Little Caesar’s apparently has its own arena, and WWE’s Smackdown Live brand was in town for a big pay-per-view. It’s Hell in a Cell, folks. The card looks stacked, and this should be one of the finer shows of the year. Let’s dive right in.
Kickoff Match: Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable def. The Hype Bros – Smackdown Live’s tag team division is just completely blowing Raw’s out of the water right now. I love the pairing of Benjamin & Gable, and these guys could be real contenders for the titles. A feud with the Usos or New Day either one could be GOLD. Benjamin & Gable get the win with….whatever their finisher is called. They also teased a Hype Bros split, but it didn’t happen. Fun little match to get things going. Rating: 7/10.
Smackdown Tag Team Championship, Hell in a Cell Match: The Usos def. New Day – The action is hot and heavy right off the bat. These dudes garnered “this is awesome” chants within the first three minutes of the match. Also, I’m pretty sure Big E’s suicide dive broke the cell. It was pretty convenient that there was a New Day branded kendo stick under the ring. But, I’m not one to question these things.
An early highlight included Xavier Woods hitting Jey Uso with two trombones, a cowbell, and a gong in succession. These guys are putting on every combination move you can think of and it’s getting downright violent. Big E kicks out of the double splash, and Detroit is LIT. The Usos get the win after beating the shit out of Xavier Woods and hitting him with a double super kick and the double splash. This match is going to be damn hard to top. Rating: 9.5/10.
Randy Orton def. Rusev – IT IS RUSEV DAY! Seriously, I can’t bring myself to care about anything Orton does in 2017. The Wyatt feud: boring. The Mahal feud: boring. Then, that bullshit at Summerslam. That said, this was actually a pretty good, heavy-hitting, physical contest. What do we have to do to get a Styles-Rusev feud for the U.S. Championship?!?! Orton gets the win after an RKO OUTTA NOWHERE, and again…Orton does nothing for me anymore. Still, a good match. Rating: 7/10.
United States Championship: Baron Corbin def. Tye Dillinger and A.J. Styles – I’m not sure that it makes sense for Dillinger to be added to this match, but I dig it. Sort of freshens up this Corbin-Styles feud, and makes for an exciting match. Styles has been great as U.S. Champion, and this match is another example of that. These three really pushed the pace, and that made the match stand out on the card so far. Kudos to whoever is booking the show tonight. They’re knocking it out of the park so far. Corbin gets the pin on Dillinger to get his first title in WWE. Rating: 8.5/10.
Smackdown Women’s Championship: Charlotte def. Natalya (via disqualification) – These two never disappoint. The string of quality pay-per-view matches they’ve put on continues. This was a great example of championship story-telling, and the DQ finish means we’ll probably at least get one more pay-per-view championship match, and I’m okay with that. Rating: 7.5/10.
Fashion Files: 10/10…..nothing to question. This is just fabulous television. I will note that The Ascension is criminally underrated as a versatile, entertaining tag team.
WWE Championship: Jinder Mahal def. Shinsuke Nakamura – Here’s where I expected the show to stall a bit. The match these two had at Summerslam fell incredibly flat. But, credit to these guys – this match was far and away better. In fact, I’d say this was Mahal’s best match as WWE Champion. For a bit, it looked like we were going to get the same cliche ending with the Brothers Sihra, or whatever they’re called. But, that wasn’t the case. There were some shenanigans, but Mahal got as clean a win as he’s earned as champion yet. This isn’t a popular opinion according to Twitter, but I thought this was a great title bout. Rating: 8/10.
Bobby Roode def. Dolph Ziggler – Little more than a palate cleanser, but a highly entertaining one nonetheless. Roode continues to show how over he (or maybe his entrance music) is, and Ziggler proves yet again that he is just the guy to kickstart your main roster run. Roode gets the W in a fun little match. Rating: 7/10.
Hell in a Cell: Kevin Owens def. Shane McMahon – Wow. The build towards this match was phenomenal. The action was hard and physical. I mean…..what else can I say? I was sweating watching these two battle on top of the cell. It was brutal. It was personal, and holy shit – that ending. A Sami Zayn heel turn?! How often is WWE able to really surprise us anymore? Zayn clearing out the EMTs to ensure Owens pinned Shane was amazing. They really nailed this show. Brilliant. Rating: 9.5/10.
Overall: 8/10. This was about as close to a perfect WWE show as they’ve gotten in a long time. This one’s going to be right up there with Great Balls of Fire and TakeOver: Chicago come time to rank these bad boys at the end of the year. Well done, SmackDown Live.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @WrestlingNewsCo
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