WWE Hell in a Cell 2018 review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

What we learned, what we took away and what the future holds for the superstars of WWE following Sunday night’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event.

WWE held its annual Hell in a Cell pay-per-view on Sunday night, this year in San Antonio, and following a surprisingly solid effort from The New Day and Rusev Day on the kickoff show, the main card featured plenty of big moments, including a big title change, a controversial WWE Championship match finish and a couple of Hell in a Cell matches. So let’s jump right in.

Hell in a Cell Match

Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy

What we learned: We learned here that you can twist someone’s ear with a screwdriver if you’re into that sort of thing. So that’s obviously a sentence I never thought I’d write when describing something in WWE — or ever — and yet here we are. We also learned with this curtain-jerker that the new Hell in a Cell structure is bright red and really tough to look at.

As for the match itself, it certainly won’t go down as one of the great Hell in a Cell matches of all time, but it got the job done. I still don’t think that this is the match that should have represented the blue brand in the structure, but it was solid, even if the pace was very different than what I thought it would be. I was looking for more of a fast-paced effort, especially from Jeff Hardy, but this was about brutality and there was plenty of it as it essentially turned into a TLC match.

Hardy took a lot of punishment from Randy Orton throughout the match, including plenty of chair shots to the back, getting thrown in-between the ladder and, of course, that creepy screwdriver sequence involving his left ear. Orton took his fair share of punishment as well, which bloodied up his back a bit, but he was able to pick up the win after Hardy tried to swing from the top of the cage down onto Orton on a table. The Viper may have moved a little too early as it looked like Hardy could have stopped himself but he crashed down nonetheless.

What’s next: I’m really hoping that this is it between these two. It’s not that the program has been bad but I just think that it’s time for both to move on. Orton’s deal is that he’s been wanting to take out the favorite stars of the WWE Universe and he’s done that with Jeff Hardy, who maybe will take some time off anyway.