One Step Closer

Chapter 11

As the weeks leading up to Elimination Chamber, which would be held at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, went by, things got very intense at WWE.

With the AEW PPV, Revolution, shattering PPV records, the top brass, including the McMahons, at WWE felt an intense amount of pressure to outdo the competition, & they all hoped that Elimination Chamber would be the event that would keep fans' attention on them until WrestleMania.

As for Becky, she wasn't thinking about any of that. She was thinking about whether she was going to be facing Ronda at WrestleMania or not.

With Shayna Baszler being added to the match due to her former tag team partner Nia Jax suffering a back injury, that added an element of intrigue to everything because now everything wasn't so cut & dry.

Now there was no guarantee that Ronda would retain her title & face Becky at WrestleMania.

As Elimination Chamber began, Becky watched with interest as everything unfolded.

Seth battled Kevin Owens in a match that ended with Aleister Black interfering. It ended in a no-contest.

Thanks to some wrangling by Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar was defending the WWE Championship in the first Elimination Chamber match of the night.

The match went well with Brock eliminating the first three people he faced in Randy Orton, MVP, & Angel Garza.

It was when Bobby Lashley came in that everything changed.

Brock broke free from Bobby's attempt at a full Nelson & tried to pick him up in order to do the F5, which was one of Brock's signature moves.

However, as he tried to do it, Brock's left knee gave out on him, causing him to collapse in pain.

The official pushed Bobby out of the way to check on Brock.

"Are you OK, Brock? Can you keep going?" asked the official. Brock, who was grabbing his knee, shook his head no, & the official threw up the X, signaling that paramedics & backstage officials were needed.

After examining him & determining that the injury was both real & serious, the match was over. With Brock out, there was no point in continuing.

Seth & Becky watched from backstage & had been horrified by what they had seen.

"I hope he'll be OK," said Becky.

"So do I, babe," said Seth as he took her hand in his.

After that incident, it felt like the energy had been sucked out of the building despite a couple of great matches. One was Drew McIntyre vs Keith Lee, & the other was the Street Profits vs Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne.

When it came time for the women's Elimination Chamber match, people were now on pins & needles.

With Ronda & the participants inside the Chamber, it was time for Ronda to defend the Raw women's title & earn the right to face Becky at WrestleMania.

Ruby Riott came out first & kneed Ronda in the stomach. Once Io Shirai came out, both women teamed up to beat the champion down.

However, that made Ronda extremely angry because she ended up knocking both women out & put each one in the arm bar, which resulted in each tapping out.

Rhea Ripley, who was on Raw, came out next & put in a better effort against Ronda, but the result was the same. Rhea was out.

When Bayley came out next, Ronda just slugged her & got the pinfall.

Then it was time for Shayna to come out, & she looked at Ronda with anger in her eyes & on her face.

With Nia watching alongside them backstage, Seth & Becky each wondered what was going to happen next.

They would find out soon enough.