To coincide with my usual article about the superstars missing from the card for each particular pay-per-view, the companion piece is the more positive side of things: which of the stars who are set to compete will end up making the biggest impact on the show?
There are quite a few names scheduled for Hell in a Cell, but to me, there are a couple standouts that I feel have a clear edge in the running for this potential. Who are those people? Well, let’s break it down, shall we?
Seth Rollins
If I were ranking this list, Rollins would be at the bottom (which still isn’t bad considering it’s a list of “top” stars). I don’t think he’ll be wrestling in the main event, as that distinction will go to The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, which downgrades him a bit automatically. Still, he’s going to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Kane in some fashion, possibly even with a clean victory where no shenanigans influence the outcome.
This is an event where Rollins has not been the main focal point and his feud in turn has suffered, but that doesn’t mean it totally devalues the importance of being the guy in the company with the biggest prize to his name. Extra points are awarded to Rollins for how he’ll not just retain his title, but also force Corporate Kane to lose his position within The Authority, which is just the icing on the cake.
Roman Reigns
I’ll admit that I don’t know exactly what WWE’s backup plan is regarding this feud, as one week ago, things looked rather different than they currently do. Over the course of a few days, Randy Orton’s been injured, Luke Harper’s taken a leave of absence, and Erick Rowan’s come back into the fold. As it stands right now, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose are up against 3, potentially 4 Wyatt Family members without anyone else to fight alongside them. Then again, everyone other than Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns themselves are not scheduled to wrestle a match at this event in the first place, so maybe things won’t be so bad.
Despite being outnumbered, I think this will be a win for Roman Reigns. This feud’s gone on long enough and with the stipulation of Hell in a Cell being attached to this match, there’s a sense of finality looming. Seeing as how Reigns has been the one fighting against the odds since the beginning of this feud, it’s time for him to get a solid victory over Bray Wyatt and put him out of his way, where both men can move on to different things. Wyatt is better suited to take the fall and bounce back, whereas Reigns losing would be harder to rehabilitate. Also, the likelihood that Wyatt will be in the title picture come WrestleMania is nowhere near as strong as the chances that Reigns will, so winning this Hell in a Cell match will start the turnaround for the big dog.
John Cena’s Opponent
As of right now, we don’t know who is going to be answering the United States Championship Open Challenge at Hell in a Cell, but we do know that there are plenty of rumors swirling that John Cena will be taking time off. If that is indeed true, then he will either be dropping the belt on this event or the Monday Night Raw which follows, but it makes more sense for someone to win at the pay-per-view between those two options.
The most likely contender is Tyler Breeze, who made his debut on this week’s SmackDown tapings and will seemingly be entering a feud with Dolph Ziggler going forward. Since there were also rumors that Ziggler would be the one to dethrone Cena, I’d have to imagine the easy bet is that Breeze has been brought in to somewhat make that transition happen, but in a different way. Rather than a babyface Ziggler beating a babyface Cena, Breeze can get a huge push by defeating Cena for the belt at this event and then moving on to his Ziggler feud while Cena is gone. This would be a means to use Ziggler as the workhorse that Cena’s been in this title scene, but wouldn’t rely on him being the champion to represent it.
Even if it isn’t Tyler Breeze, all signs point to Cena’s challenger being the next United States champion, so keep your eyes open as you will probably see a title change.
The Undertaker
Easily, the top spot that towers over all of the others will end up going to either Brock Lesnar or The Undertaker, and I’m putting my money down on the latter walking away victorious. Perhaps it’s just the fan in me that doesn’t want to see Taker look so damn weak, but I think this will end up being WWE’s attempt to make up for how uneven this feud has been.
Lesnar wrecked Undertaker at WrestleMania and ended the streak, which is a massive blow, but could have been left alone and things wouldn’t be as bad for The Phenom. However, their second encounter was another situation where The Beast was the better man, to an insulting kind of degree. There’s no reason not to think someone like Lesnar could beat The Undertaker, as that’s entirely believable. However, did Undertaker have to tap out and then cheat to get a fluke, tainted win?
As far as I see it, Undertaker doesn’t have one win and one loss in this series, he has 3 losses and 0 wins. He needs this Hell in a Cell win more than Lesnar needs it, and although I’m not entirely confident that it will be booked in that way, I do have to lean towards Undertaker standing tall when the lights go out.
As you can tell, I’ve left a lot of people off this list and I have my reasons for each one of them not being chosen. A good portion of the matches scheduled seem like they’re just not a priority to WWE from my perspective and will be overshadowed to an extreme amount in comparison to these four I’ve spoken about. Granted, that’s because these four are essentially the most important by default, but normally that doesn’t mean someone else can’t come out of nowhere and steal the show. Unfortunately, at Hell in a Cell, I don’t think that will happen, save for possibly a Dudley Boyz title win that should have already happened at the Madison Square Garden event. Do I think Kevin Owens will do a great job? Of course. Is there potential for Charlotte or Nikki Bella to make a bold statement? Naturally. All in all, though, those four men listed here seem to be set up for an entirely different level of importance than anyone else, so I had to go with only them.
That’s my piece on the subject, but who do you think will end up stealing the most spotlight for themselves at Hell in a Cell? Do you agree or disagree with my list above? Tell us what’s on your mind in the comments below!
