Views From The Turnbuckle: Hell In A Cell Review; A Main Event So Bad It Defies Description

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At the end of one of the most historic weeks in recent wrestling history, Hell in a Cell probably should have been the climax of an incredible week of hype. Instead, with the exception of the main event, the show felt like a complete afterthought, with the most memorable aspect of the show being that there were only three matches announced for the show 24 hours before the show was set to begin.

WWE had a busy week; they wanted to kick-start RAW as the first official show on USA under its new contract. They needed to hype up NXT for its war with AEW,and of course SmackDown on FOX was the biggest show of the week. Hell in a Cell had to end up as an afterthought during such a hectic week.

It is also reflective of what WWE's business profile is in 2019. WWE doesn't make a bulk of its revenue from PPV events or WWE Network subscriptions; they make it from their TV contracts. The shows this week were treated as being bigger and more important than the PPV on Sunday because they ARE more important than the PPV. That is just the truth; and while wrestling fans are conditioned to expect the weekly shows to build for the PPV at the end of the month, it wouldn't surprise me if moving forward we have more PPV shows that are presented as less important than an episode of RAW or SmackDown.

That being said, it is still unacceptable for the show to only have three matches announced with less than a day to go. They announced a match on Saturday night and a few more were tossed out on social media Sunday afternoon, but WWE has to display better long-term marketing than that. Even if Hell in a Cell was the least important show of the week, WWE should be able to announce eight matches well in advance of the show. To me, that just shows how inconsistent WWE booking really is, that they don't even know what matches are going to be taking place a few days from each show.

It is hard enough for fans to feel invested in WWE's midcard, just rolling out those matches with no hype or build as filler doesn't help those performers at all. It tells fans that the people are so unimportant, their appearances don't even need to be advertised in advance because nobody cares about them anyway.

Oh, and we had an interesting main event. Let's talk about that.

Seth Rollins vs The Fiend: -***

I thought this match was either going to be really good or really bad. It was the latter. To give WWE some credit, I think they tried to do something really ambitious from a creative standpoint, and in a way, they should be encouraged to do that. Nobody likes to see the same old stuff, and wrestling needs more larger than life characters. They tried with The Fiend, they really did, but it doesn't always work out.

First, let us talk about the lighting. I thought it was an interesting choice and it helped make The Fiend feel different, but it also reminded me of The Virtual Boy and this match ended up being about as successful as The Virtual Boy. On top of that, fans in the arena apparently had a hard time seeing the match. The funny thing is that they ended up being the lucky ones.

I think at some point the match could have worked, even as The Fiend laid on the mat like a dead fish, the match could have been a big success if The Fiend could have just at some point thrown off all the stuff Rollins had buried him under, put him in the Mandible Claw and win the title. It was clear that the crowd was behind this new character had really wanted to see him win; it could have been a major turning point for WWE when it comes to creating a new star.

Instead, the ref called for a disqualification when Rollins used the sledgehammer. Let us evaluate that for a second:

1. There are no disqualifications in Hell in a Cell. That is the entire point of the match.

2. The Fiend had already used a giant, albeit cartoon looking hammer, earlier in the match and skewered Rollins into the cage, which Rollins sold like he was Theon Greyjoy getting shanked by The Night King in Game of Thrones. He was not disqualified.

3. A sledgehammer has been used in almost every Triple H Hell in a Cell match and has never led to a disqualification.

So that led to one of the worst finishes you will ever see in wrestling. WWE had booked themselves into a corner by rushing The Fiend into a world title match because they have no other main event contenders or real stars. Yet, they weren't ready to make him champion, so they had to do a DQ finish, which didn't make any sense because the calendar demanded that this match had to be a HIAC match.

It is hard to imagine The Fiend is going to be able to rebound after this; if this is what WWE has in store for his character, I can only imagine what they have set up for the future. Remember, this is only the beginning.

Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch: ***½

I liked this match for what it was. It was one of the few matches on the show that had real momentum behind it and it felt like an intense match between two wrestlers who really didn't like each other. The Hell in a Cell match has been watered down over the years, and this didn't feel like a sweeping epic like some of the legendary HIAC matches from yesteryear, but this was about as good of a modern HIAC match as you will see. They didn't do too much so that you still wanted to see more in the cell later for the main event, but they were still creative and entertaining.

My only quibble would be that I think Banks should have gone over. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make Lynch look strong, but Banks came back to the company with real momentum but has proceeded to fail twice in dethroning Lynch, and will soon feel like just another person on the roster. For the sake of the depth of the division, it probably would have been better for Banks to win the title. It would also in the long run have probably helped Lynch because she needs credible rivals to enhance her own character.

Bayley vs Charlotte: **½

This match didn't have nearly the amount of heat as the Lynch vs Banks match; part of that is because it wasn't a HIAC match, but part of it was also that it came after all the filler matches that quieted down the crowd. The match was okay, not spectacular but not terrible. I don't see a lot of positives in having Charlotte go over Bayley; heel Bayley was a new character that could have had some legs as champion, and there is no need to rush the title back to Charlotte. Similar to Lynch going over Banks, I think this hurts the depth of the women's division by having Charlotte once again on top of the division. Some more diversity at the top of the card would be nice.

Roman Reigns and Danie Bryan vs Luke Harper and Erick Rowan: ***

The crowd was pretty quiet in the beginning, but they woke up for Bryan's comeback and all of the traditional WWE No Disqualification spots on the outside. The messy booking to get to this match was awkward as hell, but the starpower on the babyface team was enough to carry the day. Making Reigns friends with Bryan is the best thing for his babyface potential; much better than having him beat Bryan and then have Bryan come out and tell all the fans they need to cheer for Roman at WrestleMania.

Kairi Sane and Asuka vs Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross: **½

They did the title change which is a little bonus for a match that wasn't announced until today. I refuse to call Sane and Asuka The Kabuki Warriors. Sane and Asuka are supposed to be heels and the mist was supposed to be a heel thing to do, but you know how that goes. I'm not sure how important the title change should really be, given that they never built up a PPV defense of the titles.

Randy Orton vs Ali: **½

Fundamentally, this was a very good match. Orton did everything right as the dominant heel and Ali worked really hard as the babyface fighting from underneath, but this was a match that wasn't announced until today, and the crowd didn't care at all for it. This was exactly like a house show match, not a RAW or SmackDown match, a house show match. That doesn't mean it was bad, but the crowd expects to see more important matches than this kind of filler on a PPV.

The OC vs The Viking Raiders and Braun Strowman: **

Not much to this match; which was basically a house show match except a house show match would have a real finish and not a lame disqualification. Not only did they do the non-finish, after the match was over they had The Viking Raiders take out Gallows and Anderson, and then they had Strowman lay out Styles with a punch, to set up his program with Tyson Fury. Why do the non-finish then? Why not just have Strowman pin Styles after the punch? They didn't protect Styles with the finish, he still took the punch and sold it like he was knocked-out by Strowman.

Baron Corbin vs Chad Gable: *

This is when I started to get really bored with the show. On paper, this match at least had some history and a storyline, even if we had seen it a lot. The problem was that Corbin on offense is duller than dirt and that was what most of this match was. They did a gimmicked ending, with the ref stopping Corbin from using the scepter and allowing Gable to roll him up. This match would have been a lot better if it was five minutes long, but instead it was 15. The only reason it was that long because WWE didn't have a full card for this show so they needed as much filler as possible; and we the fans were punished for that.