To counteract the rundown of the superstars missing from the Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live rosters for Hell in a Cell 2018, let’s talk about the lucky few who will be booked to not only perform, but likely steal the show in some fashion.
This could be in a scripted or non-kayfabe sense when factoring in everything from pure wins and losses to how much emphasis someone is given, to their momentum carrying over after the event, match performance quality and pretty much everything that could get people to talk about these particular men and women more than anybody else.
When looking at the card currently scheduled for the pay-per-view, this is my shortlist for the superstars who will stand out at Hell in a Cell 2018.
Roman Reigns
To a certain extent, Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and, of course, Braun Strowman, will share in the spotlight for this event, as all six are clearly WWE’s priority right now.
However, when push comes to shove, the definitive *biggest* priority is still Roman Reigns, above all five others—possibly even combined.
McIntyre and Ziggler will likely retain the tag titles, Rollins will still have the intercontinental title, and everyone will go through a lot of chaos, but at the end of the day, Reigns will be defeating Strowman and he’ll be walking out with the Universal Championship, meaning he’s still the top of the food chain and the most important person in the company, at least as far as the story goes.
Ronda Rousey
If this list were in order, Rousey would be toward the bottom of the top, for sure, because I don’t think she’s going to make a particularly big splash here. She already won her championship, and retaining it isn’t ever as big of a deal as winning it to begin with.
Still, she’s Ronda Rousey. She’s the Raw women’s champion, and incredibly popular. Just due to her star power, she’ll be a featured person on the card and someone that is given a sizable chunk of time dedicated to celebrating her victory.
Plus, walking out with a championship is still a big positive, so there’s nothing working against Rousey in this regard. She’s just taking a backseat here compared to some other superstars.
Becky Lynch
WWE may very well keep the title on Charlotte Flair, rather than going with the flow and putting in on Becky Lynch, but I’m choosing to believe more in the writing team knowing that where there’s Straight Fire, there’s heat.
For the most part, win or lose, Becky is still going to be the true focal point of this whole segment, just by the sheer nature of the support she’s been getting from her fans.
If she wins, she’s obtaining a championship—already enough to justify putting her on this list. She’d also be taking down Flair in the process, which is a big plus, as Flair’s been the star woman on the roster since her debut, essentially.
If she loses, though, the fans will be super upset about it and will cause an uproar, as she’ll be getting cheered the whole time throughout the match and the choice to keep it on Flair will have been done purposely to upset people.
In either fashion, all eyes are on Becky, not on Flair.
Samoa Joe
Forgive me for possibly being foolish, but I’m hoping WWE puts the belt on Samoa Joe. I think he needs it, as he’s accomplished absolutely nothing since joining the main roster, and this championship would help restore the credibility he’s lost after spending all this time doing jack.
I’m not 100% on it, though…unfortunately. There’s a very good chance, based on the way WWE has booked AJ Styles in this run, that this will just be a series of matches where Styles keeps the belt and they hit the repeat button for no reason other than that they wanted to do the match lots of times.
In my mind, though, it makes much more sense to put the title on Joe and have Styles use his rematch for their Super Show-Down affair, rather than keep it on Styles through some kind of shenanigans, and have Joe have to make the case that he deserves a third match.
Mick Foley
While I mentioned that the main event is going to juggle a lot of people who will be sharing the spotlight with each other, I do want to call some extra attention to Mrs. Foley’s baby boy, as I think he’ll stand out enough to be able to join this list on his own.
Something is going to happen with Foley. I don’t know what, or how rough it’ll be, but they wouldn’t put him in the match as the special guest referee if there wasn’t a plan for him to be involved in some fashion.
Maybe he turns on The Shield and they actually swerve us by having Strowman win the title. Maybe the heels take out Foley in brutal fashion to make sure they get booed and Reigns gets more cheers. I have no idea, but I do think we’ll be talking more about Foley than many other people on the card, including even Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton, the four in the mixed tag team match, and so on.
However, just for keeping things transparent, if Foley isn’t scheduled to do anything nuts, I do think this final spot will go to Jeff Hardy, as he’ll be involved in a spot that will write him off television for a while. I just happen to think that it might be the 6th most influential thing on the card, and it bumps him off my top 5 for now.
Those are my picks, but who do you think will end up being the primary focal points? Drop your predictions in the comments below!
