411’s WWE Hell in a Cell Preview

Hello 411 guys, gals, enbies, and all you other lovely people! Welcome to 411’s WWE Hell in a Cell 2020 preview! I’m Jeremy Thomas as always, and guess what? We have a WWE PPV this weekend, so it’s time to breaking down the card for Saturday’s big show. Or at least, it’s time to break down the card that we have. At the time of this writing, Hell in a Cell has all of five matches. FIVE. Even the Royal Rumble has more matches than that on a regular basis. So I fully expect that this isn’t the full card, and that WWE will throw a few last-minute bouts in because hey, why promote matches for a PPV? Anyway, those five matches have a lot of interesting implications in them and a lot of opportunity to deliver. Will they be able to do so? Tough to say at this point, but I’m hopeful. Anyway, without further ado…let’s get into it!

Jeff Hardy vs. Elias

This feud was started primarily by Elias attacking Jeff Hardy in his return a couple of weeks ago, but it’s actually building off of the whole fact that he was written off via the Jeff Hardy “drunken driving” setup from Jeff’s feud with Sheamus. While I think this is match is a bit last-minute, I’m actually going to give WWE a bit of credit for doing something continuity-based from more than a month ago. There has been barely any build to this, and I have a lot of questions about whether this is the start of an ongoing feud or just an attempt to get another match on the card. Either way, this should be a solid but not great match; Jeff can bump for Elias and Elias is competent, if not fantastic. They just brought Elias back and Jeff is never hurt by losses at this stage in his career, so I see no reason to have Elias not win by some sort of nefarious tactic to give him a bit of a momentum to start off his return.

WINNER: Elias

Money in the Bank Contract Match
Otis vs. The Miz

Otis vs. The Miz has been a feud that’s been going on for a while, but doesn’t seem to have really caught fire yet because of the slow burn. Otis hasn’t really done anything since he won Money in the Bank, which is honestly pretty par for the close for Money in the Bank winners. It’s a pretty normal thing for briefcase holders to have a down period after their win, because WWE likes to have the cash-ins be big shocks. This led to the current feud, where Miz and Morrison have been trying to steal the briefcase by (literally) legal means. On this week’s Smackdown, a JBL-led court ruled thanks to a bit of a bribe that Otis would defend the title against Miz at Hell in a Cell. The big question here is what does WWE want to do with the briefcase? Otis is great, but I don’t see him becoming WWE and especially not Universal Champion any time soon. Miz, on the other hand, could potentially benefit from a Money in the Bank briefcase and cash-in. But even then, if he wins then what does WWE do with John Morrison? I feel like unless there’s something really shocking coming in the next several months, this will be the rare cash-in that is a loss. If that’s the case, it works better on Otis and Otis does need a win after all the things that have been taken from him. Miz and Morrison are still together as a tag team and Otis is split from Tucker (El Gran Gordo aside), so Otis does need the win if WWE is still as high on him as we have been led to believe.

WINNER: Otis

Smackdown Women’s Championship Hell in a Cell Match
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks

It seems a little early for Hell in a Cell in this feud, to be honest. While the Sasha Banks and Bayley storyline has been built up for a while, the actual feud stage seems like it’s just getting started. Banks absolutely deserves to get her revenge on Bayley and I’m sure that she’ll get to dish out a lot of punishment here. Will she get the win and the title? This could honestly go either way. Bayley winning by some heelish tactic that protects Banks would work perfectly well, but Banks getting the win and the title would be a way to keep the feud going as well. Both of these women really have an opportunity to kill it here, and I expect a lot of story-driven developments inside the cell. My only concern is that WWE can have a tendency to try and pick a clever way for a win to happen and they ultimately out-clever themselves into a stupid finish. I’m going back and forth a lot on this even as I type this out, but right now I’m going to say Banks picks up the win and perhaps they cool the feud for a tiny bit so they can bring it back on the road to WrestleMania.

WINNER: Sasha Banks (NEW Smackdown Women’s Champion)

WWE Universal Championship Hell in a Cell I Quit Match
Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso

Have we honestly had a major PPV match with such a clear end result that has been this compelling in recent memory? I honestly can’t think of one. To say the least, Roman Reigns has found an entirely new life in his heel persona as the Tribal Chief and WWE Universal Champion. He’s on an absolute roll here and is absolutely relishing the opportunity to go full asshole. Meanwhile, Jey Uso has surprised me by being such a sympathetic babyface solo guy. Now obviously, this is going Reigns’ way. There’s literally no way that Jey Uso comes out of this as champion and kills Reigns’ momentum. But at the same time, there’s a lot of intrigue here thanks to the unusual stipulation-within-a-stipulation aspect. To be clear, Jey will clearly say “I Quit” in some way. But all of the extra elements — the consequences of the Usos being kicked out of Jey doesn’t, the Jimmy Uso factor — make this very interesting. This should be a great match from a narrative standpoint and in the end, obviously, we still have Reigns standing as champion amid the wreckage of his family.

WINNER: Roman Reigns (STILL WWE Universal Champions)

WWE Championship Hell in a Cell Match
Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton

Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre have been feuding over the WWE Championship consistently over the past few months, and it’s been quite entertaining. This is Orton’s third shot at McIntyre’s title, and one would imagine it has to be the last. That puts it in an interesting situation. On one hand, it would seem like the time is right to give Orton the title, as McIntyre’s reign has been a very solid one and he wouldn’t be viewed as a disappointing champion by losing to Orton here. Also, Orton has been carrying a lot of the weight of the company by way of his renewed enthusiasm in his work so rewarding him would seem to make a lot of sense. On the other hand, it would seem like McIntyre has better potential opponents than Orton. On the heel side of potential title challengers on Raw we have AJ Styles, Braun Strowman, maybe Sheamus in a pinch and maybe Bobby Lashley if the Hurt Business can get elevated enough. On the babyface side we have Keith Lee, The Fiend (yes, he’s technically a face), and…Kofi maybe? So this could really go either way. As it stands, my heart kind of wants to see McIntyre carry the title all the way to the Royal Rumble or even WrestleMania because he’s been doing a phenomenal job during a challenging year, but my head says Orton probably makes the most sense from a booking standpoint for the feud. Ultimately I’m going with my heart here, but I am prepared to be wrong.

WINNER: Drew McIntyre (STILL WWE Champion)

And that’s all we have for Hell in a Cell — or at least the matches we have for it! We don’t have much but the main event matches are all ones I’m really looking forward to, so hopefully this can be another show like Payback and Clash of Champions that overperforms and gives us a fun time.

Anyway, thanks once again for reading, and remember that we will have live coverage of Hell in a Cell from the one and only Scott Slimmer right here on 411mania.com. I have to go now, Alexa Bliss is here and apparently she has a message for me…