Hell in a Cell 2012
Randy Orton vs Alberto Del Rio :
*** 1
Team Hell No vs Team Rhodes Scholars :
** ½ .5
The Miz vs Kofi Kingston :
** ¾ .5
Antonio Cesaro vs Justin Gabriel :
** ½ .5
Rey Mysterio/Sin Cara vs The Primetime Players :
* 1/2 -.5
Sheamus vs The Big Show :
**** 3.5
Eve vs Kaitlyn vs Layla :
¼ * -1
CM Punk vs Ryback (Hell in a Cell) :
*** 1
Thoughts
Well, this held up ALOT better on a second watch for me. The opener was one of those random Orton matches that we've seen on practically every single PPV since his feud with Henry ended, a damn good match with some great work by Orton. That's not to take anything away from Del Rio though, but this was clearly Orton's match and it showed with the six hundred bajillion sequences that were headed by Orton. Your typical consistent face Orton match from 2011-2012. Great fucking opener here and a fantastic effort by both men, liked the finish even if it was fucked up a little.
The Two tags were really MEH for me. HELL NO vs Rhodes Scholars was pretty good, even though I felt it lacked any transition from second gear to third gear. If the match could have succesfully gotten out of the babyfaces in peril stage and into the comeback stage I would have enjoyed this a hell of alot more. Pretty well worked match though, all things considered due to DANIELSON's epic selling for Rhodes Scholars. THAT and the fact that Sandow's offense is BOSS made this a pretty good contest. The PTP vs ReyCara however was a bad, bad match with a bad, bad pace. Seems like at this stage in his career Rey is relying more on OMGMOVEZ more than anything, but the man can still sell better than most. PTP were alright but Sin Cara sucked balls as usual and dragged this a hell of alot down. Needed to be like, 5 minutes shorter to be decent by my standards.
For the Midcard Titles we got another Cesaro showcase with both him and Gabriel looking awesome with one of the nicest looking moves I've seen in a while (OH MY FUCKING GOD DIVING GABRIEL INTO A FUCKING EUROPEAN UPPERCUT FOR THE FUCKING WIN) putting the icing on the cake for a pretty damn awesome match. LOVE to see guys like Gabriel and Ryder getting PPV time against a guy like Cesaro, now if only we could get a Cesaro-Kidd match on PPV
Miz-Kofi was GOD compared to what I expected from those two god awful POS workers, but they somehow managed to wrestle a pretty damn good match. I suspect a heavy amount of planning beforehand , as the match actually had some leg work and good psychology with some finish teases in there as well. If only Kofi would bother to fucking SELL better this would have been alot higher in value. MIZ was the better worker in a match... My mind has been fucking blown
The Divas match.... Fuck it. It sucked and felt SOOOO disorganized. This division is so sad.
I already talked about Show Sheamus but DAMN was it a great match, definitely going to be included in my top 10 of the year and perhaps even higher than that. Two big guys moving fast and hitting each other hard with awesome false finishes is enough for a standing ovation from me, so there you go. The other world title match and subsequent main event was a controversial match in Punk/Ryback. Personally, I really enjoyed this match due to essentially being HBK-Taker LITE (as in, negative calories light
) with Ryback taking Taker's role as the unstoppable monster and Punk trying to survive. The extinguisher spot was really well done I thought as well as how they orchestrated the finish. Punk sells for Ryback like no other and in this match he masked Ryback's extreme in-ring limitations as best as he could given the circumstances. One of the more impressive Punk performances of his 400 plus day title reign believe it or not, as Ryback more or less fucking sucks
So yeah, this PPV is GOD compared to Unforgiven 2007, and besides the awful Divas match and drawn out pointless tag, there wasn't a single bad thing on this one. You has small contributions from your midcard (Cesaro-Gabriel, Miz-Kofi), a great opener, a pretty good main event, and an AWESOME fight between Show and Sheamus. Only a few more 2012 shows to rewatch on DVD once I get them in the mail, but thankfully I have TLC and Survivor Series here to watch in PHYSICAL FORM.
Overall Score : 5.5
So yeah, it's higher than recent shows I've watched such as RR 08 and NWO 07, but not quite as good as the likes of Cyber Sunday and Survivor Series 2007. I'm starting to think that on my CAL SCALE , somewhere between 5-7 is where a show starts to become GOOD. Can't wait to get this criteria finished.
Official DVD/Match/Show Discussion Thread
Re: Official DVD/Match/Show Discussion Thread
