The main feud heading into Hell in a Cell was between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton over the vacant WWE Championship. After defeating John Cena to win the WWE title at SummerSlam in August, Bryan was betrayed by the special referee of that match, Triple H, which allowed Orton to cash-in his Money in the Bank contract and win the championship. In their rematch at Night of Champions in September, Bryan defeated Orton to win back the title, albeit with the referee Scott Armstrong deciding the pinfall with a very fast count. This controversial ending to the match resulted in Armstrong’s (kayfabe) firing and Bryan being stripped of the WWE Championship by Triple H the next night on Raw. Bryan and Orton’s next scheduled encounter for the now-vacant title on pay-per-view at Battleground on October 6 ended in a no contest after Big Show interfered and attacked both wrestlers and the referees, including a returning Scott Armstrong. With still no WWE Champion yet, on the October 7 edition of Raw, general manager Brad Maddox announced that Bryan and Orton would again compete against each other for the vacant WWE title in Hell in a Cell and with a special referee for the audience to choose from WWE Hall of Famers Booker T, Bob Backlund and Shawn Michaels; Michaels won the vote. Another major feud playing out in the WWE pitted CM Punk against Paul Heyman and his wrestler clients, whom he dubs “Paul Heyman guys”. At the Money in the Bank pay-per-view in July, while still posing as his supporter, Heyman turned on Punk and cost him the Money in the Bank ladder match for a future WWE Championship match. This started a rivalry that soon brought Heyman’s client, Brock Lesnar, into the fray, leading to a No Disqualification match between Lesnar and Punk at SummerSlam, which the former won with Heyman’s help. At Night of Champions the next month, in a 2-on-1 handicap elimination no disqualification match, Punk eliminated Curtis Axel (another Heyman’s client), before beating down Heyman himself. However, Ryback interfered in the match and put Punk through a table, allowing Heyman to pin him and win the match. As the newest “Paul Heyman guy”, Ryback faced Punk at Battleground, but lost the match, when Punk pinned him after hitting a low blow behind the referee’s back. This loss irked both Heyman and Ryback, and it was officially announced on WWE.com on October 9, that Punk will face off against Ryback in a rematch at Hell in a Cell. On the October 14 episode of Raw, Heyman attempted to convince Maddox to turn the encounter into a 2-on-1 handicap match, with Axel teaming with Ryback. Instead, Maddox set up a “beat the clock” contest in two matches featuring Punk and Ryback individually, with the wrestler to win his match in shorter time than the other to pick the stipulation for their match at Hell in a Cell. Though Ryback defeated R-Truth in a time of 5:44, Punk defeated Axel with 11 seconds to spare, thus “beating the clock”. As result of this victory, Punk himself added Heyman to the match as Ryback’s partner, additionally making it a Hell in a Cell match, at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.