After months of back-and-forth battles between the only two men to ever call themselves the leader of The Judgement Day, Finn Balor and Edge are looking to end their feud once and for all.
That's right, no more wrestling call-outs, no more attacking each other's families, none of it; after being stuck in the proverbial mud for far too long, Balor and Edge will leave it all in the ring and finally move forward one way or another after one final match at WrestleMania 39, and this time, “The Rated-R Superstar” intends to make it a one-on-one affair by having the match inside one of WWE's signature gimmicks: Hell in a Cell.
That's right, after being the name of a “Premium Live Event” since 2009, Hell in a Cell will be returning to its roots as a feud-ending gimmick match moving forward, and Paul “Triple H” Levesque has found the perfect bout to test the renewed concept on, as there aren't two wrestlers with more devilish intentions for WrestleMania 39 than Edge and Balor, as the former pointed out in a creepy promo on the penultimate edition of RAW before “The Showcase of the Immortals.”
“I will throw you through a wall,” Edge said. “Finn, I am a hostile man. I keep it caged, so I can be the man I can become, so I can function in society. But inside the cage? Well, that’s caged no more. I won’t apologize for it, I won’t fight it, I will lean into it, I will revel in it, I will savor it. Finn, you have no idea what I’m capable of inside Hell in a Cell: you have no idea of what goes through your soul when that steel door slams shut behind you… but I do. I have been baptized in the cell by the Deadman himself.
“The Cell has become my hard-won friend, my partner, my cathedral of pain. It rewards me for the streak that runs through me. You cannot become what you need to become by remaining what you are, Finn. You and I are men who clearly understand that, so I grasp what you meant when you said that Hell cannot handle your demons.
“The scriptures, they say, ‘Yeah I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.’ I never have, because I am the evil in the valley. So leave Finn at home, bring me your Demon to meet the Devil. You’d like to meet him.”
Will WrestleMania 39 finally mark a new chapter for Edge and The Judgement Day, with the two sides finally going their separate ways into the future? Hopefully so, as even in a world where long-term storytelling is appreciated, running the same matches over, and over, and over again harkens back to an era of WWE that fans would like to forget and have appreciated Triple H for moving past. If Rhea Ripley's willing to keep flying The Judgement Day's flag as the SmackDown Women's Champion, which she has stated she is, then it's time to give the faction a high-profile feud moving forward and allow Edge to go his own way into the twilight of his career.
Edge’s masterful promo tonight on #WWERAW REALLY makes me wanna see him in films, this dude could play such a sinister villain.
There’s a reason why The Rated R Superstar is one of the best to ever do it. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/SEkwC6eXBZ
— Richie Vargas (@RichieRich93_) March 21, 2023
Finn Balor's Hell in a Cell match with Edge is a big test for Triple H.
Since Hell in a Cell was officially added to the WWE calendar as a “Premium Live Event” in 2009, there have only been five HiaC matches booked outside of the PLE, with the most recent coming on at Crown Jewel in 2021, when Edge wrestled against Seth Rollins in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Though the show remains popular among fans, one very important one who isn't a big fan of the event is arguably the most important one, Triple H, who declared in November of 2022 that he would like to phase out gimmick “Premium Live Events” like Hell in a Cell, Money in the Bank, and the Elimination Chamber in favor of using the matches on pre-existing shows, as he detailed to reports after Survivor Series.
“I think there's a lot of feeling that Hell in a Cell is one of those things that is a giant blow-off,” Triple H said via Bleacher Report. “If you’re calling somebody out at the end of something, you can challenge them to Hell in a Cell. I hear this speculation among fans a lot and [the media] about Money in the Bank, Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber, maybe those things should all go away.
“Some of that, I hear. Hell in a Cell, I hear it. I had a highlight of my career in [Mick] Foley and I calling each other out in Hell in a Cell. But then when you get into something, no one's ever gonna challenge somebody going, ‘That's it, I’m tired of you. I challenge you to an Elimination Chamber with five other guys.' It doesn’t work, right? Same thing, ‘That does it, I challenge you to Money in the Bank.' I feel like there’s a difference there. I feel like we have to re-evaluate all of that. … It's up in the air, but I think it's something we think about on a regular basis.”
By challenging Balor to Hell in a Cell, Edge put Triple H's plan into motion and established a case study for what the future of the match could look like moving forward. If it works, we may see additional Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber, and even Money in the Bank matches challenged from one performer to another moving forward. But if it doesn't go over particularly well? Well, the 2023 calendar is long; Levesque could always slide the show in later in the year.
Follow Us
Subscribe