From the desperation of much needed PPV buys comes the super-stacked and over-hyped Hell in A Cell PPV. This is a preview of the matches on the PPV card, my thoughts on the matches themselves as well as my predictions as to who should and will win.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH: First of all, in case I haven't languished on about this already, I love the fact that Big E Langston is a babyface. Not only do I think he's a decent worker for a BIG man, I like that WWE is trying a different approach for pushing a BIG guy other than the cliched 'BIG man beatup the little guys' procedure. Seriously, it's like standard operating procedure for them. Yes, Big E was a heel before, but they didn't exactly push him akin to being a bully like Ryback. I mean, he debuted on RAW against He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named-Until-Later-In-This-Preview. It's harder to be pushed as a babyface because you have to get the crowd behind you. I think Big E can do it. But I hope they don't jump the boat on Langston and put the Intercontinental Championship on him before he's proven that he can be a good babyface. Not that it's doing any better around Curtis Axel's waist. He's a good wrestler and I'm a big, big fan of Joe Hennig but he's failing in WWE right now. It's mind-boggling how one could do that when you have Paul Heyman as your manager and mouthpiece. A lot of that has to do with how badly Axel was buried against CM Punk. He lost a lot of credibility after losing to Punk on multiple occassions. A match against an opponent like Langston could kick-start him again. I know, I said the same thing about his match against R-Truth at Battleground. I stand by it.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN: There's really no reason for Curtis Axel to drop the Intercontinental Championship against a wrestler who's gone from near obscurity to babyface in two weeks flat. Langston still has to prove he's worthy of the Intercontinental Title and the responsibilties that come with holding that title. Langston should show off his impressive strength and agility on the way to wowing an audience who has yet to see even half of what he's capable of, but all of that should come in a losing effort.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN: There are two factors that we cannot ignore. 1) The BIG Man rule. 2) This is a kickoff match. Both of those factor in strongly for a Big E win. Babyfaces don't generally lose kickoff matches and Big E is a BIG man. But I don't forsee WWE gambling with the IC Title right now.
Big E Langston wins the match, but not the title. Most likely a disqualification or count-out. Then Big E will most likely destroy Axel after the match.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH: The worst thing about AJ Lee being the Divas Champion is that she has no competition. When a moderately-improved Bella Twin is a legitimate threat to drop a championship to, there are glaring problems in that division. And it's not even that Brie Bella deserves to win the Divas Title, but that everyone expects her to do so because we expect Daniel Bryan to win the WWE Championship. What no one expects is for this match to be any good. Brie showed a little spark in her win over AJ on RAW Monday night, but that's not enough to carry a PPV match.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN: AJ Lee should win easy. If this were a matchup of skills, talent, wrestling ability, acting ability, looks, body or likeability, AJ Lee would win this easy. Brie Bella is below AJ Lee in every category that matters except one - the spousal status. Brie is obviously getting a nudge from her relationship with Daniel Bryan. There are plenty of things that somehow justify championship status in WWE and that shouldn't be one. However, it's not like nepotism doesn't have grounds in pro-wrestling. It's basically built on it.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN: Power couples are hard to ignore. Considering that there is a rather adamant power couple running WWE right now, it wouldn't be hard to imagine them having another power couple to butt heads with. In fact, I'm imagining what they could do with that particular storyline and I'm liking it against my better judgement. Help me Wrestling Jesus, but I'm expecting
Brie Bella to win the Divas Championship. If there's any justice, it'd just be for a short while. I don't expect them to keep the title off of AJ Lee for too long. She's too good with it.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH: A lot of people don't enjoy triple threat tag matches, but I do. A lot. But then again, I've always been fan of matches that involve multiple opponents and/or teams. That's why matches like the Royal Rumble or Elimination Chamber are exciting to me. There's something to be said about a singles or a traditional tag matches, as they'd most likely be the best wrestling match, but the multi-opponent matches are usually more fun. Furthermore, I like this match because it involves all three contenders for the Tag Team Championship and doesn't disclude anyone who deserves a title shot. And all three teams are filled with good workers with differing styles. The Usos and The Shield had a great match at a kickoff show a few months back. The Rhodes' and The Shield had the best match of the last PPV. There's no reason why combining these matches wouldn't be a success. WWE has a great tag team division right now and it's hard to spread the wealth to every deserving tag team unless matches like this happen often. Hopefully very often.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN: It sucks a little that going into this match, a winner seems easy to pick. I don't forsee any reason for Cody Rhodes & Goldust to drop the Tag Team Titles, especially in the midst of such a strong push. I expect this to be a very good, very quick paced match with The Shield pulling out all the heel tactics they can muster to fend off the two babyface teams, including Dean Ambrose getting involved. And don't count out The Usos either. They have the ability to make quite a stamp on this match and in the division, but this match is not theirs to win.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN: Cody Rhodes & Goldust will retain the Tag Team Titles only because they just recently won them. Not that they didn't earn the titles but as the newest tag team in WWE, I'd have liked to see them earn the titles a little more. But I completely understand why they won them and why they'll retain them.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH: I had to wait until last to preview this match because I don't know what I think about the match. I'm interested in it. I'm excited to watch it. I mean, it's CM Punk in a cell. Only good things can happen. But it's the thereafter that worries me. This is a rivalry that needs to end. I don't necessarily want it to, but I think its run it's course. Punk and Heyman know each other so well that they can keep this going for longer and it wouldn't be boring in the least. At least not to me. But I can see why the casual fan might start to become disinterested. The only reason I would want this rivalry to come to an end is so that CM Punk can join the rest of the superstars on the roster is combatting the tyrant that is The Authority. It's a little odd that through all of this Punk has said nary a word about the rising power that is threatening to overtake the WWE. Punk is a rebel. He's THE rebel. If he's not fighting on the side of the underdog, it's only because he's the heel thats keeping the underdog down. (I miss those days.) The next PPV after Hell in a Cell is Survivor Series, where I believe the whole Authority vs WWE angle will come to a head. Punk has to be on the team fighting against the oppressors. But that doesn't mean the rivalry between Punk and Ryback has to end. Ryback would be a welcome addition to team Authority, and it'll allow their rivalry to continue.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN: If what I described above is going to happen, it would suggest that Ryback wins this match so that the rivalry continues. I'm good with that, but only if it blends in with the Authority storyline. Plus, it'd be bad for them to book Ryback as a Heyman guy, only for him to lose twice in a row to CM Punk. That's exactly how Ryback began his decline to begin with - two straight losses to CM Punk, one of which was in a cell.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN: I think WWE made a mistake in the last PPV by allowing CM Punk to win. Since they were going to continue this rivalry anyway, it should have been Ryback who won so that Punk could win this match. In order to protect him, I think
Ryback wins this match and Punk will have to settle for getting the ultimate victory after eliminating Ryback from the Survivor Series match.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH: Bear with me for a moment while I throw a temper tantrum... I DON'T WANT CENA BACK!!! HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE GONE FOR 6 MONTHS, DAMMIT. I WAS ENJOYING WWE WITHOUT LISTENING TO HIS PEDANTIC POOP-JOKES AND WATCHING HIM FLAIL AROUND IN THE THE RING, CALLING IT WRESTLING. I HATE HIM. I HATE HIM. I HATE 'EM!!! Okay, sorry about that. Had to be done. I understand why this match was made. The World Heavyweight Championship hasn't exactly been living up to it's name as of late. The matches for the championship haven't been well-received, whether they've actually been decent or not. The Champion himself hasn't been well-received, whether he's been a good champion or not. And in my opinion, he has been. WWE wants to fix what is broken with the World Title and they should want to. They were the ones who broke it. They were the ones who consistently put the World Title matches at the start of every PPV card. They were the ones who made the World Title secondary to the WWE Title by not booking it with as much urgency. And they are the ones who keep booking the current World Heavyweight Champion to lose all of his non-title matches. Del Rio can work with what he's given. And he's done a damn good job with what has been given to him. But of course, WWE isn't exactly going to book a strong heel champion not named Randy Orton. I understand why they want to bring John Cena into the fray and inject some excitement back into the World Championship. But I think it'll be wholly unfair to Alberto Del Rio if they allow Cena to win the World Title upon his return. Del Rio has been a fighting champion. In the matches he's actually booked to look strong in, he's been mighty impressive.You can't blame him for looking weak while losing non-title matches or wrestling in sloppy matches with RVD, who wasn't exactly his old self. One has to wonder if Cena will be rusty as well. Albeit, it's hard to look rusty when you never looked sharp to begin with. I expect the match will have a buzz around it at the PPV because everyone wil be looking to see if Cena is back for real or if this is just a ploy by WWE to get his name on a PPV that they desperately need buys for.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN: Alberto Del Rio should win. The storyline is tailor made for him. He's been the fighting champion for the past few months. He's been the
only champion for the past few months. He's taken on Dolph Ziggler, Christian & RVD and come away victorious. Cena has been out of action and is coming back with a bum elbow, which is primed for targeting by Del Rio and his devastating Cross Armbreaker. It should be that simple. If only it were that simple...
WHAT WILL HAPPEN: Even if this is just a ploy to bring Cena back for one night only, WWE isn't going to allow him to look too weak. He's still going to come out with all the Hustle, Loyalty & Respect he can muster. He's still going try to wrestle. He's going to hit the six moves of doom. He'll give the kiddies and the ladies something cheer for. I still believe that
Alberto Del Rio will retain the World Heavyweight Championship, but Cena won't make it easy. WWE intimated without admitting that the reason Cena lost to Daniel Bryan is because of his elbow, and they'll do the same here. Except this time, they'll flat out blame the elbow - just like they did with Ziggler's head. They won't protect Del Rio the same way they did Bryan. He's a heel. If for any reason John Cena does win the WWE Championship, then I fully expect to hear the familiar tones of 'Hallelujah' as Damien Sandow cashes in the MITB briefcase with the assistance of Del Rio. And if that does happen, the 'hallelujah' will be coming from my voice.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH: It's hard to imagine that this is the third PPV match between Daniel Bryan & Randy Orton in less than two months. Six weeks, I believe. And to sum it all up, it's been rather disappointing and I don't understand why. I love Daniel Bryan and his performance in every single match he's involved in. And I like heel Randy Orton far better than SUPERFACE Orton. Even his style of wrestling is better as a heel because he's allowed to open up his offense. I guess it's not the matches that have been lackluster, but the storyline. And honestly, it's not even them. I think it's Triple H. Lately, whenever Triple H sticks his nose (no pun intended) into a storyline, it starts off exciting and slowly dwindles down to tedious. It happened with CM Punk. It happened with Brock Lesnar. It's happening now. Maybe having Big Show as a foil instead of Daniel Bryan would help, but I'm not optimistic. I'm going into this match with blinders on. I'm going to ignore the story around the match, the vacant WWE Championship, the threat of The Authority and even the presence of Shawn Michaels, who I still think should not be there. There should be no Special Guest Referee. Adding a guest referee doesn't appease my mind into thinking that there will be a clean finish. If anything, it adds to the thought that there won't be a clean finish. HBK isn't exactly without allegiances here, no matter how fair & balanced he claims he'll be.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN: There should be a WWE Champion after this match is over. I don't care who it's going to be. This should be the end to this rivalry, regardless of who wins or how it all plays out. At least for now. My only worry is exactly how it will play out. I don't forsee HBK turning heel and helping Orton win, no matter how compelling a storyline it'd be to have the student versus the teacher. I don't think HBK wants to wrestle again. Whether or not he still can is a different story. If anything, I can see HBK disobeying HHH's order to throw the match and it causing a rift between the best friends. But even then, that shouldn't lead to a rivalry on anything other than the microphone.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN: It'll be a major slight to the fans if this doesn't end without Daniel Bryan actually holding the WWE Championship for longer than a day, which is why I think it's best that he wins. They owe us what they've been holding over our heads for the past three months and I, for one, think we'll get it.
Daniel Bryan wins the WWE Championship. Don't ask how Big Show will factor in, because I have no idea. Perhaps he'll KO Triple H when he comes down and tries to interfere. That should give the crowd something they desperately want too.
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