Hell in The Cell is on tonight

[Ric Flair's Divorce Lawyer]

The triple threat tag match was definitely the best match on the card. I liked all stages of the match, The Shield dominating and stopping the face tags and then it built from there brilliantly. There isn't much to complain about the match imo.

 

In the World Title match, I thought Del Rio deserved better than that ending. Cena beat him easy as anything. The other things annoying me in that match was Cena's poorly applied STF (it has been since he started using it) and that awkward dropkick.

 

The WWE title HIAC match was decent but it never really got going. It seemed to me Orton was getting dominated quite a bit by Bryan, when really it should have been the other way round. The whole angle has been a let down, it was like they hadn't planned it properly or WWE didn't want to get behind him 100%. As stupid as that sounds.

 

The positive thing was that the Heyman and Punk fued is over as it was dragging its legs. It petered out after summerslam. I can only see Punk fueding with Orton now.

 

It was strange seeing the kick off panel and how they have fallen. Dolph Ziggler was World Champ a few months ago, R-Truth is on the ppv poster (Why?) making you think he was actually going to do something and Kaitlyn (looking hot as always) who was having the best Diva match/fued with AJ not too long ago.

 

The other thing that struck me was Kane got a bigger reaction chokeslamming The Miz than beating up the Wyatts. That sums the whole angle up really.

[bono]

Anybody else think were going to have cena v orton to combine the titles in the future? The match to determine the real face of the WWE for the undisputed title!

[NEWM]

I didn't hate this show, but that's mainly because I can't not get a stonker when Cena's back having his typically blinding matches saving an otherwise average night. I actually liked the hullabaloo in the main event as well. I'm possibly in the minority, but I'm enjoying the twisty/turny all over the shop nature of the HHH Authority Figure story because I don't actually give too much of a fuck about Daniel Bryan. I'm more invested in hating the baddies, so I'm loving when they get their comeuppance, regardless of who does it to them. So both Rhodes/Shield matches were fucking brilliant, Big Show cuffing HHH on Raw was great, and so on. Yeah, Bryan's fucked, they've blown that, but not caring about this actually makes it better for me because I'm loving hating the heels.

 

I also hope Punk (or some other face) gets dragged in now, maybe gets on the wrong end of HHH and takes a kicking off the Shield to start building somebody up like they have so well with Cody and Goldy. Ideally, the heels get a new friend too, especially a turning face, just to flesh it out further. That's probably not Shawn Michaels, but there's countless people it could be. It's easy motivation for anybody to turn so they can be in with the bosses. Punk is a natural choice as persecuted babyface to give Orton something good for a few months over the belt, maybe while they somehow keep Bryan hot for what will surely be a big HHH match somewhere down the line. There's so much talent on the scrapheap at the moment mind, this PPV definitely showed that. I wonder who might get that National Lottery-type Giant Golden Pointing Finger push as sometimes seems to happen? They're all the same, nobody's ice cold but nobody's red hot, so you can easily drag a Miz, or a Truth or Dolph or Fandango and decide that they're going to beat Roman Reigns or whatever and next thing you know they're beating Randy Orton in a tag match ahead of the next big PPV.

 

WWE's mental for that these days - it's maybe what it would have been like if Hogan had stuck around in 1993-1995 constantly on top but with Bret and Shawn also at the tippy toppy guy level. That's effectively what we've got with Cena, Punk and Bryan so it's really there to be enjoyed as long as they can find something interesting for them to be doing in between all the great matches. As long as these three have something to pay attention to every month, you'll get a decent match that at least feels relatively big time. The rest of the card can just interchangeably slot around those three in which maybe somebody might get over by accident too.

 

EDIT: One more thing, I have to admit - I'm a total convert to AJ. Never thought I'd come round, but her act is fucking really well honed and she's refining that division at least from a match point of view one PPV at a time. I thought she was top notch again and if they're patient with it, the partnership with Tamina will work too. AJ's character is perfect for the monthly Diva title feud formula too. Just like Trish, basically they don't need to be arsed to write proper storylines, they just need to loosely establish a gimmick for a girl at a time to go against this gimmick you already know well. It's a winner when the one with the belt is credible, and AJ is for me now.

[Mr Butternut Squash]

EDIT: One more thing, I have to admit - I'm a total convert to AJ. Never thought I'd come round, but her act is fucking really well honed and she's refining that division at least from a match point of view one PPV at a time. I thought she was top notch again and if they're patient with it, the partnership with Tamina will work too. AJ's character is perfect for the monthly Diva title feud formula too. Just like Trish, basically they don't need to be arsed to write proper storylines, they just need to loosely establish a gimmick for a girl at a time to go against this gimmick you already know well. It's a winner when the one with the belt is credible, and AJ is for me now.

 

Aye, I like AJ myself. She gets a lot of hate but I think she does a good job pulling semi decent matches out of green/shit girls every week, can carry a promo and is the one diva the crowd actually give a fuck about.

 

Then again, I've found Miz a lot less punchable lately. He said in an interview that he's fully aware of how irritating a talker he is (dad's fault apparently). He's just too thick to find a way around it. Dropping the awful catchphrases has been a good baby step. Maybe it because he gets kicked in a lot these days. He's shite.

[JNLister]

Guaranteed a year from now there'll be plenty of people be looking back and claiming "yeah, they gave Bryan a push, but the buyrates were shit so they had to drop it. He had his chance and failed."

[King Pitcos]

One more thing, I have to admit - I'm a total convert to AJ.

Not your friend anymore. She's so bad. Although I do have a grudging respect for AJ in the way that she has got me desperately supporting anybody who faces her.

[hallicks]

Guaranteed a year from now there'll be plenty of people be looking back and claiming "yeah, they gave Bryan a push, but the buyrates were shit so they had to drop it. He had his chance and failed."

 

I had the very same thought. Hopefully the memory of how bad creative has been over the last 2 months will be strong enough to be offered as a rebuttal. There was two consecutive PPV's with main event non-finishes (essentially) and people getting refunds from their cable companies. Not exactly Backlash 2000.

[KingOfMetal]

Just got through watching this. Better than Battleground, but still not something I'll want to rewatch anytime soon.

 

* Tag Title Three Way - Was probably the best match of the night. Plenty of action and was never anything less than enjoyable. I even didn't mind The Usos in this one and I usually have no time for them whatsoever. Wasn't suprised that Cole got the rules wrong in the rundown before it started, "hree men in the ring at the same time", to then have most of the match play out with two men in the in the ring. Thats a Triangle Match not a Triple Threat, but then again I'm probably just nit-picking.

* Found Fandangoo telling people to "sssssshhhhhh!" quite funny as they don't react to him whatsoever, its his theme that gets the reaction. Thought that Summer Rae looked OK considering her limited in ring experience and was actually pleased when she pinned Natalya because everyone seems to fap over Natalya for some reason and I just don't see why.

* Big E vs. Ambrose was OK considering they got thrown together on the day. Big E just seemed to hit a lot of backdrops and clotheslines and Ambrose seems to have gone off the boil also. If he has been told to tone down his act, daft as it was at times, he now seems to have something missing.

*The PPV panel works well when you get the right people on it, but tonight was not one of those nights. Only good thing to come out of it was Kaitlyn looking pretty hot and showing some decent side-boob.

* Punk/Ryback decent enough and Heyman on the scissor lift great once the driver finally got him to the ring. Happy the feud is done though as it had run its course. Not sure what they're going to do with Ryback now though, but I would keep Heyman with him.

* Los Matadores/Real Americans was again OK but nothing special. Its a good job that Matadores have El Torito with them, as I imagine the crowd would just shit on them otherwise. Then again, why bull fighters would have a bull with them is another debate for another time. the Big Swing was awesome again, just wish that they would do all the camera zooming in and out to go with it.

* Cena is champion again, only needs two more to tie with Flair now (thanks to having two 'World' championships). I do just wish he would fuck off for an extended period of time though. I get that he is the #1 to the company, they made clear when in the opening video that the Hell In A Cell Match, described as "A merciless structure" with Cole calling it "inhumane" and "the devil's playground"...yet all of this was "in the shadow of a return". But it wouldn't have hurt him to lose to Del Rio here put it down to maybe not quite being 100%. The commentary team were poor in this one too, making a big thing out of Cena's quick recovery yet when the "Lets go Cena!/Cena sucks!" chant started claiming "we haven't heard this for a while".

* Divas match was decent but played before a dead crowd and Cole/JBL/Lawler laughing about the obscure Smash reference was annoying. I only know about that show because my wife watches it (its basically Glee with a little bit of sex thrown in) and I highly doubt that anyone ordering a WWE PPV would know what it was let alone know the actress that JBL randomly compared AJ to.

* WWE Title match was again not bad for the most part but not anything spectacular either. This match made me see that they need to drop HIAC as a gimmick PPV event. It wasn't needed here at all. Would have liked the Superplex onto the chairs spot more if Bryan landed on them on his back rather than his leg. Don't see why Triple H couldn't have just sat at ringside rather than randomly coming out to tell Shawn how to ref. Shawn then took a bump that Earl Hebner would have got up from and then it just became a complete mess thereafter. You could have easily had it play out the same upto Bryan kneeing HHH and then had Orton hit the RKO for the win rather than Michaels dropping to his kness having his conflict of ethics moment. The ending didn't do anything for either man. Orton got the win through interference rather than dealing the final blow and Bryan was made to look a chump again.