Bang For Your Buck PPV Review: 2014 Hell in a Cell

UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

Sheamus (C) vs. The Miz

Worst Case Scenario: While we have nothing but love for Sheamus here at JMS HQ, him even coming close to winning this would be kind of terrible. And not just because I’m categorically opposed to immigrant faces holding AMERICAN titles. Or something like that.

I did not like the end of this match. No, not that ending. The real ending.

Because while the visual of Sandow pantomiming jumping off the stairs is worth its weight gold, it could have made even more money by letting this gimmick turn platinum and not have be there to help Miz kick out of the pin. As MR. Brandon Stroud, David Shoemaker and many many others have confirmed, Damien MizDow is over like rover with live crowds. There aren’t many times when wrestling is genuinely in the vicinity of funny, but between Sandow and Miz (who is highly underrated as a WWE humorist) they pretty much nailed the “commedia dell’arte” part of pro graps.

This match, however, left something to be desired outside of Sandow. Sheamus works best against hosses — which should have everyone earth excited about the possibility of Rusev crushing on some playas for Sheamus’s US title — and Miz, as a chickenshit heel, is pretty much the opposite of a hoss. And while he’s definitely skilled, he’s not at a high enough level talent-wise to be able to will a great match from a mismatched opponent like Daniel Bryan or Dolph Ziggler can. That this also planted the seeds for a what would be an extremely depressing hotshot of this angle’s inevitable “no stunt double for a broken heart” hurts nearly as much as the inability for these two styles to quite mesh.
But, honestly, Sandow was so good — especially after the match — that this was one of the highlights of the night, and perhaps the (second) most re-watchable thing that happened all night.

Match +.5 (.2 for the match, .3 for the after-match) | PPV 2.6

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