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It’s the final stop on the Road to WrestleMania!

WWE’s Elimination PPV will feature two Chamber matches. One will determine who faces Becky Lynch for the RAW Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36 and the other has The Miz and John Morrison putting their SmackDown Tag Team titles on the line against five other teams.

I’ll be live-tweeting the event as well as running this live-blog, so follow me over at @TheMattFowler, if you’d like.

Elimination Chamber will also feature The Street Profits defend their newly-won RAW Tag Team titles against former champs Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy along with AJ Styles vs. Aleister Black, and Andrade vs Humberto Carrillo.

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This…isn’t exactly a stacked card. Becky Lynch and Bayley aren’t defending their championships. Goldberg and Brock are nowhere to be found (naturally). Hell, Roman Reigns doesn’t even have a match. It just doesn’t feel like the PPV you’d get right before WrestleMania. Of course, that doesn’t mean the people who don’t have matches can’t show up, in some capacity, but it sure feels empty without them.

And while we’re at it, let’s also hope for cameos, run-ins, or segments from Bray Wyatt, John Cena, and The Undertaker.

Vikings Raiders vs. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder

Huh, so we’re not even getting a competitive match for the Kickoff bout. Okay, pre-show. Okay. I see what you’re about now. At lest this means Daniel Bryan vs Drew Gulak is definitely on the main card.

Okay, so they had Hawkins and Ryder deliver a bit more offense than they would on Monday Night RAW. Just to pad things out. Plus, it’s WrestleMania season. This is when these two underdogs shine the brightest. Ultimately though, leave it to this particular PPV, which feels very “meh” on paper (a lot like TLC did in December), to give us one of the most underwhelming pre-show contests ever.

Winners: Viking Raiders

Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak

This is a match fans have wanted ever since Drew got drafted to SmackDown in the fall. Hopefully it’s a feud that doesn’t end tonight. With the right tweaking, it can feed into ‘Mania! Let’s find out…

Post-Fiend, it’s the perfect time to reboot Bryan and even him out with Gulak, who wouldn’t be on Bryan’s kayfabe level normally. We got a got a rare catch-as-catch-can clinic here as Gulak got elevated up to a tier where he could go toe-to-toe with Bryan, even staying a few steps ahead of him. Bryan’s neck injury also came into play since Gulak is all about exploiting his opponent’s weakness. In many ways, this match felt more vital and dangerous than Bryan’s PPV main event matches with The Fiend.

As a match that got added last minute, this is already the sleeper hit of the PPV. And Gulak passed out in the Yes-Lock. He never tapped. This one’s not over! What a fun way to start a show where the main draw is a giant cage of gimmickry.

Winner: Daniel Bryan

United States Champion Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo

Two stellar singles matches to start the show – whadya know!

In the case of Andrade and Carrillo, it’s two guys delivering a version of a match we’ve seen them have many times. Granted, it’s still a very good match, but this has to be the tenth time we’ve seen these guys clash and Carrillo come up short. Still, these two have abnormally-great chemistry. Carrillo seemed on the cusp of capturing the gold here, especially with Andrade just coming off a 30-day suspension, but they’re keeping the belt on Andrade a little while longer as the champ retained thanks to the hook of the tights here. No Angel Garza interference here, just Andrade eking out a solid heel win.

Winner, and STILL United States Champion: Andrade

SmackDown Tag Team Championship Elimination Chamber Match

The only thing inherently wrong with this match, other than the 10 minutes of entrances, were the stakes. Ultimately, it didn’t matter if Miz and Morrison retained their titles or not. The biggest story in this match was between Otis and Ziggler, and they just happened to be in tag teams.

That being said, the crowd came alive for this one about halfway through, once Heavy Machinery entered the fray. There were multiple big moves and maneuvers – including a skin the cat flip from the ceiling of the chamber from Lince Dorado and OTIS CRASHING THROUGH THE CHAMBER DOOR TO THE OUTSIDE…

So between the Lucha House Party (who were there instead of The Revival, LOL) and Heavy Machinery both doing some spectacular spots, this one wound up getting a few “this is awesome!” chants. Credit the performers here for bringing the crowd to their feet for a match for a perpetually under-promoted championship. It all came down to the Usos and the champs – and Miz and Morrison retained using some crafty teamwork.

Winners, and STILL SmackDown Tag Team Champions: The Miz and John Morrison

Aleister Black vs. AJ Styles (No Disqualification Match)

We knew he was coming but still…UNDERTAKERRRRRRRRR!

With Styles having Anderson and Gallows at his disposal, at any time in this No DQ match, it felt very similar to the match these he and Black had a week back when AJ made Aleister fight his cronies first. Of course, all of this, in the end, was to bring The Deadman back into Styles’ orbit so that they can fully set up their ‘Mania match.

Styles and Black work super well together. I’d like to see them do something more once the dust of Tampa settles. This bout was pretty solid (for a contest that was a long build to Taker’s appearance) and the sporadic use of weapons and tables (nice Meteora by Black!) helped keep the crowd alert after they gave all their energy to the tag team Chamber match. Aside from his teaming with Ricochet and series with Murphy, this was Black’s best main roster showcase.

Taker thwarted the O.C., chokeslammed Styles, and Styles fell to the Black Mass!

Also, depending on Undertaker’s ring shape, maybe we’ll get a Taker/Black vs. The O.C. at ‘Mania instead of a straight one-on-one.

Winner: Aleister Black

Raw Tag Team Champions The Street Profits vs. Seth Rollins & Murphy

This was a well-worked tag bout, for sure, but the crowd got a little more quiet for this one after getting up for the Chamber and Taker back-to-back. The Street Profits, though the champions, are still new to feuding with Seth’s crew, so there’s no real story outside of the championship,

Viking Raiders managed to escape the limbo of the Kickoff Show, running into the main card to chase away AoP and then, toward the end, Owens made his way through the crowd. This is when most fans started to perk up. This was all the Profits needed to keep their gold as Seth took a fateful of popcorn and Murphy took the pin. It was a little too long, ultimately, for a match that hinged on K.O.’s popcorn ambush, but decent nonetheless.

Winners, and STILL RAW Tag Team Champions: The Street Profits

Intercontinental Champion Braun Strowman vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro & Sami Zayn

HOLY S***!

Well, that was TRULY a shocker. What, by all intents and purposes, should have been an easy-ish enough win for Braun, who had just won his first ever singles title, became Sami Zayn’s biggest moment on the main roster. No, it wasn’t just one of Sami’s faction who won the Intercontinental Title – it was Sami!

And the heels didn’t even really cheat to do it. It was all built into the match as a 3-on-1 contest. It was Braun who made the mistake of thinking he could defeat all three of them. What a crazy moment. I guess they figured the best position for Braun was being an angry monster (among men) bent on revenge.

Winner, and NEW Intercontinental Champion: Sami Zayn

Women’s Elimination Chamber Match: Shayna Baszler, Asuka, Natalya, Liv Morgan, Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan

Wow, Shayna doesn’t even need to fall to the mat and drag her victims down with her to get them to submit. She just has to clamp her arms about their neck, while still standing, and it’s over. Not very exciting, to be honest. It’s more like a sleeper hold now that people just tap to very quickly.

Anyhow, this all fell into place rather dully. Ruby, Nattie, and Sarah, after beating each other to hell, got mauled by Shayna super fast. This was all about Asuka and Shayna, the two most dominant NXT Women’s Champions, finally clashing. Naturally, because they have to build Shayna up for Becky Lynch at ‘Mania, Asuka was going down. At least she got to put up a fight.

There was a comical moment though when Shayna was in the ring alone, waiting for the next pod to open, and the announcers teasing Asuka (and Asuka herself screaming from inside her pod) – and Liv’s pod was next! Of course, Liv got thrashed quick. We didn’t even get all three Riott Squad members in there at the same time!

Basically, this was like if the Brock part of the Royal Rumble lasted the entire Rumble. I get that there’s value in building someone up as a beast, but you run the risk of also putting on a terrible and boring Chamber match. Zzzzzzz.

Winner: Shayna Baszler

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Mario Kart Tour‘s long-awaited multiplayer update has finally arrived. This is right on schedule, as Nintendo previously announced that the multiplayer update was coming on March 8.

All you need to do is update Mario Kart Tour to unlock multiplayer, which allows you to finally race against other human opponents. For “Standard Races,” the rulesets will change every day, which in theory should encourage people to come back each day to see what’s new. Players can also invite specific players to custom races where they decide the rules as it relates to items, laps, etc.

Another variant is called “Gold Races,” and these are locked behind a paywall. Players must buy the $5 USD/month Gold Pass to participate in these races, which include faster speeds at 200cc. The Gold Pass also comes with an allotment of in-game currency and badges.

Mario Kart Tour released in September 2019. The free-to-play game makes money from the Gold Pass and its various other microtransactions, which have brought in more than $85 million so far.

The latest Mario Kart game for console is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and it is the most successful game for Nintendo Switch with some 22.96 million copies sold. The game originally released for the Wii U, and it sold 8.44 million copies on that system, bringing its total to 31.4 million.

Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Batwoman: Season 1, Episode 14!

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For a while it seemed as though Crisis on Infinite Earths was just the shot in the arm Batwoman needed. No Arrowverse series improved quite so dramatically in the aftermath of Crisis, with the emphasis on Alice’s refugee doppelganger doing a lot to address some of this series’ biggest flaws. Unfortunately, that momentum seems to be waning the farther we get from the crossover. Batwoman is beginning to feel more and more like its 2019 self again.

A lot of that has to do with the renewed emphasis on Kate and Sophie’s romance – never one of Batwoman’s strong suits even on the best of days. The whole idea of Sophie carrying on a clandestine affair with Gotham’s newest costumed vigilante just seems silly, to say nothing of her inability to recognize the bottom half of her ex’s face. There’s something to be said for the need to give Kate a victory of some kind after everything she’s suffered in recent months, but there have to be better ways of accomplishing that than this painfully awkward and very fleeting relationship.

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The one advantage here is the series is finally able to give Sophie some badly needed character development and finally give viewers reason to empathize with her. Before now, Sophie had mainly been defined by her weaknesses. She lacked the conviction to stand alongside Kate when their relationship was discovered at the academy. She couldn’t be honest with herself or her fiance about her sexuality. But this week, we finally get a sense of Sophie’s difficult upbringing and why she has such difficulty being true to herself where it comes so easily to Kate. It’s tempting to dismiss the bigoted, overbearing mother figure as an overused storytelling trope in 2020, but the sad truth is that it’s a trope for a reason.

The series also seems to be moving backwards when it comes to Jacob’s storyline. His prison stint ended so abruptly it’s a wonder that plot point was ever introduced in the first place. Granted, there are some ramifications playing out in terms of Jacob grappling with the corruption inside his own organization, but this seems like a very roundabout and inefficient way of getting from A to B. And based on this episode, it doesn’t appear as though Sophie’s suspension will do much to alter the status quo,either. Hopefully the payoff to this corruption investigation is at least worth the plodding buildup.

At least Episode 14 does a better job with its villain of the week subplot than Episode 13’s botched handling of Nocturna. This time we meet Duel Dent, a character who tends to go by the name Joker’s Daughter in the comics. There’s no hint of a Joker connection for now, and we can probably assume Warners is very protective of that corner of the Bat-verse. Instead, this version hearkens back to the early Joker’s Daughter stories when Duela was depicted as being Harvey Dent’s daughter (or in this case, his niece). An interesting shift, and certainly an appropriate one given her obsession with faces and hidden darkness.

Sidebar – it’s hard to parse Luke’s offhand mention of Harvey being “Gotham’s favorite DA.” Was it meant to be a sarcastic remark, or is Harvey still Gotham’s most revered public servant even this long after the rise of Batman? Maybe the Arrowverse’s Harvey Dent never became Two-Face? Or given how frequently this show pays homage to the Burton and Nolan movies, it may be using The Dark Knight as a model and we’ll eventually learn Batman covered up all evidence of Harvey’s crimes. Whatever the case, I’d like to see the series eventually dig into Harvey’s backstory eventually, along with some of the other key Batman rogues.

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Duela makes a strong impression despite playing more of a supporting role. Alessandra Torresani strikes a nice balance between a tormented, mentally ill young woman and a sadistic killer, helping give Duela a dose of humanity even as she targets social media influencers with all the gusto of a slasher movie villain. This episode probably could have benefited from a slightly more adult-oriented approach rather than trying to downplay the gore, though. One of these days The CW might want to look into swapping Batwoman and Supergirl’s time slots and letting the former get a little darker. Still, Duela is definitely one of the better minor villains of the season, and there’s plenty of potential for her to return in a a bigger role.

It should also be said that, as much as this episode slogs through unwanted romantic subplots and generally spins its heels, at least it presses its advantage the Alice front. Seeing Alice confront her old captor, Dr. Cartwright, is a treat. If you’ll pardon the pun, there’s a compelling game of cat and mouse developing between the two. It’s no longer clear which of the two will emerge as the final threat in Season 1. Even now, just as Alice seems to finally outwit Cartwright, he proves he still has the upper hand. Next week looks to be a very Alice-centric episode, so hopefully we’ll learn more about her time in captivity and get a better sense for where all of this is headed in the final two months of the season.

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…

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Man, the coolest weapons are almost always the most cumbersome!

A morning star would be the absolute last thing I’d grab to kill zombies, and yet Daryl looked so damn awesome wielding one here.

But he’s the king of making awkward weaponry seem badass, right? Daryl and only Daryl can get away with bringing a spiked ball and chain to the front lines of a huge war. Especially when one is fighting a herd of zombies that also contains real people hiding out as zombies – who can grab the chain and yank the weapon away.

“Morning Star” was pretty damn good. This back half of Season 10 is ramping up quite nicely. Hell, if we’re lucky, we’ll get through this Whisperer war before the season finale. It’d be nice to break the usual format and it would ditch a ton of the usual padding that goes into adapting these comic arcs into the show. Look, because of Beta’s ambush last week, Hilltop, as of this episode, has just about every single character we still care about in one place. The gang’s pretty much all together, save for Gabriel, Connie, and Michonne.

And if you care about Magna, well…it’s nice to like things.

Daryl, Carol, and the All-Stars

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Daryl rolled into Hilltop. Ezekiel went out and found Carol and brought her back. Rosita showed up with Gamma/Mary. Judith’s already there. We’re no longer splitting up the favorites between two communities. Plus, Alpha’s launching her big attack with her precious, powerful herd – and Negan’s with her, working his smarm and charm. Just about everything that’s still important on the show is about to collide. If the “war” drags on past this, and next week’s, episode, we’re in trouble.

Granted, most of this episode involved characters bonding, conversing, speaking their truths, and saying maybe-goodbyes to one another after discovering that Alpha had blocked all the roads out of Hilltop. But it still gave us a few minutes of cool violence at the end when it featured the beginning parts of the huge battle (that’s not dissimilar to the odds Winterfell faced when the Night King and his army came calling). It left us hanging, as our heroes got trapped in a fire circle while they themselves were covered in a flammable – er – sap? – but it all felt very vital and brutal. Most importantly, it felt like big names could die.

Of course, in that regard, Ezekiel is the top candidate to get smoked right now. Not only is he already dying, but he made the grave TV/movie sin of having sex before the big push. Yup, I’d be very shocked if he made it out of this. And if not for the sex, then definitely because of the spare words of respect he had with Daryl and their pact to protect the kids. There’s a good chance Ezekiel’s going down saving the children.

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Eugene might get taken out too, even though he finally moved past his love for Rosita and is now focused on the relationship he’s building with Stephanie over the radio. Odds are good that he makes it out alive so he can meet her in spot she told him to be at in a week, though they could also have Rosita sadly show up in his place. That being said, whatever fate has in store, his scenes with Rosita this week were very good. As mentioned last week, the three relationships that still matter on the series are Carol/Daryl, Rosita/Eugene, and Negan/Judith. Naturally, Judith and Michonne’s bond matters, but they’ll probably never see one another again. And then, after these, Daryl’s budding romance with Connie and “surrogate something” relation to Lydia are pretty cool.

Wild Card Negan

Negan might be the true tipping point here. He and Alpha are about to unleash hell on a community that he doesn’t know has Judith inside.

Yet.

And even without knowing about Judith, he’s still trying to convince Alpha to spare everyone by getting them to surrender. He’s already not fully on board with the Whisperer agenda. So I imagine once he sees Judith, it’s all over for Alpha and her ghouls. That will be the moment when he rolls back the tide somehow and turns on his hosts. The silver-tongued man who’s always just doing what he can to stay alive will break his hard-wired habit and protect her.

The only way this doesn’t end next week is if…everyone surrenders. If Alpha takes Negan’s advice and gets Daryl to bend the knee. And the only way that happens is if the kids are in danger. Yes, everything feels like it’s about to come to a head, but never doubt The Walking Dead’s penchant for dragging a storyline out.

The latest game to update with the highly sought after dog-petting feature is The Division 2, with the introduction of a cute pettable puppy in Warlords of New York‘s new hub space.

A number of high-profile games have added dog-petting mechanics in the last year, partially spurred by the popularity of Twitter profile Can You Pet The Dog.

In a moment of serendipity, The Division 2’s original lack of dog-petting was one of the reasons this account was started. The core game is littered with sad-looking stray dogs, but the player’s only option to interact with them is to shoot them (which, hopefully, no one has ever done).

Almost a year on from the original Division 2 tweet, the game has come full circle with its stance on dog-petting. Not only do you get an adorable German Shepherd puppy to lavish affection on, but one of the early safe houses to be unlocked is a literal animal shelter.

Sadly, as Polygon has pointed out, there is still a lack of kitty-cuddles in the new animal-friendly DLC. Who’s going to start the Can You Pet The Cat account and fight for head scratches for our feline friends?

Our review of the core game praised its post-apocalyptic Washington DC for its strength of environment and engrossing open world, and Warlords will hopefully provide players with a run-down New York that’s just as fun to explore.

Prepare to be scared just like you were in 1999–but this time in higher resolution. While we’ve already compared old and new in a side-by-side video, a new Resident Evil 3 remake video shows extended sections of gameplay against their retro counterparts.

After the success of the Resident Evil 2 remake, we’re all looking forward to seeing what will be done with the next game in the series. This video gives a bit of insight into how 2020’s gaming technology can make the game (but mainly Nemesis) feel so much bigger, badder and scarier.

Like its predecessor, the Resident Evil 3 remake isn’t a shot-for-shot remake of the original game, but will include changes that will keep you on your toes.

Seeing the two games presented back-to-back really shows off some of the remake’s graphical strength, such as the intense firefight with Nemesis at the end. Though we now know that Nemesis won’t actually be able to break into safe rooms, his remake incarnation already looks terrifying enough as it is.

For more about the upcoming remake, check out everything we know so far about Resident Evil 3.

The brand-new Mortal Kombat 11 trailer for Spawn contains a special surprise for fans of the American rock/metal band Trivium. It’s now been confirmed that the trailer featured the world premiere snippets of two new Trivium songs, “IX” and “Scattering The Ashes.”

Trivium singer and guitarist Matt Heafy said on Twitter, “What a freaking honor to have our band in this trailer! I grew up with Spawn and Mortal Kombat, so this is un-freakin-real!”

Trivium is signed to Roadrunner Records, which is owned by Warner Bros., which owns Mortal Kombat developer Netherrealm. Talk about synergy.

“IX” and “Scattering The Ashes” are two of the tracks from Trivium’s upcoming album, What The Dead Men Say, which is scheduled to debut in 2020. The first single, “Catastrophist,” was released earlier this month. The full versions of “IX” and “Scattering The Ashes” have not been released yet.

As for Spawn, the Keith David-voiced character comes to Mortal Kombat 11 starting on March 17 with Early Access and then for everyone on March 24. For lots more on Spawn, check out GameSpot’s full coverage of what we know so far.