After all, the company had yanked its hottest commodity—Roman Reigns—off the show, instead giving away his title match against Rey Mysterio for free on Friday’s SmackDown.
But those fans who let the situation drum up some hype for Sunday night instead got nothing but a main event ending in a roll-up.
But a match with Bobby Lashley has been one of those dream matches fans have fantasy-booked for the better part of a decade, so it would be a ton of fun, too.
The two put on a fun big-hoss match as they have in the past and as anyone could have reasonably expected.
This was a Hell in a Cell and McIntyre’s stipulation was if he lost, he would never be allowed to challenge The All Mighty again as long as he held the title.
One could argue it was a bit in character for both guys, maybe.
But the Scot has deflated like a balloon with a leak and no, a Money in the Bank win to revive him probably wouldn’t work.
When a company takes its top act off a pay-per-view so that event feels like even more of a holding-pattern status than everything else right now, disinterest is the result.
It was almost akin to watching an episode of Raw masked as a big event fans had to pay to see .
If nothing else, a Lesnar return needs to happen just to prop up the rest of the rough edges on these PPV cards.
With fans starting to return to arenas and SummerSlam looking like a huge ordeal, it needed to keep fans engaged, not apathetic.
If Sunday night—and most of 2021—is a sign, this could just be how non-big PPVs will be moving forward for WWE.