“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt def. Seth Rollins to become the new Universal Champion (Falls Count Anywhere Match)

RIYADH — Seth Rollins said he needed his Universal Title rivalry with “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt to end, one way or another. He got his wish, though not in the way he might have anticipated.

The nightmarish Wyatt is now Universal Champion, having been plunged through steel, canvas and fire to defeat The Beastslayer and take the Universal Title into his horrid possession on Friday Night SmackDown.

The rule that the match could not be stopped for any reason — a response following the controversy that dogged the pair’s first meeting inside Hell in a Cell — ended up being much more of a hindrance than help for Rollins. Despite having long since revealed he would break every rule and shred every ounce of his soul to put Wyatt down, the challenger made it equally clear in the first match that there was little that could make his challenger stay down. So it went in Round Two as well, with Rollins subjecting Wyatt to seven Stomps, superkicks beyond counting and chairs to every ounce of Wyatt’s body that he could set his sights on.

Wyatt, of course, either shrugged off The Beastslayer’s attacks or simply popped up to his feet after some of the Stomps before Seth could even make the cover. He even turned Rollins’ own designs against him, like when he sent the champion flying backward from the top turnbuckle through a tower of tables at ringside that The Architect had set up. As Rollins began to unload Stomps at the top of the stage, it seemed like Wyatt had finally been slowed down, at least. Then he was sent tumbling off the stage and into a production area that exploded with sparks and flames, seemingly engulfing Wyatt and spelling the end of the match.

Which, of course, it wasn’t. This one couldn’t be stopped for any reason, and if it could have been, maybe Rollins wouldn’t have had to retrieve Wyatt and accidentally set off another blast of sparks that hit him right in the face, seemingly blinding him. Maybe then, he would have been ready for when Wyatt rose out of the smoke and made his move, locking Rollins in the Mandible Claw before finally dropping the depleted champion with Sister Abigail to pin him on the arena floor and win the title.

And it’s safe to say, despite the macabre result, that everyone involved got what they wanted. Wyatt lays his hands on the ultimate goal of his grand reinvention. The WWE Universe got to see this grisly rivalry play out to its conclusion. And Rollins got the end he wanted, even if it landed somewhere between a defeat and an act of mercy.