Breaking Down Best and Worst WWE Matches, Superstars for the Week of October 26

Roman Reigns truly began his path back to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Albert Del Rio experienced a rebirth. Undertaker and Brock Lesnar ended their trilogy with blood sticking to their skin.

WWE witnessed the company's narratives at and after Hell in a Cell arrive at a variety of stages.

In Reigns' case, he is thriving as WWE pushes him back up the ladder. He delivered inside a cage on Sunday, looked every bit like a headliner on Monday's Raw and showed off more in-ring excellence on Thursday's SmackDown.

On the flip side, Ryback keeps flicking a lighter that won't light. Fans buzzed about a good number of things over the course of a busy week, but The Big Guy did little to be one of them. His matches were letdowns.

With Del Rio now back, he has one more wrestler to compete with for the spotlight. 

The newly crowned U.S. champ looks energized by his return to WWE. He and Reigns most impressed overall, but Undertaker and Lesnar delivered the single best match of the week.

Best: Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar (Hell in a Cell)

In a savage Hell in a Cell battle, Brock Lesnar and Undertaker capped off their feud with the kind of barbarity that The Devil's Playground promises. With blood smeared across their brows and their aching bodies bruised by chair shots, two immortals delivered everything WWE could have asked for.

Each man slipped up at times leading to a few awkward spots, and Undertaker missing the exposed wood under the torn canvas.

That kept it all from being perfect, not from being great. The final chapter in their long story was the best bout they produced since the first incarnation of their rivalry some 12 years ago.

As James Montgomery of Rolling Stone wrote, this was a match "where everything felt big."

Beyond the compellingly sadistic action, the match also created intrigue moving forward.

Lesnar was triumphant, but it took a monumental effort. He now looks even more like he belongs in his own tier. Watching someone finally knock him off is going to be must-see TV.

Undertaker, meanwhile, goes from tangling with one beast to another. Bray Wyatt swooped in to ruin Undertaker's post-match, prideful moment. Restarting that rivalry—one that it didn't have a satisfying arc the first time—is the right move.

Undertaker now clashes with a man intent on replacing him, to become the new face of fear.

Worst: The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler (Trick or Street Fight)

One can't imagine it took a lot of effort to come up with The Miz and Dolph Ziggler fighting in a ring surrounded by pumpkins, using Halloween props as weapons. That's a prime example of lazy writing.

Never mind that these two men aren't feuding. Never mind that is the exact type of match that WWE went with last year before Halloween. Just throw two guys in the ring and play up the holiday theme.

Thanks to The Miz not competing regularly anymore, he had no momentum going into this match on Thursday's SmackDown. And it's getting hard to care about Dolph Ziggler anymore now that he's reached, as Grantland's David Shoemaker put it, "the dreaded push plateau."

The purpose of the action was clearly to soften up Ziggler for another attack from Tyler Breeze. 

There were a multitude of smarter ways to get to that point. There are any number of more entertaining preludes to that assault that don't involve The Miz wielding a toy lightsaber as a weapon.

Matches like this are signals to tune out. They are presented like jokes. Fans are assured a few sight gags and little else.

Getting Ziggler a more significant win before his latest run-in with Prince Pretty would have been the better move.

Best: Roman Reigns Climbs into Contention

Doubters have more reason to change their minds. Detractors have less ammunition. Roman Reigns is looking more and more like the megastar WWE wants him to be.

The Big Dog had a whirlwind of success in the span of just a few days that further bolstered his case to be the man the company machine should get behind.

He and Bray Wyatt composed an enthralling Hell in a Cell match that didn't have the level of violence that Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker did, but had just as much finality to it. Storyline-wise, it was Reigns putting away the monster that had been haunting him for months.

In reality, it was yet another bout that pokes major holes in the Reigns-can't-put-on-great-singles-matches argument.

Reigns followed that up with a tremendous Fatal 4-Way contest on Monday's Raw and a strong match against Kevin Owens on SmackDown three days later.

In the process, he earned the No. 1 contender's spot for the WWE title. It's a championship that looks increasingly like the right fit for him.

Worst: Ryback Underwhelms

In theory, Ryback's feud with Kevin Owens should have been the springboard for him to return to the main event scene. Instead, it has just been a showcase of how much more of a star Owens is than The Big Guy.

Owens had three matches this week and only one of them was a wet noodle of a showdown—the one against Ryback.

At Hell in a Cell, the two foes seemed to have lost all the chemistry they had in the past. Their Intercontinental Championship bout was the most forgettable contest of the evening. It had no energy.

On Raw the next night, Ryback and The Dudley Boyz battled in a six-man tag team bout against Rusev, Sheamus, King Barrett. Again, Ryback offered very little to savor. The heels' celebrating their stolen victory was far more exciting than anything that happened before that.

Ryback needs a spark in a hurry. The race to become the next headliner is a crowded one and men like Owens, Cesaro and Roman Reigns are lapping him.

Best: Alberto Del Rio's Emphatic Return

Alberto Del Rio quickly reminded WWE fans what they were missing in his absence.

The in-ring artiste returned to action at Hell in a Cell and put his stamp on the company, one superkick to the side of the head at a time. His surprise arrival at the pay-per-view was arguably the biggest moment of the night. And while his title win over John Cena was not nearly as good as the champ's previous open challenges, it had fans hungry to see what was ahead.

For one, WWE chose to pair Del Rio with Zeb Colter, the man who was previously one of his primary foils. And Del Rio not being around made him a refreshing sight, while his star power continues the trend of upping the United States Championship's prestige.

Del Rio produced some high-quality work already, as well.

He throttled R-Truth in a squash match on SmackDown that showed off his viciousness. He was part of that tremendous Fatal 4-Way on Monday's Raw. Plus, his battle against Neville was the most entertaining of the matches that earned four men a spot in that main event. 

Being away has clearly been good for him. Perhaps it was the boost of a change of scenery, or inspiration born from being back in his home country for a stretch, but Del Rio returned recharged. Kyle Fowle of The A.V. Club wrote, "Del Rio looks great, both in terms of physique and his in-ring work."

The odd dynamic with Colter is the big question mark going forward, but Del Rio has done his part to make WWE look smart for re-signing him.