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You have to give it to WWE, they never fail to disappoint. Even on a show that started off with an unbelievable bang and high unimaginable, the latter half became a hodgepodge of good ideas executed poorly. As such with the tenth edition of this PPV, WWE managed its best card yet still found a way to consistently remain inconsistent.
WWE really needs to either figure out the layout of its current PPV's or the pacing of the show. By the time the last three matches came on, the show was on an unbelievable hot streak that ran lukewarm if not cold. Thankfully even then, this is one of the best PPV's of the year if not the best.
With only eight matches on the card, spaced out wonderfully with some stellar feuds peaking just about right. Things hit an all-time high for a lot that seemed doubtful. A non-finish ending to the PPV might bother some (admittedly the logic of it was way off) but adds to the general excitement of the night.
With a distracting red cage hanging over it, Hell in a Cell satisfied a lot and in this day and age that's the best we can get, so we'll take it.
Aiden Day it Aint
Kickoff Show, for the WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championships: The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E/w Xavier Woods) (c) vs. Rusev Day (Rusev and Aiden English/w Lana)
What was Aiden English thinking?
The maestro of music really messed up once again. Ingratiating himself with Rusev prior to their championship match, by playing the sacrificial lamb. The story going in seemed that a united Rusev Day might just capture tag team gold. However, it seems English got ahead of himself.
A highlight reel of a match saw New Day and Rusev Day go back and forth until it seemed that Rusev might just clinch it, thanks to his and Aiden's smooth chemistry. Unfortunately, that smoothness has just a hint of chunks, with Aiden going for a blind tag right with Rusev on fire.
Trying to smooth things out, a beaten Aiden tried to get a tag but Rusev laid beaten down thanks once more to miscommunication between the two. Aiden left to his devices went for an accolade of his own, but caught himself on the end of a New Day counter and some trouble in paradise.
The same trouble in paradise that looms over Rusev Day, Aiden English better be careful. It's a poetic story in coming, but just as depressing for it.
Result: Kofi Kingston pins Aiden English to retain the Smackdown Tag Team Titles as The New Day win
Rating:
Subversive Shocking Savagery
Hell in A Cell Match: Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy
Subversion is the name of the game.
WWE fans couldn't deny that the only reason this match was inside the cell is for Jeff Hardy to fulfil a lifelong dream and pull off something crazy. Most likely a Swanton from on top of the cage.
It didn't happen.
Instead what we got was a brutal and horrifyingly silence and scream-inducing beatdown between the two men. Playing well of Orton's reputation as a lethargic competitor, the match started slow and continue that way for much of its runtime. Yet within the very confines of that Randy Orton cliche, came a Hell in a Cell match like no other.
There is brutality in the hell in a cell that causes the audiences to lap it up in a cocktail of ecstasy and shock. Then there's this savagery that simply felt all too real and cut right to the bone, the kind where deep gashes on legs, slashed backs, broken and bloodied bodies don't seem part of an escalation but in fact a norm.
These two men are the first off their kind willing and even excited to enter Satan's Structure. It didn't change them it made them and that real horror got amplified by Hardy reckless spot hanging from the cell roof crashing onto a table. That the referee legit feared for Hardy's health and Orton still couldn't care, makes him a brutal psychopath Smackdown better watch out for.
Result: Referee calls for medics and the cage to be lifted as a broken Jeff Hardy lay barely breathing, but Randy Orton forces a pin to cruelly win the match.
Rating:
Doing it For The Glory
For the WWE Smackdown Women's Championship: Charlotte (c) vs. Becky Lynch
"This is not another story...I refuse to be another number now...I am a name that you'll remember...I am going to be the greatest ever now."
These are just a sample of the lyrics for the Hell in a Cell theme song Glory as performed by the Score. They aptly describe Becky Lynch's attitude going into this match. A story built on a heated competition with Lynch playing the protagonist to Charlotte, whether heel or face doesn't matter. It's been and will continue as the best story WWE is telling right now.
Smartly the women didn't go for an all-out war as the bell rang since these kinds of matches are dime a dozen in this storyline and PPV set up. Instead, they played a tactical game with one another, trying to show up their rival in terms of pure wrestling and mat skill. Both women targeted the others greatest submission arsenal with Becky just proving to be such a wily competitor, now that she's got her focus on.
She beat Charlotte to the inch of every count on the ropes and outside the ring, softening her hand for the disarm-her while also weakening her own Figure Eight bridge with it. Charlotte's selling game is underrated as she just couldn't match to Becky's straight fire. Eventually, though the match ended on a spear to roll up combo, for Lynch to just eke away with the title.
An abrupt end to a classy match, that, unfortunately, didn't use the main story of the hurt hand. Most likely to prevent Charlotte from having to tap and to prolong this exciting feud. No complaints here.
Result: Becky Lynch sneaks out with the win thanks to a roll-up pin to become the NEW Smackdown Women's Champion. She refuses a desperate handshake from Charlotte, to even more cheers (are you listening WWE?)
Rating:
Steal the Show!
For the WWE RAW Tag Team Championship: Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre (c) vs. The SHIELD (Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose)
A near perfect match despite the fact that the tag team story for all the history between the men, is nothing but a peripheral to the main event. Imagine if these four men or two teams had a story to call their own? This could have been on another level!
Yet what we got was thrilling in so many ways. WWE's affinity to make Dean and Seth look like near equals led to two versions of the hot tag spot. That might not work for just about anyone but the roof blew off the building for both men in this long winding contest. It helps that the bruisers on the other end were an always energetic Ziggler and a psychologically on point Drew McIntyre.
Speaking of which, there are hints that Dolph's mouth might ruin this team but so far they gel incredibly well. Which became a subtle theme through this counter for a counter contest, as we realize that the still relatively fresh Drew and Dolph pairing are a far more efficient tag team than Seth and Dean. This set up will rear it's ugly head come Wrestlemania season.
These men put on an unbelievable clinic on the way to a fascinating finish that led from a Drew claymore into a Seth Rollins falcon arrow combo (already midway) and a stellar pin by Dolph Ziggler. Dare we say it, they should fight forever!
Result: Dolph falls onto a beaten Seth Rollins for the pin so that Drew/Dolph win to retain the RAW Tag Team Championships!
Rating:
Breaking The Phenomenal Psyche
For the WWE World Heavyweight Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs. Samoa Joe
Despite a silly end forced into the narrative to prolong this feud, you have to give it to both men for pulling out an interesting contest that plays to their experience with each other. After all these years Samoa Joe and AJ Styles know each other just too well. Yet beautifully it hasn't been about this in the ring but rather out of it.
Joe's genius shines in the way he has angered AJ Styles by bringing his family into the mix. Samoa Joe is aware that his foe's weakness is his family (the very family which he took years to sign with WWE for) and utilized it to chip away at AJ's psyche. So come match time AJ came rushing in, with the upper hand against Joe but his anger fueled energy was easily spent.
This allowed Joe to take the match to his domineering pace and bully AJ into near submission, heck submission because Styles did actually tap out. Yet why would Joe do such a thing, why rile up a man so much that he'd be that vicious.
Because for all their contests through the ages, Joe knows one thing. He just can't go on the same level he used to and AJ just keeps getting better with time. Once AJ can look past Joe's mind games and ironically stop being blinded by his confidence, he will see Joe for who he really is and that's a shadow of his former self.
That's when he'll beat Joe, it'll be just that much more satisfying if it were to regain his title so let's hope Joe clinches the big one down under to set up another rematch but in a better fashion.
Result: Samoa Joe has AJ Styles tapping but all the referee counts is a Styles pin that gives him the win to retain the WWE World Championship!
Rating:
#CoupleGoals
Daniel Bryan/Brie Bella vs. The Miz and Maryse
Sure this match had it's fair share of botches thanks to the two rusty and inexperienced women and sure it became more about them, then the men needing to lead the story. But you can't deny it was a lot of fun.
First of all, a shout out to the commentary both the Smackdown one in this match and the RAW one in the night with Renne Young bringing such freshness to the table. Corey Graves was on fire here, pumping up the It Couple to new heights with his words and mocking the Danielsons.
It added to the frivolity of the bout, acting pretty much as a rest stop for the viewers between the undercard and the upcoming main championship bouts. Yet it seems to have slightly taken away from the lustre of a feud two years in the making and with a decade worth of history behind it. Hopefully, they're just saving it for the rumoured Wrestlemania title match.
Result: Maryse rolls up Brie Bella to pin her with a handful of tights and get the win for herself and The Miz
Once A Fighter, Always A Fighter
for the WWE RAW Women's Championship: Ronda Rousey (c)/w Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss/w Mickie James and Alicia Fox
WWE will soon run out of genres to explore and expand on Ronda Rousey's learning in the ring. This time they leaned on the cliches of an 'Injured Babyface champion' to elevate the diminutive threat of Alexa Bliss.
Unfortunately, it just didn't work, despite some unbelievably stellar selling from Rousey's side. She's so refined at the little things already it's no wonder the fans still gravitate towards her despite the management favouritism and her playing the classic superpower babyface.
Hilariously she needs to get better at the trash talk, nervously flubbing her lines despite being so stellar at it in the UFC. Anyways, Rousey went onto route Alexa Bliss once she found the energy within her to do so, including smacking her own pained ribs as a way to charge up. Bliss instantaneously tapped, proving she just isn't on the same level.
Onto Evolution, WWE needs to give Ronda some real competition!
Result: Ronda Rousey locks the armbar and makes Alexa Bliss tap to win and retain the RAW Women's Championship!
Rating:
Satanic Level of Bedlam
Hell in a Cell Match for the WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Braun Strowman with Special Guest Referee Mick Foley
Ever since their feud last year to the one renewed this month, Braun and Roman have had their battles escalate to unbelievable and cartoonish but fascinating proportions. This was the case here as well. One wishes though that it was within the cell and between the two men, rather than the combustible elements outside of it.
As such WWE did the one thing they do to prolong the feud, they had the two men wrestle in first gear which produced a harsh but eventually boring and dumb contest with the two men selling a beating for a whole ten to fifteen minutes. This was so as their partners (Dolph/Drew and Dean/Seth) could court chaos around the ring and on top of the cell, including a midway fall from the cage onto tables.
This was all so that a relatively thinned down Brock Lesnar could make his presence felt, with a cage door torn off and two F5's to call it a no contest (something that shouldn't apply to the cell). Add to that a somewhat unnerved Mick Foley and the only good thing left is the raging Braun Strowman, please let him call everybody a moron tomorrow night on RAW!
It's high time fans and WWE admit it's no longer Roman's fault or the reactions that he gets, but rather the fault of a lazy insipid management and writing team. WWE has ruined Roman and will continue to do so, along with five other talents to get over a lazy part-timer (hopefully Lesnar doesn't read this).
Result: Brock Lesnar causes chaos to lead to a NO CONTEST (which isn't a problem but logically makes no sense) and so Roman Reigns retains the WWE Universal Championship!
Rating:
Final Thoughts
WWE's consistent need to set up the next big thing has killed a lot of angles this year, the same happened tonight with some unbelievable and awkward non-finishes including even in the Smackdown Women's title match.
Speaking of which their treatment of the Smackdown brand titles is unfair and shoddy, calling into question why it's necessary to keep dual branded PPV's despite revenue stream. That the WWE championship is the most prestigious price in the business, now seems like a joke.
This is especially when writers keep using it as a prop to rehash the same beats in AJ's feud with Samoa Joe, as they did with Shinsuke Nakamura.
Yet one cannot deny that this PPV has been much better thanks to some unbelievable opening bouts as well as good enough matches later down the card. The non-finish might have killed it, but even the main event had its moments.
The question is why this inconsistency? Much like every other mainstream form in this world, WWE is something that could be better than it is. Yet complacency makes the greatest of all time, rust over time and eventually wither into nothing. Slowly but surely that time is coming and WWE better prepares for that storm.
Overall Rating:
One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE
