Segunda Caida

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Sunday, October 06, 2019

WWE Hell in a Cell 10/6/19, Not Live But Not Bad

Lacey Evans vs. Natalya

ER: Lacey's yellow outfit is fantastic, easily the best gear she's had. And this has become a feud that I have enjoyed far more than I ever thought I would. Tamina is probably the only woman on the roster I would want to see Natalya over, and Evans felt like someone who was a slightly better Eva Marie, but not only has Evans improved seemingly quite quickly, but their ring chemistry is genuinely really good. They have worked several matches this year, but I wasn't paying attention to them until one caught my eye on Raw a month ago. And this was definitely the best of their recent series, and what felt like a career making performance from Evans. Evans comes off really nasty, and has a ton of different attacks to the body and face. I'm not sure what it says about the state of WWE that Lacey Evans' strikes are top 5 in the company right now. She dropped some indy aspects of her offense and instead has focused on stomping limbs and throwing elbows to throats. I love how she stomps Natalya's arm just to get it out of the way, and when the action rolls to the apron she starts slamming her leg into the apron, kicking her in the knee, slamming her into the ring steps, and strangling her with the ring skirt. The moment Natalya rolled to the floor, Lacey met her on the floor with a straight kick right to the chest, and was still dropping those kicks later. Natalya seems to tighten things up opposite Lacey, her elbows hit more snug and she puts actual personality behind slaps, a bad actress that is suddenly able to look like she cannot stand Evans and wants to hit her hard. The finish is quick and satisfying, with Evans missing her really nice double jump moonsault and tapping quick to the Sharpshooter, then getting waylaid by one last Natalya elbow post match. I love the way they played up the personal elements of their ring feud, and wouldn't have guessed these two would have matched up so well. The best pre-show match this year. It's extra impressive to come out and have a nasty little match the crowd gets behind, on a card filled with gimmick matches.

Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch

ER: Ever since Becky Lynch reached main event feud status, the singles matches that feel like they should be great with the build, haven't been great. Most have fallen short. I don't think I've actually been that into a Becky Lynch match all year, until this one. And even this one was mostly for the big time Sasha Banks performance, easily Sasha's best performance since the Ronda match earlier this year. Sasha had an awesome violent cage match performance, getting thrown painfully into the cage several times, flinging herself back on hard dropkicks and flying into it with big splatting bumps. Sasha built to her big garbage moments well, with the Meteora off the apron into Lynch/a ladder looking great (and impressive how she aimed her knees safely between ladder steps and also not into Lynch's face), and the one into the ring was a nice mid-match nearfall. Lynch doesn't always throw weapon shots with enough force, and some of her loaded chain punches and chairshots looked a little light. Luckily Sasha was there to violently throw herself into everything, with Lynch taking plenty of mean shots as well, including a big bump through a table. Sasha set up a chair, wedged into the cell, fairly early in the match, and I love how they paid that off late in the match with Sasha reversing an Irish whip to send Lynch face first into it. The violent escalation was handled really well, the spills looked good, and they actually opened the show with a superplex into a messy pile of chairs. Awesome.

Roman Reigns/Daniel Bryan vs. Luke Harper/Erick Rowan

ER: This took a bit to get going, and it was weird how much they were overshadowed by the 4 ladies who wrestled before them. Reigns and Bryan in the same match should always be a big deal, but they found themselves with some surprisingly big shoes to fill. And this turned into a real good, exciting tag match, that was still somehow the weakest match on the card. Somehow, indeed. Things seemed a little jumbled at first but when they moved into the Bryan heat segment I was into it. Bryan is good at eating a beating, Rowan and Harper are fun to watch deliver one. They had some big spots to compete with in just the prior match, and I think they did a good job getting to them. The big ones, Bryan getting powerbombed through a table and Roman spearing Rowan through the other announce table, looked great and got their own reactions. But there were other big spots like Harper hitting Roman with a tope and nearly smashing his face in the edge of a table. The second half of this really brought the heat, and it would be a shame if they matched these teams up a couple more times to see if they have a full classic in them. This could have possibly stood out more on a weaker show, but this match overall delivered.

Randy Orton vs. Ali

ER: See, this is turning out to be another no buzz underbooked WWE PPV that ends up delivering big fun. This is a match I would probably fast forward through on Raw, but I gave it a shot and liked what they did with the time. It played as a nice gimmick free palate cleanser after the two openers, just  solid simple ring work with a no fuss finish. I'm sure people could be upset that Ali didn't go over, as Orton isn't a guy who needs wins and Ali sure could use one. But as a match in a vacuum (which is all I really care about if it's guys I'm not super interested in) it was good. Ali took big bumps and Orton came off like a dick. I like when Orton uses unnecessary stuff like eyepokes, things he clearly doesn't need to do to win. Ali took big bumps, Orton knocked him off of high places, this was fun.

Alexa Bliss/Nikki Cross vs. Asuka/Kairi Sane

ER: Asuka has been majorly lost in the shuffle ever since the winning streak stopped, but the crowd is still clearly into her and I'm glad. And this match continues the good vibes of this show. I LOVE when they go out and actually work to exceed expectations. The whole roster has felt really energized tonight and maybe that's even a happy byproduct of the new competition. Asuka came off as fresh as she's looked all year, totally dominant in all her moments and instantly tapping back into her unique charisma that has just been absent from TV. Bliss was great on the apron, really one of the best apron workers in WWE (which is a cool, undertalked about skill), and Cross was really good at running headlong into the Warriors offense. Sane throwing a full body weight elbow drop right into the feet of Cross was an awesome moment, and I was way into Asuka cutting everyone off with kicks throughout. This was real fun, and I hope it leads to more Kabuki Warriors on TV, freshen up some match-ups.

AJ Styles/Karl Anderson/Luke Gallows vs. Viking Raiders/Braun Strowman

ER: I thought this continued the streak of really great to really fun matches on this card, even with an impossibly uninspired finish. A match that just ends because another team got disqualified for unfairly kicking ass is never going to be an interesting finish. Unless you go so extreme with the one sided beatdown that it builds to a blood feud. But this just ends because of stomping, and that's pretty lame. But the rest was good! Vikings are both going to bring fun hoss moments, Styles took a bigass backdrop bump and then got leveled some more during Braun's great hot tag, Gallows brought nice uppercuts, this was a perfectly fun six man. It felt a little more TV match than PPV match, but the action was good nonetheless.

Baron Corbin vs. Chad Gable

ER: I love how the consensus opinions are turning on Corbin. He's still divisive but you can see more and more people getting into his specific brand of annoyance, because his brand is pretty undeniable at this point. He's the only guy on the roster really allowed to work this slow methodical actively trying to piss off the crowd style, and it's fun. And I really liked this one, thought they effectively laid this out for Gable to take a big bumping beating and still able to come back in the second half and start plausibly hitting some big things. Corbin was slow but explosive on control, and Gable would fly hard into his stuff. The slide in running clothesline hit big (and nicely set up an important moment in the closing stretch), and Gable was taking hard bumps for everything including a nasty rolling tumble into the ringpost. But Gable's comeback was fun as hell, and he really seems like someone who the crowd has been wanting to get behind. The "Shortly Gable" stuff on commentary comes off pretty lame, but if they actually let him go in there and kick ass like this then it won't matter. I dug him flying into Corbin, countering the sliding lariat, nailing the cannonball, hitting a big crossbody, and nailing the Chaos Theory. There was nothing screwy at all about the finish, and it made Gable come off like a cool threat. Corbin is deceptively large (he looked like he towered over the Rock on Smackdown) but he's good with working smaller guys and making them seem credible. Both guys could come out of this feud looking great.

Bayley vs. Charlotte

ER: Gotta say the first thing that impressed me with this match was how vocal the crowd still was. They were loudly Wooing along with all of Charlotte's chops, and that's a testament to this being a hot show. It's impressive that we're 7 or 8 matches in and the crowd hasn't burnt out. The good stuff has been constant, the Great stuff has been peppered in, and it's had a great vibe that's held interest the whole night. Even as the match was feeling a little slow or a little too dry, the crowd was right there breaking out the loudest chant of the night, people loudly split between Charlotte and Bayley. This was the weakest match of the night, but the crowd was still hot for it, and that's cool. It felt a little too basic, felt too anticlimactic, and felt like a match that Charlotte definitely should not have won. Sasha lost in nasty fashion earlier, and then Bayley kind of just goes down easy like this was Charlotte vs. Dana Brooke in the last hour of Raw. That seems kind of dumb. Charlotte worked a basic attack the knee story, and that looked good, and it logically lead to her winning with the figure 8. But I wanted a more interesting journey on the way to the destination.

Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt

ER: So, I don't care enough about either guy to waste much energy going off on how bad this was and how stupid the booking was. I was at least curious to see where the whole Fiend thing was going to go, but goddamn am I just tired of seeing Seth Rollins matches. The dude stinks. I have skipped several of his main events on nights I wasn't digging the PPV, but I was so into the rest of this show that my mood was strong and I wanted to see if we could implausibly knock it out of the park. Obviously, they didn't fully, because this match blew. Bray losing dumb, Rollins matches bad, the end.


ER: The last match sucked in ways that people are loudly and justifiably complaining about. It is fair. But since I really don't care in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't affect how much I enjoyed this show. This was one of the most fun overall shows of the year for WWE, and if only 85% of it is good then I don't honestly care that the lame 15% came in the last 15%. The rest of the card kicked ass, with Evans/Natalya being my favorite pre-show match of the year, Sasha delivering her best performance of the year, and Gable/Corbin being a great non-gimmick match. This was a blast of a show, even if I do wish Seth Rollins was not a thing.


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3 Comments:

Blogger Yerfuneral said...

What is it with not being able to watch the preshow on the network?
This make over to network has been the pits but having to create a new account to redeem my Network gift card got me another free month but lost my watchlist able to easily figure out where I left off on ECW but World Class and others have no clue unfortunately.
I only mention this in case some WWE intern reads all this stuff.
Second ppv in a row had to get the preshow from Youtube and forced to watch because even though watched fully the 'season' premieres this week I have no real clue what is on this ppv.Sometimes in helps going in to this thing with no expectations. We'll see what happens.

1) Lacey Evans vs Natalya

WWE has a problem with not establishing people and just throwing them into matches. That hurt Evans but now they have given her time and not having simply have her doing a model cat walk it is hard to not finely feel something rather than simple disdain.
I really liked her appearance on UpUpDownDown. I prefer the heel Evans but it put over the face Evans much better than they did on NXT where it came across more GLOW or WOW. I would like to see a more shade of grey Evans like they have done with Bliss and Cross.
The match may not have been even close to a barn burner but was a solid good match. Bit refreshing from the overly lengthened false finish script.

2) Raw Women Title Hell in a Cell

I am probably in a minority but I really not into overly 'violent' female matches or man vs woman so wasn't exactly tuned in to this. Especially where a Hell in A Cell is thrown in. Isn't this type of match suppose to be a feud ender? Both Cell matches are pretty much start.
It was what it was. Seemed fine and Becky even looked to have some welts afterwards a plus when you got matches like this.

3) Tornado Tag: Bludgeon Bros vs D Bryan & R Reigns

Hard to get behind guys wearing Snapcase and Parkway Drive. Two bands never cared for with one being on Victory Records during their strong push of positive hardcore and the other starting metalcore and changing their sound drastically just come across to fake for my tastes. We all got our music tastes so can't hold it totally against them.
With Reigns being on the video game cover would be happy with a strong showing from the Bros and we get that.
I really liked this.
Strong show so far.

11:36 PM  
Blogger Yerfuneral said...

4) Ali vs Randy Orton

Was liking the Ali filmed promos. They never really went anywhere but they peaked my interest though if he has been doing anything with him on tv I been missing it.
Orton moving on to Ali kind of makes sense after Kofi.
Ali thought was allowed to be somewhat strong and I am okay with it. Build these guys up more. All for it and gets a rub in my book from Orton.
50/50 booking is not the answer. If it is competitive and interesting.

5) Women's tag team title match

I got a soft heart for all four of these ladies. This really worked for me.
Not what I like in a tag match but all the ladies got to play their strengths so it really worked. 3 of the ladies are more character driven and the 4th more wrestling based misused as a character for a long while so was great to see her allowed to do her thing and eventually led to a big character moment with 'the mist'.
This makes me sad. Asuka keeps getting these big moments in the bay area and I miss seeing them live. The mist was so great!
Kabuki Warriors could be a shade of grey too now and I like it. The womens divisions so small so like the mix of heel/face. Makes shifts in program more understandable and you don't need overly drastic attempts at change that seem to backfire; especially with the ladies where the crowd doesn't buy it.

6) six man tag action: The OC vs Stroman/Viking Raiders

Just let the guys play. DQ's have there place and I guess again you have a match on paper seems like a tv match so who should care. Clique building? That does better on a free show that everyone sees. Would love to see a face stable take shape but we're not really in a need for one yet.

12:34 AM  
Blogger Yerfuneral said...


7) King Corbin vs Chad Gable

I guess because of his size Gable hasn't been the instant breakout and given a chance to shine once his tag teams fall apart.
Probably more of a Gagne type of guy rather than McMahon but if rumors are true of the product Fox wants he could be a Smackdown guy after the draft.
Corbin has turned into the exact reason WWE doesn't exactlt listen to their fans. He has been put into situations where you don't understand the push but he has hung around enough anything you do with him makes sense unlike say Fiend instantly put in a title match after really not doing much more then some fun vignettes and taking out legends. More of a build towards an Undertaker.
This is about Corbin though and still don't care much for the guy. Don't understand MITB, Andre Battle Royal, title reigns, and now King of the Ring. Still yet to be a wow factor but like Miz he stays pretty healthy and dependable and that matters more than anything.
Can we move on from short jokes yet?


8) Smackdown Woman's Title

I don't know Bayley losing history with belts but she does seem to get the home area curse I swear one of her other title reigns ended in the bay area too. The opposite of Asuka.
Only thing I remember hours later is some of the dirty stuff she tried to pull as they try to put over the heel thing.
I like the fact the other women's matches in their own ways out shown the Four Horsewomen that they spend so much time with. I watch all the women stuff cause easy to keep up with.
I am guessing we are in the middle of the 4 horsewomen being torn apart only to come back together at Wrestlemania.
Again Charlotte couldn't pull something out of Bayley. Unfortunately this is far from over but they need to stop revolving the whole women's division with simply the four. Lots of talent out there and Survivor Series doesn't have to be the only upcoming showcase.

9) Universal Title Match

The red light thing? I expected to see a blood bath real or otherwise at some point revealed since Rollins can't simply lose stuffing like a stuffed rabbit.
They needed some kind of wash out match being the first match but with Hell in a Cell you can't have a double count out/ knock out, dq, or some finish like that. You had a stretcher spot just make it a double stretcher blood bath. Thats the only way saw out of this with PWI #1 wrestler and one of the hottest character gimmick things going on in wrestling next to Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy.
All the build and danger of the Fiend; only to get this?

If went in person would have left after Kabuki Warriors won the title. I got my moment that supposedly the audience wants at the end of a ppv to go home happy.
Though I was pretty happy until the final two title matches. The what were suppose to be throw away matches because of the draft were entertaining. Clash of Champions was buried by this. Won't watch but pretty sure next Saudi Arabia won't hold a candle to this.
Hey WWE creative almost want to say go into every ppv thinking it is a throw away show or maybe the fact you got some competition is helping. Pretty good little show.

3:23 AM  

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