When Vince McMahon was calling the shots in WWE, the vast majority of match stipulations lost their meaning. Among them was Hell in a Cell; what was once a bout reserved for the most heated rivalries ended up being used twice a year at the Hell in a Cell PLE.
Heading into Bad Blood this weekend, CM Punk and Drew McIntyre will end their feud inside the terrifying structure on what will be the 27th anniversary of the first-ever Hell in a Cell match.
During a recent podcast appearance, the Second City Saint revealed that his goal is to take Hell in the Cell back to its roots when he clashes with the Scottish Psychopath.
"I feel like I have to deliver a classic. And I have to stay true to myself, my beliefs of what good wrestling is, and that cell that I feel like as a company we’ve gotten away from for so long," Punk says in the player below. "Where it just became a toy. Like, 'We’re just going to have a pay-per-view, call it Hell in a Cell, and everyone’s going to go inside and have matches.'"
"When in reality that should be presented as the most dangerous, diabolical thing that any wrestler would ever want to do."
He added, "I want to bring it back to what it’s supposed to be. I don’t want to have a cell that needs a match, I want to have a match that needs the cell. And I feel like me and Drew have done that. Like, there’s no other way - there’s no other way to settle this."
On Triple H's watch, it's clear a stipulation like this one will be used only sparingly and that's going to go a long way in making it matter again.
Elsewhere in the interview, Punk talked about returning to WWE with Living Color's "Cult of Personality." The Second City Saint explained, "Once all that stuff started happening, I’m tight with the band, so they’re calling me going, 'Hey, they’re trying to license the song again. If this isn’t for you, it’s a hard no.'"
"And I was like, I didn’t want to say anything so I kind of told him it was for me without saying. I was like, 'Maybe you should just let it happen.' Corey is like, 'Is it you or is it not you?' And I was like, 'Corey, just [let it happen.]' The re-release is because we pay the band. We’re not paying the record label. They re-recorded it and remastered it. So I feel much better being like, here you go."
You can hear more from Punk, including what happened the night he returned to WWE at Survivor Series: WarGames, below.