It's Official: Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34

The challenger for Brock Lesnar's WWE Universal title was decided on Sunday night at Elimination [...]

By Ryan Droste

The challenger for Brock Lesnar's WWE Universal title was decided on Sunday night at Elimination Chamber.

The men's chamber match headlined the show and featured seven of WWE's biggest stars: John Cena, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, The Miz, Seth Rollins, and Elias. We knew ahead of time that The Miz would enter at the start and Elias at six, but the entrance order for the rest of the men was a mystery.

Balor, Miz, and Rollins started out the match. Due to the fact that we had seven men in the match for the first time ever (and only four pods), they had to start with three men. Miz immediately tried to get an alliance with both Rollins, then Balor, to take on the other guy, but both men refused. He even held up the Bullet Club wolfpack sign to Balor, which was pretty funny. Rollins and Balor then both agreed to go after Miz. That didn't last long, though, as all three came to blows.

Cena was the fourth person (first from a pod) to enter the match, and he immediately went face to face with Rollins as Miz and Balor were on the mat. They played up the fact that Rollins beat him on RAW in the gauntlet match as they had a good back and forth exchange, which Cena got the better of. John then hit a double Five Knuckle Shuffle on Miz and Rollins before Balor got involved again.

Roman Reigns ended up coming in at number five, Strowman at six, and Elias (of course) at seven.

There's no way we could summarize all of the greatness that happened in this match, but here are some key moments that lead to the first three eliminations.

  • A big double superplex spot between Rollins and Cena out of opposite corners on Miz and Balor.
  • Balor running into a massive superkick from Rollins.
  • Reigns hitting uppercuts on virtually everyone upon entrance.
  • Miz attacking a face to face Rollins/Reigns from behind and spiking Rollins with a DDT.
  • Miz with Daniel Bryan "yes" kicks on Reigns, but ending up getting clotheslined out of his boots by Roman.
  • Braun Strowman picking up dudes and using them as weapons.
  • Strowman chasing Miz to the top of a pod and ramming Miz's face into the glass, then throwing him off.
  • Rollins, Cena, Balor, and Reigns all teaming up to finally get Strowman off his feet. All three then lifted Strowman to Roman's shoulders so that Reigns could powerslam him. All four then covered Braun but he still kicked out. Cena then gave Braun an AA and he kicked out. Reigns then speared Strowman and he kicked out. Rollins then hit the Curbstomp, Strowman rolled out of the ring, and Balor hit the Coup De Grace. No pinfall attempt.
  • Elias held his own when entering the match, but that was short lived once he attempted to lift Strowman to his shoulders.
  • The first elimination came when Strowman pinned Miz following a powerslam. Elias was eliminated next following a powerslam from Strowman. Next was Cena being eliminated, also by a Strowman powerslam.

Our final four was Balor, Rollins, Strowman and Reigns. All of the men continued to try to team up on Strowman, was who was portrayed as an unstoppable beast. Balor got a good run, taking out both Reigns and Rollins for a moment and hitting the Coup De Grace on Strowman for a near fall. However, he walked right into a Strowman powerslam to be the fourth man eliminated.

We were left with two members of the Shield and Braun Strowman. They worked together until Rollins eventually turned on Reigns. Rollins gave him the Buckle Bomb, but Reigns rebounded out of the corner and hit a Superman Punch.

Rollins climbed to the top of a pod and Reigns gave Strowman a Samoan Drop. Rollins came off the top of the pod with a frog splash but Strowman still kicked out. After some more offense from Rollins and briefly Reigns, Rollins was eliminated by a powerslam from Strowman.

The final two, as expected, were Reigns and Strowman. Reigns looked on confused, wondering what it could take to eliminate Braun. They fought to the outside, where Reigns jumped over the top rope and gave him a massive clothesline. Braun charged at Reigns and crashed through a pod. Reigns followed that with a Superman Punch and then another back in the ring. Reigns went for a spear, but Braun tried versing it into a Powerslam (unsuccessfully). Reigns hit another Superman Punch and two spears to eventually get the pinfall.

As everyone expected, Roman Reigns will now go on to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. Michael Cole sold the fact that Reigns will have the chance to finish "what he started three years ago" when Roman fought Brock at WrestleMania 31.

Strowman wasn't finished, though. He power-slammed Reigns from behind after the match two times, then took Roman to the outside and threw him through one of the pods to end the show.

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