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WWE Hell in a Cell 2018 is in the past now. Even though the WWE Universe received the Pay Per View with mixed reviews, it had its moments. There were some lackluster matches as well as some barn burners.
The event was full of drama, surprises, and highlights. Randy Orton's screwdriver assault and Jeff's death-defying leap will be forever etched in the hearts of wrestling fans. Even the return of Brock Lesnar amused a few of us.
Hell is a Cell was definitely good. But was it the best PPV of the year? You will not be wrong if you think so. Here are three reasons why I think Hell in a Cell is the best PPV WWE has offered this year so far.
#3 Match quality was top notch
Even after having 14 and 13 matches in WrestleMania and SummerSlam respectively, WWE failed to deliver in at least half of them. Hell in a Cell was not a packed card. It just had eight matches.
The pre-show match between Rusev Day and The New Day was entertaining. The war between Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy was brutal, the SmackDown women's championship match was amazing.
Even with a scrawny finish, the WWE Championship match was excellent. Samoa Joe had AJ Styles dead to rights. But the match of the night was definitely the RAW tag team championship bout between the team of Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler, and that of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.
All four of them put up a scintillating performance. The counters and near falls were so exhilarating. To sum up, Hell in a Cell had five good matches, and most of the marquee matches delivered their promise.
#2 Time allocation was impeccable
One of the major mistakes WWE made this year was the mismanagement of time allocation in PPVs. Most PPVs were either dragging or went overtime. The crowd lost their energy during the second half of WrestleMania.
They straightaway left the arena during the main event of Backlash. However, Hell in a Cell was quite different from this. Most of the matches were given a lot of time to work with, the PPV ended before the scheduled time.
The Orton vs Hardy match clocked at 25 minutes. The main event clocked at 24 minutes, and the tag team match clocked above 22 minutes. Even Alexa Bliss managed to survive more than 12 minutes against Ronda Rousey. It is a wonder how this event did not go overtime. WWE deserves all the credit for their shrewd time management.
#1 The results were outstanding
Almost all the matches had the right result. It was common sense that Becky Lynch should go over Charlotte Flair, and WWE listened to the fans. WWE has plans of having a long title reign for Roman Reigns.
However, feeding Braun Strowman to Roman at this point would do no good for either of them. Thus Brock interfering in the match to cause a no result was surprisingly a good call, the booking looks logical.
The WWE Championship match had a satisfying result. Joe did not look weak in his defeat, since he was screwed out of the victory. WWE also understood that giving all the titles to The Shield now would be a huge blunder.
I can't recall the last time PPV results were on the mark. WWE deserves all the credit for this booking.
