WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 will emanate from the United Center in Chicago on Feb. 28, and following Roman Reigns’s Royal Rumble victory, the match to determine the other world championship opponent at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas feels ripe for a potential surprise.
Currently, the two main male champions in WWE are World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk on Monday Night Raw and Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre over on the SmackDown side.
Punk and Roman have been on a collision course for ‘Mania 42 after their feud in 2024 and 2025 culminated in a Triple Threat match that actually led to a victorious Seth Rollins – and Paul Heyman defecting to The Architect to create The Vision faction.
So Roman and Punk is one match squared away, and now, the Elimination Chamber will tell us McIntyre’s opponent. He has an enticing history with pretty much all the Chamber participants this year, which only adds to the intrigue of the match.
As we prepare for another exciting Elimination Chamber Pay Per View, which may be the most underrated PPV on the WWE calendar, let’s rank each of the six expected male participants, predicting two of the six unnamed participants based on their performances in the upcoming qualifying matchups.
6. Bronson Reed
Although Bronson Reed is one of the wrestlers who still has to qualify for the Elimination Chamber as he will be competing in a Triple Threat match on Raw next week against El Grande Americano and Jey Uso, it makes much more sense for Reed to be the winner.
The Vision need a representative in the match to make things interesting and leave viewers potentially pondering the possibility of CM Punk having someone else to worry about in the match.
Plus, Reed will bring a much-needed hoss into the Chamber match itself, helping the mechanics of the match. It’s also better to give him the opportunity, since he has been interesting in The Vision storyline as an enforcer, whereas fans are growing tired of the storyline with El Grande Americano and Jey Uso needs less opportunities, not more.
That being said, Reed has no chance of winning the match. Punk’s destiny is already squared away with Reigns, and unlike Drew McIntyre, there is no benefit in making this match a Triple Threat when we already saw that dynamic play out last year – and there’s no way any of the current participants in the Elimination Chamber are going to add more intrigue to a Roman vs. Punk duel than what Paul Heyman and Seth Rollins did last year.
5. Je’Von Evans
It was a beautiful moment to see Je’Von Evans pin Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio, who is now one of the biggest stars in the company (not just “rising stars”), and also beat Gunther in the Triple Threat qualifying match for the Elimination Chamber.
Evans has future superstar written all over him, and he suits the modern fan well with their short attention span and proclivity towards the highlight-reel moments. This young man is a human highlight reel in the ring with his rare athleticism, making predecessors Mustafa Ali and Lince Dorado look almost pedestrian by comparison.
Of course, like Bronson Reed, Je’Von Evans is in the match more to reward a rising star and to help the dynamics of the match than he is an actual threat to win, but I think when the lights are actually on at the United Center to end the month, there will be a lot of fans in the Chicago audience on the edge of their seats believing in Evans.
He’s that good at this pro wrestling thing, and what separates him from other highflyers who have come through WWE, like Evan Bourne, is that he has the charisma and in-ring IQ to pull at your heartstrings. He might be the Ali that WWE actually push.
4. Trick Williams
Likewise, Trick Williams is another wrestler who has future superstar written all over him, and you can count on one hand the number of men in this company who are as good as he is on the mic.
Williams’s programs with Carmelo Hayes in NXT were blockbuster, and in his first real introduction to the WWE audience, Williams has knocked it out of the park.
All the little details Williams brings to the table are a delight, from his in-ring attire to his facial expressions. Williams has the gift of telling more with less, which is often the hallmark of young superstars destined for greatness in WWE.
Now, Williams’s moment is not going to come in the 2026 Elimination Chamber, but, like Je’Von Evans, he has a chance to have a real breakout moment and mix it up with the big boys.
I may be getting too ahead of myself, though, because, like Bronson Reed, Williams still has to qualify for the match. On the next episode of WWE SmackDown, Williams will be going up against long-time rival Carmelo Hayes and last year’s Chamber competitor Damian Priest in a match that is sure to bang.
3. LA Knight
Now we get to the top half of the proverbial table and the men who have a legitimate chance at winning. LA Knight and Drew McIntyre have plenty of bad blood between them in the past, including a Triple Threat qualifying match for the Elimination Chamber last year.
They had a bigger feud a few years ago, and the mic work between Knight and McIntyre should be even more impeccable this year with Drew flourishing as a heel and providing some of the best soundbites in the company ever since stepping up his game to another level after his Feud of the Year with CM Punk.
There are more compelling matchups for McIntyre than Knight, but imagine if WWE were to finally pull the trigger and give fans what they want with a signature LA Knight victory.
They’ve held off so many times in the past at more opportune times that it would be almost unbelievable for WWE to finally oblige out of nowhere, but stranger things have happened and Knight is a darkhorse worth keeping in mind next week.
2. Randy Orton
Speaking of wrestlers with a rich history of feuding with Drew McIntyre, you can’t tell the story of the pandemic era of WWE without the rivalry between Randy Orton and McIntyre in the summer of 2020.
The two battled over the world title on Monday Night Raw for a long time, trading the title back and forth while doing the best they could to entertain the audience.
This rivalry was the rebirth of Orton’s Legend Killer gimmick, fresh off feuding with Edge and even rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mark Henry. Orton helped legitimize McIntyre as a main event babyface in WWE.
Years later, both McIntyre and even Orton are arguably more entertaining. Orton has become much more beloved and respected in his elder years as a mentor to the locker room, rather than an entitled miscreant in his youth, while McIntyre is quite obviously producing the best work of his life.
Watching McIntyre hold and win the world title in the main event of one of the nights of WrestleMania over Randy would be a real full-circle moment, and while Orton doesn’t seem to be ticketed for a world title match at this year’s ‘Mania, you can never count The Viper out.
1. Cody Rhodes
Finally, the most likely and sensible option is Cody Rhodes. It still feels like a heel turn is right around the corner for Cody, and while McIntyre isn’t the right person for Cody to turn heel on, the insertion of Jacob Fatu as a lovable foil for Rhodes to direct his ire against would make an abundance of sense.
Fans were excited to see McIntyre rip the world title away from Cody in a Three Stages of Hell Match on SmackDown in a welcome surprise on weekly WWE television, as these sorts of marquee title changes between big names in WWE have become a rarity.
But it made sense then, and it makes sense for McIntyre to stamp his dominance by beating Cody at WrestleMania and retaining his title en route to his first truly lengthy run at the top.
Equally, it makes sense for Cody to get a big win back at the Elimination Chamber, go on a tear leading to WrestleMania with promo battles against McIntyre, and then ultimately losing the title via Fatu’s involvement costing him.
Cody can then turn heel on Fatu, setting up a wonderful storyline that pumps the crowd on Fatu’s side, allows Cody to go on a heel run that exercises his creativity further, and sets up a summer of twists and turns in the landscape of WWE.
Joe helped manage the pro wrestling site Daily DDT from 2017 to 2019. He has appeared in many wrestling podcasts and has had his work featured by mainstream media sites and professional wrestlers themselves. Joe also covers soccer, writing about Tottenham for Hotspur HQ, Real Madrid for A Trip to Cibeles, and general world football for The Trivela Effect.