Monday Night RAW

Bobby Feels The Rush

Lio Rush as Lashley’s manager could help them both immensely. Rush gets to show off his charisma and promo skills on the main roster and maybe drags some eyes to 205 Live.

Lashley gets to say nothing other than “my MAN” and look tough. This combination could be great fun if this first promo is anything to go by and will only benefit both men.

Foley Crashes The Party

Elias was being his usual fantastic self when he was interrupted by none other than Mick Foley. It was great to see Foley, who looked very well, and he cut a great promo before announcing his role as Special Guest Referee for the Hell In A Cell championship match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. A fun time filler that led to an important announcement.

Psycho Kevin

Kevin Owens explained his return and filled in some plot lines. Baron Corbin giving in and allowing Owens to run rampant can only lead to good things. Kevin Owens in 2017-2018 was a far cry from NXT and Raw debut Kevin Owens who was a psychotic prizefighter who did what he wanted when he wanted. A character reset and return to that KO could see a mini-revival for the damaged former Universal Champion.

Revenge

As I expected The Shield made it known that RAW is still their yard.

They were all over this show getting back at all those who committed injustice last week. To start they beat up all the heels who ambushed them last week, axe handles in tow as equalizers. Then Rolins and Ambrose, who was at his quirky best, threatened to have Corbin arrested and got to see him squirm. Rollins and Ambrose got the jump on The Show and to end the show Roman samoan dropped Braun Strowman THROUGH THE FLOOR. The Shield got their sweet revenge and dominated this show.

SmackDown Live

The Go Home Show

As a whole, this edition of SmackDown was the perfect go home show for Hell in a Cell. It didn’t reinvent the wheel but it kept some of it’s hottest feuds simmering. Aj Styles and Joe continued to build their feud with two different promos that furthered their grudge. Charlotte overcame Sonya Deville before Lynch’s sneak attack. We saw Rusev Day shock the tag division and become number one contenders and The Mizanins continued their issue with Daniel and Brie through a perfectly booked match between Maryse and Brie Bella. A perfect go home show by SmackDown Live that built up all the PPV matches without doing too much.

NXT

Champion vs. Champion Hype

I love how NXT went out its way to make next week’s match feel even more important. The first ever Champion vs. Champion match in NXT history was always going to be a big deal by default, put Pete Dunne and Ricochet in there and you have every indie fan’s dream match. NXT didn’t just show a graphic and let you be excited, no they had a video for each performer, they had Adam Cole and Undisputed Era bring it up in a promo and commentary kept hyping it. It’s a little thing but making a match feel important is a skill and NXT has perfected it.

Undisputed Era: Smarmy Dorks

The Undisputed Era promos are a tad cheesy, they are kinda dorky, but maaaan do these guys come across as real dicks. They are so good at playing the stupid jocks that do nothing but brag about how great they are. And how dickish is it to have your own music playing in the background of your promo.

Mae Young Classic

Kacy Catanzaro

Catanzaro came in with a lot of buzz, she is a supreme athlete and became a big name while on American Ninja Warrior. The question was always going to be “can she translate her skills to wrestling?”. The answer, YES, Catanzaro looked so natural in the ring and for someone in her first televised match did not look out of place at all. Her offence is fantastic as well as she mixes in her gymnastics background to pull off some great moves.

WWE Hell In A Cell 2018

Show Stolen

What happens when you put Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Drew Galloway in a ring? Only good things! The match many people expected to steal the show did exactly that as all four men produced a great tag team match.

Rousey Adds More Tools

So far in her career, WWE has protected Rousey, in her debut they had her in a tag team match with Kurt Angle, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Ever since then we have seen one sided squashes, at Hell In A Cell we saw her have a longer, more WWE style match and she proved she can do it. Rousey is taking this wrestling thing seriously and it’s really paying off.

A Fun Main Event

This match broke down into absolute CHAOS — the nonsensical but still really exciting random stuff that made Hell in a Cell more than the average PPV.

First, we got a precursor to WWE Super Showdown as The Show and The Shield’s remaining members battled it out on the cell with Ambrose whacking everything in site with a kendo stick and Rollins and Ziggler taking a nice table bump. Then Brock Lesnar’s music hit as he kicked down the cell door and laid out both champion and challenger.