Hell In A Cell

[darkdisciple]

In what I'm sure is a refreshing change for some of you, I hated this PPV. Worst thing I've seen from WWE in as long as I can remember watching it. Several issues, not the least of which was the WHC match NOT being in the Cell, so why the hell even call it Hell In A Cell? Why no just call it No Mercy and be done with it? Oh, and the one HIAC match that they did have? Absolutley, without a doubt, the worst HIAC match ever. Just plain BAD! Rather than having Ryback looking strong coming out of it, they killed all of Punk's momentum, relied on a cheesy finish to justify keeping Punk with the belt, and generally being everything HIAC is supposed to not be, a short, gimmicky, storyline heavy match.

Also, they killed the momentum of Sin Cara (Who may very well be hurt, again, after what was granted a very cool move and a technically solid match from him, hope it's minor, he's getting better at consistency with Rey's help for sure) who is supposed to be gaining momentum back with Rey's help.

We got to see Kaitlyn actually wrestle, but still get overshadowed by Layla and Eve's bitch slapping.

Antonio Cesaro either needs a new finisher, or he needs to be more fluid in setting it up, because that made an otherwise obvious-but-decent match that did an okay-I-guess job of building Gabriel, really awkward at the end as he took 15 seconds setting up his finisher.

Match of the night was Kofi and the Miz, no doubt about it. Those two work great together, there was realistic tension, they went back and forth beautifully, I knew Kofi was going to win at the beginning, and I wasn't sure anymore by the end, which is exactly what a match like that is supposed to do. Also, Kofi has really skinny legs.

Orton and Del Rio would have made an even better Cell match than the WHC match. Both Orton and Del Rio are proven to be able to thrive in the Cell Instead, it was a decent math from two great performers. JBL, JR, and Cole actually stood out as being a great commentary team in this match. The back and forth was witty, stayed focused on the action, and actually improved the match.

Sheamus showed a great example of how to look strong while getting beaten up and losing a title. He lost no respect, and believably didn't give up until he was bruised, bloody, and had to be helped out of the ring. One of the best losing performances I've seen in a while. Big Show looked fine, hope his title reign is short lived, where the Hell was Ziggler?

I guess they want to keep building Rhodes Scholars vs Hell No! because that match didn't belong on a PPV, even though the wrestling was decent, and even good in some places. The ending killed it. Things were starting to get exciting just as it ended. Bryan and Kane are great together, a nice, subtle face turn for both of them without actually turning either one fully face, exactly where Kane should be when he's a face, and Bryan seems to fit well there also.

So, yeah, occasional moments that were worth watching by themselves, but if Iof all people can say "you can just skip the main event" you know it was bad. I'm going to go ahead and say the recent creative changes were responsible and wait for Survivor Series. I've seen worse from WCW, so I won't give this a complete F, but it's a D+ at best, just because I loved the Kofi/Miz match so much.

[Johnny Clash]

If u rewrite this in article form I can put it on my site

[darkdisciple]

I will. Thank you so much!

["Punk" Drake Hunter]

TBH i didn't mind the WWE title match, it managed to keep Ryback's domination and further the Punk heel storyline, but either way it was a pretty substandard PPV, with oddly the exception of The Miz. Miz and Kofi did really well and i thought Miz was the best heel of the PPV, and Orton vs Del Rio was an awesome match as well. Not sure why Big Show's champ, that seems like a leap backwards to me, hopefully it doesn't last a week, and i have a feeling Punk will be losing his title to Cena at SS.

[Chris Cable]

I really enjoyed the first couple of matches on the card especially the Randy vs ADR match which was stand out except for that botch which sort of slowed things down but apart from that the ending was sick with a very cool RKO. As you said Apostle the tag match belonged on Raw and I cannot stand Antonio's finisher! What ever happened to the riccola bomb! I did enjoy the world title match but it had to finish with Sheamus winning because I just don't see any direction they can go in with Big Show as the world champion. The WWE title match was so shit, I was really dissapointed I was looking forward to the early Cena vs Show matches from 2005 in those good Giant vs Underdog matches but the WMD to Sheamus to win the thing was really cool. The two biggest notes I took out of the show was why the hell wasn't and going into the future Randy Orton not in the main event? Instead they have a very boring program of Shamus vs ADR for 6 months wile Orton sits on the sideline doing nothing, complete waste of talent and I know this might sound bad and all but they need Punk to drop the title to a Cena because the only way the company can improve there rating is eiither to well firstly put him in a main event and to get the guy that is the companies top dog. As much as I hate Cena the amount of work he puts in for the company and not to be heavyweight champion for over a year is quite disrespectful to him because without him WWE wouldn't be as big as it is today. Overall early matches were good they just got to get the world championship scene on both brands sorted out

[darkdisciple]

@alex To me, if you want Ryback to look strong, early on in the match you need to show that Punk is the strongest person he's had to face yet. Get that point across. If the whole thing looks like all of Rybacks earlier matches, then all you're doing is burying Punk and putting him on the level of "Barry Stevens" also, after the match, going on top of the cell was incredibly gimmicky and lacked any kind of tension. It also felt way too short. If you're going to do a 15 minute Hell In A Cell Match, you need to have almost zero downtime so you can stretch it as much as possible.

@chris I believe Randy is getting punished a bit for his repeated wellness violations. They can't fire him for a few big reasons, so they're leaving him in the mid-card for a bit. Also, I wasn't saying the match was a good match, only that Sheamus did a great job of looking strong while having to lose the title.

[darkdisciple]

And I heard a rumor that Vicky and Ziggler were being separated and that Ziggler would be joining up with (Spoiler)Ric Flair(Spoiler) So I can perhaps see Big Show losing the title in a MITB cash in to Ziggler, which could be used to turn either one of them face.

[Roxi Johnson]

I really enjoyed Hell in a Cell. Part of the problem with the show was the crowd. For most of the night, they were DEAD. They just weren't into the minor matches.

Orton/Del Rio - Solid opener. Del Rio did a fantastic job in this match, And Orton did his thing. Sweet set-ups to the Rope-hung DDT and the RKO. Overall solid. 7/10

Team Hell No/Rhodes Scholars - Entertaining stuff between two really good teams. Rhodes and Sandow will eventually win these belts, but this was too soon, but they have to look like credible threats to Kane and Bryan. They accomplished the mission in this match winning by DQ. 6/10

Kofi/Miz - Easily the match of the night, great back and forth with two guys who have really great Chemistry. It's a testament to Kofi's value that he can have a good match with anybody. Miz didn't need the win, and he made Kofi look strong 9/10

Cesaro/Gabriel - The crowd killed this match, but it was solid. Good effort by two guys who are developing very well. But, Claudio always does well against high fliers. If Gabriel had gotten some wins prior to upsetting Cesaro, maybe the crowd would have been more involved. They were just dead for it. 7/10

Mysterio/Sin Cara vs. Prime Time Players - Another good match, Rey and Sin Cara are actually making PTP better. They don't have much, but they are improving. Sin Cara almost paralyzes himself, so he got really lucky. Rey and Cara are a good team and Sin Cara is getting better, It's a shame he was rushed onto TV before he was ready, because it's the biggest reason (and botching) that he isn't doing well. 6/10

Sheamus/Big Show - Another good match, considering who's in it. They beat each other up and made it look good. Sheamus looks strong kicking out of a KO Punch, but not 2. Good to see Show get a major title again, hopefully, Sheamus regains and Show KO's him and Ziggler cashes in at Survivor Series, Or even TLC. 8/10

Katilyn/Eve/Layal - It's a sad day when Katilyn was the best wrestler in the ring considering how much experience Eve and Layla have. Thankfully they kept it somewhat short, and Eve winning makes sense so she can drop the belt to AJ down the road. 5/10

Punk/Ryback - This match and everything building up to it was GOLD. They Heyman/Vickie segments, the Punk/Vince segment, everything was so well done, and the psychology of this was brilliant. The segments showed how much Punk wanted to keep the title and having Heyman do his dirty work was great. Punk and Ryback didn't even TOUCH for 3 minutes and the crowd ate it up. Punk bumped his butt off for Ryback, and Heyman's screams for mercy just added to it. And it all added up in the end. Of course Punk and Heyman bought off the ref, since they couldn't butter up Vickie and Vince. Perfect way to keep the belt on Punk and keep Ryback strong. Very well done. 8/10.

[Chris Cable]

^ the only problem though Roxi was that it went for 11 minutes and was the only cell match in the entire ppv, great review though

[Roxi Johnson]

11 minutes is a little short, but Ryback is limited. One of the smartest things WCW ever did with Goldberg was to keep his matches short to hide him limits. Same idea here. Ryback will eventually need to be a better wrestler in order to get longer matches, but as Goldberg proved, you don't need to right away.

As far as the only Hell in a Cell match on the show, that worked well. You don't need multiple Hell in A cell matches. It's overkill. Just ask TNA Lockdown how well that works out. Only one match needed to be a Hell in a cell. Two is too much. Look back when it was Orton/Henry and Cena/Punk/Del Rio. Orton/Henry didn't need to be a Cell match, it was for the sake of doing it. Which is an awful reason to risk people's careers. It's a feud ending gimmick match. You want it stand out. If you have two, people remember the better one, not both.

[Chris Cable]

yer to true well pointed out, i remember watching i think it was when goldberg vs sting for the wcw world title and it was surprisingly short

[darkdisciple]

Ath the same time though, if you're going to have a short match, it shouldn't be Hell In A Cell. They are all about long, brutal matches were you get to see innovative and really skillful wrestling. I would have rather seen Sheamus and Big Show in the cell, since they had Sheamus getting beaten to the point of needing to be carried out anyway, I feel like having that occur in the cell would have made it that much more powerful a moment, adding to both his prestige, and the cell's legend as being brutal.