Report: Why The WWE Raw Women's Title Match At Hell In A Cell Ended In A DQ

Hell in a Cell saw WWE Raw Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley successfully with the title after getting DQ’d in her match with Charlotte Flair.

The ending was widely panned online for being nonsensical, as Ripley got the DQ after seemingly accidentally striking Flair with the top portion of the announce table, but according to the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, this was all part of a calculated plan.

“The reason they did this is because the idea was not to turn Flair face but to establish Ripley as a cheating heel, so the rematch will be heel vs. heel. In the Thunderdome, the crowd was instructed to cheer for Ripley during the match, but then boo her after the match. The idea to make Ripley a heel was to show her celebrating her cheap way out of the match.” Said Meltzer.

While the finish may have felt flat, it seems it was sort of meant to, with the theory being it’s easy to boo a bad ending, and therefore transfer the heat onto the perpetrator. Whether this works in the long run is another question altogether.