Review for WWE No Mercy 2017 and Hell in a Cell 2017 Double Pack

These WWE PPV Double packs are either a blessing or a curse. At times I finish a PPV thinking ‘Thank God that’s over’, but then I have that realisation that I have another to watch. These two PPVs are such a mixbag that I do wish that WWE would start lifting the good matches from them and getting rid of the rest. By doing this, they could probably fit it all on one disk too. The fact that for some reason only the Kickoff match from No Mercy is included is a little bizarre.

No Mercy is an odd PPV. At times I felt like WWE didn’t know what they were doing and just threw matches on the PPV without any rhyme or reason. Highlights include a great match between Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt which I do hope leads to more from the dark side of both of these characters. An amazing tag team match between Sheamus and Cesaro against Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose leading to the reuniting of The Shield. The Cruiserweight match between Neville and Enzo was worth it for Enzo’s entrance, though the actual finish was a little cheap, but in a way that was to be expected.

The Miz against Jason Jordan was a bit flat and I do wish they would do something with the Jordan being Kurt Angle’s son… erm… angle. John Cena against Roman Reigns really needed more a build for it to mean anything. This should have been a passing of the torch moment, but as we found out at Wrestlemania no one wants Roman Reigns to carry the torch so not sure why they rushed with this one.

The Fatal 5-Way Raw for Women's Championship between Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Nia Jax, Emma and Sasha Banks was fine in general, it was just let down by the ending. Nia Jax looked amazing and I do hope that WWE don’t drop the ball on her push.

The WWE Universal Championship match between Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman is nine minutes long. I will repeat that. The main event, the world championship match is:

Nine

Minutes

Long???

This is unacceptable. I expect that type of length from Goldberg or The Ultimate Warrior, but not from these two. If wrestling more than twice a year is too much for Brock Lesnar then take the belt off him and allow someone else the chance to represent the company. My main issue with this is that the match is so by the numbers and this is very disappointing especially as if there was ever a time to push Strowman to the moon then this would be the time.

The PPV itself was very disappointing. Despite having an amazing tag match and a great match between Balor and Wyatt the rest of the PPV was simply forgettable and there is nothing that I would want to rewatch again. Maybe if they had put as much effort into the main event as they did in the tag match then it would have been a show worth catching.

Hell in A Cell was a pretty good PPV, but again, for every great thing, there is something that just brings the event down.
It started off so well with an amazing Hell in a Cell tag match between The Usos and The New Day. This was again a fantastic tag match and an amazing use of the cell. Both teams were just fantastic and this is definitely how you start a show.

Unfortunately, the show is then brought crashing down with an awful and pointless match between Rusev and Orton that does nothing for anyone involved. But then again the Triple Threat for the US Championship between AJ Styles, Baron Corbin and Tye Dillinger was a great match and though I am not a fan of Corbin, he was pretty good in this match.

Again it is brought crashing down with three very disappointing matches. The Women’s championship between Natalya and Charlotte was a little lacklustre and the ending was a bit of a downer. The WWE Championship between Jinder Mahal and Shinsuke Nakamura was so disappointing that I can understand why it wasn’t the main event. I love Nakamura and his entrance is worth watching, but sadly the match was like every Mahal match since he’s won the belt: Opponent dominates. The Singh brothers interfere. Opponent eliminates Singh brothers. Gets caught by Mahal’s finisher. 123. Booo!!

I can understand what they were trying to say with the Dolph Ziggler/ Bobby Roode match to imply he was just a fancy entrance, but it just didn’t work. This is a shame, as I expected a much better match from these two.

Finally the PPV ends with one of the best Hell in a Cell’s I have seen in a long time (not including the tag one from earlier in the night). This match between Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon was insane and exactly what I thought it would be. At times I thought that they would take it too far… then they would take it further and this made the match intense to watch. This is how you end a PPV.

Of the two PPVs, Hell in a Cell is the better, but really that’s only because the three amazing matches made up for the other four awful ones. No Mercy again only had two matches that were good, but nothing in comparison. It is odd that both PPVs had terrible World Championship matches, but both have two of the best tag matches I have seen in a long time. However, this does not make up for all the awful stuff that is on here. If you want to see some great tag team action and an amazing Hell in a Cell moment then you may want to get this set, but there is not much else to recommend.