I remember watching the first Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker when Kane made his debut and tore off the cell doors. I remember when the Undertaker threw Mick Foley off the top of the cell. I’ve seen the countless number of times that Triple H used a sledgehammer in a HIAC match.
None of those ended in a disqualification or some stopping of the match by the referee because “it went too far.” But that’s what happened this past weekend at the last instalment of Hell in a Cell with the Universal title on the line between Seth Rollins and ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt.
I will say the eerie red light would have worked if the hue was a bit lighter because it really interrupted with the visual quality on the screen. Having said that, as the match progressed and Rollins started hitting multiple curb stomps you can tell the crowd was sensing there was going to be an awful finish, judging from the very audible booing and hollering.
The ending essentially boiled down to Rollins putting everything but the kitchen sink on The Fiend’s head then hitting him there with a sledgehammer, which prompted the referee to ring the bell. This after just a few minutes before when Wyatt brought in the actual ‘mallet’ that he used to kill off that rabbit puppet on his ‘Firefly Fun House’ episodes.
Somehow that didn’t ‘warrant’ a disqualification.
And to top it off, Wyatt actually got back up to administer the mandible claw and TWO Sister Abigails before the second claw caused ‘bleeding from the mouth’ from Rollins. I’m not even sure if this really was a disqualifcation ending for the HIAC match.
But this is HIAC, where ‘careers are supposed to be changed forever’ in this type of contest, and having it end on a DQ or just stopped because a certain weapon was used completely dilutes the mystique surrounding this type of match.
With the move to Fox by Smackdown and the recent integration of celebrities from other forms of combat sport, MMA and boxing with Tyson Fury and Cain Velasquez, WWE’s focus seems to be moving away from telling a compelling wrestling storyline to….I’m not sure at this point what they’re planning to do with this.
But what does suffer as a result of these changes is messing up traditional staples of WWE such as Hell in a Cell. I think Wyatt should have had the Universal title won this past weekend. Fans would rather see a Wyatt vs Brock Lesner showdown at Survivor Series than a rehash of the Beast’s encounter with Cain on another platform.
Normally, WWE would have a rematch of sorts to rectify the mess they made, but at this point…who the hell knows what they’re thinking?
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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