Hell in a Cell (2020)

The 2020 Hell in a Cell was a professional wrestling event produced by WWE. It was the 12th Hell in a Cell and took place on October 25, 2020, from the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. The event aired via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the final Hell in a Cell held during the month of October, as the 2021 event moved the event series up to June.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. Three Hell in a Cell matches were contested at the event, two were for the SmackDown brand, while the other was for Raw. In the main event, Randy Orton defeated Drew McIntyre in a Hell in a Cell match to win the WWE Championship for a tenth time, thus tying with Triple H for the second-most world title reigns overall at 14. For the other Hell in a Cell matches, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso to retain the Universal Championship in the opening bout, which was also the first time an "I Quit" match was contested inside the structure, while Sasha Banks defeated Bayley to win the SmackDown Women's Championship, thus ending Bayley's record-setting title reign at 380 days. This made Banks the third WWE Women's Grand Slam Champion, as well as the fourth WWE Women's Triple Crown Winner.

The event was praised by critics for its three different Hell in a Cell championship matches, the Universal and SmackDown Women's bouts receiving the most acclaim.

Production

Background

Hell in a Cell was an annual professional wrestling event produced by WWE since 2009, generally held in October. The concept of the event came from WWE's established Hell in a Cell match, in which competitors fought inside a 20-foot-high roofed cell structure surrounding the ring and ringside area. The main event match of the card was contested under the Hell in a Cell stipulation. Announced on September 1, 2020, the 2020 event was the 12th Hell in a Cell and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event aired on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and was livestreamed on the WWE Network.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's television shows and PPVs were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience. In late August, these programs were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome. The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans.

According to WrestleVotes, the 2020 Hell in a Cell event was planned to be held at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia on October 18. Following its move to the ThunderDome due to the pandemic, the date was rescheduled to November 1, but on September 11, the date was moved up to October 25. This date change was reportedly done as WWE's initial residency contract with the Amway Center expired on October 31. The event's date change was made before WWE extended their residency contract to November 24.

Storylines

The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

At Clash of Champions, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso to retain the Universal Championship after Jey's injured brother Jimmy Uso threw in the towel to stop Reigns from repeatedly assaulting Jey and forcing him to acknowledge Reigns as the Tribal Chief of the Anoaʻi family. Although Jey refused, Jimmy reluctantly acknowledged Reigns as the Tribal Chief following the match. On the following SmackDown, a celebration ceremony was held to crown Reigns as the Tribal Chief. Reigns, however, refused to be named as such due to Jey not acknowledging him and Reigns called out Jey for a talk. After Jey continued to glance at the Universal Championship, Reigns gave Jey another title shot at Hell in a Cell with "the highest stakes of any match in WWE history", which Jey accepted. The match was confirmed as a Hell in a Cell match the next day. The following week, Reigns stated he wanted to hear Jey say "I quit", turning the match into the first-ever "I Quit" match contested inside the Hell in a Cell structure. On the October 23 episode, after The Usos tricked Reigns, which resulted in Jey attacking Reigns, Reigns declared that after he would make Jey say "I quit", Jey and Jimmy would have to take orders and acknowledge Reigns as The Tribal Chief or The Usos and their immediate families would be exiled from the Anoaʻi family.

At SummerSlam, Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton to retain the WWE Championship. Orton earned himself a rematch for the title at Clash of Champions, where McIntyre retained once more and this time in an ambulance match. During that match, several legends whom Orton attacked over the past few months returned to seek their own vengeance against Orton, including Big Show, Christian, Shawn Michaels, and Ric Flair, who drove the ambulance. Although McIntyre celebrated with the legends on the following Raw, Orton attacked all of the legends backstage in their private lounge before the end of the show. The following week, Orton challenged McIntyre to a Hell in a Cell match for the title at the namesake pay-per-view, which McIntyre accepted.

Following WrestleMania 36 in April, which saw Bayley retain her SmackDown Women's Championship in a fatal five-way elimination match involving Sasha Banks at Night 2 of the event, Banks and Bayley would begain teasing a potential feud between the two, with the emphasis being put on the narrative that Banks is the reason for Bayley's success and Bayley is responsible for Banks' losses. Despite the brewing dispute, Banks and Bayley managed to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in June, and Banks managed to win the Raw Women's Championship in July. However, they lost the titles at Payback and SummerSlam, respectively. After failing to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in a rematch on the following SmackDown, Bayley turned on and brutalized Banks, disbanding their team in the process. After Bayley retained the SmackDown Women's Championship via disqualification at Clash of Champions, Banks appeared and attacked Bayley with a steel chair. On the following SmackDown, Banks challenged Bayley for the title on the following week's episode. Banks won the ensuing match via disqualification after Bayley attacked her with a steel chair. In a backstage segment, Banks challenged Bayley to another championship match at Hell in a Cell inside the eponymous structure, which was confirmed the next day.

In May, Jeff Hardy was involved in a rivalry with Sheamus, which saw the latter attempt to exploit Hardy's past issues with alcohol. During a segment on the May 29 episode of SmackDown, Sheamus framed Hardy, who was arrested after allegedly crashing his car into Elias while under the influence. This also took Elias out of action for five months. Hardy and Elias were later drafted to the Raw brand in the 2020 WWE Draft on the October 12 episode of Raw, where Elias returned and attacked Hardy, costing him his match, believing that Hardy was not framed and had actually hit him with his car. The following week, after Elias' musical segment, Hardy (who was disguised as one of Elias' band members) attempted to attack Elias, who managed to escape. In a backstage interview, Elias challenged Hardy to a match at Hell in a Cell that was made official.

In early September, The Miz and John Morrison tried to steal Otis' Money in the Bank contract that he had won at the Money in the Bank event back in May, but they failed on multiple attempts. Miz then convinced management to trade Otis' girlfriend Mandy Rose to Raw as a way to "help Otis" so he could focus on cashing in the contract, however, after insults, Otis attacked Miz and Morrison. The Miz then threatened to file a lawsuit against Otis if he did not forfeit the Money in the Bank contract. Otis, backed up by his fellow Heavy Machinery tag team partner Tucker, stated he would not forfeit the contract. During the 2020 WWE Draft, Otis remained on SmackDown while Tucker, Miz, and Morrison were all drafted to Raw. Despite being drafted to separate brands, the trial over the Money in the Bank contract commenced on the October 23 episode of SmackDown with WWE legend John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) serving as judge. After the hearing, JBL initially ruled in favor of Otis, however, Miz provided last minute evidence (bribery), thus JBL changed his ruling in favor of Miz and ordered that Otis would defend his Money in the Bank contract against Miz at Hell in a Cell.

Event

Pre-show

During the Hell in a Cell Kickoff pre-show, R-Truth defended the 24/7 Championship against Drew Gulak. In the end, Truth performed the Lie Detector on Gulak to retain the title.