The 5 best Hell in a Cell Matches
On the 5th October 1997, WWE debuted the Hell in a Cell gimmick match to resolve the escalating feud between The Undertaker and his antagonist, Shawn Michaels.
Michaels had inadvertently cost Undertaker the WWF Championship at Summerslam 1997, but instead of showing remorse, decided to antagonize "The Phenom" repeatedly.
After their first-ever meeting in September 1997 at the Ground Zero event had ended in a No Contest after a wild, chaotic brawl in which there was a bagful of outside interferences. The only way to settle the score was to create a new type of match, one which would lock out outsiders and lock in the two combatants.
Over the past 20 years, the Hell in a Cell has been WWE's premier feud-ending match. It has also played host to some of the most violent confrontations in company history. This countdown lists the five most violent.
#5 Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker (Badd Blood: In Your House 18, October 5, 1997)
The first ever Hell in a Cell match thrilled and shocked in equal measure.
The feud between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker culminated in a chaotic, violent and bloody encounter that was unlike anything that had been seen before in WWE.
Both men blasted each other with brutal steel chair shots to the head and body and utilized the cage mesh and steel steps to violent effect on one another.
After Michaels attacked a camera-man, the locked cell door was opened to stretcher him out. Once unlocked, the action spilled outside and ended on the roof of the cell.
As a bloodied Michaels desperately tried to escape The Undertaker by climbing down the cell, 'Taker caught up to him and smashed his boots on Michaels's hands causing him to lose his balance and crash through an announce table below.
Just as it seemed 'Taker was about to claim victory, his long-lost brother Kane emerged and tomb-stoned him. An alert Michaels, with all of the energy, left remaining in his battered body crawled over to his fallen foe and covered him for the win.
Michaels's face was a proverbial crimson mask but he had won what was the most violent match in company history at that point in time.