WWE Hell In A Cell 2018: AJ Styles Retains, But Does Samoa Joe Have A Case?

Samoa Joe and AJ Styles were always going to tear the house down at WWE Hell in a Cell 2018, and that’s exactly what they did. However, the circumstances surrounding Styles’s win will make for a volatile situation on SmackDown Live this Tuesday.

The rivalry between Samoa Joe and AJ Styles doesn’t just have years of history involved, dating all the way back to their days in TNA. No, this rivalry has been arguably WWE’s most personal rivalry over the past month, as Joe has tried to embarrass Styles family while questioning the WWE Champion’s devotion to them.

After Styles snapped at SummerSlam, beating Joe with a steel chair to cause a disqualification, it’s become clear that The Phenomenal One will stop at nothing to put Joe in his place. Meanwhile, Joe only made things more heated leading up to WWE Hell in a Cell 2018, as he continued to call out Styles’s wife and daughter, even threatening a home invasion at one point.

The talk stopped tonight at Hell in a Cell, and the fans were treated to another classic involving these two men, who are among the very best wrestlers the world has seen. Joe and Styles delivered a hard-hitting affair, which included a sick rack bomb from Styles and insane clotheslines and dives from the brutal Joe.

Out of all of those moves and the story involved in this match, the big talking point is the finish. Styles rolled through Joe’s Coquina Clutch to shockingly pin Joe for the win, and if you blinked, you missed an out-of-nowhere result that left Joe and the audience stunned. See, Joe thought that he tapped out Styles and won the match, but the astute Styles turned Joe’s best weapon against him by putting the bigger man’s shoulders on the mat.

Joe was in absolute disbelief, as he complained to the officials and went over to the announce table, completely beside himself. Humiliated by losing to an excellent in-ring professional, Joe started calling for Paige, and this will all make for another dramatic episode of SmackDown Live.

While Styles retained the WWE Championship and held off a post-match attack from the Samoan Submission Machine, this feud, like Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair, is far from over. Tuesday night will bring more high stakes for these two men, because Joe won’t let this loss go. Styles was impressive, but he cannot let his guard down for even a millisecond.

Because Joe will be watching and waiting for Styles to slip up.