With 2018 Hell in a Cell coming up this Sunday night, the go-home show of Monday Night Raw has given us an indication of what talent is booked for the pay-per-view and who are not currently scheduled. As always, there is a chance any kind of alterations can be made to the lineup, as the card is always subject to change, but at the moment, the men and women in this breakdown are not being promoted as taking part in this event.
In some cases, this may be justified, but in others, it might seem ridiculous. That is up to you to decide as we take a look at which superstars from the red brand are sitting this show out.
From the Raw Men’s Singles Division
— Baron Corbin / Finn Balor: I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Constable Corbin makes an appearance on the show, but in a backstage role in some sort of promo segment, rather than actually wrestling. If he does compete in the ring, it’ll be in a match against Finn Balor, most likely. Speaking of that devil (or demon, if you will), Balor still has a lingering feud with Corbin and if he doesn’t compete against him, it’s unlikely he’ll be up against anybody and will just sit this event out.
— Big Show: Big Show has been used in more of an ambassador role for the past year or so, rather than being a true member of the roster. Between different injuries and this shift in focus, it makes sense for him to not be on any events that he’s previously missed and all of the others going forward that he’ll be sitting out, too.
— Bobby Lashley / Kevin Owens: Obviously, these two are feuding, yet at the time of this post, no match between the two has been announced.
— Brock Lesnar: Lesnar, wrestle, at Hell in a Cell, after doing the whole SummerSlam thing? Are you crazy? We’re not seeing this guy for a long time.
— Curt Hawkins: When you have a losing streak as big as the one Hawkins has, the only way he’d get on a card is if he were in the forefront as a joke. That isn’t the case right now.
— Elias: There’s always a chance we have a musical performance from Elias, but he isn’t currently involved in a feud with anyone. His match at Super Show-Down is a tag team match involving Owens, Lashley and John Cena, and since Cena isn’t going to pop up here to fight Elias, it’s a pretty safe bet Elias just won’t be at Hell in a Cell.
— Goldust: Goldust has been out with an injury for the past few months, and there’s no set timetable of when he’ll be returning.
— Jason Jordan: Jordan’s injury is supposedly not going as well as they had hoped and he may never be back in action. If he does return to the ring, it may not be for a long while.
— Jinder Mahal: The Modern Day Maharaja has been on the sidelines since doing this whole spiritual meditation gimmick. At this point last year, he was holding the WWE Championship. Now, he’s fodder for other feuds.
— Mike Kanellis: Outside of being a guy on the sidelines in these big roster segments, Kanellis hasn’t been utilized in any role outside of Main Event in a long while.
— Mojo Rawley: Copy and paste the Kanellis section, for the most part, but at least Rawley has had some traction on Raw here and there.
— No Way Jose: From the start of his main roster run, No Way Jose has been a comedic jobber enhancement talent character, more than anyone who will seemingly get a push for a pay-per-view match. He couldn’t even get his way into the Mixed Match Challenge, oddly enough.
— Sami Zayn: After two torn rotator cuffs, Sami Zayn is out of action for months on end. He may not even be back in time for WrestleMania.
— Zack Ryder: Ryder’s home recently has been Main Event, rather than Monday Night Raw. He hasn’t done anything noteworthy in a long while.
From the Raw Women’s Division
— Alicia Fox / Mickie James / Natalya: Fox and James have been the lackeys in support of Alexa Bliss in her quest to regain the Raw Women’s Championship from Ronda Rousey. To help counteract them, Natalya has been firmly in Rousey’s corner. It’s likely they’ll make some kind of appearance of support, but none of them are officially booked on the card.
— Bayley / Sasha Banks: This duo is probably going to be getting a decent push pretty soon heading into Evolution, but right now, they have nothing going on.
— Dana Brooke: Dana Brooke has been doing a lot more recently than she normally does. She’s wrestled a few matches and she’s even teased a romantic angle with Apollo Crews, as well as leaving Titus Worldwide. Still, look out for her at Evolution more than something like Hell in a Cell, or even Super Show-Down.
— Ember Moon: It seems like the writers on Raw aren’t too keen on giving Ember Moon something solid of a push, but they do bring her out every so often so we don’t entirely forget about her. That’s better than nothing, I guess, even if “nothing” is what she’ll be doing here.
— Nia Jax: Where has Nia Jax been? Is she injured, or did they just keep her off the schedule because they have nothing in mind for her to do, creatively? Curious…
— The Riott Squad: We’ll see The Riott Squad at Super Show-Down and most likely Evolution. That’s good enough. All they would do at Hell in a Cell would be something they’ve done on Raw a lot recently, so rather than hit the repeat button, there are bigger fish to fry.
From the Raw Tag Team Division
— The Ascension: Konnor and Viktor have gotten more attention recently by being on the sidelines of these big roster segments, but that still doesn’t mean they’re going to be making any pay-per-views coming up soon. Look out for them to be in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania, as they aren’t even guarantees for the Royal Rumble.
— The Authors of Pain: It seems like WWE is going super slow with Akam and Rezar. They have Drake Maverick now, for some reason, but outside of their Titus Worldwide feud, they are now back to beating up jobbers.
— The B-Team: Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel lost their rematch for the Raw Tag Team Championship on this week’s Raw. That is a pretty definitive means of saying they’re out of the title hunt.
— Bobby Roode / Chad Gable: This tag team is very fresh and it seems to have been birthed out of Creative having nothing for either man (despite how, if they wanted to, they could easily figure something out, or just send them over to SmackDown). Since they’re new and there isn’t much going on to give them something to sink their teeth in, Hell in a Cell is out of the running.
— Breezango: Fandango is still out with an injury that put him on the shelf a while back. In the meantime, Tyler Breeze has been working NXT and doing other sporadic things, but nothing of note.
— The Deleters of Worlds: Since Matt Hardy went down with his injury, Bray Wyatt has been kept off television. This appears to be the way things will go going forward until WWE thinks of something else to do with them.
— Heath Slater and Rhyno: These two haven’t done anything of note since the beginning of this incarnation of the brand split. They rarely even show up on Main Event, let alone on Raw.
— The Revival: Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson were jumped by Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler in the whole tag title switch situation. I’d have to assume they’ll want to pick a fight with them somewhere down the line, but that hasn’t happened yet, as the focus hasn’t been on them. My guess is we’ll see them fighting back on Raw after Hell in a Cell.
— Titus Worldwide: Basically, Apollo Crews and Titus O’Neil just don’t have anything happening right now that would give them the momentum to get onto the card. Either they’ve lost Dana Brooke, or they haven’t, but they kept losing to The Authors of Pain and there wasn’t anything else going on before or after that.
Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should have been booked on the card in some fashion? How would you have utilized them if given the opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
