Enzo and Cass vs. The Club
So this was sort of thrown together at the last minute to remind us that both teams still exist. The Club have been embarrassing to watch since coming along with AJ Styles back in May of this year, and have done nothing to convince us that we should take them seriously. From irrelevance to standing next to the clearly superior AJ Styles to a failed endeavor of beating The New Day for the tag titles, The Club find themselves in disarray. While their attitude of taking no prisoners and playing no more games is swell and all, it would have been more convincing had they been running rough shot through the entire division, but instead they’ve been booked like a joke. As for Enzo and Cass, I assume their time is coming, but not as of yet. They are still consistently over with the crowd, and putting them up against The Club is a good placeholder feud for them until they get back to the tag team title scene. While their booking has been inconsistent, taking losses to the likes of Jeri-KO and the Shining Stars, The Club is a good way to least keep them occupied. Going into this Sunday, however, The Club needs the win much more. Losing their feud with The New Day is one thing, but then claiming to be all business and then losing to Enzo and Cass after they started the feud wouldn’t make much sense at all. Enzo and Cass can afford the loss because they haven’t been doing anything of major importance since Summerslam, and The Club needs to still be a serious threat, so I’m betting for a Club victory here.
Winners: The Club
TJ Perkins (C) vs. The Brian Kendrick – WWE Cruiserweight Championship
WWE hasn’t done a good job in separating the Cruiserweight division on Monday Night RAW. All they are is smaller wrestlers than the main roster guys working the same type of matches. They haven’t been bad per say, but advertising the CW’s months in advance and not have some way to differentiate them from the rest of the pack has been a failed endeavor. Anyways, the pick to win here is sort of tough because there is a legit case for each man here. TJ Perkins winning can be a safe pick because he hasn’t had a long reign and has had only one title defense. Despite that, however, The Brian Kendrick has been pushing the narrative that this is his final chance to regain his former glory and make amends for the failures in his past, and that he can’t afford to lose this match. Then again, Brian Kendrick already defeated TJ Perkins three weeks ago, and beating the champion before a title match usually signals a loss. Brian Kendrick losing cleanly to Rich Swann this past Monday didn’t make any sense to me, because it robbed him of all momentum coming into the match after having beaten TJ Perkins in singles matches and tag matches leading up to this week. However, if we are going by the laws of reverse momentum, then The Brian Kendrick should be favored. We also have to consider that no other heel in the CW division has been built up to challenge Brian Kendrick should he fail again. This is really a toss-up here, but if I’m going with my gut here, just for the sake that WWE’s been pushing the narrative of this being Brian Kendrick’s last chance, I think WWE gives him the rub.
Winner: The Brian Kendrick
The New Day (C) vs. Sheamus and Cesaro – RAW Tag Team Championship
With The New Day, it seems to me that there is this pattern where they lose to their challengers the week before their title match, and end up winning. The same thing was done with Y2AJ, The Club and others, so it’s safe to say that after Monday, Sheamus and Cesaro aren’t winning. The team of Sheamus and Cesaro has been a practiced idea for WWE before. Two men who don’t like each other and who try to upstage each other, but win in spite of each other. It won’t be the case this Sunday. It will be interesting to see which team ends up taking the titles from The New Day, because it appears as though that WWE are going to allow the New Day to beat Demolition’s tag team record (meaning that The New Day will hold the titles until mid-December). There really hasn’t been much build between the two teams personally, and Sheamus and Cesaro beating The New Day two weeks in a row isn’t likely, so I think you can safely assume that The New Day, perhaps through some discord between Cesaro and Sheamus will defend their titles to see another day.
Winner: The New Day
Roman Reigns (C) vs. Rusev – United States Championship (Hell In A Cell)
Roman starts this whole thing by interrupting an innocent wedding celebration between Rusev and Roman, embarrasses Lana, and picks on Rusev for no reason. So naturally, a Hell In A Cell match is how this must end. WWE has done a deplorable job in convincing us that Rusev can beat Roman Reigns in any capacity. Seeing as how Rusev has never beaten Roman Reigns (I think he got a cheap DQ victory over him a couple years ago), we shouldn’t expect a different result here. The United States Championship has been a good way to utilize Roman in his absence from the world title scene, and I thought that the pre-taped promos between the two men on Monday was well done. However, again, this match suffers from the archaic inevitability issue, being that we know who is going to win here. It wouldn’t make any sense to put the title back on Rusev, and it’s high time that Roman moves on to a different challenger, because these two have been feuding for approximately two and a half months. The two have had some acceptable matches with each other, and I think that they could turn it up a bit inside Hell In A Cell. Rusev predicates his style on brutality and hard hitting moves, so I think that he will adjust to the cell well here, and seeing as how Roman has a Hell In A Cell match under his belt, I think this is a great way to culminate the feud. Roman is winning here because Rusev hasn’t straight up beaten Roman, and there’s no reason to convince us that inside the cell, the result will be any different. I also understand that WWE wants to promote a “triple main event” because there are three cell matches, but if we’re being realistic, the match that goes on last, is the match that’s the main event. This is no main event, but hopefully, with how long these two have been fighting, it will feel like one.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Sasha Banks (C) vs. Charlotte – RAW Women’s Championship (Hell In A Cell Match)
I wrote a piece here yesterday about how the women’s revolution was complete in that the first ever women’s Hell In A Cell match between two women is perhaps the biggest vote of confidence WWE has ever had of women, and the division will never be the same after this. However, I think WWE has completely botched the delivery on the gravity of this match means. Instead of this being the ending of one of the best feuds between two women in WWE history ending in a historic Hell In A Cell match, it seems as though that this match has become more about the sake of making history as opposed to the two women themselves. I loved the segment of Mick Foley becoming emotional about how these two may never be the same after entering Satan’s structure, but even in that, this should have been more about Sasha and Charlotte tearing into each other. Despite that, the reasoning for the match and WWE’s booking for this has been botched to me. This could have been something completely special, and while we may forget about the booking to this match after Sunday, the build-up could have been so much better. In spite of all of that, however, this will be one of the matches that I will remember in my wrestling career, just because of the sheer history that these two will make. You couldn’t tell me that WWE would ever allow two women to step inside Hell In A Cell. I won’t be paying attention tot he actual match so much as I will be paying attention so much as the gravity of the moment, that these two will be stepping inside this structure. Sasha Banks and Charlotte have truly raised the bar like no other moment in women’s history, and I greatly look forward to what may lie ahead for the future of women’s wrestling. This will also be an emotional moment for Sasha, seeing as how this match will be held in her hometown, and this will be a moment that will carry with her the rest of her life. It only makes sense that Sasha wins here, and not much explanation is needed for it. But simply because Sasha just won the title not too long ago, and because of the fact it is in her hometown, Sasha will win the first ever women’s Hell In A Cell match, in what I think will steal the show. And lord, help WWE if this match isn’t the main event.
Winner: Sasha Banks
Kevin Owens (C) vs. Seth Rollins – WWE Universal Championship (Hell In A Cell)
This feud has been highly underwhelming, and after their lackluster, boring bout at Clash of Champions, I’m hoping that these two turn it up like never before. All you need to do is look at the fact that Chris Jericho has been the most entertaining part of this feud to know how bad this feud has been. Seth Rollins has been good as a babyface, but he’s missing that “something”. Meanwhile, KO has always played his role as a heel well, but these two haven’t really had that chemistry I was hoping two of the top workers WWE had to offer would show. I’m also surprised that WWE hasn’t announced Jericho playing a role in this Cell match. Perhaps we will get one by the end of the week, but it sort of makes no sense to me to have Jericho so heavily involved in the feud and leave him out of this match. It would have made much more sense had Chris Jericho been the special referee, as WWE has been teasing tension between the two for a couple of weeks now. Ho hum. Anyways, seeing as how WWE made the deplorable decision to have Seth not only pin Owens but Jericho at the same time, I can’t see any route for a Rollins victory. I think it’s more likely that Owens moves on to a feud against Jericho before he takes his next hiatus. Unfortunately for Seth, this means that he will suffer his fourth straight PPV loss. Survivor Series is next on the horizon, so I think Seth will be moving on to ensuring Team RAW wins at Survivor Series, and KO finishes his beef with Jericho. All I hope is for this match to exceed expectations, because these two are capable of anything, and I was left with “meh” at their next encounter. Hopefully not here. How possible is it that Triple H interferes on Kevin Owens’ behalf yet again inside HIAC? Interesting possibility to keep in mind.
Winner: Kevin Owens
Agree? Disagree? Let me know. Until next time.