To be honest, I’m still struggling to take a side on this match. While Priest and McIntyre are absolutely fantastic performers, absolutely, it felt odd to put them in yet another match after their widely successful WrestleMania 41 clash. It felt even more odd to try and end their feud at “Saturday Night’s Main Event,” which we’ve known from past criticisms of mine is typically nothing more than a weekly show wrapped in the skin of a premium live event. Even throughout the match’s narrative arc, I was confused as to whether I loved the chemistry Priest and McIntyre have, or if I hated the fact that Priest was willing to hit McIntyre with a Con-Chair-To, but wasn’t willing to pin him to truly, as WWE posited, end their rivalry.

I think that I hate how this match did not live up to the narrative expectation it was positioned to have. It was positioned to be the final, climatic, spectacular ending to Priest and McIntyre’s saga, and it just…wasn’t.

The Steel Cage match stipulation has never been my favorite. I’ve always been a Hell in a Cell girl; the sheer reason being that I have never been a fan of how wrestlers can just decide that they’re done and walk out of the cage to win the match. Of course, this fits for cowardly heels, and, typically, there’s going to be a wrestler to pull their fleeing opponent in, often in spectacular fashion. Steel Cage matches are fine, given that they don’t end by someone walking out like nothing happened.

Damian Priest walked out like nothing happened.

While this match finish would have been just a dumb decision for any other feud, this simply cannot be how Priest and McIntyre’s feud ends. You cannot tell me that Priest and McIntyre’s feud can end — symbolized by Priest’s straight-up refusal to pin McIntyre in favor of walking out of the cage — just like that after two WrestleMania’s worth of animosities, and so many other great matches behind them. Initially, I was so willing to write this off as Priest taking the high road, until I realized he nailed McIntyre with a Con-Chair-To. That’s not babyface behavior. I haven’t the slightest clue why, if this match was truly supposed to be the end of Priest and McIntyre’s feud, Priest would just walk out without a pin.

“They’re setting up for Priest and McIntyre 3!” I hear you shouting. I don’t like that either! This feud was too big for a Steel Cage, yes, but it also feels too small to host an entire trilogy. This is nowhere near McIntyre and Punk’s feud, in terms of intensity. It’s not even anywhere near McIntyre and Rollins’ feud. What has Priest done to gain enough of McIntyre’s ire to justify three matches?

With McIntyre rumored to be on the shelf, I don’t know just when the McIntyre and Priest feud will end. All I’m saying is, it can’t end here.

Written by Angeline Phu