Before Hurricane Sandy storms through my neck of the woods and cuts off my power for the next few days, I feel like I have to chime in on the Ryback vs. CM Punk Hell In A Cell match that just took place to wrap up what was a pretty lackluster PPV event.
While we all suspected that CM Punk was going to remain the WWE Champion regardless of Ryback’s undefeated streak being on the line at Hell In A Cell, the way this match ended was anything but innovative or PPV-worthy. After all, for my money, the only time a crooked ref angle works is when Nick Patrick is wearing the stripes. Granted, WWE was in WCW territory tonight, but that doesn’t mean the entire Hell In A Cell PPV — including the main event — needed to more closely resemble an episode of Thunder than an actual show worth buying / watching.
And honestly, instead of the referee’s shenanigans — and being that this was a PPV — are you telling me they couldn’t have Brock Lesnar interfere in some capacity to achieve the same result? As predictable as a Lesnar disturbance would have been, at least it would have been main event worthy to have Brock take down Ryback when Punk couldn’t. This could have led to a number of interesting scenarios / interactions between Paul Heyman, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar and Ryback / John Cena / The Rock for the next few months, but instead we are now saddled with a very tired premise of the ref — who probably can’t cut a promo for his life — having to speak to explain his actions and all the nonsense that goes with a promo like that.
While Hell In A Cell wasn’t all bad — Alberto Del Rio vs. Randy Orton was a good match and Big Show vs. Sheamus at least produced title change even if it wasn’t my cup of tea — the finishes to some of these matches (including the main event) just presents more of the same PPV drudgery we’ve had to put up with way too many times in 2012.
Oh, and if WWE Creative is only going to use the actual Hell In A Cell structure once throughout the night, maybe it’s time to change the name of the PPV in the future to make sure they don’t book themselves into the same corner they did tonight.
That’s all from me — for who knows how long depending on the Hurricane — CB.
