Hell In A Cell In A Nutshell: Who Will Survive The Cell?

What a way to kick off a week, but with Hell In A Cell on a Sunday night? The biggest question, with three Cell matches: who will survive the Cell?

It’s a fair question, and it applies to not one, but three matches this time around. The biggest of them all is fixing to be Roman Reigns and Jey Uso, with that one giving us the first-ever “I quit” match from inside the Cell.

In addition to that, we’ve also got the WWE Championship on the line, with Drew McIntyre once again defending against Randy Orton.

If somehow those two matches don’t get you pumped up, perhaps our third match inside the Cell will: SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley will do battle against her on-again, off-again BFF, Sasha Banks.

And, while not a title, The Miz will take on Otis, with the Money In The Bank briefcase on the line. Might The Miz win, and if so, cash out quickly?

There is only one way to find out, of course.

Who will survive the cell on Sunday night?

Let’s crack open this Nutshell and find out!

Best Match of the night:

Flip a coin, because we have a few choices.

OK, with three candidates and only two sides of the coin…this is tough.

But I will say that we got three excellent, and decidedly different, Hell In A Cell matches.

The Reigns-Uso one went as expected for who won. How we got there was I think both well done and unique.

You could argue that the match didn’t truly need to be in the Cell-and you’d probably be right. But it worked.

Bayley versus Sasha used the Cell well and gave us one of the best women’s matches in a long time.

Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton was probably third best of the three, but the big spots and ending made the case for me.

Worst match of the night:

The random, spontaneous United States title match. As a match, it was bad…but I get it…got Retribution involved, which is what it was supposed to do.

Star of the Night

I am going to give it to a few here, because I can’t choose.

Roman Reigns, The Usos and even Paul Heyman and the officials. Every person involved in the opening Cell match did what they had to do in order to make that match work.

Sasha Banks, for beating Bayley and becoming the new SmackDown Women’s Champion, and in the process, completing her Grand Slam.

Randy Orton for becoming new WWE Champion.

Honorable mention goes to The Miz for winning the MITB Briefcase.

Spot of the Night:

On a night with three cell matches, we had no shortage of big spots.

Perhaps the biggest of those would be McIntyre going through the table from the side of the cage.

However…not my choice for this honor tonight.

No, for this, I give it to Tucker. Because Tucker smashed Otis with the briefcase.

Jobber of the Night:

Slapjack? The officials in the opening Cell match?

Upset of the Night:

Somewhat surprised that they did indeed have The Miz beat Otis for the briefcase…though I have my thoughts as to where the contract actually was.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Tucker turning on Otis. Look, I’ve heard rumblings of such a turn.

Fans have said it should happen since Otis got the singles push. Maybe not loudly, but that chatter has been out there, even to some small degree.

That being said, considering that Otis and Tucker just teamed on RAW (with Otis as a luchador), it wasn’t exactly like we saw it coming.

And…to apparently cause Otis a future title shot? Big turn indeed.

Note that I say apparent. The briefcase changed hands, but Otis said the contract was in his lunch box, did he not?

Botch of the night:

There were probably a few I missed, but here are two I did not.

Reigns had to toss the steel steps into the ring twice. First time, he missed.

Bayley was trying to construct something out of kendo sticks and duct tape, but that did not work out so well.

Noteworthy Moment:

Two new champions out of the show, and a new owner of the Money In The Bank briefcase. Makes Hell In A Cell a bit more of a consequential PPV than we expected coming into it.

Also, along with that briefcase, we got a decent-sized heel turn.

Overall lowlights:

If I had to complain about something, I’d say I didn’t like how Retribution was used.

WWE tried, but that match was a miss.

Overall highlights:

Sometimes you could worry that three Cell matches would dilute the awesomeness of the Cell. Not the case this time.

We got three Cell matches, and each approached the Cell differently. And, each was a very good Cell match.

Overall, a satisfying show.

After the final bell:

So who survives the cell? By virtue of the wins, we can say that Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks and Randy Orton all survived the Cell.

Interesting developments from Hell In A Cell, with two new champions and a new champion in waiting (maybe).

As we approach the end of the year, it will be interesting to see where the WWE Championship picture goes.

Also, how long before Sasha Banks moves on to a new feud? Figure we’ve got some more from Bayley to watch first…

In the end, this show was a pleasant surprise I think. It certainly was more, and better, than I came in expecting or hoping.