This week was the go-home week for Hell in a Cell and everyone’s looking to gain momentum heading into Sunday. So let’s see what’s up!

RAW

Shield vs Dogs of War (Universal, Intercontinental, and Tag Championships): For such tough guys, Strowman and his new friends sure need a lot of protection, however, they learned that when you piss off the Hounds, there’s never enough protection. After declaring themselves the new dominant faction in WWE and decrying the Shield’s nearly six year reign as ‘bullying’ and implying that Reigns was a coward, they claimed that the Dog’s of War now run RAW. However, if they honestly thought the Shield was going away without a fight, they were SERIOUSLY mistaken. Shield returned and came prepared with ax handles, taking out the heel protection squad and chasing the Dogs to the back. Corbin threatened to have them arrested and Reigns and Rollins stripped of their titles if they came back. After a few tense moments with the New Orleans PD, the Shield backed down and left for the evening.

Later that evening, Ziggler and McIntyre had a match against former champs, the B-Team, who really wanted their tag team championship back. However, it was not to be for the B-Team. Despite a VERY valiant effort, Ziggler and McIntyre picked up another victory, ending the B-Team’s Cinderella story, for now. However, their celebration was short-lived as they were jumped from behind by Ambrose and Rollins.

Backstage, Corbin lit into Ambrose and Rollins and threatened to have the Shield arrested. When it was pointed out that Ambrose and Rollins weren’t the Shield, they also pointed out that they were the only ones suffering any consequences for their feud with the Dogs; Strowman and company weren’t arrested last week and isn’t funny how Corbin didn’t lift a finger when the Shield suffered a 14 on 3 attack when they got out of jail but rushed to the aid of the Dogs when the numbers were even. When Corbin poo-pooed those arguments, the Architect changed tactics and introduced their new buddy, Deputy Sheriff Ambrose, representing Orleans Parish. It turns out that showing up to work and beating up your co-workers with ax handles isn’t against the law in Louisiana, but filing a false police report is and Corbin was faced with the very real possibility of being arrested. So to save his neck, he played ball. Not only were Ambrose and Rollins NOT arrested or stripped of titles, they got a tag team championship match against Ziggler and McIntyre at Hell in a Cell. Understandably the tag champs were NOT happy, but Corbin cited the Napoleonic Code and said he had no choice.

Meanwhile, Braun Strowman went hunting for Reigns, with less skill or subtlety than Elmer Fudd, it must be said, and beat up anyone who couldn’t tell him where Reigns was. The two finally locked up at ringside and while it looked like Strowman was going to put the Big Dog through the announce table, Reigns turned the tables, Samoan dropping Strowman through the floor!

Hell In a Cell: Unfortunately, Ziggler and McIntyre are still the RAW Tag Team Champions after a grueling and amazing match against Rollins and Ambrose. Both teams left it all in the ring, but Ziggler and McIntyre managed to retain their championships, but if anyone thinks this is over, they don’t know the Shield.

Roman Reigns is still champion, but it wasn’t the victory it should’ve been. Apparently, Lesnar didn’t appreciate being denied his rematch, despite supposedly going back to UFC. He and Heyman interfered and took out everyone, Foley, Reigns, Strowman, Ambrose, and Rollins, who had come to Roman’s aid, causing the match to be stopped. It seems that the Beast isn’t done with WWE.

RAW Women’s Division: Earlier on Monday, it was announced that Nikki Bella would take on Ruby Riott, who seemed to be trying to avenge her team’s loss last week to the Bellas. To let Nikki know what she was up against, the Riott Squad vandalised the Bellas’ dressing room. Nikki and Ruby had a great match but Nikki proved why she was the longest reigning Divas’ Champion by putting Riott away with a Rack Attack 2.0 Bellas: 2, Riott Squad: 0.

Ronda Rousey and Nattie Neidhart faced Alexa Bliss and Mickie James in a tag team match in preparation for Hell in a Cell. Alexa was eager to show off her armbar skills, but failed to really impress Rousey. Rousey and Neidhart were a great team, using the Hart Attack, made famous by Nattie’s late father and uncle. Alexa and company put on a great offense, even injuring Rousey’s ribs, but the Rowdy Queens pulled out the victory. While they were celebrating, Bliss, in her role as spoiled brat, kicked Rousey in her wounded ribs. When asked about it later, Rousey admitted that her ribs were hurt, but she’s fought while injured before and it’ll take more than sore ribs for Alexa to beat her.

Hell in a Cell: Alexa Bliss may be the Goddess, but she’s a mortal one. She tapped out to Ronda Rousey’s armbar after a grueling match that actually seemed like Bliss might just have Rousey’s number after attacking Rousey’s injured ribs. However, Ronda didn’t go undefeated for so long by letting little things like bad ribs stop her. She SOUNDLY defeated Bliss with her signature armbar. Miss Bliss goes to the back of the line.

Undertaker vs Triple H: The Game was in the house to talk about his upcoming match with Taker. It seems that Triple H wasn’t expecting opinions on this match and was surprised when HBK gave his opinion because opinions shouldn’t matter at this level. He also found it interesting that Taker felt the need to make his presence known after hearing HBK say he thought that Triple H would win. Triple H implied that while Undertaker hasn’t lost respect for the legends, he’s lost respect for himself, which is why he’s refused to talk to Triple H face to face and that the series of matches they had were Taker’s last great matches. So, out of the…goodness of his heart, and because he still respects the Demon from Death Valley, Triple H vows to put Undertaker down for the last time.

AoP (with Drake Maverick) vs Jobbers: This was a quick one, though the absolute squash of the jobbers can’t cover for the AoP getting their butts kicked by the Shield earlier in the evening.

Elias: Elias has moved on from opening for the Women’s Division and is back on his own, but that doesn’t mean he’s got a ton of new fans, though one of those fans seems to be Mick Foley. Elias revealed that he was in the audience when Mick went off the top of the cell but that was then and this was now and he doesn’t appreciate Foley’s criticism of his lyrics. Foley seems to take his words to heart and then reveals an…interesting bit of news: He, Mick Foley, the last man who should EVER think about going near a Hell in a Cell, is going to be the special guest referee for the Strowman/Reigns match. And before he goes, he decides to…help poor, beleaguered, Constable Corbin out. Doffing his General Manager hat, he decides to make a match: Elias versus Finn Balor! Bang Bang and Have a Nice Day!

Elias and Balor had a grueling match, that Elias largely dominated, but Balor has proven more than once that he is nothing, if not resilient. He pulled out a win via roll-up, regaining the momentum he’s been losing over the last few weeks.

Bobby Lashley: It seems Lashley has an admirer: Lio Rush! The Man of the Hour had nothing but high praise for Lashley after watching him work out and assured the busy superstar that he was there to motivate him. Looks like Lashley might have a desperately needed, if extremely annoying, mouthpiece.

Kevin Owens vs Tyler Breeze: This match never got started, but we did learn why Owens came back to RAW: Corbin promised that Owens could do what he wanted without fear of consequences, which is probably the stupidest thing any boss could say to an employee. He then blames Lashley for what happened, for reasons that only made sense in the mind of Kevin Owens.

Bobby Roode and Chad Gable vs The Ascension: The new team of Roode and Gable were in action again this week, this time against the Ascension in a really good match, despite a few hiccups, namely Gable tagging himself in to get the pinfall. Being a glory hound seems unlike Gable, so time will tell with this team.

SmackDown

WWE Championship: AJ Styles cut an empty arena promo on Tuesday. He talked about his long friendship with Samoa Joe and how Joe knows that AJ’s weakness is his temper and how the quickest way to set off that temper is to talk about his family. Styles said he knows about Joe too and that Joe has a family too, but Styles has too much integrity to involve Joe’s family. Joe’s strength is intimidation, running his mouth, and being a piece of…garbage. Come Sunday, all that stops and Styles vows to defend the House that AJ Styles built.

Joe, for his part, channeled Eddie Guerrero and decided to read us all a bedtime story, but unlike Eddie’s story, this wasn’t funny. It was about a man who built a house for his family and defended it day in and day out, but he grew arrogant and forgot his family. Then, the Submission Machine came to town and stole away the man’s house, saving the arrogant man’s family and children.

Joe concluded this extremely creepy tale by stating that the ending of the story will be written at Hell in a Cell.

Hell in a Cell: Samoa Joe’s storybook ending didn’t happen tonight, but it wasn’t from a lack of trying. The master of the Coquina Clutch threw everything he had at AJ Styles in a truly amazing match that more than lived up to hype. Proving that they didn’t need the cell to beat the hell out of each other, Styles and Joe took each other to the limit. Styles would retain the WWE Championship after reversing the Coquina Clutch into a pinning combination, which enraged Joe, who insists that Styles tapped out. Later on, Joe was still complaining when he was confronted by General Manager Paige. After putting Joe in his place for interrupting her, Paige said that while the referee’s decision would stand tonight, Joe would get a rematch at the Super Show Down.

WWE United States Championship/Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton: Hardy and Nakamura went one-on-one this week, but before they got started, Hardy cut a promo about demons and how they were all around us, and he should know better than anyone and he’s overcome all of them. The only way to get rid of demons is to face them and that’s what he intends to do to the Viper at Hell in a Cell, IN Hell in a Cell. He also said that Randy Orton may be a demon but Hardy is a daredevil and has no fear (Oh, he’s coming off that cell on Sunday). He also vowed to unleash a lifetime of pain and suffering on Randy Orton until he becomes obsolete. Before all that fun, though, he wants to vanquish a more recent demon, Shinsuke Nakamura.

The match was great, Nakamura and Hardy do work well together, however, the Viper was lurking and interfered with the match, giving Hardy a DQ win over Nakamura. However, showing the fighting spirit that has defined him, Hardy fought back, beating Orton with a steel chair.

Hell in a Cell: Calling the match between Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy ‘brutal’ is putting it lightly. This match more than lived up to the hype. At one point, in a truly sickening moment, Orton put a screwdriver IN Hardy’s ear. Orton and Hardy left it all in the ring, almost literally. Orton would get the victory after Hardy did an insane drop from the ceiling of the cell and missed. Given that Matt Hardy retired on Saturday night, and the rumor that WWE opted to give Orton and Hardy a cell match to than Hardy for all his hard work, this felt like Jeff Hardy’s last stand. Time will tell.

SmackDown Women’s Division: Maryse cut a promo about her match with Brie Bella, bragging about how she was returning to the ring five months after giving birth while it took Daniel Bryan three years to do the same thing, because serious, career threatening neck injuries and serious concussion trauma is TOTALLY the same as giving birth.

The match between Maryse and Brie wasn’t great, which isn’t surprising as it’s only Brie’s second match back and Maryse’s first since giving birth and more than a year after her mixed Tag match against Nikki Bella and John Cena. In fact, Maryse tried to back out, only for Brie to get fed up and call her a coward. When Maryse finally got in the ring, the match was quick, with a some back and from both women. Just when it seemed Brie was going to make Maryse tap to the Yes!Lock, Miz pulled her out of the ring, giving Brie a DQ victory. However, the sight of Miz grabbing Brie was too much for Bryan and he attacked Miz. Chaos ensued, but the Bryans were left standing tall in the ring after Brie got another punch in at Miz.

Hell in a Cell: The so-called ‘It Couple’ of WWE pulled it out again. Despite a valiant effort by the Bryans Miz and Maryse pulled off another victory. It’s not over though, knowing these two.

Charlotte Flair took on Sonya Deville in singles action on Tuesday. It was pitched as a warm-up to Hell in a Cell, which Deville took offense to on Social Media. When asked about Becky Lynch, Charlotte took a cheap shot (IMO) at Becky, saying that Becky prefers to complain than compete while Charlotte thrives on competition and to prove it, she’s going to have a match just five days before Hell in a Cell.

Comment: Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back, Charlotte. If Becky would rather complain than compete, why did she fight and defeat every heel on the roster to earn her title shot while you just walked in and got one and attacked her from behind when she had Carmella beat?

ANYWAY!

Flair vs Deville was AMAZING and very physical. I highly recommend going back and watching it again, but though Mandy Rose would try to help Sonya get the victory, Charlotte would make the Jersey Devil tap out to the Figure Eight. Flush with her victory, Charlotte took time to hang out with her fans and snap some pics, until she was accosted by what seemed to be a fan, until the ‘fan’ was revealed to be a disguised Becky Lynch, who wasted no time in pummeling her former friend and making her tap to the Dis-Arm-Her. When asked it about it backstage, Becky said that she had every intention of breaking Charlotte’s arm for real, but only AFTER she’d won the SmackDown Women’s Title.

Hell in a Cell: I believe I’ve said before that few things will breakup a friendship in wrestling faster than the quest for championships and a wise man once said that no one will kick your ass faster than your friends. Both of those things happened with Flair vs Lynch. No more Tea-Generation X, these ladies are done playing nice, it’s time to settle this. These women know each other best and took each other to the limit, but Becky would be the one to have her arm raised in victory, capturing the SmackDown Women’s Championship that was stolen from her at Summerslam.  Charlotte would try to bury the hatchet, but Becky wasn’t in the mood, and probably smelled a set up. No, Charlotte, Becky winning isn’t going to fix this, you brought this on yourself.

Naomi and Asuka’s unexpected partnership got some explanation this week. When the Empress of Tomorrow was asked about why she was teaming with Naomi, she explained that it was because A. The IIconics were mean. B. Their Australian accents were hard understand. and C. They were a lot of fun to hit. That seems to be a good enough explanation for Naomi and the two bond over a mutual love of teriyaki.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship: Tuesday was the final match in the tag team tournament and it was The Bar vs Team Rusev Day. Now, on paper, this sounded like an easy win for The Bar, who have really found a niche as one of the best tag teams in WWE today, but to everyone’s surprise, there was a Rusev/Lana Day miracle: Team Rusev beat the Bar by pinfall after an amazing match that included an amazing one-on-one between Rusev and Cesaro. So now, it will be Team Rusev Day vs New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship on Sunday at Hell in a Cell.

Hell in a Cell: There was no Rusev Day miracle this time. New Day retained their tag team championships after a really great match. It seemed that Rusev Day had things well in hand, but after English refused to tag Rusev in, thinking he had the situation well in hand, he was pinned, allowing New Day to retain. Time will tell how long New Day’s latest reign will last, the Usos and the Bar are still lurking around.

R-Truth (with Carmella) vs Andrade Almas (with Zelina Vega): After last week’s surprising victory over Miz, R-Truth looked to continue his momentum in a one-on-one contest against Almas, who was looking to regain some momentum after two straight losses to Daniel Bryan. Truth had his Mixed Tag Match partner, Carmella, with him and the two serenaded the crowd with a joint rap.

The match was pretty quick, which was a little bit of  a shame, since Carmella vs Vega seems like a really great feud after Carmella FINALLY broke up the double Tranquilo by dragging Vega off the ring apron by the hair. Unfortunately, the distraction wasn’t enough. Almas reversed a standing switch (I think) and got a roll up pinfall by using Truth’s pants for leverage. Truth and Carmella aren’t happy, but Almas and Vega are. Time is going to tell on how this will pan out.

205 Live

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: After weeks of taunting, Cedric Alexander and Drew Gulak locked up again, this time in a tag match. Gulak came with Jack Gallagher since Brian Kendrick was out with an injury. Alexander turned down an offer of help from old friend Mustafa Ali in favor of Akira Tozawa, who had his own ax to grind with Gulak and Gallagher after a match of his was interrupted because of a Gulak temper tantrum. Ali was a little hurt by this, but seemed to accept Alexander’s logic.

Gulak, for his part, played the politician he seems to really want to be, though he needs to work on his schmoozing. Seeming to forget that 1. The ‘chaos’ of 205 is HIS fault because he can’t stand that he lost fair and square at SummerSlam and 2. Maverick’s managing of the Authors of Pain is brand new, Gulak seemed to blame Maverick for what’s been going on. He and Gallagher both shut up when Maverick ‘offered’ to introduce Gulak and Gallagher to the AoP.

The tag team match was incredible, but unfortunately, it was the heels’ night. Alexander and Tozawa worked very well as a team, but they weren’t able to stop Gulak and Gallagher. Gulak would get a submission win on Tozawa after an assist from Gallagher. However, does that put Gulak back in contention for the Cruiserweight Championship? Time will tell.

Lio Rush vs Noam Dar: Last week, Lio Rush sat in on a Noam Dar match and expressed interest in seeing what all the hype was about. This week, Noam Dar addressed the Man of the Hour, saying that while he understands Rush’s fascination, if he really wants to know what the hype is about, he needs to get in the ring.

Rush responded by telling Dar to keep Rush’s name out of his mouth, despite the fact that Rush started this, and saying that Dar had hit his peak. Rush, meanwhile, has big things ahead of him, but he’ll give Dar a match next week on 205!

Buddy Murphy vs Gran Metalik: The ongoing, neverending feud between between the Lucha House Party and the Party Crashers went on this week between Buddy Murphy and Gran Metalik. Murphy was looking to gain some momentum as he looks toward the Super Show Down in Melbourne in a few weeks.

If this neverending feud has a saving grace, it’s that the matches are always good. It was a straight one-on-one again and it was amazing. Murphy and Metalik tore the place down and took each other to the limit. However, Murphy would pull out the in with Murphy’s law, gaining more momentum for his possible date with destiny against Cedric Alexander in Melbourne.

Mustafa Ali vs Michael Thompson: The Heart of 205 is beating, baby! Mustafa Ali faced off against Michael Thompson. Before things got started, Ali’s nemesis, Hideo Itami, showed his face. He assured Ali that he’d missed, hoped he felt better, and wished him good luck. Not surprisingly, Ali didn’t buy Itami’s bit and wanted him to get in the ring, but Itami refused.

The match between Ali and Thompson was great, but Ali kept being distracted by Itami’s presence. However, that didn’t stop him from getting the pinfall on Thompson. Afterwards, Itami laughs and applauds Ali, but still won’t get in the ring, which was probably wise, given how much Ali wants to fight him. Since GM Maverick was watching the match too, it seems likely that these two will face off again sooner than later.

NXT

NXT Championship: Tommaso Ciampa returned to Full Sail University and finally addressed the Aleister Black situation. He denied the charges outright, stating that if he confronts someone, he does it publicly and on a big stage. He DOES want to know who did it, so he can pat them on the back and congratulate them, but it doesn’t really matter, Ciampa would’ve still won at TakeOver, he would’ve just beaten two men instead of one.

What the fans think doesn’t matter to Ciampa because the NXT Championship thanks him for making it the main event again and it’s going to help Ciampa become the mold of greatness he deserves to be.

Ciampa also found out who his first post-TakeOver opponent was going to be: Otis Dozovic of Heavy Machinery, in a segment so funny, putting it on paper (or a computer screen) doesn’t do it justice. Basically, Heavy Machinery doesn’t buy that Tomato Champus (YES, that’s what Otis called him) had nothing to do with what happened to Black, which Ciampa doesn’t appreciate, Peacemaker Regal decides that Ciampa will defend his championship against Dozovic down the line, but right now, he would like to have a conversation with Ciampa. Seriously, watch this segment, it’s hysterical.

NXT North American Championship: In separate interviews, Pete Dunne and Ricochet discussed their upcoming Champion vs Champion match. Dunne blamed Ricochet for their tag team defeat last week and says that he should’ve kept his nose out of Ricochet’s business, but he does want that North American Championship to go with his UK Championship. Dunne also poo-pooed Ricochet as a champion by pointing out that he’s the longest reigning champion in all of WWE. The only issue that Dunne can see is fitting both titles in his mouth.

Ricochet, for his part, found Dunne’s bravado very funny. He points out that he’s been in tough situations long before he showed up in NXT. He also says that being champion is more important than how long you’ve been champion.

The NXT Universe was also asked what they thought about this match and most went with Ricochet before there was an interruption that will be discussed in another section.

NXT Women’s Division: Former Champion Shayna Baszler took Violet Rayne this week in a brutal contest that seemed to be more about Baszler taking her anger over her loss to Kairi Sane than anything else. Baszler handily defeated Rayne, but kept going after her after the match was won, though why the win wasn’t tossed out is beyond me. Safe to say, Baszler still can’t accept that she lost to Sane fair and square and won’t be happy until the NXT Women’s Championship is back around her waist.

While the fan survey of the Ricochet/Dunne match was going on, they were interrupted by Aliyah and Dakota Kai, who were having quite an argument over their match a few weeks ago. The ruckus drew the attention of Lacey Evans and Deonna Purrazzo, which, unsurprisingly, didn’t calm the situation down. Fortunately, General Manager Regal was also drawn to the ruckus and decided to make a tag match to…settle things down: Lacey Evans and Aliyah vs Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo next week on NXT.

The ‘Est’ of NXT, Bianca Belair, is still undefeated…technically. She face the Twisted Sister of NXT, Nikki Cross in singles competition, which was even more amazing on screen than it sounds on paper. This match was insanely good with both ladies taking it to each other and it went all over the arena, which resulted in a double countout/No Contest. Now, Belair TECHNICALLY didn’t lose, so she’s still undefeated, but she didn’t beat Cross either and that was unacceptable. The two women continued fighting, despite the referees trying to separate them, until Nikki took everyone out with a crossbody. I have a feeling that Belair isn’t going to be satisfied until she’s beaten Cross, but that might be a tough one to pull off, even for the Est.

NXT Tag Team Division: The bald brawlers are back! Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch have been MIA from NXT due to injury, but they came back in a big way this week, facing Cezar Bononi and Adrian Jaoude in a short, but brutal match up. The NXT crowd was firmly behind Lorcan and Burch, but that didn’t mean that Bononi and Jaoude made thing easy for them. The Brawlers pulled out the victory in incredible fashion, so the Undisputed Era have another team to worry about.

The Forgotten Sons cut a promo, bemoaning how they’d been tossed aside and forgotten ‘like trash’ by NXT, but it doesn’t matter, they have each other and they will carve out a place for themselves in NXT, whether NXT likes it or not.

With all these new and returning tag teams looking to take a bit out of the the Undisputed Era, the tag champs had quite a bit to say about all of this. Strong derided the War Machine’s fashions and tactics, calling them cowards.

Cole, for his part, is less interested in the very real, if unfashionable, threat of War Machine and is more interested in the Champion vs Champion match between Pete Dunne and Ricochet. Since he’s guaranteed a rematch, the winner doesn’t matter to him, however, he does promise to be there doing some scouting either way. So it seems that the tag champs aren’t worried about all the teams looking to get their hands on the Tag Team gold, but maybe they should be.

Aleister Black Mystery: The investigation into the attack on Aleister Black took a strange turn this week. Regal was interviewing NXT Women’s Champion, Kairi Sane about what she saw that night, but she had an airtight alibi, she was chilling out with Candice LeRae and Kassius Ohno at the time of the attack and didn’t see much.

Ohno, for his part, was surprisingly unhappy about not being considered a suspect. However, he has bigger fish to fry than the Black situation: What does a Knockout Artist have to do to be put on a TakeOver card or get a title match around here? Regal tries to assure Ohno that he’s on Regal’s radar, but Ohno doesn’t believe him. He vows to take out any new toy Regal brings in until he gets what he wants.

Raul Mendoza vs Lars Sullivan: Raul Mendoza’s bid to avenge his unwarranted beatdown at the hands of Lars Sullivan was not to be this week as he took on Sullivan in a one-on-one match up that went about as well for Mendoza as his last encounter with Sullivan. Mendoza actually managed to get some offense in and actually seemed to have Sullivan’s number, but Sullivan’s ‘Leviathan’ moniker wasn’t bestowed on him because it sounded cool and they wanted you to look it up in a dictionary (a leviathan is a Biblical sea monster, by the way).  Sullivan put Mendoza away with Freak Accident and Mendoza’s quest for vengeance will have to wait for another day.

Tiffany’s Takeaways

So how was the Go-Home week for Hell in a Cell? Overall, it was pretty good. RAW is still struggling to keep up with building the storylines for Hell in a Cell and Super Show Down, while SmackDown focused solely on Hell in a Cell.

RAW: First of all, a HUGE congratulations to Renee Young for becoming the first woman to be a full time commentator on RAW! Renee has done a fantastic job filling in for Coach and it’s nice to see her hard work pay off.

I HATED the ending to Hell in a Cell. Lesnar needs to go away and stay away. Bringing him back adds nothing of real value to the feud and ruined a good match.

The tag team championship situation still irritates me. I get WHY WWE would want to include all the men’s belts in the Shield/Dogs of War feud, but the fact that it’s come at the expense of B-Team and Revival who had done so much to revive interest in the tag team division is still hard to swallow.

Mick Foley as guest referee is a little baffling to me. He really shouldn’t be taking bumps anymore, especially in Hell in a Cell, but if the rumor that he’s there to promote his 20th anniversary show, which will air after Hell in a Cell is true, it seems like a waste.

I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about Nikki Bella going over on Ruby Riott. While I get that a lot of people think Ruby should’ve gotten the win, I feel like a lot of the anger is due to people not wanting to give Nikki her due as an athlete and former champion, preferring to label her a ‘Diva’ and a ‘Reality TV Star’, rather than about a part-timer going over on a full timer. Nikki and Brie have been part of WWE for ten years and worked extremely hard to improve and get to the position that they are, to dismiss them as ‘reality stars’ instead of the athletes that they were before WWE and are now is ridiculous. They’ve had two matches with Riott Squad and, except for a couple of hiccups, made the Squad look legit. The Riott Squad took on two former Divas Champions and had two great matches with them, calm down.

SmackDown: I honestly hope that Hell in a Cell wasn’t Jeff Hardy’s farewell match. With Matt seeming to have retired, that seems like a likely scenario, but I hope this wasn’t it.

The Charlotte/Becky storyline continues to develop and Charlotte STILL doesn’t seem to get that Becky has every right to be mad at her. She’d rather put down Becky and deride her than admit that what she did to her ‘best friend’ was pretty shitty. It says something about Charlotte that that’s her reaction to having her flaws pointed out that would probably take a psychologist, which I am not, to figure out, but it’s not a good look. It’ll be interesting to see how things will develop now that Becky is the Women’s Champion.

I love Carmella turning tweener and the potential feud between her and Vega is going to be fun. I love that Carmella was finally the one to break up that stupid Double Tranquilo Almas and Vega do. Why no one has done it before is beyond me.

I’m honestly tired of the Miz/Bryan feud. I don’t see the point in continuing it if they let Miz get a cheap victory every time.

I’m not thrilled with the Tag Team Championship match. I’m not a fan of New Day or Team Rusev Day and seeing the Bar and the Usos denied another chance to be Tag Champions is very frustrating. I’m hoping that now that Rusev Day has been beaten, the Usos and the Bar will get another chance.

Also, I give HUGE props to Zelina Vega for sharing the story of losing her father on 9/11. Very moving story and I admire the strength it must’ve taken her to talk about it.

205 Live: Can the feud with Lucha House Party and the Party Crashers be done now? Seriously, how many different ways can they put these teams together every week? The only good thing about it is that the matches are always great, but it’s getting tiring.

I LOVE that Mustafa Ali is back in action! 205 wasn’t the same without its heart! I’m also glad that his feud with Itami is still going. Given how disappointed Ali was that Alexander snubbed him for Tozawa, I wonder if a split between the Heart and Soul of 205 is coming, provided that Alexander survives Murphy and Gulak.

It seems like Gulak will be getting another chance at Alexander, though the fact that he got the win on Tozawa and NOT Alexander would make the justification a little murky. I guess we’ll see once we get past Hell in a Cell and start building for Super Show Down.

I’m super excited about Rush/Dar. These guys are both great, even if Rush’s voice gets on my nerves, so seeing them lock up will be a lot of fun to watch.

NXT: The Kassius Ohno thing about Aleister Black was interesting. Why would you be disappointed to not be considered a suspect? Especially when you know you have two unimpeachable people giving you an alibi?

The team of Lacey Evans and Aliyah is one I didn’t know I wanted until I saw it. Granted it looks like an eccentric mom and her daughter, who is dressed like Ariana Grande for Halloween, but it’s a team that could be interesting to watch, especially against Kai and Purrazzo.

My favorite match this week has to be Belair/Cross. Not only was it a great match on its own but watching someone deal with Nikki Cross for the first time is always funny. I think this is going to be THE non-title Women’s feud for NXT for the foreseeable future.

Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed this week of WWE TV and Hell in a Cell wasn’t TOO bad overall. Have a great week everyone! Be safe and be good to each other.