Welcome to another edition of eWN Round Table, where we gather some of the most active writers here on eWrestlingNews and share the platform to answer some questions surrounding a centralized topic, upcoming event, etc.
This is meant to showcase the potential for both a wide range of perspectives as well as how sometimes, there can be a group consensus no matter what your viewpoint is, so we also invite all of you to join in on the discussion by answering these questions yourself in the comments section below.
For this particular volume, we’ll be focusing on WWE Hell in a Cell 2019.
Participants for this round = Anthony Mango, Richard Staple, Robert DeFelice and Ethan Absler.
* Note: These questions were sent out Tuesday evening when there were only 3 matches on the card. Some answers may reflect a different event lineup. *
1) “WWE has clearly spent more time focused on promoting Raw, Total Divas, NXT and SmackDown this week than Hell in a Cell. Has their gamble of hoping a 3-match card is a good enough sell bothered you or made no difference to your perception of this pay-per-view?”
MANGO: It’s annoying the living hell out of me. I don’t like it at all that they’re waiting so late into this weekend to announce the majority of the card. I think that shows a lack of organizational structure that has to be fixed within WWE that has been exemplified in a lot of ways over the past few years. For instance, they know ahead of time what they’re going to do, yet they still sometimes take hours to put matches on WWE.com even though they should have had those graphics well in advance. There’s no reason why they couldn’t have announced Tuesday or Wednesday that Rusev is facing Bobby Lashley, for instance. It could have happened on social media. Yet here we are, Wednesday night while I’m answering this, and we still have not one more match announced. If they wait until post-205 Live just to announce things like that, why didn’t they just say it days beforehand?? You couldn’t announce it on The Bump? Twitter? Facebook? Dot com? YouTube? After Raw, or on Tuesday, or on Wednesday? Ridiculous.
STAPLE: WWE can be ridiculous at times, but I don’t think they are seriously going to have only three matches. With the way RAW turned out, I’m suspecting Bobby Lashley vs. Rusev might be added, and I’m predicting Rey Mysterio will cost Brock Lesnar the WWE Championship. Even so, it’s still a short card, and I believe WWE has booked themselves into a corner on this one.
DEFELICE: My view of pay-per-view has been very skewed ever since the advent of the network. Sometimes with shows like this, it is very clear that they feel a lack of an obligation to deliver a quality product because there’s just so much content that they think it all balances out. That being said, I think this show will be fun for what it has been built to be. The three matches have a lot of character to them and some history as well.
ABSLER: WWE has a lot going on right now between Smackdown’s Fox premiere, Hell in a Cell, AEW, and more. Although WWE hasn’t done much promoting for Hell in a Cell, The Fiend vs Rollins alone has been enough to sell me. I know this isn’t the case for everybody, but I still have faith that Hell in a Cell will be a solid show and the lack of build hasn’t done too much to effect my opinions.
2) “If Kofi Kingston retains the WWE Championship on SmackDown, who should he face at Hell in a Cell? If Brock Lesnar wins the title, should there be a rematch between the two, a new challenger or should Lesnar take the event off?”
MANGO: In the astronomically impossible scenario Kingston keeps the title, the only person he could realistically face would be Randy Orton if they wanted to announce something in advance. Otherwise, he would have to fight someone totally random, and I feel like much of this card is going to feel like a last minute open-challenge rush job sort of thing, so they shouldn’t do that with every match. When Lesnar wins the title, I don’t think they’ll bother. I fully expect them to not pay Lesnar to wrestle again two nights afterward at Hell in a Cell. Instead, they’ll just put pointless filler on the card and maybe Kingston will get a rematch at Crown Jewel. He should defend the title, but WWE also should have had plenty of other matches advertised in advance for this to where we shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not that is the case.
STAPLE: If Kofi retains, then I don’t thunk there will be enough time to build up a serious challenger for his title in time for Sunday. If Lesnar wins the title, I don’t even think they will have a WWE Championship match at Hell In a Cell. That’s two title matches within three days for Brock. Based on his history, that’s asking too much.
DEFELICE: I’ll keep this one short and sweet. Brock Lesnar will win and I think there will be a rematch at the Pay-Per-View.
ABSLER: Regardless of who wins the match, I don’t think Kofi or especially Lesnar should be wrestling Sunday. One could make the argument that Kofi should wrestle at Hell in a Cell, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Mysterio challenge for the title as his Universal championship match was cancelled after the vicious attack at the hands of Brock Lesnar. Regardless, Lesnar shouldn’t wrestle two matches this close together and must be more built up and spread out by the WWE. If Lesnar wins, I would like to see a rematch between the two maybe in a month or so.
3) “Since WWE doesn’t want to fill out this card, the ball is in your court. Go for it! What other matches should be on this lineup?”
MANGO: I’m not working with much, but here we go: Bayley against Charlotte Flair is a given. Rusev against Bobby Lashley makes sense. Chad Gable against Elias, if he’s healthy. If not, they announce Gable for Team Hogan and he faces Randy Orton and loses the match due to outside interference from King Corbin with a tease that Gable will get a tag team partner the next night on Raw who will also be on Team Hogan. I would have said Finn Balor against Shinsuke Nakamura, but that’s out the window with NXT now, so instead, I’ll have Nakamura defend the Intercontinental Championship in an open challenge that is answered by Kevin Owens (who wins by disqualification due to Sami Zayn interfering). The Usos should come back on SmackDown and start a feud with The Revival, so the tag titles could be on the line. And the kickoff could be, I don’t know, let’s just waste another repeat six-man tag between The O.C. vs. The Viking Raiders and Cedric Alexander or something because there’s no room to do something with any build other than that.
STAPLE: Geez, WWE took all of my ideas for what matches could have feasibly been added to the card this week. Styles vs. Alexander, Owens vs. Shane and Roode/Ziggler vs. Heavy Machinery were all matches that could have been added, even if for just filler purposes. They may still get well do rematches, but I’m not counting on it. It’d feel way too redundant. Chad Gable vs. Elias is an idea.
DEFELICE: The following matches are matches I think will be added to the Pay-Per-View. The name in parentheses will be the name of the person I feel will win said match:
SmackDown Tag Team Championship: The Revival vs The New Day (Revival)
WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar vs Kofi Kingston (Brock)
SmackDown Women’s Championship: Charlotte vs Bayley (Bayley)
WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Lio Rush vs Drew Gulak (Rush)
Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura vs The Miz (Miz)
Six-Man Tag: OC vs Cedric/Vikings (OC)
ABSLER: I’d like to see AJ Styles vs Cedric Alexander (2/3 falls), Nakamura vs The Miz- Zayn banned from ringside, Roode and Ziggler vs The New Day, Revival vs Heavy Machinery, and Bayley vs Rhea Ripley
4) “Do you think Daniel Bryan turning babyface is the right move or should he have stayed a heel?”
MANGO: I’m very, very happy he’s turning face again (at least, seemingly). I did enjoy some of the heel Bryan shtick, but I feel like it very quickly reached its maximum potential and I missed having someone to genuinely get behind as a likable babyface. I want Bryan against Lesnar in a proper context and not as a heel again, and I don’t want Bryan to be teaming with Harper and Rowan, particularly because it makes no sense in the storyline for him to have taken those beatings. Harper and Rowan are fine on their own. Give me babyface Bryan.
STAPLE: I’m actually kind of holding out hope that all of this is a rouse that has Bryan championing Rowan and Harper as somewhat of a gang leader. If this truly is slowly turning him face, then I am disappointed. Angry, disgruntled, vegan, humanitarian Daniel Bryan is the best Daniel Bryan.
DEFELICE: I won’t be entirely convinced until after Sunday night where Bryan’s allegiances lay. For right now, I think he’s going to turn but if he doesn’t and they just win then I think Harper and Rowan go right back down to the stagnant place they always have been in.
ABSLER: I honestly think Bryan as face is the right move. He is a fantastic performer and can pull off both, but the circumstances of him turning heel seemed questionable in the beginning, and now is a perfect opportunity to turn him back to babyface.
5) “Do you think Becky Lynch and/or Seth Rollins will drop the titles? If so, is this because of the upcoming WWE Draft or some other reason?”
MANGO: At this point, I’m 100% expecting both to lose their titles and to move over to SmackDown in the draft as part of a trade that would also encompass Rey Mysterio heading to SmackDown, in exchange for Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair, Andrade, Zelina Vega and Aleister Black. The only problem I see with that is I can’t imagine Wyatt vs. Lesnar is the plan for Survivor Series, but maybe they’re ditching the Raw vs. SmackDown theme this year and will avoid that altogether.
STAPLE: I’m predicting both will lose their titles. The two have basically held onto their respective titles since WrestleMania, and in lieu of not only the draft, but the new era of programming and designs for both RAW and SD, the time has come to move in a different direction. Seth losing the title should (hopefully) be a given. Becky losing the title is to simply give the women’s division a new alpha woman.
DEFELICE: Yes. In fact, I think both lose their titles in decisive fashion. Right now, it is clear to me that Monday Night Raw is being looked at as the B-Show and even if that’s only for the next couple of months, I think that means that smackdown needs Becky Lynch. I can’t see them separating a couple that just got engaged, so that means Seth Rollins has to go with her.
ABSLER: I could potentially see Becky and Seth both losing their titles. I also don’t believe it would be because of the draft, but just because Sasha Banks and Bray Wyatt make sense as champions right now.
6) “For weeks, Raw has ended with Bray Wyatt interrupting the main event to intimidate Seth Rollins. For you, was that a well-executed idea to build hype or bland, repetitive and lazy?”
MANGO: It lacks creativity. The first time at Clash of Champions, it was exciting. Then, it was just a copy and paste of what I had already seen. Between the annoying shrieking sounds and how I knew nothing important was going to happen, I would just want the segments to end, rather than be glued to my screen.
STAPLE: It was good after a while, but I wanted WWE to have Seth have some sort of countermeasure. If you see the lights go out, that should be Seth’a cue to high tail it out of there, or at least have a weapon in his hand. Hell, even Jerry Lawler knew he had to dip (even though he got caught anyway).
DEFELICE: Initially, it was a well-executed idea but four weeks in a row combined with some campy overreactions by somebody who wasn’t even afraid of Brock Lesnar, made this a very bizarre road. I won’t call it lazy but it was starting to feel bland.
ABSLER: I don’t find the Fiend’s booking to be boring or repetitive. I think Wyatt is still consistently the best part of the show every week and his use of music, lights, and character alone have made him one of WWE’s top stars despite only competing in one match since his return. This proves that Wyatt’s strong character is carrying him right now and the build to this Cell match hasn’t been lazy, but just consistently creepy.
7) “If Bray Wyatt becomes universal champion, how should WWE book him to keep The Fiend from being overexposed?”
MANGO: I keep beating this drum, even though I’m probably the only person in the world who wants this: book sweater Bray Wyatt in the meantime. Have him come out to wrestle a match and wrestle an entirely different style from The Fiend. Then, he can lose, and when shit is about to get down in a serious way, The Fiend persona comes out. Think of it as Dude Love being more able to take a loss than Mankind, or Demon Balor having a better win-loss record than regular Finn Balor. That way, The Fiend is still special, but isn’t battling between overexposure or going away similar to how we’ll be missing out on Lesnar. We can’t have both shows lacking their world champions for the majority of the next 6 months until WrestleMania and only having sporadic appearances.
STAPLE: Personally, I wouldn’t mind if WWE kept Bray Wyatt as an on screen character and saving The Fiend for big PPV events or certain RAW/SD’s. WWE has booked The Fiend to the point where only a greater supernatural force than him should defeat him. That’s the danger in giving him a Universal Title match so soon. It feels like he should never lose now.
DEFELICE: Continuing to utilize the Firefly Fun House without advertising it is a good place to start. The character is going to feel bland if they keep going the way they’re going but they still have plenty of time to salvage it. That being said, losing is not an option for this character at this moment.
ABSLER: In order to make sure the Fiend doesn’t become over exposed, WWE must treat an appearance by the Fiend very seriously. The Fiend must continue to be scary, but only appear when Wyatt can’t control it or lets in the Fiend. Similar to Balor’s Demon gimmick, WWE can treat the Fiend like an alter ego and must continue to mix his appearances with Bray Wyatt like they have been.
Big thanks to everyone who took part in this edition!
Those are our thoughts, but what do you have to say about these issues? Keep the discussion going by chiming in via the comments section below!
