The biggest pro wrestling event in Australian history promised to be a wild one and it certainly delivered.
An epic home turf victory, a Logan Paul smackdown, and an awkward broadcast blackout all played out in front of 52,000 fans at Optus Stadium in Perth on Saturday night.
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Tensions were high coming into the WWE Elimination Chamber 2024 after pre-events spiralled into chaos.
However fans had plenty to cheer about when hometown hero Rhea Ripley successfully defended her WWE Women’s World Championship title and Grayson Waller, the ‘Sydney King,’ expertly stirred the pot ahead of WrestleMania 40.
Australia takes revenge on Logan Paul
If Logan Paul was hoping Australia had forgotten about his recent comments, he was certainly out of luck as he stepped into the Men’s Elimination Chamber.
The YouTuber turned professional wrestler was booed every time he appeared on screen and looked to be the target of his opponents as well after he called Aussie fans ‘rats’.
Although heat was coming from inside and outside the cage, nobody was more fired up than Kevin ‘KO’ Owens after the two got into an ugly onstage brawl on Friday.
Despite walking out with a koala in his arms, Owens was later seen bashing his head against his ‘pod’ – where the wrestlers wait before they are unleashed at random into the ring – as Paul stood outside and taunted him from the other side.
It seemed as if Owens, Randy Orton, and Bobby Lashley were seeking revenge on the behalf of all of Australia as they took down the controversial star with blow after blow.
Even Paul’s last-minute decision to pull out knuckle dusters ended badly when Orton pulled an epic ‘RKO’ on Paul — and the crowd loved it.
Hometown hero’s sweet family moment
The moment of the hour finally arrived when Rhea Ripley entered the ring to defend her WWE Women’s World Championship.
The crowd firmly backed the Adelaide-born superstar as she squared off against opponent Nia Jax in one of the defining moments of her career.
Although Jax smashed Ripley through an announcement table — twice — the ‘Irresistible Force’ was no match for ‘Mami’.
However it was the moment when Ripley ran over to her family that caught the hearts of fans around the world, as the Aussie superstar allowed her emotions to take over at last.
The champion was seen holding back tears as she hugged her mum and dad, siblings, and Riot City Wrestling crew from her early days on the Australian circuit.
Ripley earlier told news.com.au she hoped to avoid eye contact with her family as she needed to “stay strong” and defend her title.
“I’m just gonna try and keep it together as best as I can. I don’t want to get too emotional out there because I don’t want Nia to capitalise on that,” Ripley said on Friday.
“So there might be a moment in my entrance when I might let it affect me, but at the same time I’m going to try and stay strong and hopefully prevail, put Nia down, and obviously keep Mami on top.
“Then Mami can cry.”
Ripley looked emotional for a moment during her entrance when she stood on stage and took in the first time she has returned to Australia after making it big in the WWE.
“My family is going to be there tomorrow and they are excited. I hope I see them out there there but also I hope I don’t because seeing my mum get emotional might break me,” she said.
“And if I see my dad get emotional that’s definitely gonna break me, because I haven’t seen that man cry many times but I saw him cry before WrestleMania and that killed me.
“Even though it was happy tears, proud tears, it affects me in a certain way so having them there and knowing they are there is going to help me along the way.”
“But I just hope I don’t make eye contact with them too much because then I might break,” she added.
Ugly scenes force broadcast blackout
Although Aussie Rhea Ripley had fans on their feet when she defended her title at Optus Stadium, the biggest crowd reaction came when Dominik Mysterio grabbed the microphone.
Mysterio was brutally shouted down every time he spoke into the mic and it got so ugly WWE producers briefly pulled the plug on the live telecast.
With fans appearing to be flipping the bird to Mysterio, the telecast was blacked out without explanation.
One wrestling commentator said the entire front row of seating had shown Mysterio the middle finger.
The drama unfolded before Finn Balor and Damian Priest defended their tag team titles against British duo Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate.
Mysterio, who is also part of the Judgement Day Raw stable, entered the ring with Balor and Priest to introduce his allies — only to be booed out of the arena.
The hatred for Mysterio only increased he was eventually disqualified by the referee for helping Balor escape from being pinned. It was then that the ringside spectators turned on Mysterio and the telecast blacked out.
Results
Women’s World Championship: Rhea Ripley defeated Nia Jax.
Men’s Elimination Chamber: Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton, Bobby Lashley, LA Knight, Logan Paul and Kevin Owens
The Grayson Waller Effect with guests Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins: Rhodes and Rollins teamed up to challenge The Rock, who remained a no-show despite rumours he would be the surprise guest. Grayson Waller, the Sydney King, caused the ‘scoop’ to be announced with plenty of typical pot-stirring.
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship: The Judgement Day [Finn Balor and Damian Priest] defeated Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate.
Women’s Elimination Chamber: Becky Lynch defeated Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, Naomi, Tiffany Stratton and Raquel Rodriguez.
Women’s Tag Team Championship: The Kabuki Warriors [Asuka and Kairi Sane] defeated Melbourne star Indi Hartwell and Candice LaRae.
The future of WWE in Australia
Although the show may be over folks, Australian wrestling fans are still in luck.
BINGE is officially the new streaming home for the WWE Network in Australia with Premium Live Events and WWE content available across all subscription types.
Royal Rumble, WrestleMania 39, WWE Raw, WWE Smackdown, and all of the WWE Network’s original programming – including archived content – is on offer so fans can enjoy the action even after WWE Elimination Chamber 2024 is over.