WWE Raw: Lack of focus on Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend fallout makes things even worse

The Oct. 7 edition of WWE Raw was expected to focus on the controversial fallout from the Hell in a Cell main event between Seth Rollins and The Fiend, but that never quite took shape.

Last night’s post-Hell in a Cell edition of WWE Raw had some solid moments throughout, but one major development wasn’t focused on nearly enough given how the Hell in a Cell Pay-Per-View ended with one of the most controversial match finishes in a long time between Seth Rollins and The Fiend, Bray Wyatt.

The WWE Universe thought that it would be Wyatt’s night at Hell in a Cell to win the Universal Championship and cap off the most successful run of his entire career.

The momentum was undeniable and this new version of Wyatt that started back in April with the first Firefly Fun House was one of the most unique and creative characters the WWE has produced in a long time.

Things started out well for The Fiend at Hell in a Cell, keeping Rollins grounded and dishing out a lot of punishment to the Universal Champion.  The Architect turned the tide a bit, however, and hit Wyatt with everything except the kitchen sink.  An abundance of stomps and weapon shots couldn’t keep The Fiend down and he kicked out of everything Rollins tried to do.  But when Rollins brought out a sledgehammer, everything changed for the worst.

The referee tried to stop Rollins from using it, but he couldn’t help himself and he hit The Fiend with the sledgehammer while a few weapons were pinned over his head.  This led the ref to stop the match, much to the dismay of everyone in the WWE Universe.  A Hell in a Cell match where anything goes was stopped because of a sledgehammer, that says it all.  Wyatt was about to be stretchered out when he popped up and took out Rollins once again with the mandible claw.

That finish infuriated the live audience at Hell in a Cell, leading to chants of “AEW,” “Refund,” “Restart the match,” and a chorus of boos.  Simply put, it just stunk the way that Vince McMahon and company went about this finish.  So, you’d think that type of controversy would be addressed last night, right?  Au, contraire.  The beginning of Raw saw more drama between Rusev and his marital problems with Lana, who’s now shacking up with Bobby Lashley in hotel rooms.

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An hour later, still no mention of Rollins vs. Wyatt.  Then another hour later, there was still no mention of Rollins vs. Wyatt.  It was finally brought up with only about 30 minutes remaining in the show and all that happened was a quick, two-minute video package that showed what happened at Hell in a Cell.  No Rollins promo, no Firefly Fun House, no Fiend sneak attack, no explanation, no word on a rematch, no nothing.

This is a bad look, period.  All this does is make the situation look even worse because not only did that finish take place, but now the WWE seems so embarrassed by it that the situation can’t even be brought up on the Raw after Hell in a Cell.  It just screams that McMahon wants fans to forget about it by essentially ignoring what went down, but that certainly won’t make fans forget.  The issue isn’t going away and it would have been nice to see something come out of it.

If they’re trying to sell Rollins being taken out courtesy of The Fiend, fine.  But The Fiend was the last person standing last night and it would have been nice to have at least seen a Firefly Fun House while the situation was still fresh.  It could have planted the seed for a rematch between the two and addressed the situation in an entertaining way, but last night just doesn’t sit well with certain fans.

It felt like nothing more than a tactic to let the situation cool down regarding the horrible finish at Hell in a Cell.  Fans see through that and it could only fuel the fire of the WWE Universe that feels cheated after seeing a Hell in a Cell match stopped by a referee because of a sledgehammer.  Ignoring it won’t make it go away and neither will putting it off, so the WWE needed to attack it head-on last night.

The trend of insulting fans’ intelligence with illogical decisions has been a bad trend lately, so in some weird way, ignoring this maligned match finish is right on par with how McMahon has been operating.