WWE Hell in a Cell 2017 review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match (Hell in a Cell Match)

The New Day (c) vs. The Usos

What we learned: I think we learned here that The New Day vs. The Usos is now officially the best feud in WWE this year, and this has to be in the running for Match of the Year.

The four men inside Hell in a Cell utilized the structure better than anyone has in recent memory, and Kofi Kingston on the outside actually built the drama even more as he could do nothing but watch his teammates get brutalized on the inside with nothing he could do about it. And this match certainly did get brutal.

The New Day, who are obviously usually in a comedic mood, had a completely different demeanor on Sunday night, and it was very entertaining to watch. The brawl started almost immediately, and they got the cell involved very early on with Big E diving through the ropes with a spear before the musical weapons got involved (never thought I’d be writing out a sentence like that, but here we are). Xavier Woods broke his first trombone, but much to the delight of the Detroit crowd, had another one ready to go under the ring, which allowed Corey Graves to utter perhaps my favorite line of the night and maybe of the year as he described how nice it was to have an “extremely well-placed plethora of trombones.” GOLD!!! Throw in “more cowbell” and I was losing it.

Kendo sticks and chairs and handcuffs all came to play on this night and it was amazing. Some kendo stick shots always look worse than others, but these guys were swinging for the fences and connecting and New Day trapping Jey Uso to the cage with these things was a stroke of genius. It’s always great to see something you’ve never seen before, and this was brilliant. Woods randomly chucking a piece of trombone at him while he was locked up just made it even better.

However, the Usos were able to turn the tide as the handcuffs came into play. With Big E reeling from the earlier brutality, they focused in on Woods and wrapped his arms around the ringpost and teed off on his midsection with the kendo sticks, which just looked extremely painful. This may have been Kofi’s best reaction from the outside as he could only look on as his teammate got hit over and over and over. Great stuff there. Woods would take some more shots after being freed, and watching him take all of them and just yell and fight back was probably the best thing I’ve ever seen him do inside the ring. It made for great drama, but he had just had too much, and after having a chair put on top of him, took the pin after a double splash. The Usos are now five-time tag champs.

What’s next: Hell in a Cell usually signifies the end of a program, and after four months of battles, it probably is time to move on. However, The New Day still has an automatic rematch coming to them so is it possible that this could continue? I’d hate to see this thing end on a random match on a Tuesday night, and I really wish Kurt Angle would ask Daniel Bryan to borrow these two teams for TLC in two weeks, but we know that’s not happening. Perhaps The New Day just takes their time to recover and saves their title shot for another time down the line. In any event, watching The New Day and The Usos over these past four months has been amazing, and this match was pretty close to perfect.