4 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE Hell In A Cell 2018

Overbooking, inconclusive finishes overshadow solid wrestling.

Brock Lesnar HIAC
WWE Network

If you turned off Hell in a Cell Sunday night 90% of the way through the WWE Championship match, you’d think you saw a pretty good PPV, with three pretty damn good championship matches.

If you turned HIAC on 90% of the way through the WWE Championship match, you’d think you journeyed to the second circle of hell, with two world title matches ending inconclusively and a disappointing mixed tag bout.

Hell in a Cell was a mixed bag of sorts, but there were far more negatives to this PPV, much of which stemmed from the main event. And spoiler alert: It wasn’t Roman Reigns’ fault. The HIAC main event was a mess, a trainwreck that didn’t have to be. It felt like the writers were arguing between two overbooked endings, voted and ended in a tie, so they opted to use both.

At least WWE delivered three good title matches, including a show-stealing Raw Tag Team Championship match. That and the SmackDown Women’s Championship bout saved this from being a colossal waste of time.

Maybe part of the problem is that WWE is trying to build to two October shows – Super Show-Down and Evolution – before Hell in a Cell even began. Regardless, the godawful red cell was the least of our worries.

With that said, let’s find out what scaled the cell and what crashed and burned…

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.