Cody Rhodes and Jacob Fatu both desperately want to get their hands on WWE Champion Drew McIntyre for the top prize in the company at WrestleMania 42. They’ll have to win the Elimination Chamber match in order to make that happen. The only problem is that they are facing each other tonight in a Chamber qualifier, along with Sami Zayn in a triple threat match. On the surface, that suggests at least one of Fatu or Rhodes won’t even make it to the Chamber match at the end of this month. But it can’t be WWE’s actual plan to leave one of them out of the Chamber match. It’s worth noting that sometimes WWE does book a “last chance” qualifying match right before the PLE, where the previous losers have a second chance to secure the final Chamber spot. That could perhaps be how WWE fits both Rhodes and Fatu in this year’s chamber match, even after one of them loses tonight and is seemingly out of the mix.
Another scenario that might get both of them into the Chamber is for there to be a double pin on Sami Zayn in this qualifying bout. Zayn is well known for choking in important matches, so that idea seems plausible to me. But what if WWE doesn’t plan to book either Rhodes or Fatu inside the Chamber? Both babyfaces attacked Drew McIntyre last week, so he may be looking to return the favor tonight. Drew already interfered to eliminate Cody from the Royal Rumble, so we know he wants nothing to do with a rematch against him. It makes sense for McIntyre to try the same strategy tonight to screw Rhodes out of a WrestleMania main event. Drew has Sami’s number, so he should do everything in his power to make sure Sami wins tonight and qualifies for the Elimination Chamber over Rhodes and Fatu. There are no disqualifications in a triple threat match, so there’s no rule that prevents the WWE champion from putting his thumb on the scale tonight in this high stakes fight.