Predicting the match order at WWE Hell in a Cell 2016

It's one thing to predict the winners and losers at WWE's Hell in a Cell 2016, but how about taking a guess at the match order on that card?

WWE has announced 7 different matches for Hell in a Cell 2016, excluding the cruiserweight tag team match on the pre-show.

Here is my subjective view of how important each of these 7 segments rank on the Hell in a Cell 2016 card, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins
2. Sasha Banks vs Charlotte Flair
3. Roman Reigns vs Rusev
4. New Day vs Cesaro and Sheamus
5. TJ Perkins vs Brian Kendrick
6. Enzo and Cass vs Gallows and Anderson
7. Bayley vs Dana Brooke

It is important to come up with a list like this to get an idea of which matches are going to be placed in the key spots on the card or take up the most time, and which matches might end up in the cool-down spots or be given the least amount of time.

The main event slot is getting a ton of attention and at this point is still a coin flip between the Universal championship and the Women’s championship. I am ranking Owens ahead of the women because I am pretty confident that his match will receive more time. Reigns and Rusev are billed as part of a triple main event, but it’s pretty clear to me that they don’t have much of a chance of closing out this card.

The two mid-card championship matches come next, with New Day and Perkins defending their gold. I’m giving the edge to the tag match because names like Big E, Cesaro, Sheamus, and Kofi are more clearly established as important characters than Perkins and Kendrick.

Finally, Enzo and Bayley are in the least important matches of the night, and the card isn’t really missing out on anything if either one was cut from the event.

General structure of the card

Back in 2009, the inaugural Hell in a Cell pay-per-view (PPV) included 3 HIAC matches, and this has not happened again until 2016. There were eight matches on that PPV, and the HIAC matches were put in segments 1, 5, and 8. In other words, the three HIAC matches were placed in the beginning, middle, and end of the night.

If that happens again in 2016, then the general structure of the card will probably look like this:

Segment 1: HIAC #1
Segment 2: ?
Segment 3: ?
Segment 4: HIAC #2
Segment 5: ?
Segment 6: ?
Segment 7: HIAC #3

Out of the remaining 4 matches, two are tag team matches and two are singles matches. And within each type of match there is one championship match and one filler match, according to my rankings above.

It seems reasonable that WWE will follow each HIAC match with a cool-down match, so I will throw the filler matches into Segment 2 and Segment 5.

That means the remaining two mid-card championship matches end up in Segment 3 and Segment 6.

Therefore the general structure of this card could look like:

Segment 1: HIAC #1
Segment 2: Bayley OR Enzo
Segment 3: Perkins OR New Day
Segment 4: HIAC #2
Segment 5: Bayley OR Enzo
Segment 6: Perkins OR New Day
Segment 7: HIAC #3

Choosing the main event

There isn’t much of a point in trying to confidently predict what the main event is going to be. It’s all at the whims of Vince McMahon and how persuasive those people in his ear can be in swaying him from his instincts.

So I’m going to build a card with both possibilities, and then see which one I like better.

Option #1 - Sasha Banks versus Charlotte Flair

WWE doesn’t usually put two women’s matches in close proximity to each other, so if Sasha and Charlotte are in the main event (Segment 7), I think Bayley will be put in Segment 2 (rather than Segment 5). And I don’t really think the two tag team matches would be placed adjacent to each other, so that means New Day has to go in Segment 3. Finally, I don’t think WWE is going to open the night with the Universal Championship. Therefore the card would look like this:

Segment 1: Roman Reigns vs Rusev
Segment 2: Bayley vs Dana Brooke
Segment 3: New Day vs Cesaro and Sheamus
Segment 4: Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins
Segment 5: Enzo and Cass vs Gallows and Anderson
Segment 6: TJ Perkins vs Brian Kendrick
Segment 7: Sasha Banks vs Charlotte Flair

This card doesn’t seem realistic to me. Vince McMahon probably has doubts about the viability of Sasha and Charlotte in the main event slot, and so he would probably want to put another big match in close proximity to it. Of the 4 non-HIAC matches around, the best option would be New Day’s match. I guess it’s possible that both tag team matches could be placed between the final two HIAC matches but I’m not really enthusiastic about making that prediction. As this card stands, Enzo and Perkins are a pretty weak lead-in to a match that Vince probably thinks is a weak main event. This doesn’t seem likely.

Option #2 - Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins

When the triple main event was becoming a reality, I immediately thought back to the Hell in a Cell 2009 card and remembered that Punk versus Undertaker opened the night. Their HIAC match barely broke 10 minutes in length, which is almost unheard of for this specific type of gimmick match.

Based on that fact, I immediately assumed that Sasha and Charlotte would also open the Hell in a Cell 2016 card, because I expect their HIAC match to run around 15 minutes, while the other HIAC matches probably go 20 minutes or longer. The initial Rollins and Owens match from Clash of Champions 2016 went well over 20 minutes so it would be strange if their HIAC match fell short of that. Similarly, Reigns and Rusev have had some really long matches on Raw and it seems likely that Vince envisions them going 20 minutes or more in an epic war.

Therefore if Sasha and Charlotte don’t close out the night, I think they will open the card, because I expect their cell match will be the shortest of the bunch.

Putting the women into Segment 1 means that Bayley is unlikely to wrestle in Segment 2, so she’ll instead serve as the cool-down match in Segment 5. That means Enzo goes in Segment 2. And because I don’t think WWE is going to run the tag matches back-to-back, that also means that New Day ends up in Segment 6. Therefore the card would look like this:

Segment 1: Sasha Banks vs Charlotte Flair
Segment 2: Enzo and Cass vs Gallows and Anderson
Segment 3: TJ Perkins vs Brian Kendrick
Segment 4: Roman Reigns vs Rusev
Segment 5: Bayley vs Dana Brooke
Segment 6: New Day vs Cesaro and Sheamus
Segment 7: Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins

This card seems more likely to me than Option #1, but it still feels off. New Day versus Cesaro and Sheamus feels like a match that should not run right before the Rollins match.

Screw it, it’s time for Option #3

Option #3

Let’s be real here. Vince McMahon is nuts if he thinks this card is going to run smoothly in any scenario that does not include Sasha and Charlotte in the main event. The hometown crowd is going to turn on this card as soon as Sasha’s match is over. Both the Reigns match and the Owens match might be subjected to random chanting for JBL or CM Punk. It could easily turn into a disaster.

I am going to trust that someone in Vince’s ear can convince him of this likelihood, and so Vince will put Sasha and Charlotte in the main event.

This picture from WWE’s web site seems to give Charlotte and Sasha the main event treatment over the other two HIAC matches. Who knows, maybe Vince is fully on board with this decision, and the rumors that he stubbornly wants to stick with Owens and Rollins in the main event are false.

The main problem I had with Option #1 is the back half of the card looks really weak. I think what this means is that the general structure of the card that I attempted to work with is wrong. For this special case with the women main eventing, I think it’s more likely that Vince will place the men’s main event right before the women’s main event. That way the card ends with a bang, and the hometown crowd won’t ever turn on the PPV.

So I think the best choice is to end the night with Owens in Segment 6 and Sasha in Segment 7. There really is no need for a cool-down match between these HIAC matches because I don’t see any scenario where the crowd is not hyped to see Sasha and Charlotte in the true main event slot.

This also means that I no longer have to open the card with a HIAC match. I can instead slot Reigns and Rusev into Segment 2 or Segment 3. I wouldn’t put it any later than Segment 3 because it would end up too close to the other two HIAC matches in Segment 6 and 7.

I’ll stick Reigns into Segment 2 to create a little more distance between him and the other HIAC matches.

So here’s the card:

Segment 1: ?
Segment 2: Roman Reigns vs Rusev
Segment 3: ?
Segment 4: ?
Segment 5: ?
Segment 6: Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins
Segment 7: Sasha Banks vs Charlotte Flair

In this scenario, Bayley will almost certainly follow Rusev’s match because it’s the most obvious selection for a cool-down match. So Bayley ends up in Segment 3.

Either tag team match would be a good candidate to open the night, because Enzo and New Day can each cut promos during their entrances to get the crowd super excited. I’ll throw Enzo into that spot because he’s already done it at least three times this year on PPV; WWE seems comfortable with him opening the show.

Meanwhile, New Day’s match is a pretty good choice to anchor the middle of the card because all 4 guys can work a strong match and keep the crowd invested. Following up Bayley’s match with that kind of match seems like a good idea.

That means Perkins goes in Segment 5, and I’m not too thrilled with that. I could put Perkins in Segment 2, pushing Reigns and Bayley back to Segments 3 and 4. But that means New Day winds up in Segment 5, and I don’t think Vince really wants to run three lengthy matches in Segment 5, 6, and 7.

I guess it’s also possible that Owens could go in Segment 5, with Perkins serving as a cool-down in Segment 6 (right before the true main event). But ultimately I don’t know if it is worth the trouble of raising and lowering the cage one extra time just to have a cool-down match between the two final HIAC matches.

I can only make one prediction, and so I’ll stick with the double HIAC main events to end the card. I think that will help mitigate whatever concerns Vince has regarding the viability of putting the women in the true main event slot.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at Hell in a Cell 2016, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times.

Segment 1: Enzo and Cass vs Gallows and Anderson (8 minutes)
Segment 2: Roman Reigns vs Rusev (21)
Segment 3: Bayley vs Dana Brooke (5)
Segment 4: New Day vs Cesaro and Sheamus (13)
Segment 5: TJ Perkins vs Brian Kendrick (9)
Segment 6: Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins (23)
Segment 7: Sasha Banks vs Charlotte Flair (17)

This card is really pushing it as far as the overall match time goes; that’s what happens when 3 HIAC matches are crammed onto one card. One way to alleviate this problem is to go past 3 hours, and that’s probably what will happen in order to fit it all in.

That's my prediction for the match order at Hell in a Cell 2016. What's yours?