WWE Elimination Chamber 2015: Results and observations from the show

The WWE has tasked itself with putting on three pay-per-views (or what the company now calls special events) in less than two months.

The second of the busy run of shows, Elimination Chamber, took place this past Sunday night at American Bank Center Arena in Corpus Christi, Texas.

While I had high expectations heading into the event, the show fell short of meeting them. That's not to say Elimination Chamber was a bad show. In fact, I still believe it was good show.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but I just expected more this show.

The fallout from this show will have to be digested rather quickly, as we will be right back in this position in less than two weeks with Money in the Bank.

Before I delve any deeper, here are the full match results from the event:

- Kickoff match – Stardust def. Zack Ryder

- Elimination Chamber for WWE Tag Team championship – The New Day def. Primetime Players, Tyson Kidd & Cesaro, Los Matadores, Lucha Dragons, The Ascension

- WWE Divas championship – Nikki Bella def. Naomi & Paige

- Champion vs. Champion – Kevin Owens def. John Cena

- Neville def. Bo Dallas

- Elimination Chamber for WWE Intercontinental Championship – Ryback def. King Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, Mark Henry, Sheamus

WWE World Heavyweight Championship – Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins via disqualification

Now, let's dive into my observations from Elimination Chamber:

Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins fight to a "Dusty finish"

The WWE got a lot accomplished during the main event of Elimination Chamber between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.

The WWE helped Ambrose look like more of a credible challenger for the WWE World Heavyweight championship and it left the door open for a lot of possibilities surrounding the title moving forward.

However, using the "Dusty finish" to get to that point wasn't needed in my view.

I'm sure there are those of you out there wondering what in the world is a "Dusty finish."

Well, it obviously goes back to WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes, who besides being a talented in the ring and on the microphone, he also boasts a very creative mind for the business of professional wrestling and has booked it for a large portion of his career.

Rhodes can hit big on some of his ideas such as the WarGames, but he can also miss on other ideas, such as The Shockmaster and the Chamber of Horrors match.

But another idea that's mostly credited to him is the finish people saw Sunday night, where the babyface pins the heel champion and has seemingly won the title, only to have the decision reversed by the official a minute or two later or even the next night.

I'm not sure if Rhodes was the first person to use that kind of finish, but he definitely made it kind of famous within wrestling, so much so that people decided to name it after him.

The finish essentially lets the booker have his or her cake and eat it, too. The booker gets to have the euphoric moment of having the babyface win the title, but still keep the title on the heel because of a technicality.

In essence, neither man loses. Everyone saw the babyface pin the heel, which means he must be pretty good, but you also keep the heel pretty strong because he's still the champion, and in some cases, he technically won.

The fans get the rug pulled out from under them, as they experience the highest peak imaginable and then suddenly face a very low valley minutes later.

Taking the fans on an emotional roller coaster isn't a bad thing in theory, unless they've already been taken on that ride.

The "Dusty finished" worked at its best during the days when territories were still on syndicated television, meaning that the promotion you watched in one are of the country was totally different from the one you may watch in another.

What this meant was that a booker could do something in one area without anyone from the rest of the country being aware of it. Therefore, it handed a booker the opportunity to duplicate the angle somewhere else with the same kind of results.

The problem came when cable started and the television began to overlap, meaning that people were seeing wrestling from outside of their home area.

Although it should have rendered the "Dusty finish" null and void, it didn't, and it was still used even though people had seen it before. The finish doesn't quite have the same effect the second or third time around.

Once people saw it multiple times, they caught on and it hurt the promotion moving forward. The WWE doesn't have to worry about its attendance suddenly dwindling, but I think it could halt your momentum.

The WWE decided to dust off (no pun intended) this off Sunday night. Granted, the WWE almost never ends a match with the "Dusty finish." I'm sure it has in the past, but not recently, which means there is the potential that some people haven't seen it before, especially children, who have no idea what a wrestling territory even is.

The problem with today's wrestling world is that everyone knows that it's scripted, so the shock of the fans having rug being pulled from under them isn't really shock. It's more like anger.

It's clear that the WWE wanted Rollins to walk out with the title, but apparently not at the expense of pinning Ambrose, which is good. Ambrose should be protected, but I've personally never been a fan of the "Dusty finish."

There were some upset fans out there, maybe not enough to cause too much of an uproar, but enough to take notice. Were they caught up in the story? I guess that case could be made, but again, people know it's scripted. How caught up can they get?

The post-match angle left me scratching my head as well. After Rollins celebrated retaining his title, he J&J Security and Kane began beating up on Ambrose. That's when Roman Reigns showed up to save the day. In the midst of all of that Ambrose somehow got his hands on the WWE World Heavyweight title and left the building.

That makes sense given that Ambrose should feel as though he is the rightful owner of the title. What hurts it is that it makes Rollins look like a chump yet again and the WWE just did an angle with someone stealing another man's title.

Remember the Intercontinental championship fiasco heading into WrestleMania?

As a matter of fact, it all started when Ambrose stole the title from Bad News Barrett. That was only three months ago.

Just like WrestleMania, it looks like the title will be on the line in a multi-man ladder match at Money in the Bank.

Kevin Owens beats John Cena clean

Although the "Dusty finish" is designed to leave the fans in shock and awe, nothing was more shocking than when NXT Champion Kevin Owens pinned WWE United States champion John Cena in the middle of the ring. Clean.

No interference.

No cheating.

No shenanigans.

No controversy.

No way for Cena to make a case that he should have won.

Clean.

Let that sink in for a second.

(Stop reading for a second to let it sink in real deep)

Now think about how rare that is. Think about the last time Cena, a 15-time world champion, was pinned in the middle of the ring like every other person on the roster on a pay-per-view/special event.

Unless I'm wrong, I believe it was when Brock Lesnar destroyed him at SummerSlam last year. Even though it was Lesnar, it was still pretty shocking.

Sunday night was even more surprising given that Owens hasn't even been in the WWE system for a year.

I don't think the WWE could have possibly done more to make Owens into a star than what it has done with him so far.

He's gone from independent star to NXT champion to what looks is going to be a made man in the WWE all within a calendar year. That's incredible.

Let us not lose sight of the match itself, which was amazing. Owens looked like he belonged in the ring with Cena and definitely rose to the occasion. Owens pulled off some moves that Cena has probably never taken before and even teased the package pile driver.

As always, Cena held up his end of the bargain in a big match.

I praised Cena a couple of weeks ago when he let Owens hit him with the pop-up power bomb on Raw. That was doing a lot for Owens given that he is the unquestioned No. 1 man in the WWE.

But to go out there and lose to him without any shenanigans is very rare from a guy in his position and a man in Owens' position, which is that of a guy that is just starting his WWE career.

I don't think Hulk Hogan would have done it. I don't think Ric Flair would have done (although he made guys look great even while beating them). Steve Austin may have done it, but he would definitely make sure that Owens was worthy before doing so.

Cena did though and for that he deserves kudos.

Elimination Chamber matches were underwhelming

Heading into this event, I thought that if nothing else, the Elimination Chamber matches were going to be fun and entertaining.

While the tag team match was pretty good, the one for the Intercontinental championship was very underwhelming given how much talent was in the ring.

The Tag title match was good but there were moments where it felt like a bit of a cluster. Although The New Day won, I thought the match did a lot for the Primetime Players. That was probably their best showing together to date.

There wasn't a whole lot of good coming out of the IC title one though. Mark Henry replaced an injured Rusev and didn't add much to the match.

The rest of the match just never felt like it got into a groove or rhythm. Something just seemed off. It didn't hurt that the crowd wasn't reacting to a whole lot that was going on in the ring. I'll have more on that later.

The two positives I took away was Ryback's victory and Sheamus using his cross to lock himself in his pod until he saw the right opportunity to enter the fray.

For whatever reason, I've always been a fan of Ryback, especially when he's a babyface. I still think the heel turn he had in 2013 really halted his momentum, and that his true calling is as a good guy.

Nikki Bella retained her title for some reason

I really don't see why Nikki Bella is still the Divas champion. If she were out there tearing it up in the ring and taking part in some entertaining angles, I wouldn't complain.

But she's not doing either of those. She just has the title just to have it at this point. There's no real reason for it at all.

I thought Sunday night was Naomi's night to win the title, but I was wrong. I've been wrong before and have thought nothing of it, but I'm still wondering why this happened.

The less-than-stellar match didn't do any favors for any of the women involved. It just furthered the narrative of how good the NXT women's matches are and how average some of the matches on the main roster are.

The Divas division is in desperate need of some new talent and bringing up the NXT women would definitely give it a jolt of energy. The time is now more than ever to pull the trigger on one, maybe two of the NXT women and bring them up to the main roster.

The WWE has seemingly exhausted all of its options with the current group.

Tough crowd in Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi, Texas is notorious for being a rather quiet crowd and it was more of the same Sunday night.

I'm never one to blame the fans for not reacting to what they are being presented because a lot of times it doesn't deserve a great reaction.

But there were some things, especially during the Tag Team title match that would have been more memorable with a great reaction to match.

A hot crowd can do wonders for a match and even an entire show. The WWE didn't get a ton of help down in Texas Sunday.