WWE News: More Interesting Backstage Details Behind Charlotte & Sasha Banks Booking At ‘Hell In A Cell’

As noted previously, the majority of the internal debate surrounding the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view from this past Sunday centered around what match would headline the show. Though it was billed as a night with three main events, the realistic decision ultimately came down to Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship and Charlotte against Sasha Banks for the RAW Women’s Championship.

In the end, of course, it was Charlotte and Sasha who had the honor of headlining, making history twice in one night. It was the first time two women main-evented a WWE pay-per-view and the first time two females competed inside Hell in a Cell.

And, of course, it was Charlotte who came out on top to recapture the title, marking the third time she has held the championship. As we noted this past Monday, Hell In A Cell provided a lot of debate among WWE officials as far as finishes and angles were concerned, perhaps more than most pay-per-views go. We highlighted discussions involving Triple H, Chris Jericho and Sheamus & Cesaro’s chances of winning the tag titles from The New Day.

But as more information has become available, the match between Charlotte and Sasha Banks was the biggest source of contention behind the scenes. In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (as covered by Daily Wrestling News), everyone on the creative team, as well as Triple H, was pushing for the Charlotte and Sasha match to go on last. As noted previously, Vince McMahon was the only one on the opposite side of the fence in regards to the main event.

Ultimately, Vince gave in and green-lit Charlotte and Sasha as the headliner the night before Hell In A Cell. That wasn’t the only thing that changed, however, that Saturday night before the pay-per-view. The plan heading all the way into that Saturday night production meeting (where most of the finishes and plans are finalized) was for Sasha to retain the championship, ending the current feud with Charlotte for now. Charlotte would have gone on to feud with Bayley, but it’s not known who would have been the next challenger to Sasha.

What’s more interesting is that Vince ended up making the call on the title switch that night and only several WWE officials close to him were made aware. In fact, other creative team members told everyone else that Sasha would be winning on Saturday night. It wasn’t until Sunday (the day of the show) that everyone got on the same page with the planned result.

There was some speculation floating around that Vince and his top officials were swerving the producers as a way to keep things quiet, much like what happened at WrestleMania 30 with the decision to put Brock Lesnar over the Undertaker to break the infamous streak. However, that was not the case, as it was just a matter of Vince changing his mind close to the last second.

There is a reason the decision was made to put the title back on Charlotte, but that has yet to be completely revealed. Contrary to some reports that have surfaced since the pay-per-view, the change was not made because Sasha was hurt or because there was any heat on her going in. Though there had been some talk about Sasha being legitimately hurt following the match, that is not the case either as she wrestled Charlotte this week at a live event in Germany. Nor was the call made because of Charlotte’s pay-per-view winning streak, which now stands at 13.

Much like the Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania, Charlotte’s streak was a coincidence and nothing the company was planning from the beginning. However, now that it has reached its current status, the plan is to turn it into a major angle heading into the upcoming WrestleMania with the assumption that whomever defeats her will gain a major rub.

Going even further into the design of the match, WWE officials reportedly nixed two major spots that Charlotte and Sasha were working on, over concerns that Sasha would risk further injury. Charlotte’s father Ric Flair confirmed the news on Busted Open Radio this week.

“They took two huge spots out of the match, during the match, because they were afraid Sasha [Banks] was going to get hurt. If the original plan had been, there were two things and I don’t want to say what they were, but you can only imagine. One of them involved a moonsault.”

That further fueled speculation that the moonsault would have come off the top of the cell. The other spot may or may not have been Sasha applying the Bank Statement on top of the cell which would also have provided an extremely memorable moment. Some might argue that those would have validated the decision to put them on last, while instead there was much debate about whether the right call was made.

[Featured Image by WWE]