WWE Hell in a Cell 2019: Live results and highlights

We will be tracking all of the results and highlights from WWE Hell in a Cell 2019, taking place at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California.

With so many things changing in WWE just this week, it appears like the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view has been an afterthought. Only four matches were announced in the days ahead of the show, with the rest revealed the afternoon of the event itself.

So far, we know that Becky Lynch will be defending her Raw Women’s Championship against Sasha Banks in the Hell in a Cell structure. Seth Rollins will also step into the cell to defend his WWE Universal Championship against The Fiend, Bray Wyatt. Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns will take on Luke Harper and Erick Rowan in a Tornado Tag Team Match, and Bayley will defend her SmackDown Women’s Championship against Charlotte Flair.

Additionally, Baron Corbin and Chad Gable will mark the next chapter in their feud, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross will defend the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship against The Kabuki Warriors, The Viking Raiders and a mystery partner will take on The O.C. trio of Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson and AJ Styles and Natalya is set to yet again face Lacey Evans, that taking place on the Kickoff Show.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1180948765894680576

We’ll start our highlights and results with the Kickoff and then move right onto the main card, with those matches set to start at 7 p.m. ET.

WWE Hell in a Cell 2019 Kickoff Show results

Natalya def. Lacey Evans

This feud has been ongoing over the past month or so, but hasn’t quite attracted much attention. As such, Lacey Evans versus Natalya was relegated to the pre-show for Hell in a Cell and was one of the last-minute matches announced on Sunday.

Evans held control of the match for most of it, working Natalya’s leg to try to soften her up for the Sharpshooter. Evans, as we know, has been repeatedly using Natalya’s (and the Hart family’s) signature finisher against her over the course of this rivalry.

Evans failed-ish to connect with a moonsault. Natalya countered that mistake into the Sharpshooter to pick up the in. After the match, Natayla hit Evans with a cheap shot in retribution for Evans’ numerous post-match Women’s Rights.

After hyping up the debut of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX, Sarah conducted a backstage interview with Ali, which was then interrupted by Randy Orton. Orton reminded Ali that he’s Ali’s momentum-killer. Thus, Ali makes a challenge for Orton at Hell in a Cell and Orton accepts.

WWE Hell in a Cell 2019 main card results

Becky Lynch (c) def. Sasha Banks, retains Raw Women’s Championship — Hell in a Cell match

Becky Lynch defending her Raw Women’s Championship against Sasha Banks is the opening bout for Hell in a Cell. This match also takes place in Hell in a Cell, which again is red and thus difficult to look at. Luckily, only two matches will be inside the Structure tonight.

The brawl starts before the cage has completely lowered and the two take the fight outside of it, as directed by Banks. The Cell then lowers down but, at the official’s behest, Banks and Lynch head inside to be locked in.

Lynch grabbed the chain used to lock the Cell door and attacks Banks. Again, the cage door is not securely shut, so Lynch chooses to lock it up herself. Now, things are officially, officially on.

Chairs, unsurprisingly, played a role in the match.

And a ladder:

The intensity and level of violence in this match cannot be understated. This is easily one of the better Hell in a Cell matches of all time. It has thus been the perfect culmination of Banks’ and Lynch’s feud to this point.

The finish came with Lynch hitting a Super Bexploder onto a pile of chairs (which Banks had brought into the ring) and then putting Banks in the Dis-Arm-Her, forcing Banks to tap out.

That was an amazing opener for Hell in a Cell, a brilliant story told by both women and 30 of the best minutes of WWE action this year. Whew.

Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns def. Erick Rowan & Luke Harper — Tornado tag team match

After months of build and a lot of weird false starts, Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns will try to get some comeuppance on Erick Rowan and Luke Harper. There’s also a non-zero chance that this is all a machination of Bryan’s that will result in a three-on-one beatdown of Reigns. This is no disqualification, no count-outs and no tags required.

With Rowan neutralized, Reigns was able to hit Harper with a Superman Punch, with Bryan following that with a running knee and Reigns then with a Spear; Reigns pinned Harper to give his team the victory.

Post-match, Bryan extends his hand to Roman in an apparent attempt to show respect; but no — Bryan would rather have a hug, and the Universe approves via “Yes!” chants. Roman is understandably wary about it but eventually gives in.

A hug, and handshake and apparently Bryan’s face turn was a real thing and not part of a larger ambush on Reigns. What a strange few months of storyline that apparently wrapped tonight.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1180997122365116416

Randy Orton def. Ali

Based on a backstage confrontation, Randy Orton and Ali have a main-card match tonight. There is a bit of a backstory here, with Orton reveling in causing Ali’s injury earlier in the year that cut short a push that could have had Ali in the WWE Championship picture. Ali is ready to rebuild his momentum by taking on and taking out the man who snapped it months ago.

This, thankfully, was no squash match, with both Ali and Orton trading control and Ali looking again like a credible threat, even against a larger veteran like Orton.

An RKO (from out of nowhere), however led to Orton picking up the win.

Kabuki Warriors def. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross (c) for WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship

Another of the last-minute additions to the card is up next, with The Kabuki Warriors — Kairi Sane and Asuka — challenging Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross for Cross’ and Bliss’ WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.

Asuka and Sane won the titles via Asuka hitting Cross with Green Mist and kicking her in the head to pick up the pin.

https://twitter.com/tde_wrestling/status/1181006114328109056

Cross and Bliss had a great reign as WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, but it’s possible the two could be split up in next week’s draft to boost both the Raw and SmackDown women’s singles division. We’ll see what’s next. It’s exciting to see Asuka and Sane becoming relevant (hopefully) again now that they’re holding gold.

The Vikings Raiders & Braun Strowman def. The O.C. (Gallows, Anderson, Styles)

The O.C. and The Viking Raiders have a grudge to settle with one another, and The Viking Raiders have chosen Braun Strowman as their third man in this six-man tag contest. It seemed like Cedric Alexander would be the logical choice, given his longstanding issues with AJ Styles, but Strowman certainly helps cement the face side’s size advantage.

This match featured a signature Strowman housecleaning.

However, a three-on-one beatdown on Strowman by The O.C. led to The O.C. being disqualified. Afterward, The Viking Raiders took out Gallow and Anderson with a big dive while, in the ring, Styles and Strowman had it out, culminating in Strowman countering a Phenomenal Forearm with a big right hand, perhaps sending a message to Tyson Fury in the process.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1181011225355796480

The Street Profits announced that there will be something called a “Draft Showcase” on Raw on Monday night. Also, a returning Tamina has won the 24/7 Championship.

King Baron Corbin vs. Chad Gable

In a re-rematch of the King of the Ring finals, Chad Gable takes on “King” Baron Corbin. Corbin defeated Gable to become King of the Ring, and in a rematch two weeks ago nearly tapped out to Gable before attacking him with his scepter. Here, the two meet again.

Corbin cut a promo on Gable ahead of the match — cue the short jokes.

https://twitter.com/tde_wrestling/status/1181016510338338816

The finish came when Corbin went to attack Gable with his scepter yet again, but as the referee tried to wrest it away, Gable was able to roll up Corbin for the win. The crowd was definitely behind Gable in this one but it was still a tepid reaction. The endless short jokes courtesy Corey Graves didn’t help the at-home viewing experience.

Charlotte Flair def. Bayley (c) — SmackDown Women’s Championship match

Our penultimate match of the night features Charlotte Flair challenging Bayley for Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship, a match that was established after Friday Night SmackDown concluded.

Tamina, meanwhile, is being pursued by R-Truth in the international announcers’ area because of her 24/7 Championship. Carmella attacked Tamina from behind and allowed Truth to pin her, which makes Truth a 20-time 24/7 Champion.

With that piece of business out of the way, it’s time for the women’s title match to get underway. Flair began working Bayley’s back and legs early, putting Bayley in a Boston Crab that could come in handy with Figure 8 attempts later on. This is also why Bayley has been working Flair’s leg — to keep her from locking in her submission.

Ultimately, Bayley tapped out to the Figure 8, making Flair the new SmackDown Women’s Champion. Flair is now a 10-time WWE Champion. This felt anticlimactic because Flair being the blue brand champion now that SmackDown is on FOX has long been predicted.

Bayley is devastated after the match, weeping outside of the ring.

Bray Wyatt’s The Fiend def. Seth Rollins (c) — WWE Universal Championship match in Hell in a Cell (DQ?!?)

Finally, it’s time for the main event — Seth Rollins defending his WWE Universal Championship against Bray Wyatt’s The Fiend inside of Hell in a Cell. Yes, The Fiend has the Wyatt-head lantern with him. Chilling.

The light inside the Cell is also red. Rollins attacks The Fiend with a kendo stick, to no reaction.

Rollins turned the momentum in his favor thanks to employing the steel stairs in an offensive manner and trying to set up a table mid-ring. A Sister Abigail into the cage, however, derailed those plans.

Finally, the table came into play, with Rollins hitting The Fiend through it via Frog Splash. Rollins also hit a stomp, to no reaction. That was followed by another Sister Abigail, out of which Rollins kicked at two.

Rollins then hit The Fiend with three Stomps and a Pedigree plus an additional stop to a chorus of boos — this is, until The Fiend kicked out at just one. Things are getting strange.

The Fiend keeps kicking out at one-counts and the crowd is becoming restless. Ladders, chairs, tables, 10 curb stomps — nothing is working, but it’s also taking the fans out of this story. To call this overbooked is an understatement.

The match ends because Rollins insists on using a sledgehammer to “murder” (?) The Fiend against the referee’s wishes. He does so, and the ref throws the match out, leading to a Fiend win by disqualification and an extremely unhappy crowd.

Yes — a Hell in a Cell match ended in a disqualification. No amount of The Fiend rousing, Mandible Claw’ing and Sister Abigail’ing Rollins post-match can wipe that awful taste away. “AEW” chants rang out, while boos marred The Fiend bloodying Rollins with the Claw and taking his leave of the arena.

Clearly, the worry here was making either Rollins or The Fiend look bad by taking losses and WWE also wasn’t ready to strap up Wyatt/Fiend. Thus, they took the long road to an unsatisfying conclusion that has lead to excessive backlash, both in the arena and among those watching at home. How they’ll clean this up is anyone’s guess.

And with that, Hell in a Cell 2019 comes to a close. We welcome your feedback in the comments below.