The Elimination Chamber is a professional wrestling elimination-based match and held in the WWE promotion. The match was created by Triple H and was introduced by Eric Bischoff in November 2002. It features a large chain-linked circular steel structure, which encloses the ring. The chamber's floor is platformed over the ringside area which elevates it to ring level. 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 match 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 original structure was 16 ft (4.9 m) high, 36 ft (11 m) in diameter, weighed over 10 short tons (9,100 kg), and comprised 2 mi (3.2 km) and 6 short tons (5,400 kg) of chain. There have been twenty Elimination Chamber matches in WWE since the concept's inception in November 2002.
Before the introduction of the Elimination Chamber match, WWE only promoted two matches in a caged environment, the steel cage and Hell in a Cell matches. The steel cage was the first type of cage-based match in professional wrestling and consisted of four fenced walls of steel surrounding the ring apron, while the Hell in a Cell was a taller roofed version that surrounded the ring and ringside area on the ground rather than the apron. In 2002, WWE announced the creation of the Elimination Chamber, a match that combined elements of WWE's Hell in a Cell matches, Royal Rumble match, Survivor Series matches, and World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) WarGames matches, such as the countdown timer and time intervals from the Royal Rumble and War Games matches, the large enclosed cage format of both Hell in a Cell and War Games, and the elimination process from the Survivor Series contest.