10 WWE Hell In A Cell 2018 Impulse Reactions
All Red Everywhere
Hell In A Cell 2018 was the best WWE pay-per-view of the year.
Some of the Great Men (TM) of WhatCulture.com are unfairly derided for their reasoned criticisms of WWE, despite wanting - desperately - to love what's on offer. Vince McMahon's organisation has done a remarkable job at reframing the narrative around what it means to even be a fan or critic of their product. They don't need to respond to valid complaints, because other sections of their following will do it for them. And that's what most of the complaints are - completely valid.
WWE is a company that presents itself as a two-fisted approach; both television soap and sporting expedition are supposedly served, and thus should be judged accordingly. The latter is almost always better than average, but equally almost always undone by the former. The characters too often aren't written to make sense or be believed in, rendering their physical endeavours pointless.
For one night at least, the company put their hands back together. There was a surprise in the main event. The big red cage looked big red great. The Coach didn't ruin the Kickoff. Hell in a Cell 2018 really was the best pay-per-view of the year, even before the pay-per-view itself...
10. Groundhog Day
Safe bets opening any show, The New Day are no strangers to stealing headlines from pay-per-views before they've even started either, with Kickoff matches almost always considered enough of an affront that the trio lean on heavy on the quality end of the content/banter seesaw.
Rusev Day were the lucky recipients of a sleeper hit this month, though in kayfabe Rusev Deadline Day may be drawing near if results continue to suffer.
The story was well told in a match that went less than nine minutes and suffered the indignity of a commercial interruption. Aiden English's enthusiastic support of his Bulgarian bro was genuinely charming, particularly when he augmented it with a vast array of unfamiliar assaults on the unsuspecting pancake posse.
The New Day retaining tag gold is never a bad thing - the trio is fiercely reliable atop either brand - but the story here was so much more about the losers than the winners. Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods move forward from here, but ahead of the first anniversary of actual Rusev Day, there may be no way back for Lana's troubled twosome.