Video: Watch Seth Rollins Stare Down Fan as Crowd Boos After WWE Hell in a Cell
October 7, 2019
To say WWE fans hated the ending of Sunday's Hell in a Cell pay-per-view would be putting it mildly.
The crowd loudly booed every step of the finish, which saw Seth Rollins repeatedly stomp The Fiend and hit him with nearly every item that's ever been held under a wrestling ring before causing a referee stoppage after using a sledgehammer.
The reaction was so sour that the crowd even continued booing during the after-match attack, which saw The Fiend get some of his heat back. Rollins appeared to be bothered by the reaction, staring down a fan as he walked to the back:
Unless this was part of a planned double turn, WWE has a lot of work to do winning back fan trust. The booking decision was odd at best and at worst nerfed all the momentum Bray Wyatt rebuilt with the Firefly FunHouse and Fiend character.
It also made Rollins look weak, with the Stomp finisher looking worse than it ever did against Brock Lesnar or any other opponent. Even the protected Pedigree finish didn't work, which was seemingly to make The Fiend look unstoppable but in reality created a loud sense of displeasure from the crowd and audience at home.
Putting it another way: It's never a good thing when your booking decisions lead to crowd chanting a rival promotion's name. That happened both Sunday and at Friday's SmackDown, which saw fans frustrated by the quick end of Kofi Kingston's championship reign to service a Lesnar-Cain Velasquez feud.