Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins Creates Blueprint for Hell in a Cell in PG Era

Dipping into a palette that included splintered tables, the clang of steel chairs and seething hatred, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins painted a violent masterpiece inside the Hell in a Cell.

In a gimmick match that has lost much of its potency in the PG era, those men showed just how to maximize the steel structure. Their performance gives fans hope that the Hell in a Cell can be the fearsome arena it is intended to be, even within the limits of today's WWE.

It will be the hokey ending that gets many folks talking; capping off a battle with a ghostly hologram will do that.

The focus, though, should be on just how good and intense the action was up to that point.

In recent years, the Hell in a Cell has morphed from a truly hellish structure to a mostly harmless backdrop. Wrestlers aren't allowed to bleed onto the mat, which was once a staple of the match. Barbed wire, thumbtacks and fiery weapons have vanished.

There has been a recent tradition of letdowns inside the Hell in a Cell, leading one to wonder if WWE should just retire it all together. Ambrose and Rollins changed that conversation before the bell even rang.

After tossing a stack of steel chairs into the ring, The Lunatic Fringe climbed to the top of the steel enclosure, waiting for his enemy there.

Credit: WWE.com

It was a homage to Mick Foley choosing the same strategy at King of the Ring 1998 before the most famous and arguably most beloved Hell in a Cell match ever.

The two former members of The Shield didn't take the life-threatening bump that Foley did that night. Their crash onto the announce tables was a pulled-back version of that, more like Shawn Michaels' fall in the first-ever Hell in a Cell.

Still, this was the kind of moment fans expect in these matches. The level of danger is supposed to be higher but hasn't been in recent years.

The fall from the side of The Cell was far from the only time that Rollins and Ambrose pushed the limits of violence. 

Ambrose brought a bag of goodies with him to the ring. In it, he had a Kendo stick, which he used to swat off Rollins' personal security guards. Rollins powerbombed Ambrose into a table, and they made full use of the steel chairs lying on the canvas.

Credit: WWE.com

Beyond the use of weaponry, there was a clear hatred between these enemies.

One of the issues with the modern Hell in a Cell match is that it is forced into a feud because it is built into the pay-per-view calender. That leads to clashes like Mark Henry vs. Orton in 2011 that aren't nearly intense enough to warrant this stipulation.

The Cell is designed to house fury that cannot be contained by a normal match. That's partly why John Cena and Randy Orton's battle, even as well-worked as it was, didn't grab hold of the audience like Rollins vs. Ambrose did.

Cena and Orton had picked up a rivalry long since past its peak. Rollins and Ambrose, on the other hand, have been building up the bad blood between them for months.

The arc of their story led them to The Devil's Playground. Every blow, every slam had additional meaning.

Without being able to use blood or metal barbs, this is what today's wrestlers will have to depend on inside the Hell in a Cell.

The rivalry leading up to this collision made it more powerful. When Ambrose cracked Rollins in the back with a chair, it was payback for when Rollins did the same to him when Ambrose turned on The Shield. When The Lunatic Fringe positioned Rollins' head on cinder blocks, it was meant to be payback for when Rollins nearly ended his career the same way.

Credit: WWE.com

There was a poetic symmetry to these acts of violence. 

That meant that they didn't need to outdo Foley vs. Undertaker or Chris Jericho vs. Triple H in terms of barbarity; the emotional power of their story did much of the work. 

WWE should study this match for next year's Hell in a Cell showdowns. Both the story and the stunts harnessed the steel structure, making it the unsettling battleground it is supposed to be.

The buildup to the Hell in a Cell event so often centers on how a man is never the same after stepping inside it. Foley warned Rollins and Ambrose on Raw about the psychological scars it leaves. That kind of talk has too often been hollow rhetoric.

Ambrose and Rollins lived those words on a night where both men lay on stretchers, scaled steel and crashed onto awaiting wood. Their path is one that should be followed next year and beyond.