WWE Hell in a Cell Loses Crowd In Main Event

Well, at least WWE’s Hell in a Cell PPV is being talked about.

Unfortunately, it’s being talked about for all the wrong reasons.

The show as a whole wasn’t terrible. It was a typical WWE pay-per-view show until the main event — Bray Wyatt’s new Fiend character against Seth Rollins — hit the ring in a Hell in a Cell match.

The show fell apart as soon as that match hit the ring.

First, the lighting. Wyatt makes his entrance while red lights blanket the arena in a red glow. Those lights never went away. Instead of the match taking place under the normal TV lights, WWE kept on the red lights as an effect of Wyatt’s apparent mystical powers. It resulted in the match barely being seen on television, and apparently, the live crowd didn’t fare any better.

Then came the finish.

Rollins hit Wyatt with multiple curb stomps and even a sledgehammer. He hit Wyatt with a ladder, toolbox and chair. But, when Rollins pulled out a regular hammer (mind you, he had already used a sledgehammer at this point) and started hitting a toolbox, that was on top of a chair, that was on top of a ladder, that was on top of Wyatt … the referee threw out the match.

That’s right.

A match that can only end in pinfall or submission ended in a no-contest when the referee stopped the match.

As you would predict, the live crowd went insane.

There were chants of “refund” and “AEW” that were loud enough to be heard clearly on the television broadcast.

All of those issues still don’t highlight the problem with the booking. Wyatt, who was supposed to be the heel, came across as the babyface. When Rollins began hitting Wyatt with curb stomps, the crowd booed in anticipation of a Rollins win. When Wyatt attacked Rollins after the match, the portion of the crowd that wasn’t booing or chanting “AEW” were cheering Wyatt for taking out Rollins, the company’s top babyface star who has been booked as a coward on TV for the last three weeks.

Nothing about the main event worked. Wyatt is WWE’s hot new character, and in a match where the fans are promised a finish, WWE decided to go with a cheap non-finish that will only upset fans. Sure, they can get back on track with a positive episode of RAW on Monday, but at one point is the damage irreversible?

It has to be soon.

And while the damage isn’t going to result in WWE going out of business, it could certainly result in Rollins’ push being shelved.

WWE certainly seems to know how to kill top babyfaces.