WWE HELL IN A CELL

from Detroit

CHAD GABLE & SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. THE HYPE BROS (10:20): Shelton Benjamin is back. That's crazy. He hasn't been in the WWE in years. I vaguely recall him wrestling in Japan last year...but he certainly became somewhat forgotten after he left WWE. They threw him together with Gable since Gable's former tag team partner got the new, lame story line of being Kurt Angle's long lost son. This was a typical pre-show match that started at 7:30 PM. The show ended at 11:30 PM. Are they trying to be more like New Japan or something? I miss the days of these Smackdown ppv's being 2 and 1/2 hours long. * (out of ****)

THE USO'S vs. THE NEW DAY "HELL IN A CELL" (22:00): These teams had exceptional matches the last two times they wrestled on ppv. Unfortunately, this one wasn't as good. Blame the weapons. Their other matches were fast paced and exciting because of wrestling moves and action and near falls. This was more brutal and slow. They kept diving through the ropes into the cage wall and they used Singapore canes and handcuffs. The Uso's won the titles here when they did a double top rope splash onto Xavier and a chair. **1/2

RANDY ORTON vs. RUSEV (11:40): Kind of meandering. They really need to give these two some meaty story lines or something. The crowd loved Orton, though. So perhaps I'm just wrong. He won with, yep, an RKO outta nowhere. *

BARON CORBIN vs. AJ STYLES vs. TYE DILLINGER (19:20): This was the match of the night. And it may have been better if Corbin wasn't in it. On the pre-show, Daniel Bryan added Dillinger to this to make it a triple threat. Good move, as AJ and Dillinger work well together. And while AJ is the WWE's best wrestler by far, I doubt even he could have gotten a good solo match out of Corbin. Corbin won the U.S. title here. Yawn. ***

CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. NATALYA (12:15): Natalya used a chair and got DQ'd. Charlotte is a good girl now and boring, although she did a cool top rope moonsault to the floor. *1/2

JINDER MAHAL vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (12:10): It probably tells you something about Jinder, the champ, when his title match isn't the main event and only goes twelve minutes. He's fucking awful, that's what it tells you. But WWE is doing a tour in India in December and they want to start making money and fans in India because it has over a billion people...so we're stuck with Jinder as champ for awhile. The end wasn't bad. There was interference with Mahal's boys and a close, near victory by Nakamura but Jinder put his foot on the ropes. Other than the entertaining last minute, this was a bust. *1/2

BOBBY ROODE vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (11:35): The WWE writers have apparently given up Dolph. He came to the ring with a black Titantron screen entrance. Roode has a nice entrance song but is a complete bore. This was forgettable. 1/2*

KEVIN OWENS vs. SHANE McMAHON "HELL IN A CELL" (39:00): The last five minutes were great. The previous 34...not so good. Shane delivered his ridiculously fake punches throughout. Shane did a ring long Van Terminator with a trash can to Owens. Owens did a running flip off the apron through a table at ringside. Eventually they got on top of the cell and delivered fake punches and a power bomb and a few other lame moves for what seemed like forever. Finally, Owens started to climb down but Shane climbed down and kicked him and Owens fell halfway off the cell through the announce table. Then Shane put Owens on another announce table and climbed back up and jumped off to deliver an elbow. But...wait! Sami Zayn pulled Owens off the table and Shane crashed down alone. So that was awesome. Shane jumping off the top of the cell has been done before but it was still cool to see. And Zayn, Owen's nemesis, helping him to get the pin at the end was at least something new and a good way to end the show. Zayn is a great wrestler so it's nice to see them give him something to do for once. Most of this match was a train wreck, however. Shane should have just jumped off the cell right away as that's all we wanted to see. And the jump was great but it's been done before. And while most of this was a mess, at least the terrific final minutes were worth it. **1/2