WWE News: Major Gimmick Match And Pay-Per-View Returning In 2017 After Two-Year Hiatus

With the WWE superstar draft taking place this summer and putting the brand extension back into existence, WWE is now doing show-specific pay-per-view (PPV) events. That opens up the possibility of having all kinds of different events taking place from Monday Night Raw and SmackDown LIVE, but which ones exactly? Well, it looks as if a quite popular match and full-on PPV is heading back as the Elimination Chamber is coming back in 2017.

One of the most destructive matches and demonic structures is on its way back to WWE after not taking place at all this year. The last time it happened was on May 31, 2015, when it was put on at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.

On Tuesday evening, the official Facebook page for the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona, decided to drop a bit of a bombshell on the professional wrestling world. They posted a very simple image of the Elimination Chamber logo with even more simplistic information regarding their reason for putting it up.

The only thing that accompanied the picture was “In 2017…. the Chamber returns! Details coming soon.” As of this time, WWE has not said anything, but the Wrestling News Source did confirm that the announcement from the arena was indeed legit.

Created in 2010, the Elimination Chamber was a PPV that took place annually in February between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. It ran until 2014 and that PPV spot was given to Fastlane, but it’s scheduled for March 5 in 2017.

In 2015, the Elimination Chamber event returned on the WWE Network with a big match inside the chamber for the vacant Intercontinental Title. It ended up being won by Ryback, but the card was filled with a lot of other awesome matches.

One other match that took place was a first-time ever tag team match inside the Elimination Chamber and it was for the titles. Six teams were locked inside the pods and released at random to fight among the steel and try to leave with the titles and without injury.

The New Day ended up winning the match and retaining their titles.

At this time, WWE has only announced the dates and locations of five PPVs in 2017 and they are officially in place.

• Royal Rumble – Jan. 29, 2017 – Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas
• Fastlane – Mar. 5, 2017 – Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• WrestleMania 33 – Apr. 2, 2017 – Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida
• SummerSlam – Aug. 20, 2017 – Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
• Survivor Series – Nov. 19, 2017 – Toyota Center in Houston, Texas

The opening in February now leaves it wide open without a PPV and that’s kind of interesting considering that December will have two with TLC (SmackDown LIVE) and Roadblock (Monday Night Raw). Seeing that also leads to another interesting question regarding the Elimination Chamber and one has to wonder which brand will represent it.

Now, WWE may want to pit the two brands against one another again, but doing that too often will make the battle for brand supremacy a bit watered down. With it happening recently at Survivor Series and WrestleMania 33 likely being multi-branded, the company doesn’t want to overdo the Raw vs. SmackDown battle.

WWE has been looking at making their other PPVs outside of the big four mean something again and not just be seen as “filler” between the bigger events. If they really want to make the time between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 33 mean something, they won’t let February go without a big-time event of some kind.

UPDATE at 10 a.m. on Dec. 1, 2016: WrestleZone is now reporting that the Elimination Chamber will take place on Feb. 12, 2017, and will be a Monday Night Raw brand event.

It is quite interesting that the Talking Stick Resort Arena would make this announcement before WWE officially revealed the return of the Elimination Chamber on their own. Still, the company knows that word of mouth and social media is sometimes the best way to get attention. Having it “secretly” out there is going to cause more discussion and get the fans even more excited for it. Now, who goes into the chambers – members of Monday Night Raw or members of SmackDown LIVE?

[Featured Image by WWE]