Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi beat the hell out of each other at SummerSlam. But actually using the cage in the Hell in a Cell? Not so much.
Night One’s main event featured the return of one of WWE’s most iconic stipulations, but by the time the bell rang, one question had completely taken over the conversation: why have a Hell in a Cell match if the Cell itself barely played a role?
The two heavyweights never climbed the structure, never used it as a weapon and barely interacted with it at all. Instead, the action stayed almost entirely inside the ring before Lesnar ripped up the canvas, exposed the wooden boards underneath and planted Femi with a Tombstone Piledriver. Femi survived, battled back and walked out with the biggest win of his career.
With fans continuing to debate the creative decision, the topic eventually came up during a WrestleVotes Q&A. Asked why WWE promoted a Hell in a Cell match that barely featured the Cell, JoeyVotes revealed the real reasons behind the approach.
“Why did they do Hell in a Cell if they weren’t gonna use the Cell? It was an attraction to sell tickets, an appeasement to ESPN, and Brock Lesnar said, ‘I want to be in one more of these, but I don’t want to touch the cage.’ So all those things combined, they put them in the Cell and had them have a regular match, and that’s what they did.”
For many watching at home, the stipulation came with certain expectations. Hell in a Cell has built its reputation on steel, chaos and unforgettable moments involving the structure itself. This time, WWE took a very different route, putting almost all of the focus on Lesnar and Femi’s fight rather than the cage surrounding them.
That didn’t stop the match from delivering memorable moments. Lesnar and Femi literally tore the ring apart, the Minneapolis crowd stayed on its feet for the closing stretch, and the night ended with Lesnar embracing Femi before declaring him “the future of WWE” in a passing-of-the-torch moment that instantly became one of SummerSlam’s defining images.
Still, for plenty of fans, the biggest debate wasn’t about who won. It was whether a match can really be called Hell in a Cell when the Cell barely enters the fight.
What did you think of WWE’s approach to the Hell in a Cell match? Should the structure have played a much bigger role, or did the match work without it? Let us know in the comments below.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
