Oh good Lordy! The fans are so irate with the WWE for that Hell in a Cell finish. You'd likely be asked "Where should I begin?" if you asked one of them for details.
Me? I'm not so miffed. Maybe mosty because my experience wasn't tainted by the apparent fact that much of the live audience couldn't see the match in that weird lighting, I saw it on PPV.
The Fiend is a fresh horror icon, that actually works. Think about it, when was the last time we consumers were treated to a new and convincing horror movie villain?
I think that Jigsaw was the latest one, and his debut was all the way back in 2004. That's fifteen years of disappointing sequels, origin stories and rehashes that are all scraping the bottom of the barrel to use up all the potential that a once great idea had left. Jason Voorhees, Pinhead, Freddy Kreuger, Leatherface, Wishmaster, Candyman and Jigsaw are all jokes at the point that have long since lost their capability to be frightening or even interesting.
The Fiend WORKS. He's cool like the Joker, without being a ripoff of the Joker. His mannerisms, timing and body language all flawlessly convey that he's gone over the edge and that Bray Wyatt was his lighter side.
Some are mad that a Hell in a Cell match ended in a DQ. I'm still not 100% sure if that's the story that the WWE are going with, I believe that they'll record that one as a "referee stoppage" and try to move past it. I'm not really mad, because The Fiend didn't die. If anything, I see this as having the potential to be played as The Fiend won in that he pushed Seth over the edge as well. The Fiend will come back as strong as ever, while Seth has to reconcile with his own conscience and will likely not find the strength to forgive himself for losing his humanity.
Some are mad that The Fiend did not become the WWE Universal Champion. Well shoot, it was only The Fiend's second match. My personal opinion on Seth? He's very vanilla. I believe that fans are craving a Champion that can reawaken the excitement they used to feel from performers like The Undertaker or Sting. The best thing that could have happened to The Fiend character, happened that night. There's no doubt that The Fiend still has the crowd's confidence, and that in the future the WWE will be forced to reward their faith.
Some are mad that, though the ref may have stopped the match out of fear for The Fiend's safety, the Fiend was up and about shortly after the decision to end the match and the match was not restarted in spite of the crowd's pleas. Oh phoey. Am I about to run to AEW? Nah, nothing against them, but they don't have The Fiend stirring things up. AEW has a few wannabes with respectable fanbases, but right now nobody holds a candle to The Fiend.
The bright side to all this? It's The Fiend vs the WWE right now. The fans want blood and mayhem for what they were forced to witness. No amount of brutality will satisfy them, and for that matter there should be no limit to the amount of brutality that The Fiend is willing to dish out for fun. Whatever The Fiend does at this point to get his revenge against the WWE will sell tickets for the WWE, and there's a LOT of WWE for The Fiend to
rip and smash through.