WWE Hell in a Cell 2012 Results: What We Learned from Kofi Kingston's Win

At WWE's Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, popular Intercontinental champion Kofi Kingston managed to retain his title against The Miz in a hard-fought bout after hitting him with the Trouble in Paradise.

The bout was the culmination of the recent Miz/Kingston program, which saw champion The Miz scorn and mock longtime midcarder Kofi, questioning whether he was even capable of stepping up and taking his belt. An enraged Kofi, feeling he had something to prove to the world, later won the belt in a tremendous match on Ion's Main Event last week.

The rematch itself wasn't nearly as good as that bout—it felt like a decent WWE undercard match, filled with some good spots and several exciting near-falls, but nothing that was going to set the world on fire. Maybe if the pair had been given more time it could have developed into something better—but the rematch didn't feel like that much of a priority on the card. (Hey, with two World Championship matches it probably wasn't).

Interestingly, Kofi even got on the mic after the pin and, in a classy gesture, thanked Miz for bringing out the best in him and forcing him to step up his game. That was a nice moment.

So, what can we garner from Sunday night's result?

Well, first of all, it establishes that WWE management are truly serious about Kofi's push—at least for now. After years of being stuck in the midcard and the-then floundering tag team division, many wondered if Kofi would ever be a featured player in the company again.

Kofi's career has been strongly revived, thanks to his recent feud with Miz and run with the Intercontinental belt and, thankfully, WWE chose not to undo their good work by taking the title off of him Sunday night. Whether Kofi can ever be the main-event player some hope he can be remains to be seen—his face character remains rather one-dimensional, and he's not as over with the fans as someone like Ryback or Randy Orton is—but the results of this rematch where a step in the right direction.

Miz's future is also up in the air. His program with Kofi is presumably over, having gone everywhere it can go (seeing Miz continue to go after his former belt on Raw and SmackDown would feel repetitive and tired), and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

The company may have taken the Intercontinental Championship off of him—maybe feeling he is too big a star for a midcard belt—but they don't seem quite ready to put him back in the World title scene just yet.

Hopefully, they come up with a plan soon: His Hollywood wannabe character—and his new talk show Miz TV—is heavily featured on WWE programming, and he's as over with the fans as ever. They should be doing something with him.

In conclusion, Kof Kingston comes out of the Hell in a Cell interview with a fair amount of hype and momentum. Now let's hope he can use that momentum to get himself to the next plateau.