Backstage News On Hell In A Cell Finish, Vince McMahon's Reaction

Fightful has spoken to several backstage at WWE Hell in a Cell, who called the finish to the show involving Seth Rollins and The Fiend completely a Vince McMahon's call, and his sight and vision played out how he wanted it. There was much criticism from the roster and employees that we spoke to immediately after the show with this, among some other booking decisions this week -- though those weren't specified with details.

At least one story we heard involved Vince McMahon initially laughing off the reaction that the crowd gave the match.  One high level source said "not exactly" to that degree with the finish itself, and that "he took it seriously" and he's "not oblivious." The latter part came when pressed on context, with the source saying that "those people have agendas or are trying to protect themselves from their involvement."  Vince was, however, particular about the level of offense involved, but "knew he'd messed up" according to another name around him. 

We're continuing to reach out to names backstage to take the temperature of the situation. Of late, many that we usually speak to have been in a bit of a "honeymoon" period between Smackdown debuting on Fox, the draft looming, AEW launching on TNT, NXT moving to USA. That didn't seem to be the case as the weekend wrapped up. 

One wrestler noted that Vince McMahon has insinuated that some on the roster are "too pro wrestling," (the context wasn't provided), but then booked something like this, going as far as to call it an "embarrassment," and mentioning that the fans have a reason to be upset calling it "maybe the worst they've ever insulted fans intelligence." The person said that they'd stopped making attempts to make sense of these decisions a long time ago. 

A long-time talent sent word to a Fightful source that "none of us even know what to say," in a clearly negative connotation.  

Another talent that has been largely positive about WWE content in discussions with us said they were in the same boat as everyone, and  "I can appreciate over the top stuff. The blood coming out of Seth's mouth. That's stuff I can get a kick out of. But the bs finish in a cell? Come on. That needs to be the match that has the ultimate finality. But Fiends first match with Rollins was in a cell, so that was flawed right out the gate And taking 15 curb stomps? That also was bizarre. It was bizarre. That's the best way I can describe it." 

We also had other talent -- even some that were there -- reaching out to us to ask what the consensus reaction was.

NOTE TO THOSE WHO AGGREGATE THIS STORY: Please reach out to me for proper context if there's anything confusing. We've had issues with this in recent weeks. I'll break this down on the Backstage Report Podcast on Monday.