“Hey Rock, go f*** yourself.”
With that, Cody Rhodes created yet another epic moment in Toronto’s storied World Wrestling Entertainment history.
Those were the words from the Undisputed WWE Champion to the iconic Final Boss to end Elimination Chamber, igniting a frenzy in the crowd.
But what followed no one saw coming as the legendary John Cena turned heel, attacking Rhodes on behalf of The Rock and beating him bloody as a stunned crowd watched.
Rhodes had been summoned to the ring by The Rock, who is also a member of the board of directors for the parent company, TKO Holdings.
The Rock had earlier asked Rhodes to give him his soul in exchange for using his power to make Rhodes the greatest champion of all time.
Instead, Rhodes refused before Cena attacked Rhodes, savagely beating, cutting him and aligning himself with The Rock just moments after Cena had won the men’s Elimination Chamber match at Rogers Centre, setting up an epic main event for WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas next month that will pit him against Rhodes for his title.
For the first time since 2002, the Rogers Centre in Toronto hosted a WWE show, and it did not disappoint.
More than 38,000 packed the home of the Toronto Blue Jays for Elimination Chamber, the WWE’s final premium live event ahead of WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas next month.
An announced crowd of 38,493 was treated to two excellent Elimination Chamber matches and two other matches featuring Canadians Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and hall of famer Trish Stratus, along with the iconic show finish.
Cena will seek 17th world championship
The star-studded men’s Elimination Chamber match featured Logan Paul, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest and the iconic Cena, who made his final Toronto appearance at the event, winning the men’s match to earn a spot in the main event at WrestleMania and a chance at a record 17th world title.
Paul, Priest, Punk and Cena started inside the pods of the chamber, a large enclosed structure that sees six competitors face off for the chance to face Rhodes, the WWE Undisputed WWE Champion, at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas next month. Rollins and McIntyre started the match.
As Rollins and McIntyre battled, Priest’s pod was the first to open, followed by Paul, who was booed heavily by the Toronto faithful all night long. Chants of “f*** you, Logan,” greeted the internet influencer-turned-WWE star.
Cena entered third, delivering an explosion of offence that included three Attitude Adjustment finishers. Priest eliminated McIntyre in the fracas, rolling him up after McIntyre hit his Claymore on Cena.
Punk was the final entrant to be released from his pod, but not before Paul hit a Frog Splash off the top of the pod to eliminate Priest.
Punk and Cena shared a memorable moment in the ring, which excited the crowd at the possibility of an altercation before Rollins broke it up.
Punk countered a Buckshot Lariat with his GTS to eliminate Paul, leaving Cena, Punk and Paul to finish the match.
At one point, Punk and Cena embraced in a hug before exploding into punches.
The trio entertained with several two-counts and really had the crowd guessing who would come out on top.
Punk and Cena combined to eliminate Rollins, leaving the two favourites headed into the match as its final two combatants.
Rollins curb-stomped Punk after his elimination, setting up Cena for the STF. With Punk seemingly unconscious, the ref called it, giving Cena the win, much to the delight of the Toronto crowd.
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RKO returns
The legendary Randy Orton made his return to WWE on Saturday night.
Following the Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn match, as Owens attempted to attack Zayn following his win over his longtime friend, Orton’s music hit, sending the Toronto crowd into a frenzy. Orton then hit Owens with his RKO before he lined up a punt kick, which was broken up by WWE officials ringside. The crowd booed loudly at the interference.
Orton then hit the officials with several RKOs, lifting the crowd to its feet.
Orton and Owens appear headed toward a WrestleMania 41 match.
Owens, Zayn deliver in a big way
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, longtime real-life friends whose careers have paralleled one another’s, faced off in an unsanctioned match, a rarity in WWE.
The last unsanctioned match on WWE’s main roster came in July 2020, when Randy Orton faced Big Show.
The match, which featured no rules and a referee sporting a black shirt, featured chairs, a hockey stick, a table, a garbage can, and a chair wrapped in barbed wire, which moved into the crowd for a period of time, did not disappoint.
The crowd chanted in delight as the Quebec natives absolutely laid it all on the line, with Zayn even going through two tables over the top rope and Owens being put through two tables filled with drinks and food.
Owens wowed the crowd with a twisting fishermen buster, which had them exasperated.
After the ref was rendered unconscious, a second ref was attacked by Owens.
The show-stealing match also saw Owens fall face-first into the barbed wire chair, and the crowd absolutely exhausted by the time it concluded, with Owens hitting three power bombs onto the apron before pinning Zayn for the victory.
Belair victorious in women’s Elimination Chamber match
The show kicked off with the women’s Elimination Chamber match, which saw six women (Alexa Bliss, Roxanne Perez, Bayley, Bianca Belair, Naomi and Liv Morgan) compete in the enclosed structure, with two starting the match before the other four were randomly released from pods as the match wore on, with a berth in a WWE Women’s World Championship match at WrestleMania 41 on the line.
Bliss, Perez, Bayley and Belair all started locked inside the pods, while Morgan and Naomi started the match.
Jade Cargill made a surprise return from injury to open the show, attacking Naomi, who replaced Cargill as Belair’s partner. Naomi was stretchered off as Belair cried from inside the pod. Naomi was ruled unable to compete and was eliminated.
The first pod to open belonged to Belair, who tried to escape the pod to tend to her injured tag-team partner, but Morgan quickly capitalized.
Perez was the next to enter the match, followed by Bayley, making Bliss the final entrant.
It was nearly 15 minutes before all competitors gained entry into the match, and another five before Bayley was the first to be eliminated by Morgan’s Oblivion finisher.
Perez was eliminated after Morgan hit the double knees and Bliss hit a moonsault for the pin, leaving Bliss, Belair and Morgan as the final three.
Bliss was eliminated after hitting Belair with the Abigail DDT, before Morgan rolled up Bliss for the three-count, leaving Morgan and Belair to finish the match.
Belair hit her KOD finisher to secure her spot in one of the main events at WrestleMania 41.
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Trish Stratus victorious in return
The night’s second match featured Toronto’s Trish Stratus and WWE women’s champion Tiffany Stratton taking on Nia Jax and Candice LeRae.
Stratus, who is 49 and retired from full-time competition in Toronto in 2006, hasn’t lost a step, looking sharp in her first since her last match – a cage match against Becky Lynch – in September 2023.
After the high-octane opening match, this one started a little slowly, with the crowd taking a little while to get into it. Ultimately, the competitors delivered in a shortish match that ended with Stratton hitting her Prettiest Moonsault Ever finisher on Jax for the win, giving Stratus, a WWE Hall of fFamer, another victory in her illustrious career.
NOTES: The Toronto faithful mercilessly booed the U.S. national anthem, which was sang before the show going live at 7 p.m. It then belted out the national anthem and cheered loudly at its conclusion … Orton won his first WWE World Heavyweight Championship in Toronto in 2004 at SummerSlam when he defeated the late Chris Benoit … Stratus won her retirement match at Unforgiven 2006 at Air Canada Centre over Lita … Triple H won the Undisputed WWE Championship over Chris Jericho at WrestleMania X8 at SkyDome … Hulk Hogan lost both matches he wrestled at Rogers Centre in his career, losing to The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 6 in 1990 and losing to The Rock at WrestleMania X18 in 2002.