WWE Hell In A Cell 2016: 10 Awesome Moments

6. Rusev Locks On The Accolade With A Steel Chain

Kevin Owens Seth Rollins
WWE.com

Opening up the main pay-per-view, Rusev challenged Roman Reigns for the WWE United States Title in the first Hell In A Cell match of the night. Incredibly, the encounter ended up being the longest one on the entire show. Running just shy of 25 minutes, it was approximately one minute longer than the WWE Universal Title tussle between Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens.

Towards the end of the match, Rusev decided to up the ante a little when locking on his Accolade submission move. This wasn't the first time that the Bulgarian has administered the move to Reigns on top of the steel ring steps. However, it was the first time Rusev has also used a steel chain to his advantage.

A gnarly visual, seeing the heel yank hard on the metal chain as it painfully jarred Roman's face was satisfying. Better yet, Reigns rolled his eyes back and allowed himself to be taken by the drama of the moment.

It can sometimes be hard for WWE to sell the brutality of the Cell in a PG format. This was a cool exception to that norm.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.