WWE Elimination Chamber

The WWE Elimination Chamber is a pro wrestling special match type held periodically by World Wrestling Entertainment.

The competition was established on November 17, 2002, and the first edition was won by Shawn Michaels , while the last edition took place on March 1, 2025 and was won by John Cena .

The Elimination Chamber is one of the most dangerous stipulations in professional wrestling.

Before the annual WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view (PPV) was introduced in 2010, the match was featured at various other WWE PPV events. Each of these grueling contests has carried a high-stakes stipulation, with the winner either capturing a championship (defending or vacant) or earning a future title opportunity.

Structure and Design

In the Elimination Chamber, a signature match of the WWE, the ring is surrounded by a massive circular cage made of interlocking chains, closed off by a domed roof. The structure also extends to the ringside area with steel platforms (referred to as "grates"), all at the same height as the ring apron.

The Elimination Chamber structure is made of 16 black-painted steel frames, each weighing 300 pounds (140 kg). The Chamber stands 16 feet (4.9 m) high, has a diameter of 36 feet (11 m), and weighs a total of around 15 tons, of which 10 tons are steel. The chains that make up the cage walls stretch over 2 miles (3.2 km) and weigh 5,400 kg.

Participants and Entrances

The match involves 6 wrestlers. Two competitors start the match in the ring, while the remaining 4 are locked inside small plexiglass chambers called Pods, positioned in the four corners of the cage. Wrestlers from these Pods enter the match at set intervals (typically 5 minutes).

The order of entry is random, announced by a spotlight shining on the Pod of the next competitor to be released. Sometimes, the entry order (or just the final entrant) is determined through prior qualifying matches.

Elimination Rules

This match operates under elimination rules (hence the name). The winner is the last wrestler standing after eliminating all others. Eliminations, including the final one, occur by pinfall or submission anywhere within the structure (since 2012, eliminations must take place inside the ring). Wrestlers can be eliminated even before all participants have entered. Naturally, there is no count-out (due to the enclosed cage), and there is no disqualification (DQ), meaning competitors can use any part of the structure, allow outside interference (though this is rare), and make use of foreign objects (though no weapons are pre-placed inside the chamber).

Origin and Variants

This stipulation was created by Eric Bischoff for the 2002 edition of Survivor Series, a WWE pay-per-view. Since 2010, it has been exclusively featured in the pay-per-view event of the same name.

A variant of this match is the Extreme Elimination Chamber, which has only taken place once (at the December to Dismember 2006 pay-per-view of WWE's ECW roster). The primary difference is that each wrestler inside the side pods has a weapon that enters the match when the wrestler does. In that single occurrence, the weapons used included a table, a steel chair, a crowbar, and a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.

On this page, you can find the full list of all the WWE Elimination Chamber winners in history, along with dates, events, locations and statistics.