Roman Reigns OUT Of Wrestling WWE Hell In A Cell 2021

The Big Dog will NOT be competing on Sunday.

by Andrew Pollard
Rey Mysterio Roman Reigns
WWE.com

With WWE having announced how the Hell in a Cell match between Roman Reigns and Rey Mysterio has been brought forward to tonight’s SmackDown rather than take place at Sunday’s HIAC PPV, there comes an update on this contest.

As is so often the case when WWE makes such an announcement, many fans were presuming that tonight’s SmackDown will see some sort of ‘shenanigans’ take place in order to still have Reigns vs. Mysterio happen on Sunday.

Seemingly that will not be the case.

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In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it’s reported that there are currently no plans for Roman Reigns to wrestle at Sunday’s Hell in a Cell PPV.

The Observer notes how a creative meeting took place yesterday, which resulted in the call being made to bring Roman and Rey-Rey’s cell contest forward from Sunday to Friday.

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There’s said to be no clear reason why that decision was made, but it could well be that WWE simply wanted to do something big in order to bring eyes to this week’s SmackDown. Even then, though, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was all part of a bait and switch that would see the match really happen at Sunday’s PPV.

As it stands, this leaves Hell in a Cell with just one match taking place inside the cell structure; that being Bobby Lashley defending the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre.

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Considering the PPV is just two days away and we only have four matches formally announced, of course, it seems likely to expect more Hell in a Cell announcements coming out of tonight's SmackDown.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.