The Magnificent Seven: The 7 Worst Hell In A Cell PPV Creative Decisions

Since 2009, Hell in a Cell has been an annual staple on the WWE calendar, taking one of the most violent gimmick matches in the company and shoehorning it into the position of annual staple. Sometimes, the stars have aligned and the show has been positioned nicely to blow off a major rivalry the way only a Cell match can, like when Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins went at it in the Cell in 2014 (I’d argue this year’s iteration was mostly successful in that regard as well—particularly for the New Day-Usos opener). Other times, the Cell has felt like more of a contrivance or non-sequitur for rivalries that didn’t really justify the use of the structure.

Despite the Cell being such a signature piece of WWE architecture, and often enhancing matches held within it if only for the ominous aura of the enormous cage, the Cell show itself is generally perceived as a “B PPV.” Unlike the big four shows, or even ones like Money in the Bank that very rarely flop, Hell in a Cell as a show is hit or miss and has played host to some unfortunate creative decisions.

This week, I’m taking a look at seven of the worst creative choices WWE has made for the Hell in a Cell PPV since its inception in 2009.

#7. Sin Cara vs. Sin Cara

In 2011, WWE elected to plug Sin Cara into a feud against another version of himself.

There are ways in which the angle made sense. Sin Cara was still a bit of an enigmatic character and adding the intrigue of whether he’d gone bad, only to find there was an imposter Sin Cara did raise some interest. On top of that, for all of his success in Mexico, the original Sin Cara had struggled to adapt to the WWE style so booking him against someone else comfortable in the lucha libre style was a fine fit to showcase his talents and continue to ease him into the WWE style.

For all of these positives, the fact remained that pitting two Sin Caras against one another was incredibly confusing. Despite the effort to distinguish them by the color of their attire (Azul—blue, Negro—black) the match was difficult for announcers to call, and difficult for fans to keep track of while watching it live, making the entirety of their first PPV match far more confusing than entertaining. They’d have a rematch one month later that at least carried the stipulation of the loser unmasking, and thus moving the program to an easier to follow space.

#6. The Undertaker defeats CM Punk 2009

Interestingly enough, the very first match of the very first Hell in a Cell PPV exposed one of the biggest problems with the concept of anchoring an annual show around Cell matches. CM Punk walked in as the World Heavyweight Champion, heading into the fall after a summer of feuding with Jeff Hardy in an excellent program, capped by a stellar TLC Match at SummerSlam. He immediately transitioned to a feud with The Undertaker, and even stole a win over The Dead Man at the Breaking Point PPV via shenanigans.

Given that there was going to be a Cell match, it only made sense for Punk and The Phenom to continue their issue in the Cell. The trouble is that WWE really booked itself into a corner because there was no reasonable way of booking Punk to defeat The Undertaker in this environment.

So, The Undertaker won, and he won in a match that wasn’t even particularly epic, but rather a pedestrian ten-minute bout with a predictable, undramatic outcome of him Tombstoning Punk’s first great heel run in WWE into oblivion.

5. Charlotte Flair Hits Natural Selection On Sasha Banks

Let’s make one thing clear from the get go. While a lot of pundits grew tired of the Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair rivalry in 2016, I loved the overwhelming majority of it and am an apologist for even some of its less popular moments. I was completely in favor of Banks-Flair main eventing Hell in a Cell 2016 and thrilled when the women got the nod. On top of that, while the match wasn’t a five star classic, I’d argue it did land close to four as a solid match, befitting the occasion and the storied feud.

For all of those qualifiers, and positive aspects to the first ever women’s Hell in a Cell Match, there is still the finish to contend with. After over twenty minutes of waging main event war, the close saw Charlotte Flair hit her secondary finisher, National Selection. And she picked up the pin.

Mind you, this didn’t appear to be the intended finish—or at least not the finish in a vacuum. The lead up saw Flair slam Banks against a table repeatedly, and the table simply wouldn’t break, robbing them of a more satisfying spectacle. Still, Natural Selection simply doesn’t look like a finisher, more akin to Randy Orton’s scoop slam relative to the RKO, or Daniel Bryan’s roundhouse head kick after a series of chest kicks as opposed to the running knee. It’s a perfectly fine, athletically impressive move. It just doesn’t look like, and hadn’t really been put over as a killer.

In a match designed for big spots and big violence, this was about as anticlimactic of a finishing move as the crowd could imagine. Mind you, they probably would have been deflated anyway for hometown girl Banks not retaining her title (which I will, less fervently, argue was also the wrong call) but this finish just made no one happy and soured what had been a solid match.

#4. Brad Maddox Low Blows Ryback

2012 was another year with another awkward spot for WWE in which the Cell PPV was around the corner and there wasn’t a suitable main event program for the match gimmick. While John Cena was feuding with Punk, he was also overcoming an arm injury and WWE needed someone else to plug in the championship contender spot. Up and coming talent Ryback was in the right place at the right time to get the push.

Ryback-Punk was a fair enough, fresh main event program, but as a new rivalry, it made little sense for the context of the Cell. Moreover, with Ryback just getting over at the top of the card, he could neither afford to lose nor could he be considered ready to take the top prize in the company.

Painted into a corner, WWE decided to turn to an evil ref.

Brad Maddox was the man for the job as he transitioned from mostly anonymous ref to smarmy heel for hire. The finish—which saw him low blow Ryback and cost him the match—felt like both a let down and a non-sequitur, capping a lackluster PPV with an especially unsatisfying main event.

#3. Randy Orton Beats Daniel Bryan

In 2013, Daniel Bryan caught fire. He got over organically by turning the lemons of Team Hell No into sparkling lemonade, got his push, and got the crowd to go wild for him as the newly minted top face in WWE. He picked up a clean win over John Cena at SummerSlam, and after Randy Orton, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon all turned heel on him and stole his WWE Championship in one fell swoop, Bryan was set up for a great chase.

And then there was the fall of 2013. Bryan gave chase but couldn’t get the title back, culminating in this blow off match in the Cell with Shawn Michaels as the guest referee.

While the Cell was an appropriate fit for this rivalry, and the pair actually did put on good to great matches together. The trouble was, whether WWE never intended to go all the way with Bryan, or was already saving his next big win for WrestleMania, they found themselves in a spot where they were only going to make fans unhappy with Bryan leaving another PPV without the title.

On paper, Michaels helping Orton seems like a fair enough way to both protect Bryan and infuse some extra excitement for HBK getting physically involved. In actuality, though, it felt like another tainted finish in a rivalry that had already been more confounding than entertaining for the fans.

#2. Alberto Del Rio Takes The US Championship Off Of John Cena

Hell in a Cell 2015 kicked of with John Cena continuing his US Championship Open Challenge, and Alberto Del Rio making a surprise return to answer the call. Del Rio’s return, in and of itself, made for intrigue and exciting television.

Some of Cena’s finest work in WWE—particularly over the last five years or so—has come in the form of putting over talents, because a win over Cena always means something. The trouble here was that, putting aside the surprise, Del Rio didn’t look especially good, and the match was a totally flat, sub-eight-minute affair. That Del Rio won with a basement superkick—not an established finisher Del Rio had used before or since—made the win seem all the more random and poorly planned.

#1. Bray Wyatt Crashes Ambrose And Rollins’s Party

2014 saw Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins wage war in a highly entertaining feud. That the two would blow off their issue inside Hell in a Cell was completely befitting the performers and their story, and that they would get the main event spot was a nice testament to both what these young talents were capable of, and that WWE management believed in them.

The match itself was solid—violent and well worked. Interestingly enough, WWE seemed to be in a no-lose situation. If Ambrose won it would elevate him and set him up for his main event destiny, while Rollins would still have the Money in the Bank briefcase in hand. On the flip side, a Rollins victory would be nice little elevation all its own on his path to the top of the card. In either case, the feud deserved a decisive finish with one of the allies-turned-arch-enemies emerging the winner.

Instead of resolving the program in decisive fashion, WWE deferred, instead having Bray Wyatt mystically appear in the Cell to layout Ambrose and cost him the match.

Transitioning Ambrose to a program with Wyatt was a fair enough direction for his character. The trouble is that Wyatt’s intervention robbed what might have been a great match of a good finish, and came across as completely out of left field given Ambrose and Wyatt hadn’t interacted for over a half a year, back when Ambrose and Reigns were working together against the Wyatt Family. It’s these random turns and inexplicable bits of magic that tend to turn people on Wyatt. This was one of the worst examples of that dynamic.

Which poor creative choices would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.