WWE creation had only cemented itself as the "only game in town" for a few scant years before the streaming scene changed the game itself entirely. Once obscure hardcore-fan-only promotions like Ring of Honor now draw a wide audience thanks to ubiquitous internet wrestling fandom, as do international operations like New Japan Pro-Wrestling and hyper-stylized mold-breaking outfits like El Rey's Lucha Underground - all of which have carved into WWE's fanbase in by catering to elements like more extreme violence, technical-wrestling fundamentals and elaborate storylines that WWE's mass-appeal mandate has aimed to eschew.

In response, the promotion has once again split its brand and roster in two (RAW and Smackdown), added a separate Network series dedicated to the Cruiserweight Division (complimenting the "developmental" series NXT Live) and doubled the number of yearly pay-per-view events to a twice-monthly schedule. Sunday October 8th brought fans the latest installment of Hell In A Cell, a Smackdown-centric card that reflected the so-called "blue brand's" commitment to fresh talent and unpredictable match-ups - along with the customary "cage matches" of the title.

How did it go down? Here's our full recap of all seven Hell In A Cell 2017 matches.

CHAD GABLE & SHELTON BENJAMIN VS. THE HYPE BROS (KICKOFF SHOW)

In many ways the functioning ideal of a Kickoff Show match (a showy-sounding setpiece with minimal storyline buildup mainly featuring reliable mid-card talent popular with core fans but lacking an immediate push); what buzz existed for this tag-team brawl chiefly centered on expectations of an impending "breakup" for the temporary-feeling "Hype Bros" teaming of perennial underutilized fan-favorites Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley. Likewise, it serves as part of a slow-burning push for physically-impressive rising star Shelton Benjamin and well-liked face Chad Gable - currently seeking a new gimmick following the departure of his American Alpha tag partner Jason Jordan to the RAW brand as part of a kayfabe storyline positioning him as the long-lost illegitimate son of General Manager Kurt Angle.

As expected from these four particular superstars, the match proceeded as a classic-formula tag-team scuffle pitting the move/countermove fundamentals from technicians Ryder and Rawley against Gable and Benjamin's flashy speed/power combo - though Ryder was certainly not above busting out an impressive missile drop-kick early on, reminding a receptive crowd why many devote WWE fans have long seen him as an unrealized main eventer waiting to happen. Other highlights included Gable planting his heels to self-correct after a missed backwards moonsault (only to follow it quickly with a second, successful attempt) and a generally strong example of in-ring storytelling communicating the broad idea of an "in-sync" team (Gable & Benjamin) triumphing over an out-of-step duo (Hype Bros) who can't get on the same page.

Given that this was a kickoff show match, it's unsurprising that the actual story of what will/won't happen with the Hype Bros as a team didn't come to a full head. But after the decisive loss fans will likely be anticipating something like the "last straw" between the feuding teammates being reached on Tuesday's installment of Smackdown Live.

WINNER: Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin

THE NEW DAY VS. THE USOS (SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP)

The first match of the night and the first to actually utilize the Cell itself; if you're looking for a title match outside of the WWE Championship that encompasses what WWE wants the mass audience to think of as the Smackdown brand's "land of opportunity" ethos, this would be it: Tag Team Championship belts being competed over between two teams of diverse young talent respectively comprising a trio of the company's top Black superstars (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods as "The New Day") and twin brothers Jimmy & Jay Uso - sons of famous 1990s WWE superstar Rikishi and fourth generation heirs to the legendary Anoa'i Family of Samoan wrestlers. It also makes for a grand contrast in tones; with New Day having been beloved by fans for embracing a self-generated gimmick based on the comedy-contrast between their imposing physicality and shared love of video games, anime and geek-culture ephemera set against The Uso's still-evolving gritty street-brawler aesthetic.

Notably the first time the Smackdown Tag Team belts have been defended inside Hell In A Cell (which typically lends itself more to one-on-one or melee-style brawls), the match was held under "Tornado Rules" (formerly "Texas Tornado") stipulation, with all four fighters (Kofi Kingston was initially locked outside of the cage) allowed in the ring at all times and no disqualifications - the later of which was exploited early on as each man retrieved weaponry from under the ring. As tends to be expected, the big spots favored The New Day early on; with Woods deploying a rainbow-colored kendo stick and later smashing a variety of musical instruments across his opponents' backs while Jimmy and Jey countered with more traditional implements (chairs, non-customized sticks) and forceful poundings staged to mimic prison-beatings as part of their "Uso Penitentiary" brand-identity.

In what could easily have been the "spot" of the night, Woods and Big E threaded surplus kendo sticks through the chain-links in the Cell in order to (literally) pin Jimmy Uso into the corner - though The Usos got to turn the tables with two sets of handcuffs and a brutal stick-beating of a strung-up Woods. The back-and-forth continued into the final stretch of the fight (no one in WWE no-sells an "Oh, was that weapon supposed to hurt me?" spot quite like Big E does), but despite a highlight-worthy fighting-off-two-opponents-while-handcuffed turn for Woods (his best "hero spot" in months) the win - and the Championship - went to The Usos after hitting their signature Double-Uce finishing move onto a chair-covered Woods; a nail-biter finish that all but ensures WWE plans to draw this feud out for at least one more Smackdown PPV.

Winner/New Champions: The Usos

RANDY ORTON VS. RUSEV

A veteran (Orton) and a relative newcomer (Rusev), both fan-favorites in their own right and both seemingly onhand to burn-off a feud with little narrative justification and almost nonexistant hype outside of WWE fandom's hope that "The Bulgarian Brute" can get his onetime Main Event push back on track after more than a year of largely directionless busywork (many speculate that he's been made to re-pay his "dues" substantially ever since a social media post celebrating his engagement to real-life wife and kayfabe manager Lana scuttled a heavily-pushed "love triangle" storyline two years back.)

Still, even without a storyline it's always entertaining to watch Rusev (a colossal bear of a man capable of moving at speeds that seem impossible for a wrestler of his physique) work, and his brute-strength grappling style makes an interesting contrast with methodical bait-and-strike bursts of violence that earned Orton his nickname as "The Viper." This was a tough, classical test-of-strength match - not particularly showy and decidedly not memorable enough to make either fighter's Hall of Fame reel but an appropriate palette-cleanser following the go-for-broke showiness of the opening tag team brawl. It all came down to which man would successfully pull off his respective finisher first, with the win going to Orton after wriggling out of Rusev's feared Accolade submission hold and executing an RKO for the pin - a solid but unspectacular climax to a rivalry that continues to feel like filler for both men's broader career-arc.

Winner: Randy Orton

A.J. STYLES VS. BARON CORBIN VS. TYE DILLINGER (UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP)

Baron Corbin AJ Styles WWE Smackdown

Speaking of superstars who deserve better, for whatever reason A.J. Styles - beloved by hardcore wrestling fans for a his stint as the marquee star of TNA and a career-defining stretch in New Japan - has been made to follow an all-time 2016 debut run with WWE and "dream feud" against John Cena (even the announcers refer to him as "possible the best in-ring performer in the world") with an uninspired title feud with heavily-pushed but generally charisma-proof NXT call-up Baron Corbin. Their back and forth was set to continue apace here, but the match became a triple-threat with the last minute addition of suddenly-hot (with WWE Creative, at least) Ty Dillinger to the mix, a move which if nothing else adds a mild dimension of sympathy to the "persecution complex" gimmick that's define Corbin's bad-guy act for most the year.

Whatever is holding Styles back (as a character, performer or both), it certainly continued to be an issue here: Despite being the nominal Champ heading in, he was frequently sidelined in favor of slow exchanges of rest-moves between Corbin and Dillinger seemingly centered on getting the latter's "Perfect 10" face persona over with the crowd via a bullying beatdown from bad guy Corbin. Things perked up when gears shifted to Styles vs Dillinger, with both men trading impressive submissions, acrobatic moves and "stiff" hits but not exactly getting the crowd to their feet in any sustained way - the most memorable element being a (possibly real) injury to Dillinger's left knee that left him stumbling for the remainder of the fight.

It was, granted, a surprise (and, judging by crowd reaction, not at all a popular one) to see Corbin pick up the victory. But as with Orton/Rusev it's unclear what a win or loss here actually does for any of these superstars going forward. Survivor Series - the last of the "Big Four" WWE pay-per-view events of 2017 and the next PPV showing for Smackdown, period - is a little over a month away, and it's unclear what the main roles of multiple Smackdown mainstays will actually be come that time.

Winner/New Champion: Baron Corbin

CHARLOTTE VS. NATALYA (SMACKDOWN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP)

There's a not insubstantial segment of wrestling fandom that views the retooled Women's Division as the most vibrant and exciting part of WWE's roster, and those looking to understand why need look no further than the prospect of seeing Charlotte and Natalya (both poised as "wrestling royalty" as the daughters of Ric Flair and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, respectively) square off for the Smackdown Women's belt. Even apart from the unavoidable legacy-versus-legacy narrative, the setup is promising: Charlotte's Amazonian height advantage and capacity for deploying power strikes and acrobatic grappling against the third-generation Hart Family scion's dangerous combination of bruiser physique, low center of gravity and Hart-specialty brutal submission holds.

However, while it definitely still seems that a classic match could be in the making with these two superstars, it evidently wasn't slated for Hell In A Cell (the lack of the Cell itself in the match likely being a pre-indicator of this). Instead, the goal here seemed to be re-affirming Natalya as Smackdown's top female heel - cementing her villain status by kayfabe-injuring Charlotte's knee early with repeated attacks, sadistic applications of The Sharpshooter submission hold (which, it must be said, looks unavoidably absurd when deployed against opponents with long limbs like Charlotte possesses, but that's where the performance part of the sport comes in) and a disqualifying chair-shot finish that allowed her to lose while keeping her title for another day.

For what it's worth, the back-and-forth hold-vs-hold spots were impressively staged and fans still got to see at least one of Charlotte's iconic aerial moonsaults. But the bottom line is that this was openly a waiting-game match to keep the feud going until at least Survivor Series (or whenever WWECreative decides to pull the trigger on Carmella's Women's Money In The Bank contract.)

Winner (Disqualification - No Title Change): Charlotte.

JINDER MAHAL VS. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (WWE CHAMPIONSHIP)

WWE has spent the 2010's looking to build itself up as an international brand to capitalize on resurgent popularity in markets like The UK, Japan and Latin America and exploding fandoms in India and Eastern Europe - easier said than done for a company still largely associated with a specifically American vision of combat-sports culture. But if one regards their global push as a sincere effort, then this match is surely the confirmation of their commitment to the angle: Two combatants - neither one a household name to U.S. viewers - of Indian and Japanese descent respectively facing off for the oldest and most distinguished title in the company. Conceptually, it's about as inspiring as WWE's post-Attitude optimistic aesthetic branding gets... if only the action matched the narrative.

Not that they aren't trying! An icon to global wrestling fans as "The King of Strong Style" and a living legend in New Japan Pro Wrestling, Shinsuke Nakamura serves as WWE's embodiment of the Japanese-style wrestling ideal: He throws arms and legs with a force that looks capable of stripping off an opponents' skin, kayfabe or not, and he confounds and antagonizes more traditional fans with his unusual manner of speaking English and his penchant for performing twitchy, sexually-charged dances to his entrance music (wrestling in Japan having a cultural-reputation as a rare acceptable space for male flamboyancy.) On the other side, Mahal's transformation from forgettable jobber to pumped-up brute was impressive enough to make him the face of WWE's aggressive push to Indian audiences - and wrestling fans do indeed love a reinvention arc.

Unfortunately, the additional factors that have hampered both men have also hampered what's felt from the start like a half-baked rivalry - and they certainly hampered what still never managed to feel like a "real" Championship match: The plain fact of the matter is that Mahal remains a solid but unspectacular worker who's newfound skill as a glowering baddie isn't backed up by in-ring charisma, while WWE Creative still doesn't seem to fully know what to do with a superstar as unusual as Nakamura. Anyone who cares knows the score i.e. Mahal is holding the title for as long as it takes for WWE to decide that the push has either worked or not-worked for increasing viewership in India and Nakamura may or may not have "dues" to pay for near-injuring John Cena's neck a few shows back; but there should at least be some real tension when a fighter of Nakamura's ferocity collides with Mahal's sheer size... and it's just not there. They either each need better opponents than each other or better storylines overall, and the "That was it?" finish here makes it clearer than ever.

Winner/Retaining Champion: Jinder Mahal

DOLPH ZIGGLER VS. BOBBY ROODE

In pro-wrestling, two people will fight about seemingly anything: Honor, glory, revenge, legacy, personal sleights, love, hate, to escape a lie, to prove the truth or even whether to continue working in the industry itself. Your classic wrestling feuds play out in operatic fashion, as titanic struggles of good versus evil between larger than life figures positioned somewhere between the Platonic ideal of the athlete-hero and comic book superheroism... and other times, a feud is about whether one fighter uses inappropriately hyperbolic entrance music. This is the second type.

Admittedly, for core WWE fans that's more than enough setup for the prospect of seeing longtime smark-set icon Ziggler and white-hot newcomer Roode go at eachother on a PPV stage. And on a "meta" level, it makes a bit of sense even if it's mostly riffing on the fact of Roode's whole persona being built around his self-consciously absurd "Glorious!" entrance theme: Ziggler has been toiling as an almost-was workhorse for years without the full-court main event push fans believe he should have had several times over by now; so his kayfabe "meltdown" over the gimmickry of his sport and grouchy parodies of his colleagues famous entrances and costumes have envinced a surreal authenticity. But such a strange build probably needed a more memorable payoff than this.

The match itself was a solid trading of technical wrestling craft, certainly - Ziggler and Roode are both impressive specimens and compliment each other's styles agreeably especially when it gets down to mat-level counters and roll-ups. But for a fight without a signature "moment" beyond the reveal of Ziggler's new entrance music being to just not have any, there wasn't a lot to get the blood flowing here let alone justify sandwiching it between a Championship match and the Main Event. The main idea seems to have been giving Ziggler's evolving heel persona a bigger stage showing, and mission seemingly accomplished in that regard; but for all the hype attached to Roode he probably deserved a more meaningful main roster PPV debut.

Winner: Bobby Roode.

KEVIN OWENS VS. SHANE MCMAHON (MAIN EVENT)

To the outside observer, the concept of Hell In A Cell must seem fairly obtuse: What's so much more imposing about putting a chain-link fence box around the ring, exactly? But any fan whose seen at least once HIAC match in their life will set you straight right quick - the point of The Cell isn't to keep the wrestlers in, it's to create a scenario where they can climb to the top and throw one another off (or through) the structure to the ring below; so has it been since the legendary Mick Foley took his infamous body-destroying dives through to cage in the 90s.

But of late, The Cell's most noteworthy frequent-faller has been not a superstar but one Shane McMahon, one of WWE's actual executives and real-life son of Vince McMahon; the figure who more than any lives at the intersection of old-school full-fantasy kayfabe and modern wrestling's sort-of realism. WWE Creative loves its "meta" angles, storylines that play off (and against) in-the-know smark fans' presumed understanding of the business and "inside information," and Shane's proclivity to mix it up in the ring with his ostensible employees is the apotheosis of that kind of thinking: He's the most popular/well-liked McMahon among fans for real, his stocky build and love of baseball shirts and badly-but-not-too-badly dancing to hip-hop practically makes him a walking "Cool Dad" avatar and patriarch Vince McMahon's forcing his children to take tough/humiliating roles in the company to earn their keep are real-life legendary enough to add eerie authenticity to Shane's now-regular suicide-dives off The Cell.

In that respect, he couldn't have asked for a more perfect foil than Kevin Owens, the current ultimate embodiment (well, apart from maybe Bayley) of the ascended-fan-as-wrestler on the main roster: A beaming, roly-poly Canadian scrapper whose Winnie The Pooh-physique you might dare to call "pudgy" until you see how fast he moves and how hard he hits, the onetime indie-circuit darling makes an ideal physical and character nemesis for this angle. Some fans will surely gripe at seeing yet another non-title "gimmick" match as the Main Event of a PPV, but few can say that it didn't look about as much like a "real" fight as wrestling is allowed to look these days. As is the case with most non-wrestler competitors, Shane-o-Mac throws hands more than he lunges for holds, and against the similarly-sized and strike-ready Owens it starts to look like an actual fist fight from the right angle.

But let's face it: Hell In A Cell Main Events are all about the big finish, and watching the drawn-out, protracted slugfest once both men had climbed to the top of the cage was eye-popping stuff. Yes, most of what pro-wrestlers do is dangerous - but there's no mitigating that two 200+ lbs men repeatedly powerbombing one-another with only chain-link fencing between them and a 20 foot open-air plunge is a nerve-wracking thing to see, and Owens drawing nuclear heat from the crowd by angrily chickening out of taking the leap himself was a genius touch. Finally, the last twist was one for the books: With bad-guy Owens laid out on the vacated announce table, Shane scrambles back to the top and knocks off his customary pre-leap Sign of the Cross to signify a 20-foot elbow-drop... only to land on nothing, as Owens' friend-turned-enemy Sami Zayn appears out of nowhere to pull K.O. to safety, causing Shane to smash through the table presumably to (kayfabe) serious injury - and for a final insult, Zayn shoves Owen's semi-conscious body on top of Shane's for the official pin. Great booking, memorable visual and sends everyone back to the weekly shows with plenty of places for their characters to go; making for a solid ending to a fairly uneven night otherwise.

Winner: Kevin Owens

Next: Sister Abigail: WWE Backstory & Real Identity Theories Explained