The Elimination Chamber is a professional wrestling elimination-based match held in the WWE promotion. It features a large chain-linked circular steel structure or "chamber" which encloses the ring. The chamber's floor is platformed over the ringside area which elevates it to ring level and within the chamber are four inner enclosures outside each ring corner. While similar in profile and nature to WWE's original large scale steel-structured match, Hell in a Cell, the Elimination Chamber match is strictly a six participant match wherein two participants begin the bout in the ring as the remaining four are held within each inner enclosure and are released into the match at five minute intervals. The objective is to eliminate each opponent from the match via pinfall or submission. The winner is the last remaining participant after all others have been eliminated. As in the Hell in a Cell match, disqualifications do not apply. The structure itself is 16 ft (4.9 m) high, 36 ft (11 m) in diameter, weighs over 10 short tons (9,100 kg), and comprises 2 mi (3.2 km) and 6 short tons (5,400 kg) of chain. There have been 15 Elimination Chamber matches in WWE since the concept's inception in November 2002.

Cody Runnels (born June 30, 1985) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Cody Rhodes. Runnels is signed to WWE where he wrestles on its SmackDown brand.

Runnels is the half-brother of Goldust as well as the son of Dusty Rhodes, and worked as a referee in his father's promotion during high school. Runnels started wrestling professionally in 2006, using his real name, wrestling for Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). While situated at OVW, he won various championships, both in tag team and singles competition, including the OVW Heavyweight Championship. He made his WWE television debut on July 16, 2007, under the ring name Cody Rhodes. In December 2007, Rhodes captured his first title with the company, the World Tag Team Championship with Hardcore Holly, and the two held it for six months.

Rhodes formed a secret alliance with Ted DiBiase during 2008. In the course of a match held on June 29 he turned on Holly by switching sides to join DiBiase, with whom he became World Tag Team champion. The new champions dropped their titles in August, only to win them back a week later. Rhodes and DiBiase were joined by Manu shortly afterwards, forming a faction of multi-generation wrestlers, although this alliance was to be short-lived. In January 2009, Rhodes and DiBiase formed a new alliance, The Legacy, with Randy Orton. Rhodes was moved to the SmackDown brand in April 2010, as part of the Supplemental Draft, and won the WWE Tag Team Championship with Drew McIntyre in September of the same year. In August 2011, Rhodes won the WWE Intercontinental Championship, his first singles championship in WWE, holding it for over seven months until he lost it at WrestleMania 28. He won the title back one month later at Extreme Rules (2012).

Alberto Rodríguez (born May 25, 1977) is a Mexican professional wrestler signed to WWE, performing under the ring name Alberto Del Rio and appearing on the SmackDown brand. He is a former two-time WWE Champion, while also being the 2011 Royal Rumble winner, outlasting 39 other participants to win the largest Royal Rumble match ever, and 2011 Mr. Money in the Bank (Raw). Before working for WWE, Rodriguez used the name Dos Caras, Jr. as both a mixed martial artist and luchador in mostly Mexico and Japan. He worked in both of Mexico's main wrestling promotions and achieved success in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where he is a former CMLL World Heavyweight Champion.

Son of noted luchador Dos Caras, nephew of Mil Máscaras and Sicodelico, and cousin to Sicodelico, Jr. and Hijo de Sicodelico, Rodríguez is part of one of the most well known Mexican wrestling families. The name Dos Caras translates to Two Faces, referring to the symbol of a double headed eagle on his mask.

Born in San Luis Potosí as the son of luchador Dos Caras. Rodríguez graduated from Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosí where he earned a degree in architecture. Growing up in a family of wrestlers Rodríguez decided to take up Greco-Roman wrestling, training under Leonel Kolesni and Juan Fernández. He earned a place on the Mexican national team in Greco-Roman wrestling and while competing on the national team obtained several accomplishments.^{[unreliable source?]} In 1997, he placed third at the World Junior Championships, in the Czech Republic.^{[unreliable source?]} He also won the Central American and Caribbean Games in his weight division three times and won a medal at the Pan American Games. Rodríguez was on track to compete at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but due to a lack of funding and support, Mexico did not send a wrestling team that year.

April Jeanette Mendez (born March 19, 1987) is an American professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE, where she wrestles as part of the SmackDown brand under the ring name AJ.

Mendez enrolled in a wrestling school in March 2007, and debuted six months later. In the following years, she performed for several Northeast-based independent promotions including Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) as Miss April. In WSU, she was part of the AC Express alongside Brooke Carter and the duo held the WSU Tag Team Championship once. In May 2009, she signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's developmental promotion, using the ring name AJ Lee. In FCW, she was Queen of FCW and FCW Divas Champion, and was the first person to have held both titles. In 2010, she was part of the third season of NXT, having dropped her last name, and became part of WWE's SmackDown brand in May 2011, forming a tag team with Kaitlyn known as The Chickbusters.

Randal Keith "Randy" Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to WWE wrestling on its SmackDown brand. Orton is a third-generation professional wrestler; his grandfather Bob Orton, Sr., father "Cowboy" Bob Orton, and uncle Barry O all competed in the professional wrestling industry.

Before being promoted to the main World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) roster, Orton trained in and wrestled for Mid-Missouri Wrestling Association-Southern Illinois Conference Wrestling for a month. He was then sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where Orton held the OVW Hardcore Championship on two separate occasions.

After signing with WWF, Orton became a member of the stable Evolution, which quickly led to a WWE Intercontinental Championship reign, his first title with the company. Orton also acquired the moniker "The Legend Killer" during a storyline where he began disrespecting Hall of Famers and physically attacking veterans of the industry outside of appropriate restrictions. At age 24, Orton became the youngest person ever to hold the World Heavyweight Championship. With this win, Orton departed from Evolution and a feud with his former stablemates began. In 2006, Orton joined forces with Edge in a tag team known as Rated-RKO. Together, Orton and Edge held the World Tag Team Championship. After the team disbanded, during mid-2007, Orton gained two WWE Championship reigns in one night. Orton formed the group The Legacy with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase in 2008, however, they would disband in 2010 with Orton returning to singles competition. Overall, Orton has won eleven total championships in WWE, including being a nine-time world champion, having won the World Heavyweight Championship three times and the WWE Championship six times. He is also the winner of the 2009 Royal Rumble match.