Hell in a Cell 2018

Hell in a Cell (2018)

Promotion	WWE
Date	September 16, 2018
Venue	AT&T Center
City	San Antonio, Texas
Attendance	15,216
Last Event	SummerSlam
Next Event	Super Show-Down

Hell in a Cell (2018) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event, produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on September 16, 2018, at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. It was the tenth event under the Hell in a Cell chronology.

Event summary[]

The New Day vs Rusev Day[]

Rusev & Aiden English walked a long, hard road to get to the doorstop of a SmackDown Tag Team Title reign. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts on WWE Hell in a Cell Kickoff, it’s not Rusev Day yet.

The blue brand’s Tag Team gold will remain instead around the swiveling waists of The New Day, the three-ain’t-enough-they-need-five-time Tag Team Champions, who weathered an all-but-perfect effort from the challengers that came down to a handful of missed opportunities and miscommunication. As the title bout began to go long after a pair of mismatches (Rusev vs. Kofi Kingston and then English vs. Big E) canceled each other out, the action came so fast and furious that any game plan Rusev Day had seemed to go out the window, and the challengers opted to improvise.

For a while, it paid dividends. But The Drama King’s two big gambits fell short, which led to a final breakdown between him and Rusev at the moment of truth. After English’s idea for consecutive top-rope attacks caused Rusev to take himself out with a whiffed diving headbutt, The Artiste attempted his version of an Accolade on Kofi, but The Dreadlocked Dynamo narrowly writhed free. Rusev went into panic mode and rushed the ring, only to be tossed out by Kofi into the waiting clutches of Big E. New Day’s resident big man grabbed hold of Rusev and held his right leg, leaving The Lion of Bulgaria helpless as English staggered face-first into a match-ending Trouble in Paradise.

Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch[]

Six months ago, Charlotte Flair had a best friend at her side, a championship around her waist and two working arms attached to her body. Now, she has none of that, as Becky Lynch, who threw their friendship out the window at SummerSlam, took Charlotte’s arm and took her SmackDown Women’s Championship in a surprisingly one-sided bout that finally brought Lynch back to the top of the SmackDown Women's division.

The Irish Lass Kicker, who snapped after Charlotte exploited Triple Threat rules to win the SmackDown Women’s Title at SummerSlam — a victory that would have, and maybe should have, belonged to Becky — came to WWE Hell in a Cell with one game plan: To destroy Charlotte’s arm. That she did, fighting with such ferocity that The Queen never truly got her legs under her, save for a few stretches where her strength and athleticism put the wind back in her sails.

No matter how much of a fight Charlotte put up, however, she could only punch back so hard with one working arm. Becky’s steady dismantling of Charlotte’s left arm left her ripe for a Dis-arm-her, which Maiden Ireland finally locked in near the edge of the ring and held up to the limit of the five-count after Charlotte rolled under the ropes. Using what parts of her body were available, Charlotte built up a full head of steam and went for a spear, but The Irish Lass Kicker reversed it seamlessly into a DDT, rolled over and covered The Queen for the pin.

Speechless from her loss as Becky celebrated, Charlotte made one last attempt at an olive branch, offering her hand to Becky in a show of friendship. The Irishwoman lifted her new championship over her head and declined. The moment was hers. And if tonight was any indication, it was the first of many.

Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella vs The Miz & Maryse[]

Few Superstars want to get a piece of their adversary more than Daniel Bryan wants to fight The Miz. Except, perhaps, Bryan’s wife Brie Bella, who was champing at the bit all night to fight Miz’s wife Maryse in the Mixed Tag Team Match between the two premiere power couples on SmackDown LIVE. But Bryan & Brie’s expectations of a foregone victory might have been slightly, just slightly, premature.

Yes, Team “Braniel” suffered an unlikely defeat to The It Couple, thanks to a shocking, last-minute maneuver by Maryse that came after all pretense of a match had broken down and the two couples were engaged in an all-out fight. Blame the strategy by Miz and Maryse for that; they made a big show of tagging in and out to slow Bryan’s momentum in a clever exploitation of Mixed Tag rules — men and women can only fight each other — that effectively gave Miz a time-out whenever he needed.

When Brie finally got into the match, she slammed Maryse’s face off the announce desk and mauled her so viciously that Miz ran interference and broke up a pinfall attempt, which only infuriated Bryan all the more and led to a sequence of stereo “Yes!” Kicks so blistering that Miz & Maryse decided they’d had enough. Brie would have no part of that, though, and she hauled Maryse back into the ring, used her to knock Miz off the apron and rolled her up for what seemed to be a deciding pinfall … at least until Maryse reversed it and stunned Brie to earn the three-count herself. A long strategy paying off? A stroke of luck? It’s all the same. The Miz is 2-0 against Daniel Bryan in 2018, and if you’re him, everything is awesome.

Ronda Rousey vs Alexa Bliss[]

It’ll take more than banged-up ribs to stop Ronda Rousey, who defeated Alexa Bliss for the second straight pay-per-view to retain the Raw Women’s Title in her first defense, despite coming into the match at less than 100 percent after a series of attacks to the champion’s ribs.

To her credit, Bliss was a little more prepared for Rousey than she was at SummerSlam even before she started in on the titleholder’s torso — The Goddess’ demoralizing loss in August had somewhat clued her in to what she was up against, and this was anything but a rout. But nothing Bliss did worked for long; Ronda adapted on the fly with a series of intricate new submissions and slams, and she even thwarted potential interference from Mickie James and Alicia Fox by throwing Bliss into her own reinforcements.

Down to her last-ditch effort, Alexa honed in completely on the champion’s ribs and didn’t hesitate to cue up assistance from Mickie and Alicia, who bent Rousey sideways against the ring post to administer extra punishment. (Natalya took out Alicia moments later; Ronda dispatched Mickie). Bliss’ continuous attacks on Ronda’s ribs kept her in the fight even as Rousey began to rally, but Alexa’s attempt to throw a straight jab led to her downfall: Ronda snatched the strike out of midair, hoisted Alexa up, dropped her with a Samoan Drop and locked in an armbar that forced Bliss to tap the second it was applied. With that, the reign continues, and the Raw Women’s division is wide open — or as wide open as it gets given who sits atop the mountain.

Results[]

Tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship: The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) (c) (with Xavier Woods) defeated Rusev Day (Aiden English and Rusev) (with Lana)
Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship: Becky Lynch defeated Charlotte Flair (c)
Mixed tag team match: The Miz and Maryse defeated Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella
Singles match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship: Ronda Rousey (c) (with Natalya) defeated Alexa Bliss (with Alicia Fox and Mickie James) by submission