1. Bianca Belair Retains SmackDown Women’s Championship
With the removal of the Reigns vs. Mysterio match from the Hell In A Cell show, another cell match had to be added to the card. This stipulation was added to the SmackDown Women’s Championship match between Bianca Belair and Bayley.
A feud built on laughing, this match had no right to be this good. However, despite the awful storytelling in WWE sometimes, their superstars do deliver from an in-ring standpoint.
This match was extreme and innovative. The structure of the bout came straight from hell as Belair’s hair was the focal point of pain and torment. Bayley logically inflicted hurt onto the Champion via her hair, which was placed in very unique situations. It was being tied to chairs, hands, you name it and it kept Belair on toll while Bayley seized her chance to win back the Championship.
Also, this match saw a powerful spine-buster into leaning kendo sticks which looked brutal as always. The ending of the match came when Belair hit Bayley with her devastating KOD finisher onto a ladder. This twisted the ladder into a bloody mess as Belair gained the victory.
The match was great and very creative, however, the late addition of this being a Hell In A Cell match was quite meaningless. The cell barely played a factor in the outcome and this match could have easily remained the same in a No Holds Barred stipulation. Nevertheless, this probably will end the Belair and Bayley feud with Belair ready to be welcomed as SmackDown Women’s Champ in front of fans for the first time since her WrestleMania victory.
2. Seth Rollins Beats Cesaro
It has been reported that WWE is keeping their exciting plans in the bank until live crowds are back. This did mean the PPV had plenty of rematches. Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins was one of them.
At WrestleMania 37, Cesaro got a huge win over Seth Rollins and hit that very wonderful aeroplane spin that sent Michael Cole into a frenzy. He then went on to unsuccessfully challenge for the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns. Therefore, it felt strange to take a step backwards and have him feud with Seth Rollins again heading into this barbaric show.
The match was fun with plenty of big spots, however, ended quite unconvincingly with a Rollins roll-up. This has two major eye rolls for multiple reasons:
- If this is the end of their feud, a leverage pin is the most boring way to do this.
- This very well could be 50/50 booking and the storyline will continue, despite, Cesaro winning strongly at ‘Mania.
My guess is it will continue into the Money In The Bank ladder match.
3. Alexa Bliss Defeats Shayna Baszler – Hypnotizes Nia Jax
Finally, the moment you have been waiting for! Let’s discuss the biggest reason why RAW has been heading down the drain and through the sewers – Lilly and Bliss’ hokey magic powers.
When it was announced Alexa Bliss would be facing Shayna Baszler, there was two ways I saw this match going. It was either going to be a cinematic match as with fans returning next month, this may have been the final time the film format could’ve worked. On the other hand, it could have been a normal singles match but with the same wacky nonsense that was despised during Wyatt vs. Orton.
Luckily, the low expectations made this match somewhat servable. Bliss was aggressive right from the off-set and she and the ‘Queen of Spades’ brought the war to the ring.
Each minute the match went on, the worst was anticipated. Thankfully, the worst was only Nia Jax being hypnotized similarly to Reginald on RAW last week. This resulted in a distraction and a Sister Abigail to Shayna Baszler. They really have just clicked copy and paste on the Fiend for Bliss’ demonic persona.
Nevertheless, apart from the illogical hypnotism – because if she can do that, why could she not just warp Baszler into losing at the click of the fingers? The match was okay and displayed a new way that Alexa Bliss could actually work in this spooky role.
WWE will probably mess the character up as they often do with complex gimmicks like this but it is a nice feeling to be positive on this story arch for once.
4. Charlotte Wins By DQ
Moving onto something not so positive – the way WWE finishes matches.
Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair had a WrestleMania 36 rematch for the RAW Women’s Championship and was almost match of the night. The action was intense and certainly displayed the terrific talent of Ripley and Flair.
However, at the end of the day, it is how you leave them and WWE left us with an awful spoon of muck. The match spilled to the outside and as Ripley was about to set up the commentary table and organize Charlotte for a dramatic spot, she accidentally whacked The Queen with the top part of the table.
Her head smashed right into it and seemingly the ref had enough and rang the bell. It is understandable that they needed a way to continue this onto Money In The Bank, so that they can wrestle in front of a live crowd. However, a DQ finish is quite a disappointing way to do it. Especially when the disqualification comes awkwardly from something that wouldn’t often cause a DQ in the first place.
You can hit an opponent’s head on the table but apparently, you can’t do the opposite? At least, looking on the bright side, the rematch should be another extravagant watch. Let’s just wish they can return Rhea Ripley to the personality that got her over on NXT as fans would awkwardly clap for her in this tweener dilemma she is suffering.
5. Sami Zayn Defeats Kevin Owens
In another WrestleMania 37 rematch, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn kept to the chant “Fight Forever”. This time with no Logan Paul. He is too busy giving professional boxers a run for their money…
Anyways, onto the more realistic action. Like all their matches, it was tremendous in-ring stuff. KO brings the best out of heel Zayn.
This was Zayn’s first victory in the year 2021 – are we actually sure there isn’t a conspiracy? A day later, Kevin Owens tweeted that he is taking a break.
With Zayn finally getting a victory, I hope this leads to my wildest prediction of 2021 – Sami Zayn wins the Money In The Bank briefcase. His character would be super cocky holding a contract for any major championship.
6. Bobby Lashley Retains WWE Championship
Then we reach the main event. Did Reigns vs. Mysterio get pulled from this card to give this championship match the time and effort to finish the rivalry and end the show with a major mind-blowing result? No, not really.
The match was fun at first and got Lashley and McIntyre over as the most dominant forces on RAW. However, despite all the epic maneuvers and kendo stick inflicted suffering, the fun ended with plenty of despicable cheating from MVP.
Firstly, MVP handed the WWE Champion his cane which was used on the throat of the Sexy Scotsman. Then a ref bump occurred which allowed MVP to make his way into the Cell. At first, this looked terrible for MVP as he got trapped in this dangerous structure for the ruthless contender. McIntyre knew he only had one chance remaining; he had to end the Hurt Business’ reign of terror for good.
Unfortunately, MVP was only stopped for a quick second as locking him inside the cell meant he could input more deceitful action into this bout. He held McIntyre’s leg to prevent the claymore then the Almighty champion won with an almighty roll-up.
This ending would have been 10x better if he hit the spear from the distraction but WWE love to take the lousy way out.
Overall, with no Brock Lesnar return or big cementing moment for the future of WWE television, Hell In A Cell 2021 was pretty much a nothing show. The matches were fun, the endings sucked and nobody would remember a thing that happened a few years later. WWE are in that mindset where nothing matters until fans enter the arena, however, they still have a month to go. Can they build the anticipation of the WWE Universe with another stale month of TV?
If they start decreasing the amount of hokey garbage, do Money In The Bank qualifier matches and give Lashley an exciting new WWE Championship feud – probably against Kofi Kingston – they may be able to hold onto the thread until they reach July 16th’s edition of SmackDown in Texas.
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