PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

ANOTHER LIVE REPORT FROM HELL IN A CELL

Last night I attended my first ever live WWE show , the Hell In A Cell PPV in Dallas. Some things I noticed a first. While I expected the large amount of kids and their families in John Cena gear I saw, I was pleasantly surprised to also see a s***-load of people also wearing Dean Ambrose merchandise, even the younger fans, to the point that by the end of the night it’s possible I might have seen even more people wearing his stuff than Cena’s, or if not it was at least damn close.

Sadly as I had trouble with parking I didn’t make it in time for Miz TV, however I can say from what they replayed of it later on that night it looked to be really good and the live crowd still laughed and enjoyed at it despite having already seen it live earlier. One kid whose family got there too late to see it as well, was upset that he had missed “Mizdow TV” so you can probably guess why the crowd enjoyed it so much. When I did finally got to my seat I was able to see that while the show hadn’t sold badly at all , it also hadn’t come close to selling out as there were scattered empty seats around the whole arena, and two empty seats right beside me. It also sadly hit home to me when I saw some families with young kids sitting nearby that I would have to watch my normally salty language during the show, which meant I had to refrain from my usual outbursts such as “Holy s***” or “what the ****?” (the latter usually being a result of WWE’s recent booking)

As for Bo Dallas and Mark Henry, all I can offer is it was fast. I know this especially as I had decided to duck out real quick to get a soda and began to hear their music as I was finishing paying, so I thought, awesome I missed the opening segment but I still get to see a pre-show match. Nope. I was about 2 feet from entering back into the show area when suddenly there was a 3 count and Mark Henry was declared the winner. I got back to my seat in time to see Bo protest that Henry had cheated which got a sizable laugh. I had enjoyed Bo’s work a lot in NXT and had hoped he would do well in the main roster, but after this it seems more like he’s been designated to nothing more than a comedy type role just like Adam Rose.

Shortly after we were told it was 2 minutes until we went live, a small CM Punk chant happened, and just as it started getting larger/louder, they went ahead and turned the lights off which I found to be funny, as it reminded me of a teacher turning off the lights in the classroom to silence a group of unruly kids. As the opening package aired I noticed something which continued throughout the evening, which was the crowd would react favorably whenever Orton was on the screen, and boo whenever Cena appeared. Ambrose however got the louder and most positive response from the video though, which was to be expected.

The Dolph Ziggler-Cesaro match was fun to see live. Ziggler was over huge, and as a result Cesaro got heavy boos from the crowd. However, the moment he went for and hit the giant spin, that all changed and the crowd erupted into applause, only to go back to booing him and cheering Ziggler the instant the move ended. I felt the first fall came too early, although I wasn’t really surprised about it. The suplex off the top rope was also amazing to see live and got a huge reaction and “This is awesome” chants from the crowd. Once Cesaro started hitting big moves but was unable to get his first pin, after a while I was able to successfully guess they were going to have Ziggler go over 2-0. I would have easily preferred the match had gone 2 falls to one, but I can’t help but wonder if the reason it didn’t was perhaps due to Cesaro’s recent comments regarding the Cena-Orton match that were previously mentioned on this site.

During the backstage segment with Orton complaining about Seth curb-stomping him, and the reactions Orton was already getting it really hit me that when they have those 2 feud that they shouldn’t even try to turn Orton face as the fans are interested and seeing that match as is, but if they mess with it that might change.

As for as the Bellas match goes, I haven’t even been able to stand that storyline on TV and since I watch it on my DVR I usually fast forward right through their segments now, and I felt like doing the same last night. However since I am unable to fast forward actual time, I instead chose to take the opportunity to get some food and visit the merchandise stand. So while I can’t give any thoughts on how that match went down live, I can tell you that American Airlines arena does have some very good personal Pepperoni Pizzas.

They played a video, which featured part of Ultimate Warrior’s speech from his Raw appearance, which promoted the network but also featured the word “Immortal”. It was recently reported here that WWE have copyrighted WWE Immortals so perhaps that is a term they are going to start pushing going forward. When they introduced the pre/post game team to the live audience, Paul Heyman got a HUGE pop, also I have to add that Renee Young still looks beautiful even from far away.

Then came the Usos vs Gold/Star Dust. When The Uso’s came out and did they’re opening crowd interaction bit they got a LOUD response, which just goes to show that those type of things can really get the crowd behind someone. This match came off really fun live, and all 4 guys put on a great show. The Usos were easily more over, and any time they hit any aerial offence or even teased it the crowd got excited. The finish to this match looked SICK live, and even though the crowd favorites didn’t win, their seemed to be only scattered disappointment.

When it was shown that the next match was to be the Cena/Orton cell bout, it surprised the hell out of a lot people live, but it also got a huge response. Orton came out to what I might not call a big pop but it wasn’t really that small either, and there were a few scattered chants of “Out of Nowhere” referring to the current online memes/vines featuring the RKO. Cena then came out to a large amount of boos, although there were of course people (mostly kids and families) cheering for him as well, they were just nowhere near as loud as his detractors. What’s sad as that as they played the intro video for the match, showing back to when both debuted, it hit home more than ever what they could have been able to do with a worker like Cena if they hadn’t pushed him the way they have. The match itself was incredible, which makes me only more glad this didn’t go on last where people would have been tempted to boo solely for that reason because both guys worked their asses off in this. It was a good, strong , brawl like all cell matches should be and received a much earned “This is awesome” chant from the crowd. When Orton hit the RKO on Cena out of the Attitude Adjustment, the place went crazy. Sadly once Orton started setting up the table with Cena on the turnbuckle, I saw the finish coming a mile away, but it was still a good finish and despite the crowd not liking it they DID pop for the spot itself, enough that for a bit the best part of the arena sounded like “YEAAAAAAABBOOOOOOOOOOO” This match in my opinion deserved more build than just a week, even though a lot of people would have probably groaned at the idea of them facing off again , it would have kept Cena out of the Ambrose/Rollins feud, and the resulting match was off the charts.

It was then time for he Miz and Sheamus. The crowd was more quiet for this match then they should have been, mostly because they were worn from the match they had just seen. Mizdow however is WAY over, and the crowd were into everything he was doing. His antics are a lot more fun to watch live, and also weren’t really a distraction in that in order to enjoy what he was doing you had pay attention to the match as well. His strongest response during the match was when he tied himself in the bottom ropes while Sheamus hit ten beats of the bodhran on the Miz. The finish was another nasty looking one, and a good end to the match. Mizdows post-match antics which lead to Sheamus forcing Miz and thereby Mizdow got a MASSIVE laugh from the entire audience. They have really found something good for these 2 (there is no Mizdow without a Miz) and I’d personally like to see them keep them together as long as they are able to milk it instead of turning them on each other too soon just because they can.

Rusev vs Big Show was Brutal looking live, and a great brawl. Large USA chants throughout of course, but anytime Rusev was able to kick the taller Big Show in the face the crowd on my side at least reacted in a sort of “holy s***” way. Those last two kicks before the submission were especially nasty looking. While the crowd of course booed Rusev winning, the fact that it wasn’t as strong as a reaction as it might have been showed that most probably already felt that Show wasn’t going to win here, though I am really glad that Mark Henry didn’t cost Show the match, and it was a clean win.

Next was Paige and AJ. When AJ. The crowd was mostly dead for this one sadly. There were some brief CM Punk chants from the crowd but they didn’t last too long. One of the nearby young kids didn’t get why people were chanting for someone who was no longer there, so he decided to start chanting for some of his OWN favorite past stars, first Shawn Michaels and then Goldberg, which I found amusing. The match itself was not as good as what these two ladies are capable of, but it did still have some good spots.

Then it was time for the main event. When Dean Ambrose came out with the Singapore cane strapped to his back it reminded me of Casey Jones from the first TMNT movie way back when. The crowd began to roar with excitement the second he started climbing the cage to wait for Rollins. When he started fighting the stooges Version 2.0 on the top along with Rollins, I’m not going to lie I was slightly nervous, as I don’t think anyone wanted to see someone accidentally go through the cell unplanned, but aside from that it was a lot of fun. The bump off the side of the cell that they both took was crazy to see live. The crowd went off their ass for it. Though it was pretty obvious the match wouldn’t end there, the EMT’s who arrived to put both of them on stretchers still might have gotten the worst reaction of the night. Once Ambrose got up again though the arena came alive, and then again once the cell was locked and the bell sounded. This entire match was amazing, to the point I don’t think any play by play could do it justice. When Ambrose did the elbow drop off the top to Rollins on the table on the outside, there was even a small but sizeable “ECW” chant in my section which was amusing. I’m not sure when I’ve seen a crowd grow so rabid in support of someone like they were for Ambrose last night, and when he positioned himself to stomp Rollins threw the cinderblocks they ate it up…then then lights went out…and this is where things got weird. Now first off, when the noises started happening and people realized Bray was about to appear , a large amount of people instinctively went for their cellphones, and when he did suddenly appear there was a big reaction when he appeared out of nowhere, and when the lights came on and he was in that creepy pose of his in the corner, people were stuck in that sort of “holy s*** what is happening “mode and people weren’t that upset. But then Bray hit one of his moves, not even sister Abigail, and Rollins got the pin..and THAT made the crowd angry. In fact as soon as some people realized what was happening a large amount of people started to walk out and leave the arena with displeasure on their face not even a second after the three count occurred. Now the way I look at it is this: it was a Hell In A Cell match , and with everything these two had already gone through, despite a large amount of people already realizing something would probably happen where Rollins would scrape through again, they were waiting and wanting for a big brutal end, like the other cell match got, something that would MAKE one of these guys stay down after getting up from every other thing that had happened so far. Instead the pinfall came by way of a move that wasn’t even a finisher, much less a move that Bray has ever gotten a pinfall from before, and as a result it was HUGELY underwhelming even to the people who were glad to see Bray back, even if it was in a WCW Russo Era-esque “swerve”. Despite the fans not being happy however, a large amount of the audience did take out their cell-phones out and sway to Bray’s music when it began to play, something they no doubt had missed while he’s been gone. Perhaps his time away helped him some, they do say Absence makes the heart grow fonder after all. So while I hated the finish, the match itself was incredible, and I think Ambrose and Wyatt could have an amazing feud if done right, which would give Rollins time to feud properly with Orton before him and Ambrose start up again.

Anyway, that is all for me, I hope all of you enjoyed my report.

-Johnny S Words

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet