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It has been a common occurrence in the past few years, seeing WWE book a solid pay-per-view only for the ending to leave a sour taste in people's mouths. For most fans, the quality of an event is measured by its ending, as that is the last thing they see. It may or may not be a fair way to judge, depending on the other things that happened on the show.
There have been instances aplenty where the finish to a pay-per-view did not represent the quality of the two and a half hours preceding it. These shows were generally a decent main event away from being remembered fondly in the eyes of the fans. But poor booking prevailed in these cases, leaving fans to take their frustration out on the entire show instead of just the main event in question.
Here are five perfectly decent pay-per-view events from the past couple of years that ended up disappointing fans due to a bad ending.
#5 Hell in a Cell 2019
WWE has been pretty consistent in booking pay-per-view events this year, with most of them being good. But last weekend's Hell in a Cell show was a weird one. Half of the card was announced hours before it started, but it did start off well. Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch tore the house down inside the steel structure in what was possibly the best women's match in WWE this year.
The rest of the show was decent, even with a couple of so-and-so matches with minimal build and excitement. However, the main event is the one thing that the fans remember the most. Seth Rollins defended his Universal Championship against "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt inside the Cell, and the match ended in utterly bizarre fashion.
The match was stopped on account of Rollins beating the Fiend up too much, which makes zero sense in a Hell in a Cell match. The fans completely turned on the show once the bell sounded for the end of the match. It was horrible, and while the Fiend can still be salvaged, this ending has killed both the Hell in a Cell concept as well as Seth Rollins as a babyface.
It is a shame that a perfectly decent undercard will be forgotten in favor of this mess.
#4 Hell in a Cell 2018
The sad thing about this year's Hell in a Cell finish is that it wasn't even the first time that WWE decided to end such a match without a conclusive winner. Last year's event was actually really good. It had a fantastic undercard which featured Randy Orton vs Jeff Hardy inside the Cell, Becky Lynch's victory over Charlotte Flair and an excellent RAW Tag Team Championship match pitting Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre against Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. AJ Styles and Samoa Joe also had a pretty good WWE Championship match before a dodgy finish.
However, the final image of the show was obviously the most remembered one as well. Roman Reigns faced Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship inside Hell in a Cell, but WWE chose the cop-out route and had Brock Lesnar break into the Cell and attack both men. The match until then was pretty brutal, but the abrupt no-contest ruling undid the good work. Had there been a winner to this match, Hell in a Cell would have been looked at fondly as one of the greatest pay-per-views of 2018.
This finish left a very sour taste in everyone's mouth and sparked the beginning of the end of the Hell in a Cell concept. While Seth Rollins vs Bray Wyatt destroyed it, the no contest between Reigns and Strowman started the process.
#3 Fastlane 2017
The Fastlane pay-per-view usually gets a bad rep from fans, as it is somewhat like a buffer on the road to WrestleMania. In 2017, it was a RAW-exclusive pay-per-view. Aside from some high points, the WWE product at the time was nothing more than fine.
The card was actually pretty decent, certainly better than previous installments of the pay-per-view which were designed to put Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania, in a time when his push felt forced. The Big Dog would once again main event the Show of Shows, but we did not know it at the time.
Reigns faced Braun Strowman at Fastlane, giving the Monster Among Men possibly the best match of his career. It was incredible. Aside from that, Samoa Joe vs Sami Zayn and a barnburner of a Cruiserweight title match between Neville and Jack Gallagher were among the highlights. The show was going perfectly fine, despite a dud or two.
However, then came the main event - Kevin Owens vs Goldberg for the Universal Championship. People were expecting KO to lose his title, possibly in a dramatic sub-5-minute match. But what happened next enraged the fans.
Goldberg won the match in 21 seconds. In no way was this justifiable, even with the Distraction of Jericho. Ruin the match, maaaaaaan! This induced the fans to thrash Fastlane despite it not being all that terrible as a whole.
#2 WrestleMania 34
WrestleMania 34 was a tale of two parts. The first two-thirds of the show were pretty great. The show started off hot, with two excellent title matches involving the likes of Seth Rollins, Charlotte Flair, and Asuka among others. Ronda Rousey stole the show in her debut match, teaming with Kurt Angle to defeat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
That was the peak of the entire event. There were some great moments featuring the in-ring returns of both the Undertaker and Daniel Bryan, but as the fatigue set in, the Show of Shows became a chore to watch.
The final hour put a huge dampener on things. A dream match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura gone wrong, a 10-year-old winning the RAW Tag Team Championship, and the entire main event prevented this WrestleMania from being considered among the greatest in history.
Roman Reigns challenged Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship in a match that nobody cared about. The Big Dog, who received zero sympathy, kicked out of five F5s. He still ended up losing to Lesnar, ending the night on an even worse note.
It was the worst possible ending for that WrestleMania, reeking of WWE's stubbornness. Luckily, the Reigns vs Lesnar feud ended on a relatively happier note, but it did ruin WrestleMania 34.
#1 Survivor Series 2017
The build-up to Survivor Series was brilliant. It was intense and chaotic. The invasions of both RAW and SmackDown by their rival brands were both extremely fun. The show was stacked with Champion vs Champion matches, with the card molding into one of the best in recent WWE history.
Title wins for the Bar, AJ Styles, and Charlotte Flair helped to structure a literal dream card. An absolutely star-studded 5-on-5 elimination match between Team RAW and Team SmackDown seemed to be one of the greatest matches of its kind, involving stars from Triple H and John Cena to Samoa Joe and Finn Balor.
The show progressed without a hitch, with the Shield vs the New Day and the Usos vs the Bar firing up the pace. The best match of the night was between Styles and Brock Lesnar, the most competitive one-on-one bout the Beast had been a part of in years.
It all looked set to be topped by a whopper of a main event, with megastars galore. However, it disappointed massively. The ending was the worst part, with Shane McMahon fighting insurmountable odds against Kurt Angle, Triple H, and Braun Strowman. The Game seemed to double-cross Team RAW after attacking Angle, but it was all a ruse so he could pin Shane and win the match with ease.
It was anticlimactic and made Strowman look a little silly. He did lay Triple H out, but this ending had zero follow-up at all. It was baffling and ended a spectacular night of wrestling on an unfortunate note.
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