WWE Hell in a Cell 2017.

Hell in a Cell had three good matches that lived up to the hype. They were, the two ‘Cell bouts, which opened and closed the pay-per-view, and the triple threat for the United States Championship. Everything else ranged from passable to decent, but was generally forgettable.

 

The Usos and The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) fought for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. This was very vicious (by PG Era standards). The Usos won after 22 minutes of exciting action. Their creative use of weapons and the enclosed environment was a definite highlight. This feud has reached a natural conclusion as demonstrated by their truce on SmackDown. Top marks.

 

Back down to earth, Randy Orton and Rusev had a flat contest. Randy won again with an RKO, except this time it took him 11 minutes. Where do they go from here? I don’t really care.

 

Baron Corbin defeated AJ Styles (and late addition Tye Dillinger) to win his first major championship. After winning 2016’s André the Giant Memorial Trophy and Money in the Bank, ‘The Lone Wolf’ seemed destined for greatness. That didn’t happen, but he beat Styles clean on SmackDown in his first title defence, so hopefully his push is more consistent this time around.

 

Charlotte versus Natalya for the SmackDown Women’s Championship was getting interesting, and then it ended in a disqualification. Natalya used a chair on Charlotte’s bad knee, who sold the pain convincingly. Their rematch has the potential to be very good.

 

Jinder Mahal retained his WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura. This didn’t have the spectacle of their SummerSlam clash, but was still the best match of Jinder’s championship reign, with some dramatic moments. Most noticeably, The Singh Brothers interfered again, but this time the referee ejected them from the arena. Jinder hit the Khallas and escaped with his championship. The crowd will go wild when someone dethrones Jinder, but who will it be?

 

Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler had a decent back and forth match. Ziggler made his entrance with no music or video; a small level of character development is better than none. Eventually, Dolph grabbed the tights after a series of roll ups. Roode reversed and grabbed Ziggler’s for an instant karma finish.

 

The main event was slowly paced, a touch overlong, but had some memorable moments. Shane McMahon and Kevin Owens also did everything possible to justify the additional falls count anywhere stipulation. They brawled, used tables and fought on top of the cell. Kevin Owens took a 10ft bump through a table. Shane went for a 20ft elbow drop off the cell and missed, thanks to interference from Sami Zayn.  The new Owens/Zayn dynamic looks set to keep fans on their toes well into the winter months and 2018.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Philip.