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WWE Hell in a Cell was a fun event, with all three of the Hell in a Cell matches delivering during the night. Sasha Banks made Bayley pay for her actions as she defeated her to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship, while Roman Reigns was successful in retaining his Universal Championship.
Randy Orton finally managed to put down The Scottish Psychopath on his way to becoming a 14-time WWE World Champion. The Hell in a Cell pay-per-view also saw Jeff Hardy compete against Elias, while United States Champion Bobby Lashley came out to defend his title against RETRIBUTION member Slapjack.
Following the event, there are a few questions that WWE needs to answer. In this article, we will look at the five biggest questions coming out of Hell in a Cell.
#5 Why did WWE break up Heavy Machinery before the betrayal at WWE Hell in a Cell?
Otis has been one of the biggest babyfaces in WWE for some time, and the company decided to take his girlfriend, Mandy Rose, away from him and put her on the RAW brand. To make things worse, his best friend decided to betray him at WWE Hell in a Cell.
The Miz has lost more matches than anyone can imagine this year and has only won once in his last 10 completed matches. However, Otis’ friend Tucker turned on him at Hell in a Cell and attacked him with the Money in the Bank briefcase to allow The Miz to pick up his biggest victory of the year.
Earlier this month, WWE had broken up Heavy Machinery by drafting Otis to SmackDown and putting Tucker on RAW. With the betrayal coming after the breakup, the big question that comes to mind is whether WWE had planned this in advance or not.
Having the two friends on the same brand would have allowed the outcome of the match to make a bigger impact as they could have gotten into a major rivalry on RAW or SmackDown. However, now that Tucker is on RAW, we might not see the two men get into a rivalry immediately.
Tucker could upset Otis even more by trying to win Mandy Rose over on RAW, but things won’t be as impactful as they would have been had the two men been on the same brand.
If WWE had drafted Tucker away from Otis to make him go on a singles run, then they could have done the same without having the two men on separate brands as this betrayal would have served the same purpose.
#4 What was the point of Jeff Hardy vs Elias at WWE Hell in a Cell?
How many times has WWE given us a match on a pay-per-view that could have simply done better on a regular televised show? While this usually works for events that have 10 or more matches, this year’s WWE Hell in a Cell had only five announced matches on the card.
Giving one of those spots to a rivalry that is just getting started did not make much sense, especially when no mid-card title matches or Tag Team Championship matches had been announced ahead of the show.
Elias had just returned from injury and seemed a bit rusty in the ring, while Jeff Hardy did all he could to try and make the match better. However, after almost eight minutes of action, the match ended in a disqualification victory for The Drifter that helped neither Superstars' case.
With that in mind, the big question is why did WWE book this match for Hell in a Cell instead of putting the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions on or having Seth Rollins and Murphy have a final go at each other?
#3 Does RETRIBUTION’s loss at Hell in a Cell show that WWE has given up on them?
Before this year’s WWE Hell in a Cell kicked off, neither members of The Hurt Business or RETRIBUTION were booked for a match during the night. However, Mustafa Ali laid down the challenge for The Hurt Business during the Kickoff show, and United States Champion Bobby Lashley gladly accepted it later on during the main card.
Lashley competed against Slapjack from RETRIBUTION in a United States Championship match at Hell in a Cell and defeated him in under four minutes. That’s not all, as Lashley managed to fend off most of the RETRIBUTION members who tried to attack him after the match before MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander arrived to chase them off.
After losing against The Hurt Business on RAW, this was another embarrassing defeat for a faction that always spoke highly of itself and had big goals.
Their loss at Hell in a Cell leaves one to wonder whether WWE has already signaled towards a fall for RETRIBUTION. Has WWE given up on them, or do they have something bigger in store for the faction?
Fans were hoping that Ali would get a big push from this storyline, which he could if he challenges Lashley for the title and manages to defeat him. However, at the moment, it seems like WWE is done with RETRIBUTION and will look to use them to build The Hurt Business even more.
#2 Will Sasha Banks finally get an extended reign with the title following WWE Hell in a Cell?
Sasha Banks’ first reign as Champion in WWE lasted for over 190 days after she became the NXT Women’s Champion. She has won the RAW Women’s Championship five times in her career, but hasn’t held it for even a consecutive month in any of her reigns. At WWE Hell in a Cell, The Boss became the SmackDown Women’s Champion for the first time in her career.
This effectively made her a Grad Slam Champion, as she has now held every women’s title active in the company.
However, it’s heartbreaking to see that Banks has only held the top title of the Red brand for just over 100 days over the past five years. Now that she has the SmackDown Women’s Championship in hand, will WWE finally give her a long reign with the title following Hell in a Cell?
Her rivalry with Bayley is far from over, and we are sure to see The Role Model come back for the title sooner than later. With that in mind, it will be difficult for The Boss to retain the title for long. However, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Bayley have all had long reigns as Champions on the main roster, and it is Banks’ time to shine and show the WWE Universe that she is indeed The Boss.
#1 Who will step up to Roman Reigns following WWE Hell in a Cell?
At WWE Hell in a Cell, Roman Reigns showed that he was ready and willing to go to any extent to retain his Universal Championship and have The Usos acknowledge him as The Tribal Chief. Even Paul Heyman stood in disbelief as Reigns dished out the worst possible punishment to his cousins until Jey Uso uttered the words “I quit” to protect his injured brother, Jimmy Uso.
With Reigns standing tall at the head of the table, one wonders if there is anyone in the SmackDown roster who can challenge Reigns. Reigns has the services of The Usos under him and he is virtually bulletproof on the Blue brand.
With The Fiend Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman moving to the RAW roster, there aren’t too many men who are ready to compete in the top title picture. Superstars such as Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, and Kevin Owens all have rivalries of their own, and there aren’t too many other top babyfaces on the SmackDown roster.
Following Hell in a Cell, it could take WWE some time before they can bring a new challenger in for The Tribal Chief. Who will dare to step up to Reigns next?
