Natural Cell-ection

DALLAS — Demonstrating the traits of a true Apex Predator at WWE Hell in a Cell, WWE Champion Randy Orton leveraged Charles Darwin’s scientific theory of natural selection to defeat Sheamus, a ferocious specimen in his own right. Under unnatural circumstances – locked within a steel cube dubbed Hell in a Cell – The Viper relied on his innate killer instinct to maintain his foothold at the top of the WWE food chain. (PHOTOS)

Randy Orton is already a dangerous competitor. Simply ask the often long-winded Chris Jericho … though you’ll have to wait for him to recover from the WWE Champion’s debilitating punt one week ago. Allow The Viper to coil inside Hell itself and you’re looking at a 10th circle of the fiery Inferno.

Pairing more traditional methods of attack with steel-reinforced brutality, the two WWE Title minded men unleashed their most vile assaults against one another to date. The WWE Champion’s inner mechanisms for survival and evolution (not unlike Orton’s years-past affiliation with Triple H, Ric Flair and Batista) seemed to only compel him to amplify the pain he inflicted upon his Irish-born challenger.

By contrast, in his first-ever Hell in a Cell Match, Sheamus appeared hideously comfortable within its four sides, which even those he used as a weapon against Orton.

Steel chairs, steel stairs, steel walls. Plus, two Brogue kicks. The Celtic Warrior fought unrelentingly for the chance to once more seize the golden prize. But the lightning fast strike of the serpentine Superstar – an RKO atop the ring steps – was all it took to excise the challenge before him.

Possessing the experience of two previous Hell in a Cell clashes, Orton carried what ultimately proved to be a critical advantage in Dallas’ American Airlines Center. Concluding a hellacious joust, WWE’s Apex Predator emerged from the Devil’s Playground in victory over Sheamus – a “structured” settlement of their past title encounters, which each ended inconclusively.

Now, the WWE Title-bearing serpent slithers forth from the confines of Hell toward his own form of heavenly bliss: A wealth of future challengers, who, to a creature built for predation, are nothing more than his next prey.