Highlights, takeaways and what’s next for the Superstars of WWE following Sunday night’s WWE Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event.
Sunday night saw the return of WWE Hell in a Cell, this year being held at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. As mentioned in my preview for the show, it’s been quite the crazy week in the world of pro wrestling and up until a few hours before showtime, only four matches had been announced for this event, which is crazy enough in itself.
We had the two Hell in a Cell matches, one for the WWE Universal Championship featuring Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt, the other being the showdown between Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship. The SmackDown Women’s Championship bout was announced on Friday night, a rematch between Bayley and Charlotte Flair, and then there was the big grudge match with Roman Reigns teaming up with Daniel Bryan to take on Erick Rowan and Luke Harper.
Four more matches were announced, none of which were all that exciting initially, including the Kickoff Show match in which Natalya defeated Lacey Evans. So let’s get to it.
Oh yeah, and the Hell in a Cell structure is red again. Let’s roll.
Raw Women’s Championship Match (Hell in a Cell)
Becky Lynch (c) vs. Sasha Banks
How much fun was this? The second-ever Hell in a Cell Match in the history of the women’s division had a lot of expectations on it and this Raw Women’s Championship Match between Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks certainly didn’t disappoint. It essentially turned into a tables, ladders and chairs match inside the cell and there were some brutal spots as part of it.
The creativity was simply fantastic. I can’t ever recall seeing a chair propped up by two kendo sticks, can you? So much carnage, and the finish was great. I lost count of how many chairs Banks threw in the ring — Lynch actually had to snag one to make sure it didn’t hit her in the face — and the suplex from the top rope was executed perfectly. Lynch slapped on the Dis-arm-her and Banks tapped out in an instant classic.
What’s next: Well, this result actually shocked me. With the draft coming up, it seemed certain that Lynch would be on her way to Friday Night SmackDown but that might be a bit difficult with her holding the Raw Women’s Championship. She could still lose it on Raw but why would Banks deserve a rematch after tapping out? So who steps up next? There’s not much more they can do with The Man and The Boss. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Tornado Tag Team Match
Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan vs. Erick Rowan & Luke Harper
Adding the Tornado Tag stipulation was a nice touch here. This has been pretty intense feud for a while now and letting all four guys get after it was the right call. They got about 15 minutes and there really wasn’t any downtime. The steps were used as weapons. We got a table spot. The barricade got ripped apart. The crowd stayed hot and this was another fun match to keep things moving along.
Both Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns hit their signatures in a nice finishing sequence to get the win. And is it just me or was anyone else thinking of the “brothers don’t shake hands, brothers gotta hug” line from Tommy Boy afterwards?
What’s next: Hopefully, this is all over now. What started out as a very interesting storyline fizzled out, even with this good match. There’s not much more that can be done with this so hopefully everyone can just go their own way now and start something fresh. It was the right move to have Harper take the pin as I still think he moves on when his contract is up. And did anyone else see Bryan holding his neck and stumbling on his way up the ramp? Hopefully that’s him just selling.
Randy Orton vs. Ali
A match that came about during the Kickoff Show, Randy Orton versus Ali was up next, and while it was more of a time filler than anything else, it was entertaining enough. It started off slow but the last couple of minutes were solid. That counter by Ali on Orton’s first RKO attempt was amazing but he couldn’t stop the second one. Ali continues to build up losses.
What’s next: Not sure if anyone noticed the little tap on the leg from Orton to Ali after the match but given Randy’s demeanor as he was leaving the ring, I’m wondering if he might be thinking about recruiting Ali for the Team Flair versus Team Hogan five-on-five match in Saudi Arabia.
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Match
Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross (c) vs. The Kabuki Warriors
One of the matches announced on Sunday afternoon, this Women’s Tag Team Championship match was a nice addition to the Hell in a Cell card. Sure, we didn’t have much of a storyline coming in but these four had a good bout regardless. There were the classic tag elements, with Asuka and Kairi Sane isolating Alexa Bliss for a good portion of the bout, Nikki getting the hot tag and wreaking havoc for a few minutes and then the amazing finish as the green mist made its triumphant return to WWE.
So many great Japanese wrestlers have used this heel tactic to win and Nikki took it right to her face to lead to new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions being crowned. This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.
What’s next: Now we’ve got a story. With so many changes underway, we don’t know if the automatic rematch clause will return but Bliss and Cross have a legit beef with The Kabuki Warriors now. The challengers cheated to win the titles and I think we’ll see this match again.
Six-Man Tag Team Match
The O.C. vs. The Viking Raiders & Braun Strowman
Another match added on Sunday to fill out the card, this six-man tag featured WWE United States Champion AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson facing The Viking Raiders and a mystery partner, who turned out to be Braun Strowman. This wasn’t a terrible match but it certainly didn’t belong on a pay-per-view and it just had no real meaning to it outside of simply having a match.
The O.C. got themselves disqualified for beating down Braun for too long but Strowman would recover and knock out Styles with a big punch, which is apparently going to be his new finisher until this nonsense with Tyson Fury is over.
What’s next: Fury is appearing on Monday Night Raw so I guess we’ll find out then what the plan is for all of that (Strowman versus Fury in Saudi Arabia, most likely). If things were “normal”, Braun would turn knocking out Styles into a shot for the United States Championship but that’s apparently not important right now.
King Corbin vs. Chad Gable
In what seems like the 50th match between these two in the last month, King Corbin, fresh off his beating from The Rock and Becky Lynch, took on Chad Gable in yet another late addition to Hell in a Cell. Again, it’s not that if these matches are bad — this was actually very solid — it’s just that we’ve seen them so many times recently and this wouldn’t even be on at the top of any hour on Monday or Friday night. Gable got the “upset” win with a rollup. And is his new name actually “Shorty” Gable now? Because that’s what the ring announcer said after the match.
What’s next: Well, after Gable gave his backstage interview, he was attacked by Corbin, which means we haven’t seen the end of this. Great!
SmackDown Women’s Championship Match
Bayley (c) vs. Charlotte Flair
With Sasha Banks failing to get the job done in the Raw Women’s Championship match, it was her best friend Bayley’s turn on the blue side of things in the SmackDown Women’s Championship match against Charlotte Flair, another pairing we’ve seen quite a bit of recently. But at least there’s a title on the line here and a good story behind it.
Thankfully, this wasn’t anything like the match last month at Clash of Champions, which went barely five minutes. This felt more like an actual championship bout, with plenty of back and forth and a real finish. Bayley tried to get another cheap win with her feet on the ropes on a pinfall attempt but the ref caught it. Then, Flair got the upper hand and locked in the Figure Eight for the submission victory, winning her 10th title. Good match.
What’s next: Bayley was visibly upset at the loss after, crying on the outside of the ring and throwing a mild temper tantrum (a Chris Jericho-style tantrum from 20 years ago) as Charlotte walked away with the belt. This doesn’t seem like it’s over just yet.
WWE Universal Championship Match (Hell in a Cell)
Seth Rollins (c) vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt
So between the end of Friday Night SmackDown and the end of this Hell in a Cell Match for the WWE Universal Championship between Seth Rollins and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, I almost feel inclined to say that Tony Khan and Cody Rhodes have somehow found a way to sneak Vince Russo into WWE creative meetings. What happened here? How do they book this match without knowing what they are going to get out of it? I haven’t heard so many boos during or near the end of a WWE pay-per-view in a long time. And did the entire match need to happen with the red lights? At least tell us why that’s happening.
While we understand what WWE was trying to do, I just don’t think it came off like they wanted it. When “AEW” chants start up at the end of the main event — a Hell in a Cell main event — that’s not a good thing. I can also understand kicking out of a Stomp or two but this at least a dozen. There’s no way that Rollins can ever beat him in the future with just one or two.
At first, the match was going just fine but then the train went off the tracks. There were times here that I started wishing this was the House of Horrors Match from a few years back. I can understand Rollins needing to go to a place that he’s not used to going to pick up this win, but it never felt right. And the chair shot to the head? WWE doesn’t need to do that to keep up. These are two talented wrestlers. Let them tell a better story than this without all the extra-extra. And the ending made absolutely no sense. Rollins uses weapon after weapon after weapon — still attacking The Fiend in the head — and then the ref calls it because of a sledgehammer? This was booking at its absolute worst. And that’s saying something.
What’s next: Given what happened after the finish, this obviously isn’t over. I just have no idea how they fix all of this. I don’t see how there’s any way that Seth Rollins ever really defeats “The Fiend” and I suppose that’s okay. The WWE Universe is obviously wanting to see Wyatt win the title anyway. But tt’s almost as if Rollins has become the new Roman Reigns or John Cena in the reactions he’s been getting recently.
We know Rollins is a part of Team Hogan in Saudi Arabia so does that mean there’s going to be no Universal Championship match there? Or does Wyatt/The Fiend beat him before that? Or does he show up and interrupt that match? There’s a lot of work to be done to straighten this out.
What was your favorite match of the 2019 edition of WWE Hell in a Cell? Please feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below.