7 Match Star Ratings For WWE Hell In A Cell 2021

3. Kevin Owens Vs. Sami Zayn

Cesaro Seth Rollins
WWE.com

Another weirdly lethargic version of a dynamic far better suited to super-athletic explosions, this was a TV match masquerading as a pay-per-view contest, not that the two mediums haven't bled into one another to the point of total, numbing normality.

Owens couldn't fight through the injury he had suffered on SmackDown, and although it wasn't exciting by design, his selling was very convincing. Owens is a tremendous performer, and he was able to elicit sympathy in a slow match in a sterile, fake environment. Slow is not inherently bad. The space between moves is more powerful than a move itself. But this is the ThunderDome. It's an awful environment in which to attempt this kind of match, which while good was comfortably the least compelling these two men have ever put together.

There was one sole exceptional moment in which the art transcended the slog. Near the finish, Owens and Zayn, their symbiotic relationship having degenerated into pure resentment, smacked each other daft in the head. It felt brutal. This attritional drama was the natural, logical endpoint to the dynamic. It felt like they were truly sick of doing this to one another in a warped fight-forever sequence all the better for how ugly it was.

The finish was anticlimactic - a byproduct of Zayn's piss-poor win/loss record - and it followed a match almost too real in how it captured the fatigue of it all.

Star Rating: ★★★½

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!