100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 45 - Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns
Hell in a Cell Match - Universal Championship - Hell in a Cell 2018
Perhaps it is the passing of time slowly chipping away at my memory, but I often find myself forgetting that Braun Strowman ever won the Money in the Bank ladder match. Maybe this review will act as a permanent reminder of the time Braun was Mr Money in the Bank, and - the more relevant discussion of how he had the worst cash in of all time.
Braun and Roman had an incredibly fun series of matches through 2017 that changed the perception of Braun from mediocre big man into seemingly the next sure fire big star in WWE. For whatever reason, WWE held off pulling the trigger on Braun at his hottest. In a move right out of the playbook of Gabe Sapolsky, they had Braun come up short in every meaningful big match to the point that when he did eventually get his big win he had a fraction of the momentum than he did in 2017.
In 2018, Braun and Roman reignited their feud in the aftermath of Braun’s Money in the Bank victory. He tried to cash in on Roman on an episode of Raw following Summerslam, but was thwarted by Rollins and Ambrose, and the reuniting of the Shield. Strowman would bring in his own allies to combat the “Hounds of Justice”. Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler, who Braun affectionately named the “Dogs of War”, becoming a three man heel team that would spend much of the fall of 2018 dominating weekly WWE television. It was not very interesting.
Braun would respond to this by announcing he was cashing in at Hell in a Cell, becoming only the third person to do so in advance. Michael Cole inadvertently mentions how whored out the Money in the Bank concept is, as he says this is the third time Roman Reigns has been cashed in on. After wrestling practically every stipulation known to man already, they would meet one more time in the confines of the newly debuted, hideously garish big red Hell in a Cell. I can only assume someone watched the disastrous Steel Asylum from 4th January Impact and thought “wow, why has nobody else done a cage like this since!?”. Truly one of the ugliest visuals in wrestling history.
To make matters worse, this match isn’t just a visual eye-sore, but audibly too. There’s a lady in the crowd who spends the first half of the match screaming, and she must be positioned near one of the microphones because you hear her incessant wailing all the way through. I’m already going into this match in a bad mood, and unfortunately the wrestling isn’t going to make me feel any better.
Early brawling is fine, if inoffensive and unexciting. It’s all very WWE, and I don’t mean that in a positive way as will become apparent as this review goes on. I feel like I’ve watched this same Roman cell match twice already with Rusev and Wyatt. Braun actually gets into my good books by throwing a kendo stick away in disgust, unwilling to use such a cliched weapon. Of course, this is just a vehicle for Roman to grab the stick and use it for himself, thus bringing us crashing back to the monotony of the modern WWE plunder match. It’s all so void of creativity - kendo sticks, chair shot to the gut then to the back, a table set up.
Mick Foley is the special guest referee and he serves as a constant reminder of how bland modern WWE can be. His presence just makes me sad how far this stipulation has fallen. The commentators reference the punishment Foley took in this match - all of which are some of WWE’s most iconic and shocking moments ever. All the while these two have the most cookie cutter modern WWE style brawl you’ve ever seen. It’s made worse by the fact that earlier in the night Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton actually managed to have a phenomenal violent hate-filled match within the restrictions of modern WWE. The other noteworthy Foley moment in this match is when he accidentally counted 3 for Braun. The commentators do - to their credit - cover up very well by saying he’s not a full time referee, but it’s a funny botch and about the only thing that is actually memorable of the first half.
But hey, the first part of the match is fine, if inoffensive and unexciting. I kinda dug how strong they made Braun feel; he wasn’t selling much for Roman or his weaponry and was overwhelmingly dominant for the first half of the match. Overall, if the rest of the match was just more of this, I’d put it down as a mediocre main event but nowhere near worth a list such as this.
Things begin a drastic downturn after Roman kicks out of a running powerslam. Braun sets up a table in the corner only for Roman to finally hit his first big offensive move of the night with a pair of superman punches, and a spear through the table. Roman immediately gets up and goes for the cover, and gets a 2 count.
Why do I mention this?
This is the final move done by either Roman Reigns or Braun Strowman in this match. A spear through a table for a 2 count is enough to essentially end this match for both men.
The match goes on for another 10 minutes.
Even if you love the first half of the match, and I can’t imagine why you would because it’s all fairly nondescript, I find it difficult for anyone to justify the last ten minutes of this.
While Roman and Braun are having a nap in the ring, Ziggler and McIntyre try to break into the cell. That leads to Rollins and Ambrose running down for the save. These four men, who actually had an incredible tag match earlier in the night, decide to try and make this mediocre match worth watching by essentially continuing their match in the main event of the pay-per-view. They brawl around the cell and eventually make it up to the top - with a kendo stick because of fucking course they do. While this all sounds chaotic and cool, I can’t help feel it’s a joke that there’s four people outside of this match that literally take over the workrate for the second half of it.
There’s nothing funnier than when the camera pans out wide while the four are brawling on top of the cell, and you are reminded of the fact that Braun and Roman are asleep in the ring still selling one basic table spot. Even the commentators are sheepish to reference the actual championship match that is going on.
Eventually it leads to Ziggler and Rollins on the side of the cell, in what may be the most obvious and transparent spot in WWE history. Ziggler makes sure to adjust himself perpendicular with one announce table, and Rollins does the same with another. Both take turns hitting the other off the side of the cell and tease the upcoming fall. They both do the Shawn Michaels dangly arms sell, before falling simultaneously through the announce tables from what equates to a pretty modest height if we’re being honest.
“ROLLINS CRASHED AND BURNED IT DOWN!” - says Michael Cole, in what is somehow only the second shittiest manufactured call of his career involving a man falling off the side of hell in a cell.
I can’t eloquently put into words how much I loathe this spot. It’s so plastic and fake. Everything about it boils my piss. This has awful, transparent choreography, made even worse by an all-time cringeworthy commentary call, and the fact that neither man is actually in this match. This isn’t impressive or creative - it’s a corny cheap imitation of an iconic spot from the original Hell in a Cell by a much better wrestler which felt far more organic and memorable. Like everything in this match, it feels like the bastardised version of much greater matches, with a regurgitation of overbooked nonsense to try and manufacture a feeling of chaos. Hell, you could argue it’s not even an imitation of Michaels’ fall from Badd Blood 1997, but an imitation of the imitation from Hell in a Cell 2014. Which featured two wrestlers who are interfering in this match.
To add to the nonsense, Brock Lesnar’s music hits and he kicks down the cell door - making his first appearance since Summerslam. Heyman makes sure to pepper spray Foley. Brock beats the hell out of both Braun and Roman - attacking them with bits of the table they broke ten minutes earlier. An F5 to both, and a new referee arrives to call off the match. What? The show immediately goes off the air just as the fans realise what has happened and start to make their feelings known. Never before had a Hell in a Cell just ended without a finish - with the exception of a Raw angle from 1998. This was the stipulation that felt more protected than any other in the company. To run this finish in the main event of a PPV, for one of your world titles, and a money in the bank cash in to boot. It beggars belief. Unlike other failed cash-ins, such as Sandow or Corbin - neither of whom were deserving of a world championship - Braun was a guy that was popular enough that you could (and arguably should) have made him a world champion.
Next year WWE would give us an even worse version of this match with an even stupider ending. Don’t let this distract you - this match fully deserves its reputation as one of the worst hell in a cell matches of all time.
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