No Way Out was a WWE pay-per-view event that debuted in February 1998 as an In Your House event, and then two years later became the event rebranded to its current title and was WWE's annual February event. During the brand extension, No Way Out was an exclusive PPV event for SmackDown from 2004 to 2007. After WrestleMania 23, brand-exclusive pay-per-view events cease to be held, being that No Way Out 2007 was the last ever brand-exclusive PPV event in WWE. In 2008, the annual Elimination Chamber match was added to the No Way Out pay-per-view and began conducting two a year at the event, one for Raw and one for Smackdown.
In 2010, No Way Out was discontinued, and Elimination Chamber was created as its replacement. However, the PPV name was brought back in June 2012.
This event has examples of:
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- 2000: Triple H beats Cactus Jack inside Hell in a Cell, thus putting an end to his career (albeit temporarily).
- 2001: Triple H defeated "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in Three Stages of Hell match, which ended their bitter feud that lasted for a year and a half.
- 2002: Kurt Angle defeated Triple H to win his WrestleMania title shot, with Stephanie McMahon as the guest referee. note Chris Jericho defeated "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to retain the WWF Undisputed Championship with the help of the nWo.
- 2003: The Rock, who had turned on the fans weeks prior, defeated Hulk Hogan in a WrestleMania X8 rematch with the help of Vince McMahon and special referee Sylvain Grenier.
- 2005: JBL defeated The Big Show in a Barbed Wire Steel Cage match to retain his title.
- 2006: Randy Orton, who had been making distasteful remarks about the late Eddie Guerrero, defeated Rey Mysterio for the latter's spot to face Kurt Angle at WM22 for the World Heavyweight Title, albeit by cheating. Fortunately for Rey, he gets added to the match on Smackdown a few days later.
- 2007: Mr. Kennedy beat Bobby Lashley in a match for the ECW championship, but because it ended in a disqualification, the latter retained his title. Chavo Guerrero Jr. won a cruiserweight open for the Cruiserweight title. Finlay and Hornswoggle beat The Boogeyman and Little Boogeyman in a mixed tag-team match.
- 2008: Chavo Guerrero retained the ECW Championship against CM Punk. Edge beat Rey Mysterio to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Randy Orton retained his WWE Championship against John Cena (although by getting himself disqualified).
- 2009: Edge, having just lost the WWE Title to Triple H earlier that night, won the World Heavyweight Championship in the second Elimination Chamber match after stealing Kofi Kingston's spot. Randy Orton defeated Shane McMahon in a No Holds Barred match. Jack Swagger successfully defended his ECW title against Matt Hardy.
- 2012: The Prime Time Players won a four-man tag-team match to determine the number-one contender to Kofi Kingston and R-Truth's WWE Tag Team Titles.
- The Big Damn Kiss: At 2012, Kane gave A.J. Lee a kiss days after the latter planted one on him on the 6/11/12 episode of Raw.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: In 2006, Bobby Lashley, who had been undefeated since debuting in late 2005, was defeated by JBL due to interference from Finlay.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The match between Stone Cold and Eric Bischoff in 2003 revolved around Austin beating the hell out of him and winning the match.
- Disqualification-Induced Victory: In 2008, Randy Orton deliberately got himself disqualified in a match against John Cena by slapping the referee as a ruse for Orton to retain the WWE title.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: No Way Out 2004 had Eddie Guerrero achieving his dream of winning the WWE Championship by defeating Brock Lesnar.
- End of an Era: The 2007 event was the last brand-exclusive event until the second brand extension in 2016.
- Enemy Mine: The main event of 2007 had WrestleMania opponents from both brands teaming up against each other - John Cena and Shawn Michaels (Raw) against Batista and the Undertaker (SmackDown). At the end, Batista gives Taker a spinebuster as payback for him chokeslamming him weeks ahead the event.
- Good Versus Good:
- The 2006 main event had Kurt Angle and The Undertaker battle for the World Heavyweight Championship and both are faces.
- In 2007 main event featured a battle between two teams from different brands who are all faces (John Cena and Shawn Michaels vs Batista and The Undertaker).
- History Repeats:
- Chavo Guerrero had won the Cruiserweight Championship 3 times in this event (2004, 2005, and 2007).
- Triple H had won two Elimination Chamber matches in this event in 2008 and 2009.
- John Cena and Kurt Angle faced off in a match to determine the No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania twice (2004 and 2005). The first was in a triple threat match which involved The Big Show in which Angle won. The second was in the tournament finals in which Cena won.
- Edge and Rey Mysterio faced off for the World Heavyweight Championshipship in this event twice (2008 and 2009). The first in a one-on-one match in which Edge retained his title and the next in an Elimination Chamber match which involved John Cena, Chris Jericho, Kane, and Mike Knox.
- Hot-Blooded: Jim Ross in 2003, when Steve Austin faced Eric Bischoff. Not only was Stone Cold coming back from a ten month absence, but Eric Bischoff had kicked a cinder block through Ross's head. Suffice to say, JR was as pumped for Bischoff's comeuppance as the red-hot Montreal crowd.
- Humiliation Conga: Happened to John Laurinaitis at 2012. Brodus Clay held him down while John Cena escaped the cage and sealed Laurinaitis' fate. He was then promptly fired and put through the announce table by Cena.
- Loophole Abuse: In the 2009 event, Edge was the first to be eliminated on the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match (within 3 minutes no less). Thus, he was no longer the WWE Champion. Later on the Raw's Elimination Chamber match, he assaults Kofi Kingston by giving him an con-chair-to on the steel steps and locked himself in the chamber pod, replacing Kingston in the match. He would proceed to win the chamber match to capture the World Heavyweight Championship.
- Loser Leaves Town:
- From 2000, the Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and Cactus Jack had the stipulation that if Cactus lost, he must retire.
- In the 2008 event, Ric Flair faced off against Mr. Kennedy in a Career-Threatening match. This was Flair's last PPV win until Wrestlemania XXIV.
- For the John Cena vs The Big Show steel cage match at 2012, both Cena and John Laurinaitis' careers were on the line. It ended up with the latter losing his job.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: At 2003 (which took place in Montreal, Quebec), Kurt Angle insulted Canadians in general and Chris Benoit and Edge in particular, mocking their French heritage (although Edge is Anglo-Canadian, and has insulted French Canadians himself) in the Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys idiom.
Extremely common at the time. - Three Round Death Match: From 2001, Stone Cold and Triple H competed in the first-ever "Three Stages of Hell" match; the first was a regular wrestling match, the second was a Street Fight, and the final was a Steel Cage Match.
