The Referee Explains Stopping Hell in a Cell Match

Rod Zapata, who was the official at the Hell in a Cell match between Seth Rollins and the Fiend Bray Wyatt, has explained why he stopped the match. WWE has run the quote from Zapata during WWE’s new studio talk show The Bump.

At Hell in a Cell, Seth Rollins had tried many finishers, ladder, chair, and other tools, but the Fiend still getting up. Rollins finally tried using a sledgehammer to put down the Fiend for good. The referee tried preventing Rollins from using the hammer and called to stop the match.

The ending of the match was met with huge boos from the crowd along with the chants of “Restart the Match”, “Refund”, and “AEW”. There was also confusion regarding the stoppage with many believing that the referee had called a DQ, which could not be the case in a Hell in a Cell match. Dave Meltzer from Wrestling Observer Radio reported that the decision for the Referee stoppage came directly from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.

On this week’s episode of WWE’s new studio talk show The Bump, they ran a quote from official Rod Zapata which read, “With Bray motionless, and Seth clearly doing whatever it was going to take to win that match… I had to think of the competitor’s safety and at that moment, I did what I thought was best.”

Both Seth Rollins and the Fiend were absent from this week’s RAW episode. WWE has also, accidentally, tweeted the rematch between them for Survivor Series which was later deleted.