PWP Nation continues its road to Hell In A Cell as we look back on the greatest matches inside the steel structure.
With WWE Hell In A Cell coming up this month on the WWE Network, I thought it would be fun to look back at the match that started it all, way back in October of 1997.
You see years before Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker had their two classic back-to-back WrestleMania matches, they first met in the fall of 1997. Coming off the heels of the controversial WWE Title match at SummerSlam of that year, in which Shawn accidentally hit The Undertaker over the head with a steel chair and made the three count as Bret Hart walked out WWE Champion. The WWE fans turned on HBK, turning him heel and leading to a match between him and The Undertaker at Ground Zero: In Your House.
Ground Zero was the first In Your House event to expand to three hours and featured Shawn Michaels against The Undertaker as the main event, not the WWE Championship match with Bret Hart and The Patriot because… Well, it was Bret Hart and the freaking Patriot.
The Ground Zero match with Shawn and Taker went to a no contest and was thrown out. Usually in the WWE Universe, a outcome like that would lead to a cage match and this would be no different but it would be better. This would be the match that would bring to the world… Hell In A Cell!
Hell In A Cell was actually the brainchild of Jim Cornette, who was on WWE creative at the time and he liked the idea of using the old chain-link cage instead of the blue-bar cage the WWE used and putting a roof on it was inspired by the War Games cage. Hell In A Cell took place at the Badd Blood pay-per-view and was a match so good, months later when looking to top it in his own Hell In A Cell match with The Undertaker, Mick Foley was advised by his good friend Terry Funk to start the match on top of the Cell and Mick did him one better than that when Mick had himself thrown off and thrown threw the Hell In A Cell.
This original cell match featured Shawn Michaels beating up a camera man, Shawn being beaten bloody, and Shawn himself falling off the Cell and threw the announce table, but not as impressive as Mick Foley’s fall off the Cell months later but still damn impressive.
In the end Shawn Michaels won, when we got the debut of one of the most enduring characters on modern WWE television, Kane. For months Paul Bearer promised to the Deadman that his dead brother would be revived. Kane walked down to the ring with his “father” Paul Bearer by his side and Kane ripped the Cell door off its hinges, walked into the ring and attacked his “brother” The Undertaker. Once Kane was done and he left the Cell, Shawn Michaels bloody and beaten covered the Undertaker for the pinfall.
As for the Hell In A Cell concept, it would go on to feature many more classic matches that PWPNation.com is featuring in its, “Highway to Hell in a Cell” series. It would even go on to become its own yearly pay-per-view event and this year the Hell In A Cell event will feature for the first time ever the only match to take place inside Hell In A Cell twice with Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker attempting to outdo their 2002 bloody, violent affair 13 years later.
Thanks For reading, everyone!