Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins have wrestled two classics since Cody’s return at WrestleMania. On Sunday they shoot for three as they clash in the main event of WWE Hell in a Cell 2022. Their bout will be inside the titular Hell in a Cell cage, the one and only Cell match of the night.
Roman Reigns and his unified WWE and Universal Championship titles are conspicuously absent from Sunday’s show, but there are still two major title fights. Ronda Rousey will defend her SmackDown Women’s Championship against Natalya, while the Raw Women’s Championship will be contested in a triple threat match as champion Bianca Belair defends against Becky Lynch and Asuka.
Come back to this page from when Hell in a Cell starts, at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m ET, as I’ll be updating with results and analysis.
Kevin Owens vs. Ezekiel
Kevin Owens follows his WrestleMania Night 1 main event against Stone Cold Steve Austin with a clash with… Ezekiel.
Bobby Lashley beat Omos and MVP
Bobby Lashley takes on Omos next, hopefully for the last time.
Asuka, Becky Lynch and Belair got the show off the a racing start. As expected, this handicap match slowed proceedings down quite a bit. This was what you’d expect. Omos beat Lashley down, then tagged MVP in for a quick bit of offense. MVP and Omos alternated beating Lashley down. None of it was remarkable in any way, except for one fun spot where Omos shoulder charged Lashley through the barricade on the outside. That was cool. Nothing else was.
The finishing sequence began when Lashley was in the ring with MVP. Lashley knocked Omos off the ring apron, then speared MVP. Lashley went for a pin, but Omos broke it up. As Omos was preparing to give Lashley a double-arm Chokeslam, Cedric Alexander, who’s had tension with MVP and Omos, jumped in the ring from the top rope. For some reason the ref didn’t call for a disqualification.
Omos caught Alexander, but the distraction allowed Lashley to bump Omos out of the ring. Lashley then put MVP in the Hurt Lock for the win.
Rating: 2 stars.
Bianca Belair retains Raw Women’s Championship
Bianca Belair, Asuka and Becky Lynch kicked off Hell in a Cell with an outstanding opening match for the Raw Women’s Championship. It was a match filled with great action, and each woman got a chance to shine. Belair ended up winning by pinning Asuka.
It was a good-but-standard triple threat match at first. It started with three in the ring, but one would get thrown out which would allow the other two to fight one-on-one. They traded positions, and it was good. The crowd was mega into this from the beginning, with huge “E-S-T” chants.
The match went up a gear when Asuka and Lynch were in the ring. Asuka attempted a rollup, but Lynch kicked out. Asuka rewarded her with a series of blistering strikes: a few spinning backfists and a glarly mid kick. It sounds like not much, but it was an intense flurry that got the crowd super into it. As Lynch and Asuka started grappling for submissions after, we got our first “This is awesome!” chant of the night.
It was Belairs time to shine after that, running wild on both Asuka and Lynch with strikes in the corner and a standing moonsault in the middle.
Asuka laid out both with Codebreakers — Belair ate a Codebreaker in midair after jumping off the middle rope — and then laid them out with a double hip attack. She then locked both into an ankle lock at the same time, which was a little preposterous. But it played into the following sequence: After they sent Asuka out of the ring, both Belair and Lynch were hopping around on one leg each, selling their respective ankles.
Lynch almost got Belair in her Disarmer armbar, but in an incredible spot Belair powered out by standing up, Lynch teetering over Belair’s shoulder. Belair attempted a KOD, but her leg gave out. As they battled, Lynch managed to plant Belair with a Manhandle Slam, but Asuka interrupted the pin for a great false finish.
With Belair out, Lynch and Asuka had a great sequence where they traded rollup pinfall attempts. One of Lynch’s rollups got countered into an Asuka Lock, which the crowd initially bought as a possible finish. It wasn’t to be though, as in what appeared to be a botch Belair jumped from the top rope into the ring (but not onto Lynch and Asuka, which appeared to be the goal).
Belair dropped Asuka head-first into the turnbuckle, then Lynch threw Belair out. Lynch then hit a Manhandle Slam on Asuka, but Belair came back in and chucked Lynch out of the ring before pinning Asuka for the win.
Rating: 4.25 stars. Great action that was terrifically paced. The spot at the end where Belair jumped in to break up the Asuka Lock seemed like a botch, and certainly killed a little of the momentum they had been building up. But this was awesome.
