishes and unexpected moments.

The main event of the evening saw Women's World Champion, and Australian native, Rhea Ripley defend her title against rival Nia Jax. I must say, I have not been the biggest fan of Jax, but this match may have been the best of her career so far - she was very good. She nailed her heel role, and worked well with Ripley, who, of course, did what she does, and bossed proceedings. The crowd was very involved, which was really good to see, considering this was four hours into the show.

Overall, I thought this was another really solid premium live event, and set up WrestleMania 40 wonderfully, with multiple storylines and rivalries set up for the biggest event of the year. As I said above, the men's chamber match stole the show, but all four main PLE matches had a lot to enjoy about them. The only real negative was the slightly boring talking segment between them, but I can let that slide, considering it was to showcase the Australian wrestler in his home country, as well as set-up two matches at WrestleMania.