WWE Hell In A Cell 2012 Results: Punk Beats Ryback, Big Show Wins World Championship, Ziggler Holds Off

After speculation that WWE Hell in a Cell would create buzz for the company with the WWE Title match Ryback vs. reigning champion CM Punk, the Second City Saint prevailed by cheating the challenger out of a victory. The night also saw Big Show defeat Sheamus cleanly for the World Heavyweight Championship, and Dolph Ziggler failed to deliver on his promise to leave with the “SmackDown” championship.

Punk and Ryback had a long back and forth fight in the only match that took place within the Hell in a Cell cage this year. Things came to an abrupt halt when Ryback attempted to perform Shell Shocked for the win but was interrupted and low-blowed by the referee, who then gave Punk a fast count victory.

Punk screwed the big guy, but Ryback got his revenge when the Straight-Edge Superstar and corrupt referee couldn’t unlock the cage door. They were trapped with a furious Ryback who assaulted them both, before leaving the cage and scaling to the top to finally perform Shell Shock on Punk.

The show ended with Ryback on top of gigantic Cell, standing over Punks incapacitated body. He and the crowd continued his signature “Feed Me More!” chant as the pay-per-view went off the air.

Despite promising to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase at Hell in a Cell and leave the World Heavyweight Champion, Dolph Ziggler didn’t make an in-ring appearance last night, allowing new champion Big Show to have time with his title. The Giant earned his spot last by being the first man to beat Sheamus with a clean victory.

It could have been a bland match, being that Sheamus matches can be on dimensional unless they’re with someone dynamic like Daniel Bryan. Big Show managed to tell an engaging story in his performance against the Celtic Warrior and the bout was almost on par with the Ryback vs. Punk main event.

Kofi Kingston retained his Intercontinental Championship against The Miz at last night’s event. This was a rematch after Kingston beat Miz for the belt on “Main Event” two weeks ago.

Randy Orton’s victory over Alberto del Rio wasn’t as much of a surprise. The match went on first and couldn’t seem to get going, with Orton’s win not coming soon enough.

Justin Gabriel and United States Champion Antonio Cesaro faced off for the US Title after Gabriel pinned the champion on “RAW” last week. Cesaro was victorious and dominated most of the match, which had the audience openly bored, with some “We want Ryder” chants heard in the background.

Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes did win their match against the Tag Team Champions Kane and Dienal Bryan as predicted, but did not capture the belts. Kane and Bryan were disqualified when the Big Red Monster went on a rampage while he wasn’t the legal man.

It was a good strategy to keep the chaotic dynamic between the two champions going, and offer an opening for more matches with Rhodes Scholars in the future. There’s also an opening to give the titles to Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara, who defeated the Primate Time Players in a separate tag match last night.

The Divas Championship match was given more time than usual last night, and Champion Eve Torres came out on top of her opponents Layla and Kaitlyn. The triple-threat match was well conceived and had better crowd reaction than most Divas matches.