Hell In A Cell Was Pretty Underwhelming Holograms And All

It was overall a disappointing effort from the WWE last night in Dallas for Hell in a Cell. Not much lived up to expectations that were already fairly low for this show to begin with heading into this show. Realistically this show was built on two matches and was only clearly defined two weeks out from the show. We will break it down match by match with some thoughts on it all.

Opening Match: Ziggler vs. Cesaro 2 out of 3 falls for I-C Title.

When you pictured these two guys in a match of this nature, you expected something that would resemble matches between Cesaro and Sami Zayn. In the end, the two fell far short of those lofty expectations and had what could be termed as a good match by overall standards. Still with the pairing of these two great athletes, you expected something far more exceptional from these two. In the end, the biggest shock was that Ziggler won the match in two straight falls. It will lead to speculation of what the hell Cesaro has done wrong to deserve that. I actually thought the two straight falls finish was the most interesting thing of the match to be honest.

Bella vs. Bella

It was far from a mat classic but in ring, it was not a complete train wreck. The Bella twins love them or hate them are making an effort to be more skilled in the ring. This said the audience investment in them is next to nothing. It could not have been more than 2 minutes before JBL chants rang out in the Dallas crowd. Brie clearly other than stealing stuff from her husband has no clue how to be a babyface in this program. I feel no sympathy what so ever in an angle that on paper is begging me to have some. In the end, Nikki wins and now with the stipulation Brie must be Nikki’s servant/personal assistant for a month. We got the first of what I am sure will be a month long of awful Bella segments with this angle. It was standard stuff with Nikki after confirming Brie had this protein shake correct dumped it on her head. It is going to be a long month with this stuff.

John Cena vs. Randy Orton: Hell in a Cell #1 Contender’s Match.

My first thought is this match was to damn long. It apparently went over 27 minutes according to people that time these things. In the end, this Hell in the Cell match was worked fairly safely in comparison to match we would see later. It was hard to feel invested in this match even with the stipulation of the winner getting a shot at the WWE Heavyweight Championship. We have seen both have far too many chances to be champion for us to care. The match had a number of false finishes with finishing moves. Your typical big star match as we have seen in past with Rock and Austin. The match ends with a John Cena super attitude adjustment through a table. This leads us to the unfortunate prospect of yet another Lesnar against John Cena match for the title. In the end, at least this match was not the main event so give the WWE credit for that.

Rusev vs. Big Show

We had a vignette with Mark Henry pumping up the Big Show, in the same manner Show did for Henry in the previous pay-per-view. Henry would come out during the match and shockingly enough did not turn on Big Show that seemed destined to happen. It did not and Rusev ended up hooking up his version of the Camel Clutch and made the Big Show humble. It was what it was ad Rusev looked good coming out of the match. Lana wearing Pink for breast cancer was a little bit strange that the Russian heel female manager is supporting a U.S based Cancer fund is a bit strange in terms of being a heel. Likely being a nit picky somewhat nerdy wrestling fan on that one. Maybe, though the bad guys should not ever be doing good things for the world right. Anyway, Rusev wins clean and we wonder what is next for him.

Sheamus vs. Miz: United States Title

This match was hi-jacked by Damien Sandow doing literally everything that happened to The Miz in this contest. Crowd was totally into Sandow and could care less about the Miz or Sheamus. In the end, Sheamus won and used the Miz as a voodoo doll to make Damien Sandow do Y-M-C-A, which was somewhat amusing. Bottom line is no one cares about these two or this title.


Usos vs. Dust Brothers:  Tag Team Championship

This was yet another match in the best out of 100 series with the Usos and Stardust and Goldust. It in the end felt like that and we have seen better from both of these teams. I have started to lose interest in the Usos, as they have just become the typical babyfaces. I just have lost a ton of interest in them since they dropped the titles. I am not into the crazy Dust Brothers either. This match was what it was and much like many matches on the night was ok but nothing outstanding.

A.J Lee vs. Paige: Diva’s Title Match

Much like the match with Tag-Team Championship, this was a match in which I have seen far too much of at this point. People thought this would be a fantastic feud and at the end of the day, it has not been much of a pairing. The storyline of both being crazy has not worked and in-ring. A.J also deals with the fact that she is the lightning rod for C.M Punk fans to use. A.J defends her title in a match that really was not much of anything. Paige who came out with Alicia Fox turned on Fox when she lost the match and A.J skips away still with her title.

Main Event: Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins

It started much like the famous Undertaker vs. Mankind match with Ambrose deciding to climb to the top of the Cell to start the match. Noble and Mercury the stooges 2.0 were directed to climb up and go after Dean. He would go to town with kendo stick on both on top of cage. Rollins would try a sneak attack and the three would get the advantage. Eventually Ambrose would follow Rollins down the cage half way and Ambrose would head butt Rollins and both would fall through announce tables. Ambrose would eventually get off a stretcher and attack Rollins throwing him in the cell to start the match officially. I enjoyed this match had some great spots highlighted by and elbow drop by Ambrose on Rollins through a table that wad jammed between the cell and the ring ropes. Ambrose looks to be on the way to victory when the lights go out and Bray Wyatt’s voice with Undertaker like chants is heard. The lights return and a lantern is in the ring but fans also have phones light up making the cut to black look really fake. Smoke rises from a hole in the ring and a hologram of a ghost appears. Ambrose is fascinated by this and Bray Wyatt appears and charges through the smoke and ghost and attack Ambrose. He hit his Sister Abigail finisher and helps Rollins win the match. Most people hating this ending I was in the minority that was ok with it. The Ambrose and Rollins feud some feel is over but I feel this is just a pit stop and it will continue. Time will tell if that is the case.


This show was underwhelming and left many people feeling they did not get their 9.99 out of it. We will see how many people are giving the WWE their 9.99 later this week. This show just did not deliver and was just kind of there.

Heading into Raw the explanation of why Wyatt went after Ambrose is the big question to be answered. In addition, will we find out when Cena will Brock Lesnar? You can also look forward to sore awful Bella promos on tonight’s Raw.

This show is thumbs down for this show from me.

5 Things To Wonder About Heading Into Sunday's Hell In A Cell Event.

We discussed in our weekly podcast the Hell in the Cell event on Sunday is lacking a lot of fresh match-ups and obvious opportunities to advance storylines to something new.  Still we can come up with five things to wonder about heading into the event on Sunday. So let us get rolling with these in no specific order of importance.

Randy Orton’s health status heading into this event has been up in the air since Monday. There were some rumors that Orton came out of Raw in Kansas City a bit banged up. Nothing much has come of this after the initial speculation but being inside the Hell in The Cell is at times injuries waiting to happen. Cena has been documented as being pretty banged up the past few months. As big a question as who wins this match on Sunday might be, the condition of the winner after the match is over in a legitimate sense. If Lesnar is going to come back to do Survivor Series he will need a healthy opponent for it to be worth the WWE spending the extra money it takes to get their champion to show up. Brock is all about being paid at the end of the day.

Which Cell match ultimately will close this show? Triple H on Raw positioned the two Cell Matches as Co-Main Events but that is a lot of bunk. The last match is the real main event and everyone knows it. Fans clearly are hoping for Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins to close the show. Dean has been on an incredible roll and even had an article he was interviewed for in the Rolling Stone. He is not going be a rock star or anything but, he is starting to build the popularity of one. Complete with the gossip of his relationship with WWE announcer Renee Young. In the end, what is BEST FOR BUSINESS is to have Ambrose and Rollins close the show. This stated most expect the WWE will go with the many times over used headline match of Cena vs. Orton.

Do we see the Wyatt Family be involved on this show? Will they work alone now or still as a unit with three separate agendas? It all remains to be seen at this stage of the game. I suggested on Friday that they could screw Dean Ambrose and this would allow Rollins to move into a feud with Orton as possibility. While we are at people who we wonder if we will see, does Paul Heyman have some sort of role in this show with a potential number one contender being determined for his client champion Brock Lesnar?

Do we get Mark Henry against Big Show III at Survivor Series? The Rusev against Big Show match seems like an obvious place for Mark Henry to get involved and screw the Big Show while Rusev keeps his undefeated run in tact. Henry and Show have been an obvious pairing many times and this could be the third Survivor Series the two have worked a program against on another if Henry does turn on Show or vice versa.

Will A.J Lee keep the Divas title safe from reality television? Paige is heading to Total Divas along with Alicia Fox for the new season that will be kicking off in January. Rumors surfaced that a rule was in place that no Total Diva was allowed to hold the title. This rule came according to reports from Vince himself. Nikki Bella confirmed this rule in an interview with Peter Rosenberg a few weeks ago. Now Stephanie McMahon in here interview with Yahoo Sports claims no rule exists about the Divas title. Guess if A.J wins will consider Stephanie might have been telling a lie. The question would be if the rule were in fact true who will work with A.J going forward. Charlotte Flair might be an answer but she is booked to face Sasha Banks for the NXT Women’s Title she holds in early December.

All this said and we still have no idea who the hell is that damn bunny? In any case, Sunday’s Hell in a Cell on paper looks to have some solid in ring matches with only a couple question marks. Some how we forgot to mention the Bella vs. Bella match when we were talking about potential bad matches.  Consider it a mental block to not wanting to see this match happen.

In any case, WWE has had some surprises of late with Rock and Mick Foley recently appearing out of nowhere like a Randy Orton RKO. Perhaps we get some surprises on the show. Hogan is booked to appear on Raw the next night. Not that he is a surprise at this point. More like a waste of time brother!! However, we hope this was not for you.

Follow us on @Condoonthemoon for all the latest on Hell in a Cell heading into tomorrow night’s show.

Condo On The Moon #34

We talk everything from president Stephanie McMahon to Hell in a Cell. We talk about a great number of topics including the latest round of NXT taping in Florida. Dixie Carter telling more lies as her company TNA looks on verge of death.



If you can't access our podcast here head over to Podomatic and listen there including on I-Tunes.

So that is it for us this week. Next week the fallout of the show and the WWE 3rd Quarterly Report which means new WWE Network numbers to be disappointed in.