Imagine that you’re one of six WWE Superstars, battling inside a ring that’s encircled by over 10 tons of soulless, structural grade steel. Then envision that the structure’s girders are wrapped in more than two miles of chain, measuring 36 feet in diameter and 16 feet in height. And most important, understand that every ounce, every link and girder, every square inch of the structure has but one objective: To punish you.

You’ve just placed yourself inside the Elimination Chamber, WWE.com’s No. 2 Most Extreme Match. Emerging from it unscathed, much less victorious…well, you probably have a better chance at withstanding a bolt of lightning—while holding a lightning rod and standing in a deep puddle.

Two Superstars begin the extreme match-up, while four others are encased within individual, bulletproof-grade glass chambers behind each ring post. After a predetermined amount of time, each claustrophobic encasement opens randomly until all Superstars have been released. Grabbing a pinfall or submission early in the contest, however unlikely, is critical, especially when the six-man melee can just as easily turn into a three-, four-, even five-on-one situation. (Case in point: New Year’s Revolution in January 2005, when Evolution member Batista played a key role in helping Triple H obtain his tenth World Championship.)

Since its hellacious debut at Survivor Series in November 2002, WWE’s Elimination Chamber Match has tightly secured itself among sports-entertainment’s most remorseless specialty bouts. Until you’re eliminated or victorious over all opponents, there is no escaping the chamber’s confines, or its potential to cause grave injury. Superstars have spilled buckets of the red stuff upon being hurtled through a glass encasement, or nearly crippled by suplexes onto the unpadded steel floor constructed just outside the ring. In the first-ever contest, Rob Van Dam’s Five-Star Frog Splash from the top of a glass enclosure would send then-World Heavyweight Champion Triple H to a medical facility, for treatment of a partially crushed larynx. (It should be noted, though, that despite his severe distress, The Game continued battling in the chamber for another half-hour before ultimately losing his title to Shawn Michaels.)

Because it is so punishing and severe, only five Elimination Chamber Matches have been sanctioned up to this point. Of those five, a new champion has been crowned on four occasions. (Even then, the only one to retain, John Cena, lost his WWE Title moments after winning the match at New Year’s Revolution 2006; Edge cashed in a previously guaranteed Money in the Bank title opportunity to practically steal the title away from the battered, bloodied Cena.) Most recently, the already vicious contest spawned an even more Extreme stipulation at ECW’s December to Dismember in 2006, in which weapons were allowed into the competition. As a result, chaos quickly ran amok inside the chamber, until Bobby Lashley cemented his status as an elite WWE Superstar – and a champion – by pinning then-ECW World Champion Big Show.

Needless to say, those who win an Elimination Chamber Match deservedly earn a place in sports-entertainment history. The possibility of earning that place in a debilitated capacity is equally, and horrifyingly real.