Hell in a Cell kicks off with a promo focusing on the two World Championship main events tonight: Sheamus vs. Big Show and CM Punk vs. Ryback. We have a three man commentary team tonight with Michael Cole, JBL and the legendary Jim Ross!

Alberto Del Rio vs. Randy Orton

We get a quick look back of these two assaulting each other over the last few weeks before the match begins. Del Rio spends the majority of the match working on Orton’s arm, softening him up for the cross-armbreaker. Lots of big moves in this match including Del Rio hitting a huge top rope stomp onto Orton while he was hanging from the second rope. There was an awkward botch in this match with Del Rio jumping from the top rope and landing next to Ortonwhich caused some confusion for a bit. Del Rio dominated the majority of this match but Orton got the win with an RKO out of nowhere when Del Rio came flying off the top rope. Good opener to the PPV and a great finish to the match.

We get a recap of the AJ/Cena scandal and their feud with Vickie and Dolph. Josh Matthews gives us an interview with Vickie backstage and she invites AJ to Raw the next night to defend herself. Heyman comes and tries to convince Vickie to cancel the Hell in a Cell match to no avail.

WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Team Hell No vs. Team Rhodes Scholars

We get a quick recap of how Team Rhodes Scholars won the tag team tournament to get this opportunity and the match begins. A completely average match with an awful DQ finish of Kane attacking Rhodes Scholars for a five count. This match was given far too much time than it needed, you would think this match would be a lot better than it was considering those involved but there just seemed to be a lack of chemistry here. It would have been a lot better if they combined this match with the later tag team match of Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. The Primetime Players and made it a huge fatal 4-way for the championships.

We get a backstage interview with The Miz talking about winning back his Intercontinental Championship and that Kofi Kingston having the championship is like the apocalypse and Miz is going to save the world. Very odd promo that didn’t make much sense.

Intercontinental Championship Match: Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz

We get a quick recap of Kofi winning the championship two weeks ago then the match begins. Quite an average match between these two with some nice showings of athleticism. The Miz worked on Kofi’s leg for the majority of this match but Kofi got the win with Trouble in Paradise in a match that was pretty predictable from the start. Kofi has a few words after the match about how he is proud of holiding the championship.

More antics backstage with Team Hell No before heading back to the ring.

United States Championship Match: Antonio Cesaro vs. Justin Gabriel

Antonio gives us a few words in Swiss before Gabriel makes his entrance, we are given a recap of how Justin beat Cesaro on Raw last week. I’ve got to say I really enjoyed this match with some great athleticism from Justin Gabriel; showing that he is very underutilised in the WWE right now. Some fantastic high-flying moves from Gabriel which cost him in this match as Cesaro hit a huge uppercut when Gabriel was soaring through the air. Great match that should have been given more time, just a big shame that the crowd weren’t more into it.

We have a look at Ryback’s dominance in the last few months hyping the main event. Another backstage segment of Heyman trying to convince Vickie to cancel the Hell in a Cell match.

Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. The Prime Time Players

This was an enjoyable tag team match but was just a little too slow at points for me, definitely the better of the two tag matches tonight though. There was a point in this match that Sin Cara landed pretty badly on his head, luckily he was okay though.

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sheamus vs. Big Show

The story going into this match was what the most devastating finisher was: The Brogue Kick or The KO Punch, also Dolph Ziggler had promised he was going to cash in his Money in the Bank contract that night. I’ve got to say I wasn’t looking forward to this match at all, I thought it was going to be slow and boring but I’ve got to say it was more of a fast pace than I was expecting and more entertaining than I was expecting too! This match was very much a fight, if you don’t enjoy brawls then this match probably isn’t for you. Both superstars hit multiple finishers on each other and Show got the win with KO Punch. This was actually in impressive match with both superstars kicking out of a lot. I think Show winning this match was definitely a shock to most. Ziggler didn’t cash in.

Another odd backstage segment with Ryder dressed as a witch and Santino dressed as Lady Gaga, suitably Ron Simmons comes and says the iconic word…CM Punk enters Mr. McMahon’s office trying to get the Hell in a Cell match called off, again to no avail.

Triple Threat Match for the Divas Championship: Eve vs. Layla vs. Kaitlyn

We get a recap of what has been happening with these divas in the last month and then the match begins. To be quite honest this was an awful divas match with an awful finish, not much more I can say about it other than that.

We have a backstage interview with The Big Show who says he dares anyone to challenge him for the championship, we also have a look at Sheamus being tended to backstage.

Hell in a Cell for the WWE Championship: CM Punk vs. Ryback

This was a highly anticipated main event with one thing guaranteed to end: CM Punk’s nearly one year reign as WWE Champion or Ryback’s undefeated streak. As expected Ryback dominated the most part of this match but CM Punk did get his shots in too. As Hell in a Cell matches go this was probably one of the worst and definitely one of the shortest but the best part of this was the ending and aftermath. Just as Ryback is about to hit Shell-Shocked Brad Maddox (the referee) lowblows Ryback and does a quick count for Punk. As you can expect this doesn’t sit well with Ryback and he annihilates Maddox and brutally throws him into the cell. Also, as Punk tries to escape on top of the cell Ryback chases him down and finally hits Shell-Shocked on him on top of the cell! Not such a good match but awesome finish!

Overall this is a very tough one to call, this PPV had some great matches and moments but it also had some lackluster parts to it as well. Del Rio/Orton, the US Championship match and the Hell in a Cell match were the highlights of this PPV with the World Championship match being a nice surprise too, some of the other matches weren’t really worth watching or got boring really. With the good and the bad taken into account I guess you can only judge this PPV as above average. It’s not perfect and it could definitely have been improved but you could definitely do worse than picking up this Blu-Ray.

Extra:

Matt Striker interviews Sheamus – Short interview with Sheamus basically saying he’ll World Champion again. Pretty pointless.

Blu-Ray exclusive extras:

CM Punk addresses the WWE Universe – CM Punk discusses all the men he has defeated and talks about his championship reign. He denies any affiliation with Brad Maddox. Mick Foley comes out and talks about Punk cheating at Hell in a Cell; Punk proposes a match at Survivor Series: Team Foley vs. Team Punk. Ryback comes out and Punk retreats.

Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett – A look back at their match the previous week before the match begins. Not a fantastic match between the two but not a bad one either, just a typical average match for these two wrestlers. Orton gets the win with the RKO.

Vickie Guerrero accuses John Cena – Vickie shows a few videos and Cena denies it all. Dolph comes out and gets pushed down by Cena.

Sheamus discusses his match at Hell in a Cell – Sheamus says The Big Show was ultimately the better man in their match at Hell in a Cell. Sheamus says he wants a rematch. Big Show comes out boasting about his win but Sheamus hits White Noise on him.

Miz TV with Sheamus – Miz calls Sheamus a loser and Sheamus calls Miz a loser. Kofi comes out and talks about him beating Miz. Big Show comes out and starts boasting about his own victory against Sheamus. Sheamus offers Big Show a rematch and Show says no. Kofi clears the ring of The Miz.

Sheamus & Kofi Kingston vs. Big Show & The Miz – Pretty poor tag team match, finishes with Big Show KO Punching Kofi with Miz getting the pin. Sheamus Brogue Kicks Miz.