WWE Hell in a Cell

Overall Rating: ★★★●★☆☆

If you cut matches 6 and 7 (albeit for very different reasons) and then reversed the order of the show, it would have been amazing. Although then it would have been even weirder that the women's championship wasn't a Hell in a Cell match.

1. Raw Championship Triple Threat (Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch vs Asuka)
   ★★★●★★★
   Would I have preferred to see a one-on-one match? Yes. But these three are all amazing and they were on top form. Weird that it wasn't a Hell in a Cell match though.
2. 2-on-1 Handicap (MVP & Omos vs. Bobby Lashley)
   ★★★●★☆☆
   Adding MVP into the mix was exactly what was needed. You're no longer relying on the spectacle of a very large man to do all the heavy lifting. It still wasn't great, but it was ok.
3. Singles (Kevin Owens vs. Ezekiel)
   ★★★●★★☆
   This story has been extremely entertaining, but the matches have never been anything more than a necessary evil if you're doing a wrestling show. This match was decent though, and I'm still looking forward to finding out where the story goes from here. I do have one prediction: when Ezekiel said his real name was Ezekiel and passed the lie detector test, he was telling the truth - because Elias is actually his middle name.
4. 3-on-3 Mixed Tag (The Judgement Day vs. (not) Bullet Club)
   ★★★●★★☆
   Another one that would have made more sense as a Hell in a Cell match, or even - dare I say it - a Wargames match? I guess both factions could recruit a couple more people and we could end up there. Except that WWE will never do a mixed-gender Wargames match or anything like it.
   And that brings us to the big problem with this match: the mixed tag rules. They're bad. They undermine the fundamental logic of a tag match. I do love both of these teams and they handled as well as they possibly could have, but those mixed tag rules just get in the way. Even when Ripley cleverly exploits the rules by using herself as a shield (because her male opponents would be disqualified if they hit her) it's indistinguishable from their ordinary unwillingness to hit her on any other occasion.
5. No Holds Barred (Madcap Moss vs. Happy Corbin)
   ★★★●★☆☆
   It's very weird to me that this was a no-DQ match and wasn't played for laughs. Because it wasn't brutal enough to be played straight, but that's what they did. And it could have worked so well as a comedy match - Corbin is great at comedy - but WWE's timidity around blood and weapons meant that it couldn't really work as a proper hardcore match, even if that's what anyone wanted from these two. But it was ok, I guess.
6. Theory. ★☆☆○☆☆☆
7. Hell in a Cell (Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins)
   ★★☆○☆☆☆
   I couldn't watch this one. Cody Rhodes had sustained an injury that, presumably, wasn't hindering his ability to perform, but it looked extremely unpleasant and I didn't want to see it.