Classic Match: Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, Badd Blood: In Your House

Sep 12 2018 Albert Ching

RondaRousey.com’s Classic Match series takes a closer look at significant and super cool matches from wrestling history.

When pro wrestling fans think of an early Hell in a Cell match, it’s more than likely 1998’s iconically violent Undertaker vs. Mankind bout, and the indelible (and still terrifying) visual of Mick Foley being tossed off the top of the 16-foot cage and through the announce table.

Yet that was actually the third ever Hell in a Cell match—and the first was an absolute classic in its own right.

The inaugural Hell in a Cell took place on Oct. 5, 1997 at WWF’s Badd Blood: In Your House pay-per-view (two d’s in “bad” because it’s the ’90s), between Undertaker and “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels. This was a conspicuous time in wrestling history, at the dawn of the Attitude Era that led to a new boom period for the industry.

It’s commonplace by today’s standards, but the Hell in a Cell match was different than traditional cage matches in a couple of significant ways: It put a roof on top of the cage, so a wrestler couldn’t win by climbing out; and it surrounded more of the ringside area, giving the performers a larger canvas with which to unleash their mayhem—something Undertaker and HBK certainly utilized.

Undertaker and Michaels always made for perfect rivals, all the way through HBK’s retirement match in 2010. At Badd Blood, the two expertly embodied the roles of the powerful and vengeful undead hero against the agile and cocky “Sexy Boy” villain. Their Hell in a Cell match opened with Undertaker solidly dominating the smaller Michaels, repeatedly ramming him into the cell walls.

HBK, naturally, mounted a flashy comeback, with high-risk offense that holds up to today’s fast-paced standards, including springing off the cage with a diving elbow and a piledriver onto the ring steps. Towards the end of the 30-minute match, Michaels was not only bleeding heavily—a rather rare sight in today’s WWE—but the action had spilled out onto the top of the cell, where Undertaker slammed HBK multiple times onto its chain-link roof.

Things reached an emotional crescendo when a dangling Michaels went from the side of the cell into an announce table (keep in mind that just a few months after this match, Michaels took the next four-plus years off from wrestling). At that point, it looked like only a supernatural occurrence could save ol‘ HBK—luckily, that’s just what happened, as the long-teased Kane made his debut, accompanied by both Undertaker’s former manager Paul Bearer, and Vince McMahon’s famously awestruck call of “That’s gotta be Kane!”

Kane quickly nailed Taker with his own Tombstone Piledriver, and a thoroughly battered Michaels ended up the winner—segueing into HBK getting a title shot against Bret Hart the next month at Survivor Series (where another very important chapter in wrestling history unfolded).

This match not only started the 21-years-and-counting Hell in a Cell tradition, it made it clear WWE was heading towards a harder-edged—and undeniably compelling—place. Hell in a Cell matches are now an annual part of the WWE calendar, with specifically branded Hell in a Cell events each fall.

The next event takes place this Sunday, with bouts both in and out of the infamous structure, including Ronda Rousey defending her WWE RAW Women’s Championship against former champion Alexa Bliss in a non-Hell in a Cell match.

You can watch Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels in Hell in a Cell on the WWE Network.