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WWE’s tenth pay-per-view, Hell in a Cell, is in the books!
We saw plenty of entertaining action throughout the night with four different titles on the line and two terrific Hell in a Cell matches.
There were some ridiculous spots throughout the night, especially in the Dean Ambrose-Seth Rollins HIAC match.
Anyway, let’s take a look at what happened tonight! Click on “Next” to see what the editors felt about the show.
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Bo Dallas vs. Mark Henry
Result – Mark Henry wins via pinfall.
Rating – 1.0 out of 5 stars
Rob’s Take
I honestly did not even watch this match. I walked away from my computer and never knew it took place until I got a message on my phone that said Henry won the match.
Mike’s Take
As I was writing this, I honestly forgot the match even happened.
I’ll never understand why WWE does these mini-feuds that end in squash matches. It just doesn’t make any sense.
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Dolph Ziggler vs. Cesaro – 2 out of 3 Falls Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
Result – Dolph Ziggler wins via pinfall and retains the Intercontinental Championship.
Rating – 3.8 out of 5 stars
Rob’s Take
Anyone notice that Cesaro shaved his head?
Anyway, I loved the choice of having this as the opening match. A great match to get the night going.
Cesaro’s SuperPlex was incredible. He’s one heck of a wrestler.
Him and Ziggler put on an amazing match to open the show, but I just absolutely hated the fact that the Showoff won in a clean sweep. Cesaro looked very strong, but giving him one fall would have gave him some credibility. Where does he go from here?
Mike’s Take
Man, this match was good.
Cesaro is a freak, and Ziggler is the perfect guy to sell his offense. That being said, this match wasn’t perfect. The timing of it felt a little off at times, and while it was interesting to see a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match end in two falls, I don’t think this was the match to do it.
I don’t believe this was a burial of Cesaro, I think they just didn’t have the time for a legit 2-out-of-3 Falls Match. This whole PPV felt like a restart, before heading into the end of the year, before the Royal Rumble.
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Brie Bella vs. Nikki Bella – The loser has to be the other’s personal assistant for 30 days. If the loser does not comply, they must leave WWE.
Result – Nikki Bella wins via pinfall.
Rating – 3.0 out of 5 stars
Rob’s Take
I have to say, this was actually a pretty good match. Brie and Nikki got enough time to tell their story and show off their improved in-ring skills.
The result of the match wasn’t a huge surprise because it would make more sense to have the heel put the babyface through being their personal assistant. I did pick Brie to defeat Nikki at Hell in a Cell so she can get her revenge, but I guess that will have to wait at least another month. However, these two thoroughly beat AJ Lee and Paige’s match that took place later in the night.
Mike’s Take
As I predicted, this match was better than expected. The stipulation unfortunately made it a bit predictable, it wouldn’t have made any sense for Nikki to be Brie’s personal assistant.
So, predictable, but good match nonetheless.
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Gold and Stardust vs. The Usos – WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Result – Gold and Stardust win via pinfall and retain the WWE Tag Team Championship.
Rating – 3.2 out of 5 stars
Rob’s Take
At first, this match was just your standard, TV tag team contest. I enjoyed the way it progressed towards the latter stages, though, very similar to their match at Night of Champions.
Letting the Dust Bros. retain the titles was smart. It wouldn’t have made sense to strip them of it after building them up as heels and turning Cody Rhodes into Stardust. Who takes them on next will be interesting. Maybe Big E and Kofi Kingston?
Mike’s Take
Hey, look, it’s The Usos putting on yet another show-stealing performance.
I actually don’t think this was the match of the night, that distinction belongs to the main event, but still a very good match. For about a year, these two teams have been having good matches, and it hasn’t really slowed down at all.
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John Cena vs. Randy Orton – Hell in a Cell Match – The winner receives a future WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against Brock Lesnar.
Result – John Cena wins via pinfall.
Rating – 3.7 out of 5 stars
Rob’s Take
Yes! Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are going to main event the PPV! Well done, WWE.
There were points where this match dragged, but overall, it was a pretty good with a lot of cool spots. It certainly won’t go down as one of the greatest Hell in a Cell matches of all-time like Michael Cole tried stressing, but it made a solid mark in the middle of the show.
Like it or not, John Cena will be facing Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship again at some point. Maybe Royal Rumble?
Mike’s Take
Another good match from Cena and Orton.
Orton hit two RKOs “outta nowhere”, which were both very well executed. The finish was awesome. However, the whole match was just too “been there, done that”.
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The Miz vs. Sheamus – WWE United States Championship Match
Result – Sheamus wins via pinfall and retains the United States Championship.
Rating – 2.7 out of 5 stars
Rob’s Take
They had to of lost time to the Cena-Orton match, which probably went over it’s time limit.
This match was decent, but wasn’t much different from something that we would see on TV. If anything, the highlight of this was Damien Mizdow during the match and especially after the match. He’s going to have his face turn one day and become somewhat relevant. It’s nice to see that WWE realizes that they have something in him.
Mike’s Take
Let me start by saying that match was good. However, neither man in the match was the star.
The star of the match was Damien Mizdow, who put incredible effort into his ringside “wrestling”. On top of that, his post-match work was incredible.
The whole segment was a little goofy, but it was a nice change of pace from the rest of the card to that point, especially the Hell in a Cell Match right before it.
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Big Show vs. Rusev
Result – Rusev wins via submission.
Rating – 2.8 out of 5 stars
Rob’s Take
This was the first match of the night without any kind of stipulation. Kind of strange, right?
This one seemed a little quick as well, but it wasn’t bad. Big Show put over Rusev somewhat well in this and left him with plenty of momentum following this match.
Seeing Mark Henry not turn on Show was a little surprising. I guess it was just to tease the fans because we can all realize that it’s coming soon. It looks like WWE may be saving that for tomorrow night on Raw.
Mike’s Take
Ugh, no thank you.
Show did his best to sell for Rusev, letting him suplex him was a cool thing to do. Other than that, there’s just no use for Show. That Accolade looked terrible on Show, because he’s too big to sit in any submission hold, or believably sell most offense. Why did Mark Henry even come out if he didn’t turn on Show?
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AJ Lee vs. Paige – WWE Divas Championship Match
Result – AJ Lee wins via pinfall and retains the Divas Championship.
Rob’s Take
The crowd was dead silent for this match. With the way that this feud has been booked lately, I can’t really blame the Dallas crowd.
Paige and AJ were trying, I’ll give them that, but this wasn’t very interesting.
With Paige scheduled to join Total Divas, this makes the rule for the women on the show not being allowed to hold the Divas Championship seem true. Who challenges for the title next? I mean, they can always let one of the Total Divas challenge for the title and lose, but if they don’t go that way, the only ones who aren’t on the show are Emma, Layla,
Mike’s Take
Everything these two do is perfect. They’re both so calculated, and they don’t misstep.
However, I’m just so disappointed in the ending to this one. The Paige-AJ feud ends with AJ on top, and Paige feuding with Alicia, as they both head into their new roles on Total Divas. I should’ve seen that coming, but I didn’t.
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Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins – Hell in a Cell Match
Result – Seth Rollins wins via pinfall.
Rob’s Take
“We’re all gonna die tonight” – Dean Ambrose. This is going to be awesome!
Ambrose immediately climbed to the top of the cell with his kendo stick in hand and looked for a battle. Once Seth Rollins came out, he wanted to go up there at first, but Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble stopped him. Rollins would then demand for them to go to the top of the cell to get Ambrose. Once they reached the top, we see Rollins just about up there and the fighting begins.
The fall off the cell onto the announce tables was absolutely ridiculous. With WWE more than likely never allowing another top-of-the-cell fall again, this was about as close as we’ll ever get to it.
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Some of the other spots in the match were just so entertaining. From the suplex onto the chairs, to Rollins going through the table, to Kane spraying Ambrose with the fire extinguisher – it was all excellent.
The ending of the match will draw some heat and some applause. After letting it sink in for a little, I liked it a fair amount and it made sense.
- While the finish did leave somewhat of an empty feeling, Rollins getting the win due to outside interference keeps their feud open for the future.
- It immediately places Bray Wyatt into the top of the card again.
- Maybe Bray isn’t being buried after all? I surely thought he was for awhile with all of those losses to Big Show and Mark Henry.
- Everyone is protected in this.
I was actually very surprised they went this route, though. With Randy Orton saying earlier in the night that he wanted to “speak” with Rollins, I assumed he was going to interfere in the match and cost Mr. Money in the Bank the title. I could still see a feud between those two happening for Survivor Series now that an Ambrose-Wyatt rivalry is in store.
This was one interesting way to end the night, that’s for sure.
Mike’s Take
It all started on top of the Cell, because Ambrose is “unstable”. Then, they both went through announce tables on their way back down.
The match slowed down, which was necessary after the raucous start. However, the action eventually picked up.
The fire extinguisher spot with Kane was innovative and fun, much better than “we’re in charge, so we have the key and can just walk in the Cell”. The immediate follow-up with the powerbomb through the table was pretty awesome, as well.
The finish of this match was incredible. All of the stuff with Bray was incredibly well-executed, and visually impressive.
Just awesome. All of it, completely awesome.
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Final Thoughts
For those who have thought that WWE was going to turn the PPV’s into garbage because of the $9.99 price – think again because Hell in a Cell certainly produced one of the better shows of the year.
Most of the matches tonight were pretty darn good. John Cena vs. Randy Orton wasn’t “one of the greatest Hell in a Cell matches in years” like Michael Cole tried saying, but it was pretty entertaining. What Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins pulled off to main event the show was epic – capped off by Bray Wyatt’s return.
As usual, though, we have plenty of questions following the Hell in a Cell PPV. Most of these will probably be answered in our Raw preview tomorrow, but here they are:
- Who challenges for the mid-card titles next?
- Who’s next to challenge Gold and Stardust?
- What direction does Cesaro, Miz, and Mizdow go in?
- What is Nikki Bella going to make Brie do for her?
- If we aren’t going to see Brock Lesnar for awhile – what’s John Cena going to do for the next few months?
- Is Randy Orton still going to turn babyface and feud with Seth Rollins?
- How epic could a Bray Wyatt-Dean Ambrose feud be?
- Where’s Erick Rowan and Luke Harper?
We hope you enjoyed the show, folks. I know we certainly did this evening. What did you think of the Hell in a Cell PPV?