I’ve only attended a few wrestling shows in my life. I had never attended a WWE PPV event nor had I ever witnessed any kind of a cage match in person. This past Sunday at WWE Hell in a Cell, I put both of those notches in my wrestling fandom belt. I had been more of a casual fan for the go-home RAW episode, but this time I sat in the best place to be for any pro wrestling event: in the crowd.
I certainly got my money’s worth and then some during this event. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins predictably brought the house down and the footage that I got of the two falling off the side of the cell and through the announce tables is something that I still can’t believe I captured. That match, and its surprising finish featuring the return of Bray Wyatt, was simply the cherry on top of the sundae that was this card.
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I don’t say that lightly or because I was in a live crowd either. This PPV, like every other PPV in the WWE Network era (save for Battleground, I will never come around on that waste of time) was great. The matches were all entertaining, progression made in nearly every program, and we were all sent home buzzing about the return of Bray Wyatt. Finally, this show passed what I like to call the “wife test”.
My wife is not a big wrestling fan. So, this is certainly a test that can be applied to anyone not familiar with the WWE. I just happen to be married to person I’m observing. Anyways, when she goes to wrestling shows with me, she looks for two things:
- Watching everyone, especially myself, mark out and acting like a kid (or the kids acting like the best wrestling fans in the world, which they are).
- Not to be bored out of her mind because of what’s going on in front of her.
She doesn’t get blinded by the same biases that I tend to. She doesn’t keep up with the storylines or the characters, so it’s hard to even call her a casual fan. She judges everything that goes on in front of her as it’s presented (making all those video packages before matches incredibly crucial) and how the crowd reacts to each wrestler.
So while I’m already going nuts when Dean Amrbose’s music hits, she isn’t yet hooked until she sees him throwing every chair possible into the ring and climbing to the top and saying “He’s crazy!” out loud. In my mind, if the match can keep her engaged, following the story, and entertained, the WWE, and the performers in the ring have done their jobs properly.
More of the Bella Twins doing this, please. Photo credit: WWE.com
So when we left and I asked what she thought of the matches (and not her husband marking out like a madman), she said she enjoyed all them all. The only real negative comment she had concerned the Bella Twins match because she felt like it started as a stereotypical cat fight and not a wrestling match, but came around once the sisters started doing actual wrestling things like the A.J. Lee/Paige title match.
I couldn’t agree more with her assessment. Not just because “happy wife means a happy life”, but because I’ve harped on a similar criticism with the divas for quite a while. I completely tip my hat to both Nikki and Brie for vastly improving inside the ring. Nikki is wrestling like she’s the biggest hoss in the divas division and Brie is channeling her husband with superman dives outside the ring. Give me more of this and much less of the terrible acting and I’m all-in on the Bella’s feud because it’s too weird to feel like Brie is the face here and the Dallas crowd (at least around me) seemed to agree as Nikki clearly had more support (myself included).
The other question I had to ask my wife is what she thought of the end to the event, aka the return of Bray Wyatt. Her response was that she thought it was stupid. The reason: she wanted to see the finish to the match and didn’t understand who Bray was and why he got involved. My response was that it was to kick off a new story and to get people buzzing about the next night’s RAW. She wasn’t too pleased with the response, yet peppered me with a couple more questions about who this Bray guy was and why he attacked Dean.
It took all my power not to channel Straight Shoot’s Aubrey Sitterson with a “YOU’RE GETTING WORKED BRO!”, but that’s exactly what was going down. She wasn’t mad because the match had a swerve ending, but because she, like everyone else in the WWE Universe, was left with questions about Bray’s motivations. She was doubly frustrated that I couldn’t explain them beyond “gotta watch RAW, I guess” or explaining how Bray’s character and previous actions might shine some light on the matter.
Bray captured his heat by ruining the Dean Ambrose’s revenge. Not just any revenge mind you, full circle revenge complete with Curb Stomps and cinder blocks. The WWE teased Rollins’ ultimate comeuppance and pulled the rug out from everybody in one quick masterful stroke.
This could’ve been Dean’s ultimate revenge. Photo credit: WWE.com
I have no idea where we go from here. I do know this: three home-grown NXT stars are involved in the hottest angle WWE has to offer right now. The way Bray entered and attacked Dean reminded me far more of the Undertaker than anything else that he’s done up to this point. The entire sequence held an incredible atmosphere of eeriness and I didn’t even realize there was a Sister Abigail hologram in the smoke. The cell phones in the arena lit up the ring before the spotlight came on because everyone dug it that much.
This all happened on the same PPV in which John Cena and Randy Orton fought for a title shot. When the night closed, both of them, and Lesnar, became an afterthought.
I cannot wait for RAW to air tonight. The future is here and it is awesome.
Five Big Takeaways
I’m going to try and append these in my reports from here on out. This time, they all happen to be positive, but that doesn’t mean it will be a requirement every week. These are simply the five things that stuck with me beyond my main report topic.
1) Cesaro is a beast.
Goodness, that opening match was something. The superplex that Cesaro pulled off was more impressive than the Andre the Giant callback scoop slam of the Big Show. This guy has to get his due sometime, right?
2) It may have been a finisher-fest, but Cena/Orton was fun.
And yeah, it’s about the 200th time we’ve seen this big match, but I gotta give it up to both of them for trying to actually have a legit Hell in a Cell match. I was terrified it would just be a regular match that just happened to be inside a cage.
There were some big spots, including a sick RKO counter of the AA that made me double-take because it was so slick. It didn’t have nearly the feel of violence that Ambrose and Rollins put together, but they used the cage, weapons, stairs, etc. By the end of it all, even with lol Cena wins, it felt like I had just witnessed a big-time PPV match.
3) Mizdow Cam!
Daimen Sandow Mizdow was easily the most over person in the U.S. Title match. I spent the entire time watching everything he did and to hell with whatever Sheamus and The Miz were doing. The entire crowd slowly but surely figured out what he was doing and popping for everything Sandow threw at them. I have never laughed so hard during a match for all the best reasons.
If the WWE doesn’t get a dedicated Mizdow cam in the near future, they are failing. Watching the entire bit live was incredible. For now, enjoy my quick version of the Mizdow cam. I wish I had gotten more, but you would’ve been subjected to me laughing like an idiot the whole time. Anyways, enjoy:
4) Rusev figured out how to wrestle the Big Show.
And I don’t mean in a kayfabe “how to beat” a giant kind of thing, but more of a “here’s how to put on an entertaining match with a big man” kind of thing. I loved the hell out of this match. It was the hoss fight that I wanted when he faced off with Mark Henry, but feel like I didn’t quite get. I can’t wait to see what the WWE has in store for Rusev next because they are pushing him to the moon and I love it.
5) Yes, falling off the cell was huge, but here’s the other moment I’ll never forget from Ambrose/Rollins:
Ambrose thrown Rollins into the cell. Rollins is down, rolling in pain after being assaulted while on a stretcher. Ambrose gets a chair, and sits on it, screams at Rollins. I don’t know exactly what he said as I glanced at the TitanTron too slow, but it didn’t matter. You could see the emotional pain on Dean’s face and then the transition to gleeful vengeance that has come to define Dean. His former Shield brother laid before him and it was time to give him a receipt months in the making for breaking up the trio.
I got chills watching that and the chair shots that followed carried so much more impact because of it. Yes, Dean may be unstable and unhinged, but he has emotions, hurt, and rage like any other human.
Much like the falling off of the cell, I will never forget this moment. Photo credit: WWE.com
Dean’s a master at telling a story in the ring. That moment will never leave me. Ever.