WWE Hell In A Cell 2015

WWE Hell in a Cell 2015 came square in the middle of WWE experiencing one of the least commercially and creatively successful periods in their history. Ratings for Monday Night Raw have fallen rapidly over the previous few months, reaching a nadir (at least for now) at the go home episode running into this pay-per-view. That was in spite of the presence of WWE’s part-time megastars and ratings bankers- Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, Steve Austin, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels, who were all wheeled out in front of the cameras to absolutely no affect- the rating that came through the following day provided grim news. The show had only managed to garner a 2.21 TV rating- the lowest rating other than a Christmas episode in 2008, for over 18 years. The message was clear- relying on nostalgia, and names from the company’s past is no longer going to cut it- WWE simply must move their focus to building a new generation of top tier stars or face that meagre audience falling further. While WWE Hell in a Cell 2015 was set to be headlined by returning part time stars The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar, the rest of the show gave WWE a chance to put the spotlight on the future, and pave the way for the men and women who will be expected to carry the company over the next decade.

The need to create new stars for WWE’s fans to invest in and cheer for has been hastened further by the news that John Cena is now set to take the next 6 weeks off for personal reasons (it has yet to be revealed what those personal reasons are). WWE’s go-to measure in the past when ratings have slumped, is to return the World Title to Cena and base the company completely around him once more. This time around, that option is not available to them and what’s more, it comes at a time when WWE don’t even have Randy Orton to fall back on either, the extent of his shoulder injury as yet being unknown. All this necessitated Cena turning up for this show in order to drop the US Title that he has held, save for one month between Summer Slam and Night of Champions, since Wrestlemania. The question was, who was going to be Cena’s opponent, and more importantly, who were WWE going to spotlight by handing them a victory over Cena on the night?

The answer to that question came just minutes into the show as, after Cena came out to cut a brief promo, Zeb Colter, not seen on WWE television for around a year, wheeled his way out to the stage on a disability scooter. Zeb claimed that it was time to bring nations together and introduced the one man he believed capable of achieving this lofty task- Alberto Del Rio. Del Rio entered the arena to a decent, if not exactly explosive, pop and stepped in the ring with the champion. There had been rumours swirling around for a few weeks that Del Rio was looking to return to a promotion that could guarantee regular work and a secure income for him and his family. Despite having a decent run on the independent scene since his WWE departure, having featured prominently for AAA and Lucha Underground as well as making appearances across the US and UK independent scene, Del Rio was reported to be investigating his options with both WWE and TNA. In spite of these rumours, it wasn’t believed that any deal would be done with either as quickly as this, let alone for that company to work Del Rio into their plans at such short notice.

Del Rio’s decision to return to WWE has already been criticised by some quarters after the incident that took place last year resulting in his firing from the company. Del Rio himself, spoke of the need to keep his dignity rather than continue to work for WWE in an interview with WrestleTalk TV in the wake of the incident that also involved WWE’s social media manager at the time (he has since left the company). Some have branded Del Rio a hypocrite, others simply questioning what it is that had changed so much since then. The obvious conclusion to make, and probable reality of the situation, is that money was the primary driver for the revival of the professional relationship between the two sides. It is possible that Del Rio has perhaps not found the independent scene to be as lucrative as he was hoping. Equally, it’s possible that WWE, in a ratings funk and with pressure on them to turn things around, reached out to a former World Champion and offered more money than before, for him to work for them, in the hope that he might help change the company’s fate.

The match itself was fine for what it was though certainly a notch below Cena’s output over the course of the last 12 months. It appeared as if the reasons for Cena’s planned absence was already playing on his mind as this was the closest Cena has come to phoning it in for a very long time. As mentioned previously, there is no clear indication as to why Cena is taking his break, but if there was any gossip that suggested it was due to a need to rest up some injuries, I’d be inclined to believe it after seeing this; Cena hasn’t worked a sub-10 minute match for months, and here he managed less than 8. The bout also suffered from Cena’s long-term reliance on building drama in his matches by kicking out of his opponents finishers and having his opponents do the same with his, as such when building to the end of this one it felt particularly anticlimactic with Cena going down to a backstabber, quickly followed up with a kick to the face. Rating 6/10. So Alberto Del Rio is the new United States Champion, but one question remains- will this actually accomplish anything?

This was a prime opportunity for WWE to put someone over who could potentially help carry the ratings-getting burden while Cena was out of action, one can’t help but feel a younger talent, already in WWE’s employ, might have been a more suitable option. As talented a wrestler as Del Rio may be, I can’t help but feel that he has already reached his personal limit as a star capable of moving ratings with the company. Put it this way, would Del Rio have meant any less had he returned in any other way? Did he really need to beat Cena to achieve the same level of excitement over his return? Not in my eyes. Surely WWE would have been better placed having Del Rio debut the following night on Raw, and allowing someone else to get the boost that a clean victory to win the US Title over Cena can provide? Even if it was felt that Del Rio needed this kind of credibility enhancing victory in order to have the required effect on business, the gimmick that was unveiled for him on Raw the night after is unlikely to deliver on this goal. Indeed, the promo in which Colter and Del Rio explained their new partnership as ‘Mexamerica’ and where Del Rio labelled Neville an “entitled immigrant”, removed any little chance WWE had of turning him into a genuine money draw.

Putting aside those questions about Del Rio’s suitability for the role in the first place, you have to wonder how likely this match was to get anybody over in a significant way, given the manner in which it went down. Cena offered no reaction whatsoever to the loss afterwards (a well placed backstage promo with Cena selling his dejection at the result, and maybe even an aside making it clear he felt that he needed to go away and take stock of his career to explain his upcoming absence, would have made a world of difference) and even the action in the ring made it look like Cena was doing an obligatory job, rather than attempting to make his opponent look good. The approach to this loss for Cena is the kind of ineffectual booking that has put WWE in the situation they currently find themselves. The title change was done with no conviction whatsoever, as if WWE hoped they could simultaneously get a boost in audience interest from having somebody beat Cena by pinfall clean, and at the same time have them not notice that it was Cena who had suffered a clean pinfall loss. With this kind of approach, WWE will never get anybody over in a way that will ever turn them into an effective draw.

Following the US Title open challenge we were treated to the first of 2 Hell in a Cell matches on the night, this one being between long-time rivals Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt. This feud had stretched all the way back to since before Money in the Bank in June and had, for at least the 2 months prior to this match, been a chore. Love them or hate them, it is clear that WWE see both of these men as important parts of the company in the future and so predicting a winner here wasn’t necessarily easy. With Cena and Orton both set to be out (at least for a little while) it seemed logical that Reigns would take the win, likely to be the man WWE hope will finally step up and fill that top babyface role that has been his to lose for the last 18 months. At the same time, it’s not been long since The Wyatt Family were reunited, and a loss at this stage in their journey would harm any momentum they had picked up prior to the event.

This was actually a really good match, one of Roman Reigns’ best as a singles star and one that will give hope to WWE management that he can still make it as a consistent main event talent. They traded big moves throughout including making use of a number of tables and a couple of kendo sticks- forgiving them the lack of explanation for why Kendo sticks are randomly stored underneath the ring. Something else that could have done with being explained is why The Wyatt Family did not even attempt to interfere in the match (given the previous regularity with which they have made their presence felt during other, less important matches). These points might appear nit-picky but it is exactly these kind of small details that WWE constantly fail to explain which are driving repeat viewers away who feel continuously under rewarded for paying attention. Until these types of things are addressed there can be no leap of faith from WWE’s audience that the promotion has shifted its creative process enough for them to keep coming back.

In spite of these criticisms, the match actually benefited from the absence of The Wyatt Family which ended when Reigns took the pinfall after a spear. Rating 7/10. The victory took on an added significance the next night when it became the qualifying factor in Reigns going on to the number 1 contender series, which he then won, to set up a match with Seth Rollins in the future (presumably at Survivor Series). If there was a drawback to Reigns and Wyatt’s liberal use of tables during the collision it was that The Dudley Boyz had been shorn of the use of them as a way to get the fans invested in their run at The New Day’s tag team titles. The Dudley Boyz return to WWE has been mediocre at best, with their appearances, other than the night they re-emerged in the company in Brooklyn, the night after Summer Slam, being greeted with little more than indifference. In fact, despite having only been back in WWE for 2 months, they already feel like one of the acts that most makes the product feel tired and repetitive.

This isn’t The Dudley Boyz fault of course, just another indictment of WWE’s dire creative in the period they have been back. They’ve already been overused on television and haven’t been given any time on the microphone (in spite of Bubba’s clear abilities in this regard, as was on show in TNA during 2012 and 2013). They’ve also suffered through comparisons to The New Day who are one of the most popular acts in the company (despite being heels- a failure to react to which, is another failing of the creative team) and therefore their attempts to curry support for their run at their rival’s titles have largely fallen on deaf ears. Unfortunately, this short and at times, awkward match won’t have done anything to convince their doubters that they can continue to play an exciting role going forward. What’s more, this represented another failure on the Dudley’s part to win the belts from The New Day, when Kofi pinned Bubba after a Trouble in Paradise. Rating 5/10.

Next up was the match between Charlotte and Nikki Bella for Charlotte’s Divas Title. Any hopes that the term ‘Diva’ would be dropped in the wake of the supposed ‘revolution’ seems to have been completely dispelled now, with even the announcers on NXT insisting on calling their women ‘divas’ with more regularity than was once the case, but the overall narrative within the female ranks has improved slightly over the past month.  This was the return bout following Charlotte’s defeat of Nikki for the belt at Night of Champions, and it carried the stipulation that nobody would be allowed at ringside (there you go WWE- you can come up with a simple way of explaining why certain individuals wouldn’t interfere in a match having done so, frequently in the past) which left the pair to get on with the business of actually putting on what was a decent contest.

At this point I think it is only right to credit Nikki Bella for the undoubted improvements that she has made over the past year. Don’t get me wrong, she is most certainly not in the same class as the likes of her opponent, Sasha Banks or Bayley, but she has worked hard to up her game and here she had the kind of match that she wouldn’t have been capable of 12 months ago. With the Half Crab that she locked in on Charlotte during this match, it appears she could even teach her fiancé a thing or two about submissions, as this looked incredibly painful. The highlight of the match however was the powerbomb that she delivered to Charlotte onto the edge of the ring apron from the outside which again looked brutal and possibly showed a willingness by WWE to allow their women a little more freedom in terms of what they are allowed to do in their matches. Back in the ring, Charlotte clamped on the Figure 8 to take the submission victory. Rating 6/10. This was probably the most realised thing WWE have managed with the ‘Divas revolution’ up to this point and gave Charlotte’s title reign a much needed boost.

Talking of champions needing a boost, Seth Rollins was up next for his World Title defence against ‘Demon’ Kane in a match where if Rollins won, ‘Corporate’ Kane would lose his job as Director of Operations. Michael Cole made reference to the fact that Rollins had now been champion for 210 days- this means that during the first 209 days of his title reign Rollins had managed just one clean pay-per-view victory, against Sting at the previous month’s Night of Champions. Given how long the animosity between Kane and Rollins has been brewing, surely this match could have fallen nearer the beginning of his run with the belt, and therefore allowed WWE to give Rollins a credible early victory in defence of it? Having said that, the issues Rollins faces as a credible champion are more due to his relationship with The Authority and their treatment of him all along as some kind of spoilt child, coupled with an over reliance on Rollins to deliver long winded promos in order to fill more of the 3 hours of TV time they have committed themselves to supplying each Monday night.

At least Rollins did win this one without any help from anybody else after hitting the Pedigree, relieving us at least of the interminable back and forth between the office stooge and the World Champion. Any plans that WWE might have had for the feud to continue beyond this match were surely nixed in response to those terrible Raw ratings as of late.  Rating 6/10. Rollins next challenge appears as if it will come in the form of Roman Reigns after Reigns’ win in the fatal 4 way match the following night. Getting a clean win in that one seems a lot more unlikely but despite the difficulties Rollins has faced as champion, there doesn’t seem an obvious alternative direction from them to go in between now and Wrestlemania and my bet is that ‘The Architect’ will still be in possession of the belt when we get around to the big one in April.

Match number 6 saw Kevin Owens defend the Intercontinental Title against Ryback in a short, nothing match to conclude (one hopes) a feud that has done nothing for either man’s future prospects. The Intercontinental Title has meant little since Daniel Bryan’s injury shortly after Wrestlemania (let’s see how long the US Title feels relevant now that Cena doesn’t hold that belt) and there is nothing to be gained for anybody who holds it. For Owens, holding the title would seem like a comedown if it had directly followed his reign as NXT Champion, let alone after having burst on the scene in the way he did earlier in the year and then feuding with John Cena. Thanks to the WWE creative process, Owens is yet another man who seems to have nowhere to go, ditto Ryback who, despite not exactly being a technical marvel, and despite the often haphazard way he is used by the company, continues to rebuild interest in his character every time WWE does their level best to strip it all away. For those keeping score, Owens won this one by pinfall after hitting Ryback with a pop up powerbomb. Rating 5/10.

As already mentioned, one of the biggest problems WWE has is its presentation of wrestlers who no longer appear on a regular basis as being better than those who do. It’s why they felt the need, mid way through the year, to resurrect the feud between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar in order to attract new Network subscriptions, and why this pay-per-view was headlined by the pair going at it in a Hell in a Cell match. If WWE are going to continue to use these two men (and indeed the likes of Triple H, Sting, The Rock and others) they need to put them up against the current crop of regular roster members, and have them lose from time to time. Having said that, there is an argument that Lesnar in particular is the one who will play the role of crowning the new king, whoever that eventually turns out to be, and so avenging his loss at Summer Slam to The Undertaker was probably an important step in that journey. Additionally, their fight here means that the threat of another rematch at Wrestlemania is all but out of the question (as does the billing of it as being the “last time ever” that they will fight).

Their match at Wrestlemania 30 was not a good one, most speculating that this was as a result of the concussion Undertaker suffered early in the match. The quality however was somewhat forgotten following what has to go down as one of the most shocking results in all of professional wrestling history. Their rematch at Summer Slam was an improvement, though far from perfect and which suffered from the convoluted manner in which it finished. In truth, despite the massive reputations both enjoy, during the course of their feud over the last couple of years, they’ve only really produced one truly special moment, that being the pull apart brawl on Raw the night after Battleground where practically the entire roster was enlisted to keep them from killing one another. As such, there was a certain amount of pressure on the pair to deliver here to conclude their programme on a high note.

Thankfully then, they really did deliver in a big way. This was an engrossing, violent collision, dramatic and incident filled which they can be rightly proud of. It also featured some serious blood-letting that reports since have suggested Vince McMahon was furious about and which was actually quite shocking, given the infrequency that the crimson is seen on WWE screens in 2015. When Undertaker also started bleeding, the doctor, who had already tried to clean up Lesnar on a couple of occasions, was pushed away by ‘The Phenom’ and eventually dumped out of the ring by Lesnar- worked or otherwise, it had the desired effect- these men were at war and nothing was going to get in their way of resolving it once and for all. To that end, The Undertaker wedged a chair into Lesnar’s neck before forcing the chair into the mat and Lesnar came suspiciously close to delivering a head shot with the chair on the outside of the ring.

The end sequence was, as you’d imagine, full of big moves and finishers kicked out of, the majority of which did not have the desired effect on the crowd, but after Lesnar had exposed the wooden boards by tearing the ring canvas up, and then had subsequently been tombstoned onto them by ‘Taker, there was a genuine feel of surprise at the resulting kick out. In the end it came down to a low blow by Lesnar (a call back to their match at Summer Slam where it had been ‘Taker delivering the low blow) followed by the 3^rd F5 of the night to put ‘The Dead Man’ down. Rating 8/10. This was the right result and a very satisfactory way for them to deliver it. After the match, both men sold the effects of the battle they had just waged and Heyman had to help Lesnar stay on his feet to leave the arena. The Undertaker meanwhile struggled to sit up one last time in what appeared to be WWE setting up a retirement tease (one that was slightly undermined by the early adverts that had promised a ’25 years of Undertaker’ celebration at Survivor Series in November).

But that wasn’t the end of the event, as after Undertaker managed to make it to his feet, the crowd had chanted “Thank you Taker” and The Undertaker took to one knee to perform his usual sign off routine, the lights went out and The Wyatt Family arrived on the scene. They then surrounded the ring before attacking him and carrying him out of the arena. What this means for Survivor Series, The Wyatt Family or indeed The Undertaker is not yet clear (even after Raw- where Wyatt explained that he needed the Undertaker’s soul to gain more power in order to defeat Roman Reigns in the future), but the visual on the night was pretty cool and gives WWE yet another opportunity to use Undertaker in a way that will benefit one of their current roster if indeed it leads to a match between he and Wyatt.

All considered then, Hell in a Cell 2015 was a better show than expected, and one that belied the situation WWE currently finds themselves in. The following night on Raw, the show bounced back ever so slightly with a 2.46 rating, potentially a consequence of fans being interested in the follow up to the pay-per-view closing angle and the show-long competition to decide a new number 1 contender to the World Title, but it should be noted that the rating was still significantly down on their average during the autumn of previous years.  WWE need to understand that the path to their ratings recovery will take a long time to play out- there is no quick fix solution, it will instead take a commitment to booking for the long term, while simultaneously providing consistent quality to convince fans of their improvement. Hell in a Cell began to address some of the problem areas- Corporate Kane is gone, Rollins won clean, the main matches ended in conclusive and satisfactory ways- but it will all be for nothing if more of these aren’t addressed in the coming weeks and months.

Overall Rating: 7.05