Thursday, March 28, 2024
EditorialHell In A Cell 2016 Review and Match Ratings

Hell In A Cell 2016 Review and Match Ratings

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Roman Reigns (C) def. Rusev – United States Championship (Hell In A Cell)

A wise choice to open the show to warm up the crowd and spread out all the cell matches evenly throughout the show.. Roman Reigns and Rusev have always set a physical tone in each and every one of their matches, and a Hell In A Cell match is a great way to compliment that tone. Throughout the match they made sure to utilize the cage throughout the match and tried to sell the brutality of being enclosed inside the cell. Now, the match certainly didn’t match the physicality, but I don’t think I saw that creative touch that I was looking for. It seemed like they recycled some of the same spots in their previous matches, and they tried to hide it because they were trapped in the cell. In spite of that. I can’t fault either man for their effort, because they really went out there and laid it all in the ring. That could be evidenced by the noticeable flesh wound that Rusev suffered after taking an early bump off the cage early in the match. There were some other decent spots, with the steel chairs being used, and other weapons such as the kendo stick being involved as well.

All that being said, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. I wasn’t expecting this to be the match of the night, but because of the nature of matches that Roman and Rusev have had in their matches in the past, I was expecting more for them. Hell, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it could have been the match of the night. Sadly, I was sort of left with, “Meh”. In addition, the ending was just deflating to me. You had a nice visual with Rusev utilizing the chain and having him the Accolade (he really should go back to hunching his back like he used to do earlier this year), but he had it around his mouth, when I think it would have been better suited around his neck. Then, Roman drops him onto the cage, Rusev stays on top of the chair and Roman just spears him out of nowhere. Add in the fact that Roman was all smiles and giggles after the match and celebrating with the crowd like he just didn’t go through 20 minutes of hell, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. I assume now that Roman will be involved in the Survivor Series match between RAW and Smackdown, and now I fear Rusev is heading for another decline after losing, which is a shame. He deserves better. Good match to start the show, but I was underwhelmed. Roman’s match with Bray at Hell In A Cell last year had a better pace to it. The match went a bit long to get to the point, though. ***1/4

Bayley def. Dana Broooke

Dana Brooke just isn’t ready for main roster action yet. She just looks out of sorts at time. Now, I assume that she was trying to incorporate some psychology into the match by targeting Bayley’s injured arm. However, she just look flustered out there. I think she would have been much better suited to working with Asuka in NXT and get some real experience before coming to the main roster. Bayley tried, but these two have no chemistry together. The match felt sloppy, rushed and when I am just waiting for the match to be over, it’s not really a good sign. I’d say this was a RAW match, but even that felt a little short as well. I’ll cut them a little slack for trying, but I didn’t enjoy myself here. I suppose Dana working a cleaner match this time around made for a much better match than that clusterf*** they had on RAW a couple of weeks ago, but that’s not exactly high praise. Plus, the selling was inconsistent and the action early on was lethargic. *1/2


The Club def. Enzo and Big Cass

Can’t say that I’m surprised. When I made my predictions, I said that the Club was winning simply because Enzo and Cass don’t really have anything going for them at the moment. While The Club did lose their feud against The New Day, it seems that WWE is still intent on keeping them as a top tag team on RAWR. Meanwhile, Enzo continues to lose matches for Enzo and Cass, and if you ask me, I wouldn’t be surprised if Big Cass were to turn on Enzo sooner than later and call him “Dead weight”. May not be likely, but you can’t rule it out. As for the match, it was pretty much a RAW match without the commercials. Nothing bad here, but nothing that you’d regret missing **


Kevin Owens (C) def. Seth Rollins – WWE Universal Championship (Hell In A Cell)

Coming into the match, for both men’s sake, I was hoping that this match would deliver, because coming in, I believe the action between Seth and KO thus far has been below average considering what both men were capable of. The match kind of started out dull, but then they started to go the outside and the action picked up in a big way. I loved KO catapulting Rollins to the cage like a dart, and removing the protective tape from his back to inflict more damage was a great added touch. KO’s physicality also shined through here with some great cannonball spots. However, that table spot? Lordy, was that impressive. I don’t know if it was botched or not (it looked like it), but Seth visibly struggled to get KO up for a powerbomb on his first try, yet he had the power to manually get all the weight of KO back to his chest and get him up to vault him through two tables. What. a. spot. Bravo. Also, even if it wasn’t scripted, intentionally getting the ref blasted with the fire extinguisher to allow the chance for Jericho to come into the cell to help KO was greatly convoluted. You could see the change in facial expressions and body language throughout the match and KO and Seth were able to pick it up in a big way. It got brutal, gritty and dirty. I think it was also a double win, because in having Seth lose facing both Jericho and Owens inside HIAC makes him look strong, and while it may make KO look a little weak, he still holds the title. This was much better than their Clash of Champions showing, and it was a very good cell match. I knew Rollins and Owens were capable of great things if they wanted to, and I think they gave it what they had here. The chair shot assaults from KO on Seth towards the end of the match was also very brutal as well. While I HATE interference in a Hell In A Cell match because it defeats the purpose of having two men trapped inside the cage, but it worked here. Going forward now, I assume that Jericho will request a title match seeing as how he’s helped KO retain, and as for Seth, I assume he will step away from the title picture from the time being, though I’m not sure who else is being groomed up to face him. Perhaps he finds a slot fighting for team RAW at Survivor Series. ****


The Brian Kendrick def. TJ Perkins (C) – WWE Cruiserweight Championship

Some people disagreed with me saying that Kendrick wouldn’t win, but it made too much sense for him to win in the context of the storyline between these two. Kendrick loses against Swann on RAW, requests that TJ throw away the match for him, approaches him tonight before the match to tell him to let him win and then he faked an injury. Not to mention, Kendrick was stressing in the weeks up to this match that this may be his last chance to win, so it wouldn’t really behoove him to lose. There really wasn’t anywhere else for TJ to go at the time. With all due respect for Perkins, because he’s a great in-ring talent, he’s just green in too many areas. He doesn’t know how to get the crowd involved in the match, his body language is just dead, and his mic skills are too robotic. He needs to let emotion and the words flow naturally instead of sounding like you are visibly reading off a script. The cruiserweights are really off to a rough start in WWE. I think this match could have been very good, and I think it got the time it needed, but the CW’s have done nothing to make any of us care about them, and the crowd is audibly dead during their matches. As a matter of fact, I think the crowd was more involved for the six other cruiswereights in the pre-show. The match was okay, I guess, and Kendrick winning was a good moment, but unless WWE gives the crowd a reason to make a special effort to see the CW’s, it won’t matter. Underwhelming match to me. In addition, I hate it when they make the face look so freaking stupid. It was more than obvious that Kendrick was faking it from the beginning, and the crowd booed TJ because he was dumb enough to check up on him. Even if it wasn’t scripted, you can’t book that kind of stupid. **1/2


Cesaro and Sheamus def. The New Day (C) by DQ – RAW Tag Team Championship

Considering that the match was getting very good, that finish was freaking awful. The New Day and Cesaro/Sheamus have no had two very solid outings, and had we get a good finish here, then I would have rated the match higher, but it was just completely deflating. Before hand, we had great back and forth as usual from these two teams. Considering how The New Day were speaking about Cesaro and Sheamus before on the pre-show, and considering the outcome of this match, it may be likely that a heel turn is in the works. Whatever the case, it was a solid bout, but dammit, that finish was so stupid, and the crowd was visibly disappointed in it as well. Shame, shame. It’s likely at this point that The New Day beats Demolition’s tag team record, so I’m not anticipating that The New Day will lose it between now and RAW’s December PPV, Roadblock. But all men gave a great effort in spite of the stupid finish, so kudos to them. ***

Charlotte Flair def. Sasha Banks (C) – RAW Women’s Championship (Hell In A Cell)

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I was saying before this match that no matter what happened, if this match turned out good or bad, the sheer importance and significance of this match won’t be mistaken. The start of the match where Charlotte blindsided Sasha and they fought into the crowd was very well done and wise on Charlotte’s art to get an early advantage. The powerbomb spot looked pretty damn ugly because of how awkward Sasha’s back collapsed onto the table. The EMT spot was obviously a work, and it wasn’t even remotely subtle. It was a mirror image of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose’s match inside Hell In A Cell two years ago. I just loved the action inside here, as Charlotte and Sasha have that special chemistry with each other that’s unmistakable. Yeah, there were some ugly moments, especially with not one, but two table spots (Botchamania won’t have any problems there), but the two women out there, threw caution to the wind and just let everything go. This match certainly didn’t do any favors for Sasha’s back either. However, there was awesome story-telling and the match maintained a great pace throughout. The best thing about this match is that it will begin to open the door for new ventures for women’s wrestling. I would have liked a better finish to the match, because it sort of seemed abrupt after Charlotte just tossed Sasha like a ragdoll on top of the table. I also don’t like the frequency of the title changes. If the two competitors are both credible, and Sasha and Charlotte are both more than credible, it can be done right, but doing it too often may lessen the prestige of the title if done too often. If you ask me, Sasha should have beaten Charlotte at Summerslam and held the title until tonight where they would do the change. I also thought Sasha should have retained in her hometown and build towards a big match against Bayley as a heel. It’s not that Charlotte isn’t worthy to hold the title (she’s more than qualified), but WWE needs to establish one or the other as champion. Otherwise it makes no sense for Sasha to beat Charlotte on RAW and just lose it a few weeks later. I sincerely hope that WWE builds up some of the other women on the roster right, because it seems as though that the center of the women’s revolution has been Sasha and Charlotte. Bayley certainly has to be involved at some point in the future. Overall, this was a special match despite its obvious flaws, and we are privileged to live in a time where we can say that we watched two women walk inside Satan’s structure and beat the living hell out of each other. These women are here to stay, they played up to the brutality of the match and they showed they belong. And it was kinda hot. ****1/4

Conclusion

It was a historical night to be sure, and while I didn’t appreciate that WWE kept pushing the triple main event narrative coming into the match (because let’s face it, the match that goes on last is the main event), all three cell matches met or exceeded my expectations and that’s what I was looking for. In addition, Brian Kendrick finally won, The New Day and Cesaro/Sheamus had another solid bout despite the crappy finish, and of course, the women stole the show. I can’t really complain about the show as a whole, and while the only two matches I’d probably go back and see a second time would be Seth/KO and Charlotte/Sasha, the PPV as a whole was a very good showing from RAW, and if you can get past some of the sketchy booking in regards to the ends of some of the matches, Hell In A Cell is a good watch. I’ll give this show a thumbs up. Until next time.

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