The go home show for Hell in a Cell was in New Orleans and the crowd was buzzing! For the first time ever, WWE has a permanent female commentator, replacing Johnathan Coachman it’s our girl, Renee Young! Massive congratulations to her, this is well deserved after the top-notch work she’s consistently put out week after week after week for years! Good for her.
Opener
All the heels followed Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler and Braun Strowman to the ring. This unfolded into a really decent Heel promo which basically established the aforementioned trio as an actual Stable. A month ago I’d have never seen this happening. Totally random and no seeds were planted prior, but.. I like them. They feel properly formidable, which is what RAW needs right now. The Shield are great and all, but they’re not coming over very strong right now. We’ll see how that all pans out after Sunday. Braun referred to the Heels outside the ring as his “pack” and Drew and Dolph his “dogs of war”. It was a really good promo. Then the Shield showed up in the crowds looking pretty pissed off. Ambrose legged it straight into battle. He also brought axe handles for his boys to play with and beat everyone up with but Ziggler, McIntyre and Strowman left the ring before any physicality could befall them. Smart move, Heels.
Backstage
Baron Corbin showed up to defuse a situation between Security and The Shield, Corbin talked them down and they went their separate ways. Bit of a weird segment. Unnecessary if anything.
Ruby Riott w/ Riott Squad vs Nikki Bella w/Brie Bella
Really good match. Great moves pulled off by both women. Strong pace throughout and a really decent false finish after a really stiff looking Downward Spiral from Riott onto Bella. Nikki Bella got the win after a Rack Attack 2.0 though, which isn’t exactly where I’d have liked it to have gone, but still, they’ve gotta build Bella strong for Rousey at Evolution. *wink wink*
Promo/Segment of loveliness
The Connor’s Cure “Superstars of Tomorrow” were up on stage and showing off their adorable gimmicks and getting announced by Big Show doing his best Bruce Buffer impersonation. Now this was just lovely. This was a reach out to everyone watching to join their fight against cancer. If you would like to join their fight and donate, please click here – 100% of your donation goes to the charity to help find a cure for cancer. No wrestling fan alive could forget Connor the Crusher. What he did for the fight against paediatric cancer, his drive, his strength, his cheeky little face and his optimism inspired masses in multiple ways. Also, he pinned HHH after just one punch! He will never be forgotten. What a legend he was and still continues to be.
AoP vs Jobbers
AoP killed 2 guys. Proper NXT style AoP again too. I’m loving this new push and their collaboration with Drake Maverick. It’s weird, but it just sort of works!
Promo
HHH came out and cut a promo on The Undertaker and their match at Super Showdown. He basically just ran down The Undertaker and said that he couldn’t believe that Taker was offended by Shawn Michaels’ opinion last week. He said he felt disrespected until he realised that Taker has only lost respect for himself. He totally destroyed Taker in this promo. It was a great promo! Despite Trips being corporate now, he is still The Game. I can’t wait to see what The Deadman has to say next week.
B Team vs Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre for the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships
This was a decent enough match. The B Team have run their course now I think. Their fan interaction seemed to be diminished somewhat this week and continuing to decline over the last couple of weeks. Dolph and Drew were too strong for The Team of B. The latter put up a great fight, but that’s their rematch done. Still Tag Team Champions, McZigglintyre. I liked the B Team during their conception and their Deleters of Worlds feud, but I feel like now they have the same effect as someone telling you the same joke over and over again because you laughed at it once.
Backstage
Baron Corbin is telling Rollins and Ambrose off for still being in the building. Corbin said he wanted them gone so now he’s going to have them arrested again. But Ambrose and Rollins say Corbin’s falsified evidence and so they bring in a Sheriff and say he’s going to be arrested. Corbin freaked out and asked to speak privately with Rollins, so we followed Ambrose out of the room and when Seth emerged, he said not to worry about the arrest and told Ambrose that the talk was ‘perfect’. Not sure what that meant at this point, but it intrigued me. What it turned out to mean was Rollins and Ambrose have a Tag Title match at HIAC this Sunday.
Kevin Owens vs Tyler Breeze
Kevin Owens is looking savage right now. He just attacks Breeze and Powerbombs him on the apron. He then cut a promo saying that when he left, Corbin called him and said he wanted him back and that he if he came back he won’t be held accountable for what he does to his opponents. This sounds like the beginning of a monster push! This is the sadistic Kevin Owens we saw debut years ago as NXT champion!
Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs The Ascension
This was another good showing for the new team, despite Gable tagging himself in twice and stealing Roode’s win. They’re a fresh team, but something is off about this story. I smell a Heel turn on the horizon..
Alexa Bliss & Mickie James w/ Alicia Fox vs Natalya Neidhart & Ronda Rousey
Rousey’s second ever match on RAW. She’s been signed 6 months, been champion for 1 month of that, still only had 2 matches on RAW. Yet she’s considered a “Full timer”. Still.. every match has been excellent. Just like this one. Rousey was selling and selling well! She hurt her ribs and they were exploited badly in the match. But Rousey got the win after an arm bar on Mickie James. After the match, Alexa Bliss I assume made a bad call in her spacial awareness and kicked Rousey in the ribs so hard that in the slow mo you could see her skin ripple! It looked nasty. I’m pretty sure Ronda said some pretty unsavoury words about her after too. She looked hurt.
Backstage
Elias just spits coffee in the face of a worker as we hear Braun scream “Where’s Roman Reigns?“. He then acts like a bully and throws a little guy across the room. Not sure why we saw Elias here, but I’m glad we did. I only wish they’d push him the way they should instead of putting him in skits like that or the Trish Stratus thing. The man is organically over! So just let him be over for crying out loud! We all just want to walk with Elias!
Speaking of which..
Elias Performance
Elias gets a nice pop. Jams out a little, gets a huge response from the crowd, he then runs the crowd and the town down. Sadly, whenever this man is in the ring I’m just waiting for when he’s gonna become fodder for whatever cannon is tickling Vince’s jubblies that week.
He was interrupted by Mrs Foley’s Baby Boy, who came out and had a great war of words with Elias. But he broke the news that when Braun and Roman are locked in the Cell this Sunday, he’ll be in there with them are the special guest referee! That blew my mind a little as I’ve heard nothing about this circulating the rumour mill! I loved it. Then Foley said that Steph asked him to make a match for old times sake. So he made Elias vs Finn Balor. Which is next.
Elias vs Finn Balor
Surprisingly this was the Main Event! It was a strong back and forth match with some awesome spots and sequences. These two would be fantastic in a feud together, the match was decent but then it was a bit of a flimsy finish as Balor (the Babyface) rolled Elias up in a Small Package for a 3. Surely either have Fin win properly or have Elias roll him up to continue a feud? Unless they’re building to having this played on later against Balor via Elias using it to bait him into a rematch, that’s fine. But if this was a “one and done” thing, it is not how you handle these guys.
Backstage
Bobby Lashley is working out and for some reason, Lio Rush is there trying to motivate him. Why? I don’t know. But Lashley lets it happen and seems to enjoy it.. man, if they give Lio a managerial role that’d be a huge mistake! He’s arguably one of the best in ring workers they have full stop!
Promo
Braun calls out Roman Reigns. Reigns shows up, the two fight it out all over the stage until Roman Reigns Samoan Drops Strowman off of the announce table through the stage floor! If anything, this serves as a solid reminder of just how awesome this rivalry was 2 years ago. I’m excited for their showdown at Hell in a Cell.
Conclusion
7.5/10 🌟
The show was healthy. It had enough star power and everything but it didn’t feel like a go home show. It felt like their plans for the show went awry so they decided to make some of it up on the fly. I loved some of it, was indifferent to some too.
Match of the Night: Ruby Riott vs Nikki Bella – it was the best of the lot. I enjoyed this more than the others on the card, despite the decision.
Performer of the Night: Ronda Rousey – she smashed it!
That’s that for this week. See you next week. Thank you for checking this out. Too sweet the like and share buttons if you fancy it and have a great day/evening/night whenever you are reading this.
Peace and Love
– CB
