WWE Hell in a Cell 2021 Review

 This past weekend the WWE presents its 2021 Hell in a Cell PPV months earlier than what fans are used to seeing the event take place. The night saw two championship matches decided inside the steel structure and an array of must-see bouts including the likes of Seth Rollins vs Cesaro, Kevin Owen vs Sami Zayn, and Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley! In today’s blog post I’m going to be looking back on the evening and discussing the highs and lows, what I enjoyed and what we can expect moving forward!

 

Bayley vs Bianca Belair

The evening kick-started with the first Hell in a Cell match, Bayley vs Bianca Belair for the Smackdown women’s championship! Of course, former titleholder, Bayley is no stranger to this intimidating structure, and throughout the contest we saw her experience come into play and work as a major advantage. We saw the “role model” take inspiration from her previous HIAC encounter using her surroundings to gain the upper hand and punish the champion. Similar tactics used during last years Hell in a Cell title bout Bayley use kendo sticks tied together, chairs and the cage itself as a weapon to weaken the champ however, Belair continued to bring the fight and worked her best title defense to date. I wasn’t personally a fan of how much Belair’s hair was used during this match but the experience and cocky attitude of Bayley matched with Bianca’s determination, power and fight made this a strong opener that set the bar for the rest of evening and while it wasn’t the strongest women’s HIAC match we have seen it was a fantastic performance from Belair in her debut Hell in a Cell bout and Bayley again proved why she is one of the best on the scene today!

 

Cesaro vs Seth Rollins

One of my favourite matches from Wrestlemania was Cesaro vs Seth Rollins and so I had no problem watching the pair collide once again this time at the HIAC PPV! I’ve personally really enjoyed the build to this second encounter and the nature of their overall feud this year. The Break last month with Cesaro focused on the Universal championship has kept things interesting and prevented fans from getting bored. Of course, the collision between these two had high expectations from the WWE universe following their previous PPV match up but the pair did not disappoint at all! The action saw Cesaro in control early despite the sneak attack from Rollins at the beginning. We saw the power of Cesaro on display throughout but it was the sneaky tactics from Rollins that allowed the momentum to shift and the pace to slow down with Seth working on the eye of his opponent. Throughout the action was fairly back ad forth but I have to admit that for me it was Cesaro I could not take my eyes off of. Very quickly this proved to sure be one of the stronger matches of the evening and one of my personal favourites! The closing moments saw Rollins sneak his way into a surprise victory which while left me mad at the fact Cesaro didn’t score the win made for a fitting conclusion to this encounter.

 

Shayna Baszler vs Alexa Bliss

Okay, so if you know me you know that I’m a huge fan of both Alexa Bliss and Shayna Baszler however, as I mentioned over on Twitter yesterday, I haven’t been a fan of how Baszler has been booked on RAW for a while now and this interesting storyline is one I’m still unsure on how I feel about. What I did like, however, was seeing Bliss back in action and in the ring hopefully meaning that a title opportunity and run is something possibly coming up for this new twisted version of Alexa. The match itself was kept fairly short but what we did see was a lot of character work and I found myself enjoying what was on display more than I thought I would. Bliss dominated with her character work and while Reginald was a distraction at times for Bliss and allowed Baszler to fain some advantage Bliss was able to brush off anything the former NXT Women’s champion threw at her. The mind games of course continued and while the ringwork wasn’t standout it's clear more is to come from Baszler, Bliss, and even Nia Jax in the coming weeks and it's safe to say I was at least entertained.

 

Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens

We have all seen Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens collide several times before and while they always deliver its hard to imagine them bringing anything different to the table, we have not seen them do before. Of course, the pair put on a solid wrestling match up just like we have seen so many times before, but I must admit that I struggled to be as invested this time around as I have done previously. Throughout the bout we saw Owens struggling due to Injuries sustained during last weeks Smackdown which added to the story of the match and was a main focus from the start and throughout with Owens struggling to defend himself, coughing, breathing heavy and selling the injuries inflicted by Commander Azeez a few nights prior making it hard to fully defend himself at times. I did find that the match grew more intense and entertaining as the action progressed and of course the history and chemistry between the two superstars as always came into play. Was this the best encounter we have seen between the pair? No, I don’t’ believe so but this was still a strong match of the evening, a physical collision and it was great to see Sami Zayn score a needed victory on PPV.

 

Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley

At last years Wrestlemania Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley worked one of the best matces if the PPV event and so while I was frustrated to see Flair given another shot at the title already I have to admit I was looking forward to seeing these two women collide once again, interested to see how far Ripley has come over the past year. What became clearly early was Charlotte’s goal to prove that Rhea was still a rookie, trying to teach her a lesson and prove she is still at the top, still the queen and it made for a solid story being told throughout this championship match. Flair did dominate the action early on putting her experience and veteran status to full use; However, just like what we saw at Mania last year, Ripley continued to bounce back, fight back and she certainly held her own very well in a match against a woman with much more experience than her. The power of both women was on display and while I may not have enjoyed this match as much as their Wrestlemania encounter it was still a very strong contest and huge night for Ripley who finally scored a win over Flair on PPV, walking out still the RAW Women’s champion, something I have to admit I didn’t expect would happen even though it was by DQ and Ripley walked out as the last woman standing regardless.

 

Drew McIntyre vs Bobby Lashley

In all honesty, I wasn’t looking forward to the main event collision between Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley. We have seen these two collide so many times this year and again, I didn’t feel as though we were going to see much different to what we had already seen not to mention I really do want to see McIntyre move onto something new and fresh. However, this was the first time Lashley had stepped inside HIAC and I was excited to see how he would perform in the structure and what chaos these two major powerhouses would create. You could see from the get-go how much this match meant to McIntyre in particular with the former champion knowing this was his last chance at the WWE championship for at least as long as Lashley was champion. Drew instantly went to work on punishing the champ using the structure of the cage to use against Lashley and gain the upper hand early. What we saw throughout was McIntyre use his experience inside HIAC to his advantage but when the tables turned and we saw Lashley back in control he reminded us of just how much of a dominant, powerful and ruthless champion he is to the point where he’s beat downs on the challenger were almost uncomfortable to watch! This was without a doubt the most physical and barbaric match of the evening and I have to admit I enjoyed it was more than I ever thought I would! These two put everything they had into this main event and it quickly became my favourite contest of the evening.  The two men used everything around them including the cage itself to punish each other and as a result we got an intense, physical and entertaining main event a successful title defense by a sadistic champion who proved hard to put down and keep down.

 

And that was Hell in a Cell 2021! There were a few very strong matches throughout the evening and overall the PPV was pretty decent. Could it of been better? Yeah, id o think the night could have been stronger especially if certain matches were longer and pushed a little harder but I found myself entertained and a fan of most of the booking decisions made! As always, I would love to know what you guys thought so feel free to leave a comment below or tweet me over at @TezangiVictoria.

 

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