What are the rules to an Elimination Chamber match?

The WWE will head to Saudi Arabia on Saturday for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, the final premium live event for the company before Wrestlemania in six weeks. As always, the show will be headlined by a pair of Elimination Chamber matches featuring men and women superstars representing Monday Night Raw.

Introduced in 2002, the Elimination Chamber match has become one of the WWE’s most popular gimmicks and an easy device to get multiple top superstars into one match at the same time. The chamber traditionally features six superstars participating in the match with a few variations over time. Originally happening sporadically, it became an annual pay-per-view on the calendar in 2010, typically taking place in February on the Road to Wrestlemania.

If you’re not familiar, we’ll go over the basics of an Elimination Chamber match and how to win.

Rules

Combining elements of regular steel cage matches, Hell in a Cell, and War Games, the Elimination Chamber is a six-person, elimination style matchup taking place inside a massive steel structure that surrounds the ring. The chamber also has four glass pods in each corner where superstars wait to officially enter the contest.

The match begins with two superstars fighting in the ring while the other four wait in their respective pods. After a five-minute interval, another superstar will exit their pod and enter the match. This process continues until all six participants have officially entered the bout and like any match, eliminations occur by either pinfall or submission. The match is no disqualification, so any weapon can be used as well as the chamber itself. We’ve seen several spots from people being thrown into the cage to people being thrown through the glass pods.

The final person left standing wins the match.

Prize

The prize is straightforward as there’s usually a championship on the line in these types of matchups. At this year’s pay-per-view, the WWE Championship will be on the line as Bobby Lashley will defend his belt against five other superstars.

The winner of this year’s women’s chamber match will get a shot at the Raw Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania. It will just the second time in history that the No. 1 contendership will be on the line inside of the Elimination Chamber and not an actual title.