The WWE began advertising a match for their big Hell In A Cell PPV in San Antonio on Monday night during RAW.
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The problem is that event isn’t until September 16, after SummerSlam.
The advertisement, which ran locally in San Antonio only, showed a graphic for AJ Styles defending the WWE championship against Samoa Joe. That match is easy to envision with Styles recently vanquishing Shinsuke Nakamura, he’s in need of a new big name challenger. Joe fits that bill.
Honestly, a Joe vs. Styles feud is one of the best title programs they could do on SmackDown (outside of Daniel Bryan and The Miz), ironically a rehash of one of TNA Wrestling’s best feuds from over a decade ago. It’s also easy to envision Styles and Joe battling at SummerSlam, with this being a title rematch inside of the famous cell to settle the score.
In fact, throughout wrestling history, cage matches are more emblematic of a title rematch down the line of a feud, not the first match in a title program. Historically speaking, this would seem most likely to be a rematch after the two had already battled over the title at least once. Often foes do battle in a standard match first before coming back with a gimmick match.
Many expected Styles to lose the WWE title to Nakamura during their Last Man Standing match last month at Money In The Bank. The two were embattled in a feud that went back to WrestleMania, was then parlayed into matches at Greatest Royal Rumble and SmackDown, before finally being decided at Money In The Bank. During that stretch, Nakamura only received one victory (the SmackDown match, which allowed him to choose the stipulation for the Money In The Bank Match). The Last Man Standing Match at Money In The Bank was easily the best of the feud.
Nakamura really heated up during that period as a heel, easily experiencing the most momentum of his WWE run thus far. Unfortunately for him, reports indicate that WWE chose to keep the title on Styles due to the pending (at the time) announcement that he would be featured on the cover of the upcoming WWE 2K19 video game. That report also jives with the fact that it now appears that he will hold the title into September for Hell In A Cell.
As always, WWE’s plans are subject to change week in and week out, so it’s entirely possible this won’t end up being the title match in September. However, the fact that they are advertising the bout this far out in an order to motivate ticket sales is telling.
