With the Royal Rumble within the rear-view mirror, there’s just one path to a world championship match at WrestleMania, and that path is profitable the Elimination Chamber. The occasion takes place on Saturday at United Heart in Chicago.
Six males and 6 ladies will enter the Elimination Chamber, with the winners of the lads’s and girls’s matches incomes their shot at a world title. With males’s Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns already selecting world heavyweight champion CM Punk and girls’s winner Liv Morgan choosing ladies’s world champion Stephanie Vaquer, that leaves WWE champion Drew McIntyre and WWE ladies’s champion Jade Cargill for the Elimination Chamber winners.
There are additionally a pair of title matches set for the Elimination Chamber card, with CM Punk placing his world heavyweight title — and spot as a WrestleMania headliner — on the road towards Finn Balor, and Punk’s spouse, AJ Lee, difficult Becky Lynch for the ladies’s intercontinental championship.
Drew McIntyre reacts to WWE scrapping John Cena match at Crown Jewel: ‘I am unable to change the artistic path’
Shakiel Mahjouri
Let’s check out who the CBS Sports activities specialists consider will emerge victorious on Saturday in Chicago.
2026 WWE Elimination Chamber predictions
Males’s Elimination Chamber Match — Randy Orton vs. LA Knight vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Trick Williams vs. Jey Uso: Many instances, selecting a winner in a match like this comes right down to eliminating who would not be a winner. Evans and Williams aren’t presently on the degree the place they will be going one-on-one for a world championship at WrestleMania. Orton is a legend, however not one who’s in a spot the place he is smart as a WrestleMania headliner in 2026. Uso is not going to have a second consecutive world title match at WrestleMania, and he’s a tag champion anyway, giving him different issues to be doing. That leaves Knight and Rhodes, solely one in every of whom has an ongoing subject — which some might say has been ongoing for a lot too lengthy — with McIntyre. That makes the result appear pretty apparent. Decide: Cody Rhodes wins — Brent Brookhouse (additionally Shakiel Mahjouri)
Ladies’s Elimination Chamber Match — Tiffany Stratton vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka vs. Kiana James vs. Raquel Rodriguez: The winner of this match will problem WWE ladies’s champion Jade Cargill at WrestleMania. These stakes assist slim the sphere. The champ appears to be like like a field workplace star, so WWE ought to decide a challenger with star energy and expertise. Asuka and Cargill are each heels, and whereas that generally works, it does not gel effectively right here. Bliss suits the invoice, however she’s extra fascinating teaming with Charlotte Aptitude. Ripley vs. Cargill screams WrestleMania, a collision between two of WWE’s strongest ladies. Ripley’s standing as ladies’s tag staff champion complicates issues, however there’s extra upside right here than retreading Cargill vs. Stratton. Decide: Ripley wins — Mahjouri (additionally Brookhouse)
World Heavyweight Championship — CM Punk (c) vs. Finn Balor: It is good to see Balor positioned like a significant participant as soon as once more, and equally good that it’s signaling the tip of his time in Judgment Day, however there’s simply no method WWE pivots from Punk vs. Reigns at WrestleMania to Balor vs. Reigns. It was good to see WWE lastly carry up the weird ending to Balor vs. Reigns at Excessive Guidelines 2021, however that is not sufficient basis for a WrestleMania important occasion. Decide: CM Punk retains the title — Brookhouse (additionally Mahjouri)
Ladies’s Intercontinental Championship — Becky Lynch (c) vs. AJ Lee: Punk will easy issues over for Chicago after a tough begin for his or her adopted hero Lee. The ladies’s intercontinental champion wants a profitable title protection, particularly with the potential for one more showdown at WrestleMania. Lee has wrestled twice in 10 years, beating Lynch in WarGames and a combined tag staff match with their husbands. Count on Lynch to steal a victory via nefarious means forward of a one-on-one rematch in Las Vegas. Decide: Lynch retains the title — Mahjouri (additionally Brookhouse)