WWE HELL IN A CELL

Rosemont, Illinois

BIANCA BELAIR vs. ASUKA vs. BECKY LYNCH (18:56): Besides Cody's injury, this PPV was pretty forgettable. They probably should have just made this the main event and put it in the Hell in a Cell and cancelled the Cody vs. Seth match. This was a decent match. Belair retained the title. Charlotte Flair was off getting married to Andrade so she wasn't on the show. Sasha Banks and Naomi were suspended for no-showing RAW a few weeks ago so they were off the show (they disagreed with creative about them both losing to the women's champions on this PPV). There wasn't much to this match but the hot crowd was into it and it was perhaps the best match on the show. **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. OMOS & MVP (8:25): It tells you a lot about the WWE that they push lumbering bores like Omos instead of, say, Ricochet or Ciampa. Lashley is a good guy now which kind of baffles me because he was a great heel not to long ago. This was forgettable trash. 1/2*

KEVIN OWENS vs. EZEKIEL (9:20): This was actually a pretty good match, although I do miss Elias' songs on RAW where he ripped the hometown. That was usually the highlight of RAW. I suppose they figured that schtick was getting old. Ezekiel is just a good guy version of Elias. Owens is always fantastic so this was entertaining. **1/2

EDGE, DAMIAN PRIEST & RHEA RIPLEY vs. AJ STYLES, FINN BALOR & LIV MORGAN (16:03): This was strange. On RAW, Finn Balor joined Edge's evil alliance...and then the 3 of them turned on Edge. Considering PPV's are supposed to be a bigger deal than RAW...why didn't they do the Finn Balor heel turn on this show? Edge literally just turned heel and now they've turned him into a babyface all of a sudden? WWE creative is totally baffling. Finn Balor is not a heel. I guess they just have no idea what to do with great wrestlers like Finn Balor. Remember when he was the Universal champion for a day? Someone got it right then. So they were correct for 24 hours. Sad. I honestly totally forget this match. That's how great it was! Liv Morgan is at least somewhat pushed and the crowds are kind of into her. And Edge is better as a good guy. Damian and Finn are better as good guys, though, too. AJ did look good in this match if I recall. And Finn is awesome as always. I just can't stand these weird mixed tag matches where the men and women aren't allowed to touch each other. **

MADCAP MOSS vs. HAPPY CORBIN "NO HOLDS BARRED" (12:05): This was a weapons match. I kind of forget what happened in this match as well. Can you tell how excellent this show was? I also watched the NXT PPV the night before this. That was probably even more forgettable. It's so sad what happened to NXT. *

THEORY vs. MUSTAFA ALI (10:25): The WWE wanted to be able to trademark all of their wrestler's names so they changed a bunch of them. Austin Theory's real first name was Austin so now he's just Theory. Seriously, that is the worst wrestling name in the history of wrestling. Theory? Do they know what Theory even means? Obviously not. They've been pushing him to the moon for no good reason and are just shooting themselves in the foot by pushing a guy with a stupid name. Ali attempted to quit the company but they wouldn't let him out of his contract so now they're kind of pushing him. I'm not sure why they wanted to keep him as it's not like he'd be a huge star in AEW or something. This was a basic, RAW type of match. Theory retained the IC title. *1/2

CODY RHODES vs. SETH ROLLINS "HELL IN A CELL" (24:21): Cody tore his pectoral muscle lifting weights and so he had this huge, horrible, black and blue bruise across his chest. It was grotesque, so much so that the arena was dead silent for the early part of this match. Why he still wrestled here makes zero sense. Why they let him wrestle makes even less sense. A lot of people were saying how brave and how heroic he was to wrestle and all of this bullshit. Nope, it was fucking stupidity. I guess he felt sorry because if he didn't wrestle the main event would be off. That's not his fault! It's the WWE's fault for unifying the titles and only having one champion, then letting that champion, Roman Reigns, sign a new contract that lets him only wrestle limited dates. Reigns isn't on the next PPV, Money in the Bank, either. If they didn't unify the titles they'd at least have another championship match on this show. Or, God forbid, don't give the title to a guy that isn't going to be two straight PPV's. As for this match...it was a basic Hell in a Cell match. They used a Singapore Cane, broke some tables, tied each other to a bull rope for no apparent reason (I guess Dusty Rhodes was in some bull rope matches?). I just had a really hard time watching this match considering Cody was injured and shouldn't be taking bumps. He had surgery this week and is out for 6 months. Considering he was the #1 top babyface...what the fuck are they going to do at all these stadium shows coming up? **