The final minutes of Sunday night’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view left fans utterly enraged, frustrated and confused as Seth Rollins retained his WWE Universal Championship against Bray Wyatt not because of a pinfall or submission, but because of an early stoppage by the referee. Within hours of the show reports began popping up regarding who was responsible for the finish. According to Fightful‘s Sean Ross Sapp, both the finish and the decision to have Rollins spam Wyatt with 11 Curb Stomps were entirely Vince McMahon‘s idea. That shouldn’t come as a surprise given he’s still the head honcho of WWE’s Creative team, but there’s a bit of debate regarding how McMahon felt once the show was over.
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Dave Meltzer reported via Wrestling Observer Radio late Sunday night that McMahon wanted that finish because he wanted Rollins, Brock Lesnar, Becky Lynch (who retained on Sunday night) and Charlotte Flair (who won her 10th Women’s Championship during Hell in a Cell) to be the four main champions heading into the upcoming WWE Draft. Meanwhile Sapp added in his report that sources countered each other over how McMahon felt about the ending, with one source saying McMahon was laughing over the crowd’s reaction while others said “he knew he messed up.”
The crowd inside the Golden 1 Center chanted for a restart to the match, refunds and All Elite Wrestling after the match was thrown out. Not even Wyatt’s show-closing attack on Rollins could stop them from booing.
If previous years are any indication, Rollins won’t have to defend the Universal Championship again on pay-per-view for quite some time. He’s already booked for a 10-man tag match at Crown Jewel on Oct. 31, and will likely be in a Champion vs. Champion match at Survivor Series in November if WWE opts to keep the “battle of the brands” theme they’ve had for the show over the past few years. That means that, unless he defends the title on free television, Rollins is off the hook until TLC on Dec. 15.
As of early Monday afternoon WWE only has two segments announced for this week’s Raw — a Last Woman Standing match between Natalya and Lacey Evans and an appearance from heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury. “The Gypsy King” appeared on Friday Night SmackDown’s FOX premiere last week and teased a feud with Braun Strowman.
This week’s edition of SmackDown will begin a new two-night WWE Draft, which is meant to re-establish the brand split between SmackDown and Raw.
