Even though March Madness is on the horizon and a National Championship is on everyone’s mind, April is the month for the greatest sports entertainment event of the year, WrestleMania. The Road to WrestleMania is coming to a near exit after coming off of a good Royal Rumble pay-per-view in January and making a pit stop in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Raw pay-per-view of the Elimination Chamber.

The show kicked off with the Women’s Elimination Chamber match for the Raw Women’s Championship featuring the champion Alexa Bliss taking on Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. Leading up to the match, we’ve seen signs of a heel Sasha Banks as she went up against Bayley two weeks prior to last Sunday night’s event, which could lead to a possible blow off matchup at WrestleMania.

We also saw Alexa Bliss trying to form an alliance with Mickie James to get someone to have her back. To start the match, Bayley and Deville faced off, followed by Rose entering first from the chamber to make it a two-on-one situation, with Bayley taking on both members of Absolution. Luckily, Banks entered second from the chamber and came to the Bayley’s rescue and the two worked together to eliminate Rose. At the end of the match, it came down to Banks and Bliss.

My prediction for Banks winning the title was almost confirmed. Everything was running smoothly until Bliss delivered a Hangman’s DDT off the top rope to Banks, retaining her title in the first ever Women’s Elimination Chamber match.

The next match was The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro) versus Titus Worldwide (Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews) for the Raw Tag Team Titles. For the past couple of weeks, Titus Worldwide has been having the Bar’s number, beating them in non-title matches and putting them in the position for this title opportunity. This match was seen as a filler for The Bar leading up to their next program at WrestleMania, which is still up in the air as to who they will face. This was a decent Raw type match, with nothing too exciting coming from The Bar retaining their titles.

The third match on the card was Asuka versus Nia Jax, with the implication that if Nia Jax won, she would get added to the Raw Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania. Jax dominated Asuka in the match and looked strong, but that didn’t stop Asuka from getting a roll-up pin victory over her. Jax didn’t take this loss too lightly as she continued her domination over Asuka by attacking her after the match and spearing her through the barricade.

Now, the hopes and aspirations of wrestling fans worldwide are for Asuka to use her Royal Rumble victory to choose to face Charlotte on SmackDown instead of Alexa Bliss on Raw. But by the looks of the show’s previews, WWE made it seem as if she will face Bliss at WrestleMania. Maybe there’s still hope for the match and WWE is just trying give an illusion of some sort.

Bray Wyatt versus Woken Matt Hardy was the fourth match on the card as the feud between the two has been going on since last month and fans hoped it would end with this fight. But this match disappointed the Las Vegas crowd as Beach Ball Mania was running wild during this match and Rusev Day’s chants echoed throughout the arena. Hardy won the match with a Twist of Fate.

Before the men’s Elimination Chamber match, we had the much anticipated contract signing of Ronda Rousey. We haven’t seen her since her debut appearance at January’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and Kurt Angle were in attendance for the signing, which, of course, signaled there was going to be some type of altercation between McMahon and Rousey.

Even with praises from the two, Rousey didn’t seem to be amused about this, which lead to her putting Triple H through the table and signing the contract. Could this possibly lead to a mixed tag match between Angle and Rousey versus Triple H and McMahon? This might be what fans are hoping for.

The main event was the seven-man Elimination Chamber featuring Elias, The Miz, Finn Balor, Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, John Cena and Roman Reigns. To start the match, The Miz was forced to be the first one in with Rollins and Balor. Cena was the first one to enter the match from the pod, followed by Reigns and Strowman entering third. This quickly became the Braun Strowman show as he completely dominated everyone else in the match, eliminating everyone one by one.

Now, being a wrestling fan who looks around the internet and analyzes wrestling, Reigns was a favorite to win the match and face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania after coming in second place in the Royal Rumble and there being rumors that Vince McMahon wants to see Lesnar and Reigns again in the main event at WrestleMania as they did at WrestleMania 31. Reigns eliminated Strowman with two spears, coming out on top until an upset Strowman went on a rampage and destroyed Reigns in the chamber.

Overall, this was a decent show that set up WrestleMania with some predictability but also some hope coming up for this year’s show of shows. So, gear up basketball fans for March Madness and prepare yourself for WrestleMania in April because this is going to be an exciting Spring for both sports.