Preamble

On October 5th, 1997, WWE, then the WWF, held their first ever Hell in a Cell match, contested between “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels and “The Deadman” The Undertaker, at Badd Blood: In Your House. The show itself is not terribly well regarded but the main event between Shawn and the Undertaker is considered one of the all time best for WWE, being one of only four matches from the company to receive five stars from the infamous Dave Meltzer in the 20th century. It was in fact the last WWE match to be given that rating until John Cena vs CM Punk in the main event of Money in the Bank 2011, almost 14 years later. This week will mark WWE's 52nd match ever held under this stipulation and while matches like Shawn vs Taker, Mankind vs Taker, Triple H vs Cactus Jack, Taker vs Triple H, Edge vs Seth Rollins, and Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins, have all been praised, there’s also been plenty of matches that have been met with plenty of scorn. Matches like The Undertaker vs Big Boss Man, The Undertaker vs CM Punk, Seth Rollins vs Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman, and Seth Rollins vs The Fiend. Many fans in recent years have been claiming that WWE have really abused their Hell in a Cell stipulation and oversaturating it. In 2021, WWE held a whopping 5 matches under the stipulation happening at the Hell in a Cell PPV, the SmackDown episode before the PPV, the Raw episode after the PPV, and then several months later at the Crown Jewel PPV. However looking back on it, I’m not entirely sure WWE knew what they had on their hands with the stipulation considering that in the first three years of this stipulation’s existence there were 7 matches of varying quality and stakes. With all of that said, I want to know what really is the best match in the history of this stipulation and what really is the worst. So in that spirit, I’m going to be sitting down and watching every single Hell in a Cell match in the history of the stipulation! I’ll be going through these matches in order of appearance while giving each one a grade for quality based on, well, my own personal biases. If you don’t agree with what I have to say, do your own rankings and let me know what you think! I’d genuinely love to know! One small warning before we really get started, pretty much every cell match before 2009 is very bloody! If you’re uncomfortable with blood in your wrestling, most of these matches from prior to the 2010s will not be for you. I’m warning you right now before you decide to go out and check the stuff out for yourself, if you’re squeamish about blood, then you probably won’t feel terribly comfortable watching many of these matches, because most of these matches have enough Blood to give a vampire the munchies.

So with all that said, take it away Mr. Cumberbatch!

Shawn Micheals vs The Undertaker - Badd Blood: In Your House

Backstory

For The story going into this first match, Let’s wind the clock back two months. It’s SummerSlam 1997, it’s The Undertaker versus Bret Hart for the WWF championship and Shawn Michaels is your special guest referee. Shawn and Bret are already having issues, but Shawn is duty-bound to call things as fairly as possible. At one point Bret takes advantage of this by goding Shawn into attacking him. Eventually Shawn gives in and attempts to hit Bret with a steel chair, which is exactly what Bret was counting on, so before the cheer can connect, Bret moves out of the way and the chair hits The Undertaker. Bret then pins The Undertaker for the three count, which Shawn then had to make. Naturally, The Undertaker was quite upset that Shawn had just caused him the WWF championship. So he then made it a point to destroy Shawn but Shawn is a slippery little guy, so every time the undertaker has the heartbreak kid by the throat, the little guy just manages to slip on out. So the undertaker then commissions a new stipulation that means Shawn can’t get away and Shawn‘s buddies D Generation X can’t interfere. And here we are now, the first ever hell in a cell match!

The Match

The match starts with Shawn acting confident until The Undertaker actually comes in and he realizes “oh crap, I’m stuck in a cage with a very angry man who’s 6’10 and has very educated hands. I may have bitten off much more than I can chew.“ And so at first Shawn is just kind of running around the ring with The Undertaker chasing him until he slips into the ring and delivers a boot to the Dead Man’s face as they’re getting in too. Shawn tries to rally as much of an offense as he can, but slowly realizes he is not going to win this fight, so he tries to force an end to the match by attacking one of the cameramen. If he keeps doing illegal stuff, they have to let him eventually right? Well that doesn’t work out so good, because eventually they do open the cage to get the poor cameraman out and Shawn tries to sneak out but The Undertaker catches him, Shawn then tries to escape him by climbing up the cage, but The Undertaker just follows him and beat him up on top of the roof, then Shawn tries to climb back down the cage but instead The Undertaker steps on his hands and Shawn falls onto Spanish announcers table. There is no escaping this.

Or maybe there is, because just as soon as it looks like The Undertaker has this all wrapped up the lights go out and the the entire ring is enveloped in a red glow as we see the arrival of The Undertaker‘s former manager, Paul Bearer and walking in front of him is a man clothed in red and black because tonight was not only the first ever hell in a cell match, it was also the first ever appearance of The Devil's Favorite Demon, Kane, Paul’s son and The Undertaker's half brother. The Big Red Machine pries the door off the cage, walks into the ring, and then delivers a tombstone piledriver to The Dead Man and leaves. The arena lights come back on and Shawn just barely makes the cover for the three count. Triple H and Chyna then pull out their victorious buddy who can barely stand on his own 2 feet after the beating the Dead Man gave to him.

The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Kane and Mankind - Raw Is War (June 15th, 1998)

Backstory

Okay this is a whole thing so bear with me, you see the week before Stone Cold Steve Austin was in the ring doing a promo when all the sudden a whole bunch of druids come out with a casket implying the undertaker wanted to smoke with Stone Cold, but then Kane and mankind both surprise the Texas rattlesnake and will beat the crap out of them while Vince just laughs as hell off. We then see Steve’s attackers with Vince and their master, Paul Bearer, implying this whole thing was something Vince and Paul had agreed to. The week after all of that, the week this Hell in a Cell match would take place, Vince tries to gaslight Stone cold into thinking that these guys were all working for the undertaker because he wants Steve’s WWF title but then the undertaker himself appears and he straight up tell Steve “yeah I want your title, I already told you that, I told you that face-to-face, pull some bull crap on you, I’m going to be in this ring, will have a match and the winner is a winner. And you know that, and you know Vince is a lying SOB.” But as soon as the undertaker‘s speech is over with, the lights go down and we hear Kane’s music and out walks Paul bearer with his two boys who… Tries to pull the same gaslighting bull crap that Vince just pulled five minutes ago. Paul then issues a challenge, his boys, Kane and mankind versus Stone Cold Steve Austin and the undertaker inside hell in a cell.

The Match

Kane, Mankind, and Paul are already in the ring at the start of the match with Stone Cold waiting for Taker. After holding on for several minutes, Steve decides to just go for it only to be attacked by both opponents right outside the Cell. Paul then locks himself in the Cell to keep himself safe from the action which backfires on him in epic fashion when the Undertake claws his way up from underneath the ring and immediately goes to town on his ex-manager. Kane climbs the cage to save his father but can’t seem to get the roof open… Even though he literally tore the door off of its hinges less than a year ago. Mankind tries to help too but instead ends up being pummeled by Stone Cold. Eventually the cage is opened up and the Undertaker confronts his brother while Steve pins Mankind for the victory.

Not much of a match up, but a pretty fun story aside from a pretty obvious gap in the logic of the segment.

The Undertaker vs Mankind - King of the Ring (1998)

Backstory

This match itself is pretty well known, but I’ve never heard anyone discuss the actual story going into this match which is actually... Pretty thin. There's not much here. Kane is upset that the Undertaker beat up his dad on the June 15th episode of Raw and then again inside his own home the following week’s Raw, so during that same episode Mankind made a challenge. You and me, Taker, one last time. This time inside Hell in a Cell. It’s a pretty thin story like I said, though Mankind’s promo going into the match is pretty good. He talks about how when he was younger he had a portrait of a Confederate soldier and a Union soldier shaking hands and how he always figured that when all was said and done that’d be them but now he just wants to take the Undertaker’s soul for Kane and Paul. Good stuff! I like it! One weird thing though, the actual TV broadcast advertises the Undertaker vs Mankind before mankind actually issues his challenge. Which is really strange, there were no other television appearances for Mankind between the June 15 and June 22 episodes of Raw in 1998 where he could’ve already announced his intentions for this match, so I really don’t understand why WWE chose to make this advertisement when the very next segment they were about to do was Mankind announcing his Hell in a Cell match with the Undertaker.

The Match

This match is pretty well-known. Mankind enters and climbs the top of the cell, Undertaker enters and follows after him, they fight on the roof a little bit and then Undertaker throws Mankind off the cell and onto the Spanish announcer's desk. It looks like a pretty bad bump so medical attention is given to the guy, but he gets up and gets back out there. He climbs back up the cell, brawls with Undertaker a little bit more, the Undertaker goes for a chokeslam, but when Mankind‘s body hits the gimmicked roof of the cell the panel doesn’t steadily come apart, it comes apart all in once meaning Mankind hit the floor of the mat a lot harder than he was supposed to.

More medical attention comes over, they seemingly give the greenlight to continue, so the Undertaker gives one guy a chokeslam again and the match resumes. From there it's a pretty normal albeit very entertaining hard-core matchup with Mankind introducing some thumbtacks that his sorry ass gets thrown into eventually. The Undertaker wraps this up by delivering a choke slam to Mankind for the victory.

It’s hard to judge this match fairly, because even if you’ve never actually seen it, you’ve basically seen it 1 million times and had to describe it to you in 1 million different ways by 1 million different people. It’s also so influential that a lot of the really scary bumps don’t feel quite as scary anymore because it’s something WWE (and many other promotions) have imitated since then. In 2020, you had the Hell in a Cell match between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton where Randy threw Drew into the announcer desk. Just last year in 2022, over in AEW, you had a spot where Eddie Kingston threw Sammy Guevara off of the cage during AEW‘s annual blood and guts television event. The announcer desk spot has been surprisingly common. But that all said, this match still holds up pretty darn well. I’m not sure I could call it the best of the series ever, but of the three cell matches WWE had held up to this point this was probably the best of the bunch and I get the feeling it’s gonna take a minute for this match to be topped.

Kane vs Mankind - Raw Is War (August 24th, 1998)

Backstory

After months and months of rumors and speculation that The Undertaker and Kane are in cahoots, it was real at the start of the August 24th, 1998 episode of raw that the brothers of destruction truly were combining their powers. Wanting to play both sides of the field, Vince offered his aid to the undertaker and Kane, but also dispatched Kane's former tag team partner Mankind. Mankind in turn challenged his old pal Kane to a match inside Hell in a Cell on the basis that, well, it can’t go any worse than it did he last time can it?

The Match

Strangely, unlike the last time a Hell in a Cell match was on TV, this one doesn’t main event raw. This one happens inside the second hour of TV with Kane coming out first and then Mankind coming out second and trying to climb to the top of the cage like he did a king of the ring, unlike there though the referees try to stop him and eventually they stall him long enough that the Undertaker can just shove Mankind into the cell. Mankind tries to put up a good fight but is clearly outmatched, Kane looks to put away mankind by delivering a Piledriver onto a steel chair but is spoiled by a surprise appearance from the Texas rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin. The match then ends being ruled a no contest… It wasn’t ruled a no contest when Kane interfered in undertaker‘s match with Shawn, it wasn’t ruled of no contest when mankind repeatedly had to be attended to by the medical team, so why the heck is it a no contest now?

The Undertaker vs Big Boss Man - WrestleMania 15

Backstory

We are now six months on from the formation of the brothers of destruction at the Raw before Summerslam 1998 and a lot has changed since then, most notably Vince McMahon and the undertaker are both leaders of their own heel factions, the corporation and the ministry of darkness. And while it would later be revealed that Vince controlled both of these organizations, at this point people were still under the assumption that these were two different groups. As such while corporate champion the rock was going head to head with stone cold in the main event, and the big show was facing off with mankind to determine who would be the special guest referee for that match, and his kiddo, Shane, going head to head with X Pac for the European championship, Vince wanted to send a message to the undertaker after the dead man had been causing him so much pain and suffering over the past six months, and he wanted to send that message by having someone beat him at the match created for him. Enter the big boss man!

The Match

Eh, not much to say. There’s no particularly memorable spots, it’s mostly just the two guys smacking each other around until the Undertaker gets a low blow in on the Big Boss Man and then finishes him off with a tombstone piledriver. Probably the least memorable match of the bunch. In fact, the only memorable thing about this match is what happens right after it, the Undertaker wins then outcome of the Brood who send down a rope to allow the Undertaker to fucking hang the Big Boss Man.

Triple H vs Cactus Jack - No Way Out (2000)

Backstory

This one goes back a bit, so bear with me. Following the 1999 Armageddon pay-per-view, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon assumed control of WWE, they would then put Mick Foley and the rock into a pink slip on a pool match. Whoever won that match would remain an employee of the world wrestling federation. And in the end the winner was the rock but the rock didn’t care too much for being forced to turn on his friend and tag team partner and eventually forced Hunter and Steph to give Mick his job back. Once reinstated, Mick immediately targeted Triple H in his WWE championship and decided he will leave the leather face mask at home for this one, because it was time to dust off the old flannel vest, it was time for Cactus Jack to kick some ass.

And while he did lose, he did kick plenty of ass at the 2000 Royal rumble. In fact, it just wasn’t quite enough ass for him, so he challenged Triple H to a rematch at No Way Out, his career versus hunters title, Hell in a Cell.

The Match

This match starts with an actually pretty clever tactic from Cactus Jack, right before the bell rings Jack goes over to the door acting like he’s having second thoughts, and then when the bell rings Triple H goes on over looking to get a jump on him, but Jack turns around around and begins imagine them self, taking Hunter by surprise. From there we actually get some pretty clever usage of a steel chair, while Hunter was initially just smacking check around with it, when Jack retakes the advantage he delivers a DDT and a Russian leg sweep onto it for two year falls. Jack then sets up the chair properly and makes a hunter sit down in it so he could presumably deliver a kick or perhaps a bodyslam into it, but Hunter moves out of the way at the last second and trips Jack so that his face hits the chair. Clever stuff! Eventually Jack breaks through the cage and the action is taken out of the roof of the shell where Jack breaks out a 2 x 4 covered in barbed wire which he then sets on fire! But before Jack and didn’t do anything with it, Hunter saves himself by delivering a bag body drop through the cage to Jack. Thankfully this time, the ring was gimmicked so Jack wasn’t hurt too bad for real this time. Triple H then gingerly climbs back down into the cage through the hole in the roof and checks to see if Jack can still continue, much to his dismay he absolutely can, but it ends up not meaning much when Triple H finally finishes this up with one Pedigree.

A pretty good match, but a pretty underwhelming finish. Better than the TV matches and the wrestlemania match, not better than king of the ring or bad blood.

Kurt Angle vs Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Undertaker vs The Rock vs Triple H vs Rikishi - Armageddon (2000)

Backstory

Well there was one guy who was the champion, and five guys who wanted to be the champion instead, so now WWE Commissioner Mick Foley decided “Screw it. All of you boys are going to fight for the title inside Hell in a Cell.” Including Rikishi who did a hit and run on Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H who bribed Rikishi into doing that hit and run, and Stone Cold Steve Austin himself who had actually had to miss Armageddon last year because of that hit and run. So this was going to be a rough night at the office for those two guys and an especially rough night for WWE Champion Kurt Angle.

The Match

The contestants for this matchup entered as number one Rikishi, number two Triple H, number three Kurt Angle, number four The Undertaker, number five The Rock, and number six Steve Austin. Stone Cold Steve Austin, in typical Stone Cold Steve Austin fashion, starts the action by attacking Kurt Angle who in his enormous arrogance decided to wait outside until all five of his opponents had entered the cell. From there it’s pure chaos with every man picking every other man to be his opponent and getting pretty darn nasty with him.

However, about halfway through the matchup, Vince McMahon shows up to destroy the cell with the wrestler still inside of it because for some reason he suddenly doesn’t want anyone to compete inside Hell in a cell. He gets a flatbed truck from a local farm to tear the door off the cell, but is stopped by Mick Foley before he can do anything else. Triple H then tries to escape the cell but is followed by Steve Austin who promptly does everything he can to destroy Hunter. The game and the Texas rental snake are then followed by a great one, the dead man, the Olympic hero, and The Samoan Sumo following in turn. The six men then just start rolling all over the entrance ramp until eventually the lot of them make their way up to the top of the Cell, this eventually culminates in the undertaker doing what the undertaker does best in a hell in a cell match… Throwing people off the top of the cell! In this case, that would be rikishi who lands onto the farm truck that was just left on the outside. Eventually the action returns to the inside of the cell with Triple H, the rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Kurt Angle all vying to be the last man standing. The closing stretch comes on Stone cold delivers a stunner to the rock, covers him but is interrupted by triple H, Steve then delivers a neck breaker to the game, but is too slow to get back up to cover Hunter or the rock, which keeps bloodied and exhausted Kurt just enough time to gently place his hand over the rock's chest for a good three seconds to retain!

This one was a whole lot of fun!

Triple H vs Chris Jericho - Judgment Day (2002)

Backstory

Uh, Vince McMahon decided he had a problem with Triple H and so he booked Chris Jericho to beat him up inside Hell in a Cell… Why Jericho? He’s a terrific wrestler but Triple H has beaten him before. Why not The Undertaker? Or Kane since Taker was preoccupied with Hogan in the main event?

The Match

This match begins unconventionally… By letting both men wait to fight each other until the bell actually rings. How strange. Anyway, Triple H looks to be dominating this contest at first due to his greater size and strength compared to Chris Jericho, but urachal eventually manages to leverage the various weapons inside the cell to his advantage. At one point he actually manages to pin Triple H for the win For well over three seconds but Triple H had already thrown him into the referee by mistake costing Jericho the match. Incensed by the fact that this referee wouldn’t count the pinfall for his victory, he starts attacking him. And like with Shawn versus the undertaker five years earlier, Once you start attacking someone who isn’t actually a competitor in this match, it’s time to open the Shell up to get that poor guy out of there. Eventually like with every other Helena cell match, the two men make their way to the top of the cage. Unlike other Hell in a Cell matches, this is actually where we get the finish. A second referee climbs up to the roof of the cage also when Chris has Hunter in his walls of Jericho submission move, so that an official can be present if Hunter taps out, but Hunter refuses to give in and eventually breaks the hold and delivers a Pedigree for the win.

This was actually a pretty fun match!

Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker I - No Mercy (2002)

Backstory

Story was this was some pretty simple stuff, Brock was the WWE champion and the Undertaker was the number one contender. The Undertaker had beaten Brock Lesnar in a title match by DQ at the previous month's pay-per-view Unforgiven, and the Undertaker wasn’t going to let that stand. So Paul and Brock decided to play some mind games with the Deadman by accusing him of cheating on his at the time pregnant wife. They also decided to put the odds a little more in Brock‘s favor by breaking the Undertaker‘s hand. Undeterred, the Undertaker decided to contest the rematch with his busted hand inside hell in a cell.

The Match

This was a really good match! It started out a little slow for me personally, but when it really started going, DAMN! Did it get going!

The match starts with the Undertaker mostly controlling the narrative by just whaling on Brock until Brock gets in a lucky strike and takes over the match causing the Undertaker to bleed profusely. The final stretch comes when Undertaker successfully delivers the last ride to Brock but Brock breaks up the pinfall with a rope break. Undertaker then goes for a tombstone piledriver, but it gets reversed into an F5 from Brock. 1. 2. 3. And your winner and still WWE champion, Brockules Edward Lesnar.

I wasn’t too invested in this match at first but at some point I was really made to care for the Undertaker in this and really wanted him to win despite already knowing for fact he’d lost this match 20 years ago.

It's really that terrific and it's genuinely that good!

Triple H vs Kevin Nash - Bad Blood (2003)

Backstory

It’s another championship feud. Plain and simple. Hunter and Kevin had had a match at the previous pay-per-view, Judgement Day, and that ended in a DQ when Hunter hit the referee with his sledgehammer. So it was decided that Hunter and Kevin would based off again this time inside hell in a cell and with a referee who could take a few bumps along the way, the Hardcore legend, Mick Foley!

The Match

Kevin Nash is a very tall, very handsome man from an especially excellent state who moves about as quickly in the ring as a tortoise. It’s not that he’s a bad worker, he’s just slow as molasses. As such the early part of this match is less flashy moves and big spots and more of a traditionally scientific style of wrestling, with Kevin doing a lot to work Triple H‘s lower back. Hunter manages to ship the momentum bag in his favor though when he starts attacking Kevin with a small hammer found in a toolbox underneath the actual ring. A tool which Mick does not take kindly to and immediately removes from the match. From there this turns into a spot fest, not so much one of different acrobatic moves and finishers, but of Kevin and Hunter attacking each other with different weapons. The match finally ends with Kevin Nash taking the one-two punch of a shot from Triple H‘s sledgehammer and then a Pedigree.

Not at all a bad match, but definitely not my favorite in this series.

Triple H vs Shawn Michaels - Bad Blood (2004)

Backstory

Back in the 90s Shawn and Hunter were the best of friends but all things change with time. Following Wrestlemania 14, Shawn went into a four-year long retirement before returning in 2002 and having his first match in years at summer slam against… Triple H. You see Shawn was the founder of D Generation X and in their heyday was a very personification of degeneracy, and there was no better partner in crime than Hunter Hearst Helmsley. But during his retirement, Shawn grew up, he’d gotten married, he’d become a family man, and he’d found God. Hunter though? Hunter had only grown more slothful, greedy, and wrathful. These were two men who no longer saw eye to eye and would end up building with each other off and on for a good two years until this night. June 13th, 2004. Bad Blood.

The Match

This match was brutal, bloody, violent, vicious, and longer than it had any right to be! You hear commentators in modern WWE go on about how “oh this isn’t a wrestling match! It’s a fight!” And normally it’s like “Dude. It’s Orton vs Cena 15. Calm down.” This match though? Yeah it’s a fight. It is all about Shawn and Hunter beating each other up until they’re both too exhausted to fight anymore. These men go out of their way to destroy each other for over 45 minutes. The match time on this is a whopping 47 minutes and 26 seconds, making it to date, the longest Hell in a Cell match in the history of the stipulation.

The Game finally put away the Heartbreak Kid with a whopping third Pedigree after almost an hour of chair shots, ladder spots, table spots, and blood. Lots and lots of blood. This is a really terrific match but it’s at least 15 minutes too long, arguably 20. I get the idea of making it this long, you want to make this an epic about the tragedy of a broken friendship, two men who used to love one another who now just want to do everything they can to hurt each other, but I think this is a concept that Hunter would do a lot better as a producer a decade later in NXT.

Batista vs Triple H - Vengeance (2005)

Backstory

In 2003, Triple H joined forces with Ric Flair to create the faction, Evolution. The other members of that stable were Randy Orton and of course, Batista. And while the group eventually turned on Randy in 2004 after he won the World Heavyweight Championship from Benoit at SummerSlam, it was Batista who decided for himself to turn on Hunter and Rich after winning the Royal Rumble in 2005. Batista was tired of being berated and verbally abused by his so-called friends and decided it was time for a change in leadership when it came to the red brand’s championship. And so the Game faced the Animal at Wrestlemania 21 and the Animal walked out a triumphant champion. But Hunter was done with Big Dave yet and stated that the contract for their Mania match stipulated that he would get a rematch at the next pay per view. So Batista and Triple H did battle once more at Backlash and Batista kicked Hunter’s ass a second time.

But that Hunter is a glutton for punishment, so he goaded Batista into accepting one more rematch. These two alphas would lock horns once more at Vengeance inside Hell in a Cell.

The Match

Triple H at this point was 4-0 in one on one matches inside Hell in a Cell while Batista was at the time 0-0, as such Hunter exploited the mental advantage by calling Batista’s attention to the fact that the referees on the outside were locking the cell shut. It looks at first like it’s something to make Batista scared but then Hunter immediately exploits this lapse in the Animal’s focus to start attacking him. From there it’s a pretty standard Cell match at this point with Hunter knowing every trick in the book for this stipulation but Batista managing to shrug it off or just tank the hits and use Hunter’s tricks against him. The closing stretch comes when Hunter has Batista set up for a pedigree onto the ring steps but Batista counters it into a spinebuster and then delivers a Batista Bomb for the win.

A pretty solid encounter but a little bit typical at this point.

The Undertaker vs Randy Orton - Armageddon (2005)

Backstory

In 2003, Randy Orton began his Legend Killer gimmick, A character who would challenge all sorts of well respected, high profile veterans of the wrestling industry in WWE and well, kick their asses. These matches were usually billed as the legend versus the legend killer, and in 2005 Randy set his sights on the legend of the undertaker. Spewed began in the build to wrestlemania 21 but it will continue on for the rest of the summer with Randy going into the smash 2-1 against the dead man. And well, old Mean Mark was sick of Randy’s shit and challenged him to go one on one inside hell in a cell.

The Match

The beginning of this match is largely Randy trying to keep it confined to ground game which he is more skilled at and than the Undertaker, but Taker won’t have it and goes out of his way to impose his will on his younger opponent. Eventually the Undertaker sets up Randy for the last ride but Randy slips out and lands on his feet behind the Undertaker’s back. The Undertaker then turns around to hit Randy Randy ducks out of the way at the last second causing the Undertaker to punch the referee by mistake. When a second referee unlocks the cage to try and count a pinfall on the Undertaker after Randy successfully delivers an RKO, Randy’s father, Cowboy Bob Orton, Slips in to get a closer look at the action. When the undertaker kicks out and delivers a chokeslam for victory, Cowboy Bob pulls the referee out of the ring to break up the pinfall. The Undertaker then proceeds to make Cowboy Bob deeply regret this action by beating the crap out of them, and then delivers a tombstone piledriver I’ll Cowboy Bob's little boy and the referee actually gets to make the full count this time. 1. 2. 3. It’s over.

A pretty standard match. Not my favorite but a pretty good time.

DX vs Shane & Vince McMahon and Big Show - Unforgiven (2006)

Backstory

In 2006, sometime before Wrestlemania, Vince McMahon started running his mouth AGAIN about the frickin Montreal screw job, and during all that he decided to call out Shawn to talk about it himself, Singer is out they were both the ones that screwed Bret Hart that night in 1997. Shawn just said, dude it’s been nine years. Let it go. Vince didn’t take too kindly to that and decided to challenge Shawn to a match at mania, which Shawn won. He then challenged Shawn to a tag match at Backlash, himself and his son Shane versus Shawn and God himself. Naturally and typically insane Vince McMahon fashion, Vince won the match off of interference from a group called the spirit squad. At that same time, he was starting to put a lot of his frustrations with Shawn on Hunter even though the two of them hadn’t seen Eye to Eye since at least 2002. Eventually the two men realized if they both couldn’t fucking stand Vincent Kennedy McMahon, Then why shouldn’t they team up? And if they were going to team up, well why not use the team name that they already had? Thus D-Generation X was reborn!

This eventually led it to a tag team match where Shane and Vince would be defeated by Shawn and Hunter, but Vince being Vince wouldn’t give up that easily. He challenged the DX boys to a rematch inside Hell in a Cell, but with their equalizer, the ECW champion himself… Uh, well, the Big Show.

The Match

Shawn and Hunter don’t do any waiting by immediately both kicking Big Show in the balls and then proceeding to whale on the McMahons. From there it’s mostly just Shawn and Hunter humiliating Shane and Vince until Tall Paul wakes up and imposes his will on DX with Vince setting up Shawn to join his Kiss My Ass club but Shawn manages to save himself at the last minute. The closing stretch comes when Shawn and Hunter manage to fell the Big Show and then shove Vince’s face into the giant’s own ass. After that, he’s hit with some Sweet Chin Music from Shawn and then a shot from Hunter’s sledgehammer. One cover and 3 seconds later and it’s another win for D-Generation X.

Definitely less blood feud and more adolescent fun but the part of me that refuses to grow up was very entertained by seeing the rich man shoved into the big man’s buttcrack, although my inability to just turn off my brain did wonder if that was safe for both parties given how much Vince’s face was bleeding by the end of this match. All the same, I’d give it a...

Batista vs The Undertaker - Survivor Series (2007)

Backstory

In 2007, The Undertaker won the Royal Rumble entitling him to a championship match at Wrestlemania against either then WWE Champion John Cena, then ECW Champion Bobby Lashley, or then World Heavyweight Batista. The Deadman after only a few moments chose Batista as his opponent. The two would have an epic battle at the Showcase of the Immortals but the Undertaker would reign victorious as the new World Heavyweight Champion. Following this matchup, Taker and Batista would face off at Backlash in a Last Man Standing match which ended in a draw. They had a steel cage match on SmackDown the next month and it would also end in a draw. This was also the moment Edge decided to make his second ever Money in the Bank cash in, stealing the title from the Undertaker. Edge would later be forced to drop the title due to an injury and the belt was then claimed by the Great Khali in a battle royal. Following all of this nonsense, Khali would defend his title against Batista and the Undertaker in a triple threat match at Cyber Sunday, which Batista would win. Making the Animal and the Deadman 1-1-2. A score left very unsettled, so Taker issued a challenge, you and me, at Survivor Series inside Hell in a Cell. Batista agreed without hesitation.

The Match

This was a really good one. The action starts with Batista coming at the Undertaker like a house on fire. No waiting. The Animal was on the Deadman like stink on a monkey! Things went back and forth until eventually The Undertaker delivered a tombstone piledriver to Batista onto the steps for what would’ve most definitely been the win… If not for the return of the Rated R Superstar!

As stated earlier, Edge had been out of action with a torn pec since July 20th. Him pulling the referee out of the ring and then delivering a con-chair-to to the Undertaker was the first time anyone had seen him in four months. After that, he pulled Batista’s lifeless body over the Deadman to give the Animal the win. This would later lead into a triple threat at the next SmackDown branded PPV Armageddon which Edge would win.

Still a pretty great match for Survivor Series though.

Edge vs The Undertaker - SummerSlam (2008)

Backstory

You’re gonna wanna sit down for this one because oooh boy. In 2007, following Edge’s return at Survivor Series, the Rated R Superstar began having a kayfabe relationship with the SmackDown General Manager, Vickie Guerrero, widow to the late great Eddie Guerrero. It was obviously a relationship of convenience where Edge exploited the lonely older woman to advance his career. Edge would go on to win the World Heavyweight Championship from Batista at Armageddon and retain it at the Royal Rumble and at No Way Out before dropping it to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 24 and failing to reclaim it at Backlash. Following this though, Vickie would ban the Undertaker’s submission move. Hell’s Gate, which The Undertaker had used to beat Edge in both of their matches in 2008. She would then strip Taker of his championship and put it up for grabs at Judgment Day in a match between Taker and Edge. Undertaker would win the match, but Vickie decided the title would remain vacant because Taker won the match because of a counout. The Undertaker and Edge would face off for a fourth time in a TLC match at One Night Stand with the added stipulation that if The Undertaker lost this match, he would be banished from the WWE.

Taker lost off of interference from Vickie’s nephew in law Chavo and Edge’s idiot friend Bam Neely and thus he was banished and Edge was sitting pretty with his championship title and his upwardly mobile MILF. Edge would retain his title again later that month at Night of Champions only for karma to rear her bitchy little head as CM Punk arrived the next night on Raw to cash in his Money in the Bank contract on him. Three weeks later after a feud with WWE champion Triple H, it was revealed that Edge had been two-timing Vickie with a pretty little lady named Alicia Fox. The Ultimate Opportunist indeed! Edge then pulled the usual “I’m so sorry baby! I love you! I’ll never cheat on you again!” act, but Vickie was seeing right through it and informed Edge of his impending annihilation via a match with the newly reinstated Undertaker at SummerSlam inside Hell in a Cell.

The Match

This match starts with Edge using evasive tactics against the Undertaker but seemingly more out of a desire to get the Deadman to make a mistake than to just avoid the man for as long as he could. Eventually the two do come to blows and it’s pretty spectacular with the action even spilling out onto the outside. That’s the first that’s happened since Triple H and Chris Jericho had their match back in ‘02. The final stretch of the match comes when the Undertaker first hits Edge with a spear, then knocks the poor man silly with a camera, then delivers a con-chair-to, and finally wraps it all up a tombstone. 1. 2. 3. And it’s over for the Rated R Superstar, until he makes the foolish mistake of getting up after the Undertaker had left the ring but before he’d left the arena. The Deadman then re-enters the cell, tosses Edge onto a ladder, sets up one for himself, and then chokeslams the Canuck straight to hell.

A pretty fun match, but not quite as spectacular as some others.

Hell in a Cell (2009)

CM Punk vs The Undertaker

Backstory

In 2009, CM Punk began an epic feud with Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight championship that would culminate in a TLC match at SummerSlam where Punk would reclaim the title from Jeff, following his win, Punk would be attacked by the Undertaker. Following this, Punk would put his championship on the line in a submission match against Taker at Breaking Point, which he lost… Sort of. The Undertaker applied his Hell’s Gate submission and Punk tapped out clean but right as The Undertaker was celebrating, SmackDown General Manager Teddy Long walks out and explains that Vickie Guerrero’s ban on the Hell’s Gate was never formally undone, and so the Undertaker hadn’t actually won the match yet. Following this Punk locked The Undertaker in his Anaconda Vice submission and then the bell rang… Despite the Undertaker never tapping out. Did I mention that Breaking Point was held in Montreal that year?

Following all of that, Teddy Long came out on SmackDown and gracefully explained his actions. He made a sincere apology to the Undertaker and said that he just hoped that the Deadman could forgive him. And then at the end of the night, Teddy sat down in his limo only to find his driver had been replaced by a very angry Undertaker. The following week a bunch of the Undertaker’s druids dropped off a coffin at ringside during a promo from CM Punk. Punk opened up the coffin and found Teddy waiting inside. The terrified GM then explained that Punk would defend his title against the Undertaker once more, this time inside Hell in a Cell, much to the Straight Edge Superstar’s horror.

The Match

This is to date the shortest PPV Hell in a Cell match outside of Taker vs the Big Boss Man. While Punk wasn’t made to look incompetent in this match, it was pretty clear from the start that he was outclassed. Punk did get a few good kick outs and evasions from the Undertaker’s finishers, but this was ultimately wrapped up by a chokeslam followed by a tombstone. 1. 2. 3. And it’s over.

Taking my own fandom for the former AEW Champion out of the equation, I do see the logic in having The Undertaker beat Punk here. It was the first Hell in a Cell PPV, so you’d want to start it off with a bang, like say giving Mr. Hell in a Cell, his seventh world title inside the Cell, and a loss doesn’t necessarily have to be the end of the world if it’s a good match and you make sure the other guy looks strong in defeat. Maybe bump Drew McIntyre vs R-Truth give those extra 4 and a half minutes to Punk vs Taker for a 15 minute match and give Punk some more offense. But looking at what we got, well I just don’t think this match was structured smartly. It’s far from the worst cell match, but it’s definitely not a match I'm ever going to come back to for my own pleasure.

John Cena vs Randy Orton I

Backstory

Pretty straightforward stuff. John Cena has the WWE championship, Randy Orton wants it back. Randy Orton already had a pretty bloody and gruesome match inside Hell in a Cell 4 years ago, whereas John Cena has never set foot inside of it. Randy thinks John doesn’t have the vileness and sadism it takes to win inside the cell. John thinks Randy is wrong. Let’s see what’s next!

The Match

If the first Cell match on the first Hell in a Cell PPV didn’t make it clear already, this was where it became obvious that we are definitely in the PG era. It’s strange because there were a lot of times where I think the blood was kind of excessive but watching these matches now, I’m kind of missing it. The red stuff really does bring out an intensity and realness to these matches that just isn’t there otherwise.

Anyway, this was a pretty solid matchup. Randy and John had already had about 15 million matches at this point so the story here was each man trying to do their big moves but constantly getting it scouted or tanking it. The match is finally wrapped up when Orton delivers a punt to Cena. Or at least you’re supposed to think that’s what happened because the camera shows Orton missing Cena completely but Cena still sells like he actually got kicked in the head. Still pretty good though despite complaints about the infamous Kevin Dunn. Not the best ever or the best of the night, but still pretty good.

Legacy vs DX

Backstory

In 2009, Randy created his own successor stable for Evolution, a collection of WWE superstars who hailed from professional wrestlers themselves. He would dub this stable The Legacy, and while it would include a couple members of the famous Anoa'i family, it eventually settled on just Randy himself, Ted DiBiase Jr, and future AEW founder, Cody Rhodes. Randy’s first target following this was making sure Triple H didn’t face him for the championship at SummerSlam, so the group beat the crap out of him. 3 on 1 just didn’t seem fair to The Game, so it was time to call up an old friend, good ol’ HBK. Following that, while Randy had the main event of SummerSlam against John Cena, D-Generation X were taking on those damn millennials!

Yeah it was 2009, so millennials weren’t being given all that much grief from the older generation, but still. Shawn and Hunter beat Cody and Ted but got their butts kicked at Breaking Point in a Submissions Count Anywhere match, and now it was time for the tiebreaker!

The Match

This match starts with the actually pretty smart idea of having Legacy attack DX during their entrance. Cody and Ted whale on Shawn and Hunter for a while before tossing just Shawn into the cell, but locking Hunter out. From there we get a pretty heroic performance from HBK with him fighting with everything he’s got to stay alive and to win this match but consistently being overwhelmed by his younger and stronger opponents while Hunter stands outside helplessly and watches until he finally just leaves… Only to return with a pair of bolt cutters to cut the chain and save his best friend. When the ref gets a new chain to relock the cage, Hunter opts to turn the tables on Legacy and throws Ted while he and Shawn get some revenge on Cody. The finishing blow comes when Shawn and Hunter hit Cody with some Sweet Chin Music and a shot from Hunter’s trusty sledgehammer and the Rhodes boy goes down. 1. 2. 3! And your winner!

A pretty solid match up, definitely the best of the PPV. I would say, this is definitely the match that I think would’ve been most served by getting some blood in there. Seeing Shawn caked with the red stuff during the stretch where he was having to fight a 2 on 1 battle would’ve really done a lot to generate some babyface sympathy, but this is the PG era now so I guess I’ll just have to accept the lack of blood.

All the same, best cell match of the show!

Hell in a Cell (2010)

Randy Orton vs Sheamus

Backstory

Pretty straightforward stuff here. Sheamus defended his WWE championship against Randy at SummerSlam, lost via DQ. He defended his title against Randy again at Night of Champions along with four other guys, and then lost the belt to the Viper. And now he’s gonna go through hell to find his redemption!

The Match

This was a rather surprising match not for anything these men did but because it was an uncharacteristic babyface performance from Randy. Randy can be a solid good guy in a pinch but he always does his best work as a heel, so it’s always rather surprising to see him work as the hero in a match, but that being said Sheamus is terrific as the villain here. A good chunk of this match revolves around Sheamus trying to destroy Randy’s lower back by throwing him into the ring steps inside the ring so Randy can’t hit him with that RKO, naturally the finish of this match is Randy delivering an RKO onto those steps for the victory.

A really terrifically worked match!

The Undertaker vs Kane

Backstory

It’s Kane and the Undertaker. What else do you need? This stipulation was literally built for one guy and was the debut of the other. What explanation do you need?

The Match

The match was a fairly typical match for Kane and the Undertaker, not too many big moves, lots of old school wrassling in a reasonably entertaining encounter if that’s your preference but then it all ends in such a stupid way. Instory, Paul Bearer had returned to manage the Undertaker after the Deadman had lost to the Undertaker at Night of Champions. It was seemingly a way for the Undertaker to regain his killer instinct to overcome his brother, but then during the match at one point Paul enters the cell and right as the Undertaker is about to deliver a tombstone for the win, Paul distracts him with a light from Taker’s urn in order to give Kane the victory.

This was clearly not something Kane and Paul had discussed beforehand as Kane was just as surprised as the Undertaker but he certainly didn’t question it. A few hits from the urn and one chokeslam later, and Kane was walking out of the cell still the World Heavyweight champion.

Again, the early match was fine if you like the old school style but nothing special.

Aside

I think this show’s Cell matches are an improvement over the matches from the previous Hell in a Cell PPV in terms of how brutal the matches are allowed to be. I think there was a bit of “Wait, what are we allowed to do now?” Because it was the start of the PG era but after that I think the guys had well and truly figured things out. They’d realized “Okay, we can’t use blood, but we can still pound each other into the dirt. Let’s just do that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯”

John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio vs CM Punk vs Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler - Monday Night Raw (2011) - A Dark Match

This one really shouldn’t count but I wanted to see how many strikes I could get for using popular music in one video. This was a dark match that happened after Raw was done filming and was actually done 6 days before the actual Hell in a Cell PPV in 2011. There’s a minute and a half clip of the match on YouTube that actually looks pretty fun. Cena hits Del Rio with the Five Knuckle Shuffle, then sets him up for an Attitude Adjustment but Del Rio counters it with a backstabber. Cena rolls out and Punk slips in to hit Alberto with the GTS but before he can make a cover, Dolph Ziggler slips in and hits him with a Zig Zag but before he can make a cover, Jack Swagger comes in and traps Dolph with an Ankle Lock, but before Dolph can tap out, Cena slips back in and finally gets to deliver an AA this time to Jack. It connects, cover, 1, 2, 3, and your winner and still champion! John Felix Anthony Cena!

Giving an actual grade to this one would likely be unfair as I could not watch the whole match, but it did look very fun. If I was at this show in 2011 I would’ve gone home having really enjoyed my night! If really pressed, I’d say it looked like a 3 out of 5.

Hell in a Cell (2011)

Randy Orton vs Mark Henry

Backstory

Ladies and gentleman, let me welcome you all to the Hall of Pain!

In 2011, Mark Henry began a career best heel run. After 15 years in WWE and having never once held a world championship, Henry decided enough was enough and tapped into a very deep seated rage that he would proceed to take out on the Big Show, the Great Khali, and Sheamus, leaving him with just one more target. The World Heavyweight Championship. And who’s the poor fool holding that title? The Viper himself. Mr. RKO. Randall Keith Orton. Who Mark Henry would soundly defeat at Night of Champions.

But Randall Keith may be a great many things, but a quitter isn’t one of them! Rematch time baby!

The Match

This was another really good match. Very much a question of skill vs power, which is greater? Randy tried virtually every trick in his book to fell the World’s Strongest Man but could never get him down for the 3 count. After delivering a picture perfect RKO that only kept Mark down a 2 count, Randy heard the voices loud and clear, the move that won him the title from Big Match John 2 years earlier, a punt kick. Alas, this time his luck would not go so well, with Henry grabbing Randy before his kick could connect and delivering a World’s Strongest Slam to the Viper for the victory.

So yeah, a pretty solid match up!

Alberto Del Rio vs John Cena vs CM Punk

Backstory

Pretty straightforward stuff here. Alberto Del Rio won Raw’s Money in the Bank briefcase back in July on the same night that CM Punk won the WWE Championship from John Cena. A month later, Punk retained the title against John in a rematch at SummerSlam but Del Rio then immediately cashed in on Punk. A month later, John reclaimed his title from Del Rio but Punk was stuck facing Triple H instead of Kevin Nash, when he should’ve been in that match instead of John. Triple H, the new kayfabe head of WWE, agreed, and declared that Del Rio and Punk would both get a rematch with John inside Hell in a Cell.

The Match

This is another amazing showcase of John Cena and CM Punk’s amazing chemistry. The ringwork between these two is just so smooth. And while Alberto Del Rio is a perfectly good wrestler, he doesn’t have half the charisma that either of these guys have. With that being said, sadly it is Del Rio who walks out of this cell the WWE champion. In the final stretch of this match, Del Rio throws Punk through a table that the Chicagoan had set up earlier in the match before being locked into the STF by Cena. But before Del Rio can tap out, Ricardo, Alberto’s personal ring announcer knocks out the outside referee and steals the key from him to unlock the cell. He then tricks Cena into leaving the cell and then Del Rio forces him to stay out while he locks the cage from the inside. From there, Punk tries to rally a comeback with an attempt at a GTS but Del Rio whacks him with the steel pipe Ricardo had left in the cell. One hit to the chest and another to the neck and it’s game over for the Voice of the Voiceless. 1. 2. 3. And your winner! Alberto Del Rio!

From there, there’s a really dumb angle with the Miz and R Truth but we don’t need to talk about it because it’s not important to the match.

The first half of this match was really great stuff, especially the sequences with just Punk and Cena. They have a chemistry that is to die for. Cena may have had a bazillion matches with Randy Orton, but not a single one was ever better than even the worst Punk vs Cena match. Alberto Del Rio meanwhile is not necessarily a third wheel, but he’s definitely the least interesting component to this match. Why Vince McMahon chose to give this guy the Royal Rumble win, a championship match at Wrestlemania, the Money in the Bank contract, and the WWE Championship in one single year I’ll never understand. That all said, still a pretty good match with a pretty good heel finish. 3.25 out of 5.

The Undertaker vs Triple H - Wrestlemania 28

Backstory

At Wrestlemania 25, Shawn Michaels went to war with the Undertaker and lost. One year later he told the deadman he wanted a rematch and the Undertaker said if you want to fight me then I want you to put your career on the line. HBK lost again and then retired for eight years, making a very ill advised one night only return at 2018’s Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia. A year after retiring Shawn, The Undertaker went head to head with Triple H at Wrestlemania 27. The Undertaker won but when he did, he wasn’t the one who walked out of the arena in Georgia. So wind the clock forward one more year and the Undertaker reemerges to demand a rematch.

“I may have scored the pinfall but I did not truly win that match. A man that has to be carried out is not truly a victor.” So here we are now, 19-1 or 20-0, with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee, and it will all be decided inside Hell in a Cell.

The Match

This is probably the most soap opera match since the original Hell in a Cell match back in ‘97 or since Mick Foley’s match with Taker back in ‘98, but this match puts that level of melodrama to shame! Half of this match is just Shawn arguing with Hunter and Undertaker about trying to call off the match. Shawn is pleading with Hunter to lay off the old man and Hunter keeps screaming that if Shawn wants it to be over then he can either call it off himself or let him finish. Shawn pleads with Taker to just quit while Taker begs Shawn to not call off the match. He needs to finish this.

Eventually the melodrama ends when Hunter tries to go for a shot with his hammer but The Undertaker grabs it from him at the last second. Hunter is then thrown into the corner and realizing he’s all but beaten, delivers a defiant DX crotch chop, takes a shot with the hammer to the dome, and then takes a tombstone piledriver. 1. 2. 3. And it’s game over for The Game.

Definitely my favorite cell match since Brock vs Taker. I think the melodrama while entertaining kind of makes it less of a match and almost more of a short film. Less like Drew McIntyre vs Randy Orton at Clash of Champions 2020, a match I personally really like, and more like Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso at that same event, a match a lot of people really love but a match I’ve always been a lot more lukewarm on. That said, I still really enjoy this match. The actual spectacle is pretty great in addition to the melodrama and that melodrama is again pretty darn entertaining.

Ryback vs CM Punk - Hell in a Cell (2012)

Backstory

Ugh. Do y'all remember Ryback? Big muscle man. Guns bigger than his head. Used to have a thing where he’d wave his arms up and down and go “FEED! ME! MORE!” A pretty decent big man wrestler who caught on big in 2012 but then steadily faded in popularity. Pretty much Braun Strowman 1.0.

Yeah that guy had a championship feud with CM Punk after Night of Champions, but Punk was back to being a heel here so instead of an interesting encounter between the Voice of the Voiceless and the Big Guy, we had Punk fleeing from Ryback like a coward. *defeated sigh* Let’s go.

The Match

So most of this match is CM Punk fighting for his life against this big monster man. Punk actually has some really good facial expressions just selling how scared he is to be stuck in a cage with Ryback. Ryback for his part is a fairly decent big man style wrestler, but nothing special. I jokingly referred to him as Braun Strowman 1.0 earlier but I think I’d have actually rather seen Braun fight Punk than this guy. Say what you want about Braun, he may be stupid, he may be a big jerk, he may be a right wing loonie and a Fight Club fan who misunderstood the movie, at least he’s actually fun to watch in the ring. He had a big personality to go with his big presence. He had an actual style that was exciting to watch while Ryback is… 6’3 and 291 pounds. Neat.

Anyway, this match is stupid. The first ten minutes are mostly fine but then the ending comes. Ryback has Punk on his back, ready to deliver his Shellshock finisher when the referee distracts him for five seconds before punching him in the nuts. Punk seizes the opportunity and rolls Ryback up for a fast 3 count from the referee. The outside official then fumbles with the key for 3 minutes while Ryback wakes up and then beats up CM Punk some more. How fun.

Hell in a Cell (2013)

CM Punk vs Ryback & Paul Heyman

Backstory

CM Punk would eventually drop the WWE championship to The Rock at the 2013 Royal Rumble in a pretty darn good match, but something that would leave most Punk fans feeling pretty deflated. After that Punk would mostly be spinning his wheels either trying to win the title back from Rock or starting shit with The Undertaker or reigniting his feud with Chris Jericho. Punk’s new focus would begin during the 2013 Money in the Bank ladder match. Punk had his fingers on the briefcase, another championship opportunity in his grasp when suddenly SMACK! Paul Heyman, Punk’s best friend and his manager, sent a ladder flying into Punk repeatedly knocking him off his ladder and busting his head open.

Following this, Punk decided it was time for some revenge. So he decided to kick the asses of all the other Paul Heyman guys and hopefully Paul himself. So he faced off with the Paul Heyman guy, Brock Lesnar, and lost in an epic matchup at SummerSlam. Then he challenged Curtis Axel at Night of Champions but lost thanks to interference from… Ryback. So they had a match at Battleground which Punk finally won and then a rematch at Hell in a Cell but with the unique twist that this would be a handicap match. Punk vs Ryback… And Paul Heyman.

The Match

Paul E. Dangerously is not a wrestler so he entered the arena last and was dropped off on top of the cell by a scissor lift. Paul doesn’t want any smoke from ol’ Punky.

Naturally this turns out to be just Ryback vs Punk again but this time Punk is the face and Ryback is the heel. And in terms of that, while Punk is great as a baddie or a goodie, I think Ryback may be a slightly better heel than he is a face. He’s not spectacular at either one but I guess I’ll take heel Ryback over face Ryback if I had to choose.

The closing stretch of this match comes when Punk performs an elbow drop to Ryback through a table, gives him a stiff whack from a kendo stick when he starts to recover, and delivers a GTS to the Big Guy for the victory. A pretty decent match but the best part is Paul Heyman looking down from atop the cell and then just realizing he is absolutely screwed once the table spot happens. That is comedy gold! 5 out of 5 for Paul, but the actual match gets...

Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan

Backstory

You may be wondering, so who won that Money in the Bank ladder match in 2013? Why that was none other than The Viper, Randy Orton! And when did he cash in? Well that was immediately after Daniel Bryan took a pedigree from special guest referee Triple H upon defeating John Cena for his first ever WWE Championship. As you can imagine this kicked off a bit of a feud that went on longer than it should have but did eventually culminate in Daniel winning the title again at Wrestlemania 30.

But for now, Daniel went head to head with Randy at the next PPV, Night of Champions, where he won back the title only to have to relinquish it on Raw less than 24 hours later because the referee did a fast count during the pinfall. The title was declared vacant and then recontested at Battleground where no new champion was declared a no contest when the Big Show knocked out Daniel and the referee because when Vince doesn’t know what he wants he just does something stupid instead and kicks the can down to the next month. So the title is now being contested inside Hell in a Cell. But you know what the sickest thing here is? This whole time the world heavyweight champion, the sole world champion in WWE from September 16th, 2013 to October 23rd, 2013 was Alberto Del Rio. What a joke!

The Match

Remember when Shawn Michaels was guest referee for The Undertaker vs Triple H at Wrestlemania 28? Yeah WWE brought him back for this match. I mean they said it was a fan vote on WWE.Com but this looks like it was teed up for Shawn to be added and then cause shenanigans. Which it does. During this period in WWE, Stephanie, Hunter, Randy, the SHIELD, and later Kane, were all made part of a new faction in WWE, the infamous Authority, a group of overpowered heels who apparently made Raw and SmackDown unwatchable for almost three years.

What does this have to do with Randy vs Daniel, you ask? Well the actual match is pretty good! Full of fire from both guys! A vicious heel Randy, filled to the brim with malice, and a never say die babyface Daniel, just full of piss and vinegar! It’s excellent stuff but then towards the tail end of the match Triple H comes out to give Shawn a hard time for not just letting Randy win. Shawn yells at Hunter to just let him do his damn job but at one point accidentally gets pushed into a turnbuckle and gets stunned. Daniel tries to help out Shawn because he’s his mentor and also he needs to count the pinfall so he or Randy can win, but preferably himself. But Hunter comes in and tosses Daneil aside so he can tend to his best friend. Already annoyed after two straight months of this guy messing with his career and screwing him over at every single opportunity, Daniel attacks Hunter. Shawn finally wakes up and sees this, and without even questioning it, delivers Sweet Chin Music to Daniel. Randy then immediately covers Daniel for the win and a conflicted Shawn, realizing his mistake but still duty bound, counts the pinfall. 1. 2. 3. “I HEAR VOICES IN MY HEAD, THEY COUNSEL ME, THEY UNDERSTAND, THEY TALK TO ME!”

A really terrific match with a really annoying finish. And even more annoyingly, this feud would then be put on hold for four months so that Daniel and CM Punk could feud with the Wyatt Family! Isn’t that fun!

Great match, God awful finish. Thank God for the Yes Movement.

Hell in a Cell (2014)

John Cena vs Randy Orton II

Backstory

Okay, there’s a lot of jiggery pokery with the story of this match that also runs through the story of Dean vs Seth on this same, but the long and short of it is, Brock has title, John want title, Randy want title, so Randy and John fight to see who get Brock’s title. The actual A to B for John and Randy agreeing to fight each other is needlessly complicated, but that’s all you really need.

The Match

This is much improved over John and Randy’s first match. Where their previous match suffered from the growing pains of the early PG era, 5 years later, these guys have figured out how to have a Hell in a Cell match without bleeding which is a lot trickier than it sounds.

This match is mostly just Randy whaling on John as much as possible and John, in typical Big Match John fashion, refusing to stay down. The ending stretch comes when Randy tries to go for a top rope RKO through a table but John changes it into a top rope Attitude Adjustment through that very same table. 1. 2. 3. And your winner! The YOU-CAN’T-SEE-ME-MAN!

A pretty solid match up but nothing that special for John and Randy.

Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins

Backstory

This one is pretty legendary among fans of WWE, so I’ll keep it short. In 2012, CM Punk was in a bit of a bind. It was Survivor Series and he had to defend his title against John Cena and Ryback, so at the end of the match he called in a little insurance policy. And that policy was… The SHIELD! A trio of development guys by the names of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose, now known as Jon Moxley. Together for over a year and a half these three men owned the WWE, going from being Punk’s attack dogs, to the Authority’s, to being their own men, eventually even taking on Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista in an epic three on three tag match. But then it all came crashing down when Hunter said five simple words. “There’s always a Plan B.” And like Bucky Barnes hearing his command codes, Seth Rollins swung a chair into Roman Reigns’s back, destroying the SHIELD in an instant.

And while Roman himself got to be hotshotted into the main event scene, as exemplified by him being in the ladder match to win the title at Money in the Bank, rather than the briefcase. Seth and Dean though? They had business to attend to.

The Match

So before the match formally begins, Seth and Dean are brawling on top of the cell until they both fall off it, landing on the Spanish and English announcer desks. Both are put on a stretcher but Dean refuses to go, scrambles out of his stretcher and pulls Seth off of his because DEAN WANTS THIS SMOKE!

The closing stretch of the match comes when Dean has Seth dead to rights. Seth has his head laid on a pair of cinder blocks and Dean looks ready to perform Seth’s Curbstomp finisher but before he can the lights in the arena go out and there’s a strange Latin chant being repeated over the speaker. There’s then a mysterious lamp projecting an image of Bray Wyatt in the ring that distracts Dean long enough to eat a clothesline from the actual Bray and then a uranage. With Dean out cold Seth gingerly covers his former friend and takes the victory.

The actual match was pretty okay and could’ve been great if it had a clean win for Dean, but this? This was fucking stupid.

Hell in a Cell (2015)

Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt

Backstory

Not much to go off of here. Bray Wyatt cost Roman the Money in the Bank contract after Roman beat him on Raw two weeks earlier in a qualifying match to be in the Money in the Bank ladder match. From there, Bray and Roman would go back and forth for the next three PPVs until they wound up inside Hell in a Cell.

The Match

This is a pretty solid match up. I had trouble staying interested at first but as it went on I really started digging it. The closing stretch is slightly underwhelming, it involves Bray attempting to deliver Sister Abigail to Roman into two kendo sticks he’d stuff into the turnbuckles, but Roman slips out at the last second, whacks Bray with one of the sticks, then shoves him into the other one. Pin. 1. 2. 3.

Not a terribly exciting finish, but not a terrible finish at all.

The Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar

Backstory

Our third ever rematch and boy is this one personal. After conquering the world of sports entertainment, Brock left the WWE in 2004 and eventually made his way into the world of the UFC, a world which he conquered as well, and with the world of MMA truly under his boot, Brock-ules decided it was time to go home. And thus in 2012, at the Raw after Wrestlemania 28, the Beast Incarnate returned to reclaim his homeland from the pathetic creatures who had overtaken it. Fast forward two years, his campaign finally took off at Wrestlemania 30. Brock had claimed the championship thrice, beaten Kurt Angle and Goldberg at Wrestlemanias 19 and 20, The Rock, Triple H, and CM Punk at SummerSlam, won the Royal Rumble, and become the youngest King of the Ring in WWE history, and now on April 1st, 2014, he would make history once again by conquering the Undertaker’s Wrestlemania streak.

And the Deadman would not rest in peace. Fast forward four months, Brock wins the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from John Cena at SummerSlam. Fast forward to March 29th, 2015, Brock loses his title to Seth when Seth cashed in his Money in the Bank contract during Brock’s match with Roman Reigns. Fast forward to Battleground, Brock’s let Seth have his fun but it’s time for the little boy to give the Beast his title back and right when he almost has it. *gong* The Undertaker returns and decides it’s time for him and Brock to finish what they started. It’s time to avenge his streak.

The Match

This one is a bit of a let down. It’s a perfectly good match but after the glory that was Brock and the Undertaker’s first Cell match in 2003, perfectly good just isn’t enough, especially not when by 2015, the Deadman was showing that he just couldn’t go like he used to. I don’t resent him for it, it happens to every athlete, but it is sad to see.

That said, this is a good match with a pretty fun finish! Brock removes the covering for the ring, exposing the wood, but before he can do anything, Taker delivers a chokeslam and a tombstone for the win but Brock kicks out. The Beast then gives The Deadman a low blow and delivers the third F5 of the match to finally claim his second victory over the Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell.

It’s fun, but it’s nowhere near as good as the match they had 12 years earlier.

The Undertaker vs Shane McMahon - Wrestlemania 32

Backstory

Were you watching WWE in 2016 and thinking “God the authority is such an annoying heel faction. I really wish they would just go away.”? Well you know who agreed with you? Shane O’Mac! He came back to Raw and said he wanted to take over the show because frankly his sister and her husband were ruining the damn place. Vince then issued a challenge, beat The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at Wrestlemania and I’ll give you Raw. He also added the stipulation that if The Undertaker lost, it would be his last Wrestlemania match. Which is a booking decision I’m not sure I understand, but let’s move on.

The Match

I really don’t get this match as a concept. If this was the attitude era I could see Shane having a small chance of victory, if they did this match a year earlier or later at Mania 31 or 33 I’d get it, either say the Undertaker was still recovering from losing his streak and the outcome was in doubt now or say that he’s gaining his confidence back but the thought of not doing Wrestlemania ever again really does scare him, I could get this. But honestly, I’d say this would’ve been a great match to do with a younger heel who could really get over with the audience. In fact, looking at this card, I’d switch up Dean and Taker’s opponent’s. Give the clean cut suburban dad looking guy a match against the grungy guy who always looks like he just crawled out from the local bar after having drank probably five more drinks than any reasonable human ever should and give us a rematch of Mania 30 since Brock isn’t in the title picture at the moment. One last match. But that all said, while I don’t like the match, I do think it’s good. A big shout out to Shane for taking that dive off the cell and onto the announcer’s table, but I’ve always had a problem with how strong Shane was booked from here until the first episode of SmackDown on Fox.

The closing stretch comes after Shane makes that dive and Taker moves out of the way at the last second. The Undertaker then drags Shane back into the cell, gives him a piledriver, and then pins him. Onto Roman vs Triple H.

Hell in a Cell (2016)

Roman Reigns vs Rusev

Backstory

Eh, pretty basic stuff. Roman beat Rusev for the United States Championship at Clash of Champions and Rusev wants it back. I wanted to find out why they decided to put it inside Hell in a Cell but everything I read just makes me think, you know what, it doesn’t matter. So yeah, onto the match.

The Match

Rusev vs Roman is… Fine but unexceptional. Most of the action is just Rusev abusing Roman the whole time but, in typical John Cena 2.0 or Hulk Hogan 3.0 fashion, you pick which one is less offensive, Roman rises above hate and never gives up! Believe that! Brother! There’s a spot here that I would’ve booked to be the finish where Rusev is applying his Accolade submission to Roman with a chain instead of just his hands, I would’ve just had Roman tap out there but instead Rusev lets go of the chain and reapplies the move with just his hands, and this is where we get into the finish proper. Roman moves out of the hold by shifting Rusev onto his shoulders and delivers a Samoan Drop onto the steps. Rusev tries to walk it off but then gets hit with a Spear from the Big Dog. 1, 2, 3. And your winner.

A pretty okay match but nothing special.

Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins

Backstory

In 2014, Seth was the Authority’s golden boy. In 2016, Triple H decided Seth just wasn’t good enough anymore. Seth wrestled Finn Balor at SummerSlam 2016 to determine the first ever WWE Universal Champion. Seth lost but unfortunately, Finn lost too when it was determined that he’d separated his shoulder and had to vacate the title less than 24 hours later. A week later, a fatal fourway match was held to determine the new Universal Champ. Safe bet Seth Rollins vs safer bet Roman Reigns vs darkhorse Big Cass vs underdog Kevin Owens. Roman eliminated Cass but Triple H hit the Big Dog with a Pedigree for Seth to eliminate him. Seth turned to KO thinking he had the match in the bag but instead Triple H Pedigreed Seth for KO to win to the shock of everyone present. Why did he do this?

Who the hell knows?

Anyway, Seth was understandably quite angry about this and demanded a rematch which he got at Clash of Champions, and then KO’s BFF Chris Jericho interfered to help KO win. And now is Seth’s second rematch!

The Match

This was a pretty solid match, some pretty memorable spots and lots of good wrestling from Seth and KO. The match comes to an end when Seth is distracted by Jericho long enough for KO to deliver a DDT onto a chair which he then follows up with a popup powerbomb to two more chairs. 1. 2. 3. And your winner!

A pretty fun match and an especially valiant performance from Seth where the future Drip God manages to fend off two opponents for a decent chunk of the duration. And a pretty great performance from Kevin where he shows that even if he had Jericho’s help, it’s pretty clear he didn’t necessarily need it.

Charlotte Flair vs Sasha Banks

Backstory

To paraphrase Michael Cole, it’s GIRL BOSS TIME! Because this is the first ever Hell in a Cell match to be contested between two women. Those being half of the Four Horsewomen, Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair!

Short version, these two had been feuding over the Raw Women’s Championship since June. Charlotte would win on the PPVs, Sasha would win on the TV episodes, and now it was time to put the feud to bed… Charlotte and Sasha would wrestle in two more title matches before the new year.

Maybe the Hell in a Cell isn’t actually the feud ender people think it is. Oh well, let’s get into the match.

The Match

Charlotte starts the match but cheapshotting Sasha before the bell is even rung. From there they brawl outside the ring as the cell is lowered. Eventually Sasha is set up onto a gurney but the minute the announcer starts to say that Charlotte will be the new champion, Sasha gets right back up and runs into the cell, ready for war.

A war that turns out to be a pretty solid match save for a pretty lackluster finish. Charlotte throws Sasha into a chair three times but because Sasha isn’t that heavy, it never fucking breaks. So Charlotte wraps this up by delivering Natural Selection to The Boss for the win. An underwhelming end for a pretty good match and definitely the wrong result but still pretty good.

Hell in a Cell (2017)

The Usos vs The New Day

Backstory

The Usos and the New Day have had a storied rivalry but their rivalry mostly comes down to “You are the champions, we want to be the champions, we will now fight you.” And that’s basically what this is. The Usos walked into SummerSlam the SmackDown Tag Team Champions, they had a match with the New Day and then the Usos did not walk out the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. They then beat the New Day in a non title match to receive a rematch at the PPV which… Has never made sense.

Becky: Beat the champion to be able to beat the champion? That doesn’t make any sense!

I completely agree, Mrs. Rollins, however, once the Usos got their rematch, the New Day declared that this rematch would be held inside HELL! IN A CELL!!!

The Match

The minute these men step inside the Cell, they immediately go for their toys and get to work on destroying each other. We get the first and second ever shots from a Goddamn trombone! There’s even a spot where Big E and Xavier trap Jey in the corner of the cell by pushing him and then sliding kendo sticks into the sides so that he can’t move.

The ending spot of the match is Jimmy and Jey performing a double Frog Splash onto Xavier while Xavier has a steel chair lying on top of him so that landing really sucks for all three guys. This was a really fun match and most definitely the best tag team match inside the cell, especially considering it was contested by two actual tag teams. Not a tag team vs the boss, his son, and Captain Isano, not two really popular superstars in a match against two other really popular superstars, two actual tag teams that are insanely over with the crowd!

Kevin Owens vs Shane McMahon

Backstory

At Wrestlemania 33, Kevin Owens became the United States Champion, at the July 25th episode of SmackDown he lost it to AJ Styles. They would then have a rematch at SummerSlam with the one and only *ugh* Shane McMahon as the special guest referee. At one point Shane counted a pinfall for Kevin on AJ but waved it off when he realized AJ’s foot was on the rope, Kevin got frustrated and shoved Shane, Shane shoved him back, and AJ rolled KO for the win. Shane would concede that Kevin’s defeat was partly his fault, so he offered KO a rematch on SmackDown with his own choice of referee. KO chose Happy King Baron Corbin and the match happened later that night, unfortunately, Shane refused to butt out and Corbin quit mid match, so Shane put on the zebra suit and counted the pinfall when AJ hit Kevin with a Phenomenal Forearm. This regrettably led to a very long and unnecessary feud between Shane and Kevin that culminated in a Falls Count Anywhere match at Hell in a Cell.

The Match

I resent the fact that I like this match so much. I resent the fact that this match is actually really good. I can’t stand Shane in his post 2016 appearances be he heel or be he face and yet the guy actually really impressed me with his work in this match. He was really terrific against Kevin who of course was brilliant as always.

As I said before, this match was contested under falls count anywhere rules so while a good chunk of the action takes place in the cell, the beginning and ending stretches of it actually take place out of it. With the finale starting with Shane breaking open the cell and then trying to beat up KO outside of it. Eventually KO has Shane set up on top of the Spanish announcer's desk and looks to be doing a splash or maybe an elbow drop from the security railing but then gets the idea to do it from the top of the cell, but chickens out. From there KO and Shane brawl outside the cell with Shane eventually knocking KO from the side of it as they try to crawl off of it. The actual finish comes when Shane has Kevin dead to rights but in a tale as old time, decides he wants a perfect victory. So he climbs back up to the top of the cell and drops the elbow but instead of hitting an angry Quebecer, he hits the English announcer's desk full on thanks to Kevin being saved by former bestie Sami Zayn. Kevin then makes the cover on a prone Shane McMahon for the victory.

I really need to emphasize that I fucking hate Shane McMahon but this was a really good cell match.

Fuck you.

Hell in a Cell (2018)

Oh man this is the gaudy red cage. Eww.

Randy Orton vs Jeff Hardy

Backstory

At Mania 34, Randy Orton lost the United States Championship to... Jinder Mahal. Then eight days later, Jinder lost the belt to Jeff Hardy. Jeff faced Randy at Backlash and won. Jeff then faced Shinsuke Nakamura at Extreme Rules and lost and Randy, instead of going after the new US Champ, decided to punch Jeff in the balls because Randy Orton is the pettiest of Petty Bettys.

The Match

So this was a really good Hell in a Cell match that looked like it COULD have had a really cool finish but it’s pretty clear to me that something went wrong here. The ending spot shows Randy on a table set up by Jeff Hardy and it looks like Jeff intends to perform a Swanton Bomb onto Randy through the table, but the ladder is too close to the ceiling of the cell for Jeff to jump, so he grabs the top of the cell and tries to monkey bar his way over to where Randy is and then drop but when Jeff finally lets go Randy isn’t on the table anymore. I’m not sure what happened here but it seems like there was a miscommunication because when Jeff fell about 16-17 feet onto the table, the referee realized that Jeff was too banged up to finish the match and screamed for the medical team to get into the cell. Randy goes for a quick cover and screams at the ref to actually count the pinfall so they can actually finish the damn match which really makes me wonder if the planned finish was Randy wins or Randy called an audible so that the match had an actual winner because he knew people would be extra mad if both Hell in a Cell matches ended in a no contest.

Oh my God, Randy is a genius.

It probably would’ve been higher if this was the planned finish but this was still really good!

Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman

Backstory

Let me make this really simple. Roman has Universal Championship. Braun wants Universal Championship. Braun has Money in the Bank briefcase. Braun fight Roman for championship in Hell in a Cell.

The Match

The first 10 minutes of this match are great! Nonstop action, just boom boom boom! Then at some point Braun and Roman are both knocked out on the mat and out comes Braun’s boys, Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler to try and interfere on Braun’s behalf but then out comes Seth and Dean to save the day because the SHIELD were reunited at this point! Yay! But in the middle of all this chaos, out comes Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman to ruin things. An F5 to the Monster Among Men, an F5 to the Big Dog, and the whole thing is ruled a no contest. This entire match was the set up to Roman vs Braun vs Brock at Crown Jewel 2018, a match which sadly would not happen because Joe Anoa’i was struck with leukemia and unfortunately couldn’t exactly have a wrestling match against even the gentlest of opponents much less to powerhouses like Brock and Braun.

I thought about saying 1 or 1.5 but I don’t want to take away from the really great work that Roman and Braun did.

Hell in a Cell (2019)

Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks

Backstory

Straightforward stuff. Becky has the Raw Women’s Championship, Sasha wants it. They beat the crap out of each other at Clash of Champions but the match was a DQ, so now they were going to finish things off properly.

The Match

This is a big improvement over Charlotte and Sasha, that was a good match but this one was so much better. Going from that match to this one was less like going from Joss Whedon’s Justice League to Zack Snyder’s and more like going from Batman Begins to The Dark Knight. It just took everything that worked about that match and turned it up to eleven while also doing away with everything that didn’t work.

The only thing I would’ve changed was I would’ve gone for a more spectacular finish. The finish was pretty darn good but I just would’ve liked something more epic. We got a suplex from Becky to Sasha onto a crap ton of chairs that Sasha put in the ring and then Becky locks in the Dis-Arm-Her to force the Boss to tap. A really good finish but I would’ve liked something a little more flashy personally. Still a terrific match though.

Definitely the best Cell match since Brock and Taker back in ‘03.

Seth Rollins vs Bray Wyatt

Backstory

Actually a pretty simple story. Seth has the Universal Championship, The Fiend wants it, and according to Bray Wyatt, what The Fiend wants The Fiend gets.

The Match

Plankton: Oh boy.

This match is pretty freaking infamous. It horrifically stalled the Fiend’s momentum as a character and it basically killed Seth Rollins as a babyface. People were starting to turn on him already but by his SummerSlam match with Brock Lesnar he was winning people back over, but once this match happened, oh boy. Nope. Nope. No way. That boy was getting booed out of every damn building he set foot in save for the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh. They pretty much had to work the audience’s dislike of Seth into his character up until they finally just turned him heel on the Raw after Survivor Series. The Fiend would recover after doing a feud with Daniel Bryan but it unfortunately wouldn’t last.

Let’s get into the actual match though which was… Mostly just Seth spamming his finishers and then covering the Fiend for a 1 or 2 count. The Architect just can’t seem to keep this guy down! So he goes for broke and delivers a chairshot to the head, an unthinkable act in the PG era, and it does nothing. He tries smashing his head in with a ladder and toolbox and finally swings a sledgehammer at his noggin which prompts the referee to call off the match out of concern for the Fiend’s health. The same Fiend who has no-sold every ounce of offense from Seth this entire match and seems to be impervious to any kind of pain or damage. Well following this, the Fiend gets right back and delivers the mandible claw onto Seth as the PPV goes off the air.

Oh yeah and all of this was happening with the entire arena bathed in red light. This was a thing they did with a lot of Fiend matches and it was always so strange. I don’t understand why WWE did that but I also don’t understand why WWE booked this match this way. If you wanted Seth to retain, have him retain. If you wanted the Fiend to stay undefeated, then have him beat Seth. If you didn’t want the Fiend to be the champion, don’t put him in a title match. Why do it like this?

I actually enjoy this angle in hindsight with how it led to Seth just slowly losing his mind until he finally devolved into the Monday Night Messiah and then later his current Drip God persona but this is still a really bad match. I think it’s better than its reputation would have you think but I’m not going to sit here and tell you it’s some kind of misunderstood masterpiece. While I am slightly tempted to go higher than this, I think all this match really deserves is just a

Hell in a Cell (2020)

Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso

Backstory

Jey won a fatal fourway to face his cousin Roman at Clash of Champions, and Roman didn’t care for the fact that his cousin wouldn't just lay down for him. And this was Roman at the very start of his Tribal Chief character. The Big Dog is long gone, it’s just the Chief now and this is a much more violent and sinister character than the old Roman. So when his cousin decided to make this an actual match, Roman decided to beat Jey senseless until Jey’s brother Jimmy threw in the towel on his behalf.

Neither man got what they wanted, Jey wanted the title, Roman wanted Jey to acknowledge him as his Tribal Chief, so a rematch was arranged. An I Quit match inside Hell in a Cell. If Jey wins, well he’s the champion, good for him! But if he loses, he will either have to submit to Roman’s control or be banished from the Anoa’i family along with Jimmy, their wives, their children, and all of their future descendants.

The Match

Okay, unpopular opinion time. This match is another one of those matches that’s less of a match and more of an angle. There’s a pretty decent normal ass Hell in a Cell match in the first third of this, but then it just turns into another chapter of the ongoing saga of Roman and the Usos. A very interesting and emotionally effective chapter, but Roman basically spending 20 minutes screaming at a catatonic Jey about how he has to beat him up and make him quit because without Roman at the top of this food chain their entire family is in jeopardy, is not very much of a match I’m afraid.

The actual finish isn’t even Roman doing something to Jey. Roman looks like he’s going to bash Jey’s head in with the steps but Jimmy comes out and pleads with Roman to stop already! Roman looks like he’s ready to give up this tribal chief crap but instead puts Jimmy in a guillotine choke, Jey then wakes up to see his twin brother being choked out by Roman and screams that he quits.

Again the portion of this match that’s an actual match is really good, but that’s only 10 minutes out of a half hour long match.

Bayley vs Sasha Banks

Backstory

Now for a more effective blending of melodrama and in ring action, let’s go to Bayley and Sasha!

From The Boss’s return at the Raw after SummerSlam 2019 on, Sasha and Bayley had been tied to the hip with the two of them claiming all of the women’s championships by July 2020, but then at SummerSlam 2020, Sasha lost the Raw Women’s Championship to Asuka, and then a week later they both lost the tag team titles to ShaNia at Payback. They tried for a rematch the next friday on SmackDown but lost and then something awful happened.

Bayley decided that Sasha was the weak link in their team and she didn’t need this ball and chain to weigh her down anymore. She attacked her best friend senselessly until she needed to be carted away by the medical team. Sasha was, of course, wounded beyond measure by this. Her best friend all but tried to kill her and it was time for her to repay her for all of this pain. Sasha Banks returned at the end of Bayley’s match at Clash of Champions and attacked Bayley back and eventually it was made official, these two for the SmackDown Women’s Championship inside Hell in a Cell.

The Match

This one was better than Sasha vs Charlotte but not quite as good as Sasha vs Becky in my opinion. I’m generally someone who enjoys Heel Bayley’s goofiness but there were times where I thought it clashed with the vibe of the match. This is supposed to be a story about the destruction of what was a beautiful friendship, but you have the instigator of that destruction being just a big goofball. Like I said, I generally think Bayley being an evil goof is funny but I think Bayley being a goof here is detrimental to the brutality of this matchup.

That being said, this was a really terrific match. Lots of great spots, lots of great work, and Bayley and Sasha have terrific chemistry, always have really. The finish comes when the Boss applies a Bank Statement to the Role Model with a chair around their neck while she stomps the crap out of it, and Bayley taps out. And now the Boss walks out a Grand Slam champion. Well done madam!

More than a 3.5 but I can’t quite get it to 3.75. Oh well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Drew McIntyre vs Randy Orton

Backstory

Drew won the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 36 while Randy started his best heel run since he delivered a DDT to Stephanie McMahon and gave her a little kiss while she was unconscious as Triple H watched and gritted his teeth because he was handcuffed to a post on the opposite side of the ring. So naturally, the two were eventually set to do battle, and battle they did at SummerSlam in a winning effort from Drew. They did a rematch at Clash of Champions and Drew won again. So Randy decided to go for a hail mary. You and me, one more time, this time inside Hell in a Cell.

The Match

At this point, Randy vs Drew inside Hell in a Cell is your pretty standard Hell in a Cell championship match. It’s good but it’s not particularly unique save for the final stretch. We get the frequent Mick Foley tribute where Randy and Drew are climbing down the cell and Randy pushes Drew off of it and so he falls onto the announcers desk. But unlike most matches where the guy who he gets thrown off is just down for the count, Drew actually manages to crawl his way back into the ring and even hits Randy with a Claymore Kick that would’ve almost certainly gotten him the win if he hadn’t accidentally blown the Viper out of the ring. He goes for one more, misses it, then gets hit with an RKO to give Randy his 14th world championship.

Pretty good but pretty ordinary at this rate.

Roman Reigns vs Rey Mysterio - Friday Night SmackDown (June 2021)

Backstory

So Rey and Dom were having a match with the Usos on SmackDown and Roman didn’t like that he wasn’t the center of attention because he’s a little bitch. So he threw Dominick out of the ring and he beat the crap out of him. Rey was pissed, so he challenged Roman to a match at Hell in a Cell. Paul Heyman accepted the match on Roman’s behalf, then on the Thursday before the PPV Rey tweeted out that he didn’t want to wait three more days to get back at Roman for hurting his son and demanded their match be tomorrow on SmackDown before Hell in a Cell.

So here we are now, the first Hell in a Cell match to air on television since the attitude era, the first Hell in a Cell match to air on SmackDown, and the first televised Hell in a Cell match to air on network television.

The Match

I’ve been very openly, frequently, and unapologetically critical of Roman’s current reign as Universal Champion. I think he’s been in a position where he was booked to win matches that would have led to better things if he’d lost. I could go on about it all day but that’s not what this video is about and I’m sure my Roman loving friend Treasure has heard me bash her Tribal Chief enough, so let me get to my actual point. While I think Roman has been on top for way too long, he doesn’t exactly have bad matches. When I saw how much shorter this match was compared to some of these other cell matches, my love of maximalism really had me wondering if this was something where Roman just toyed with Rey before ultimately putting the little old man out to pasture but it wasn’t.

Roman gave a lot of offense to Rey and really left me wondering if Rey Mysterio was seriously going to beat Roman even though this match was broadcast 16 months ago and I already knew the result before I watched it. This was really good! I found the commercial interruptions to be a little annoying and thought the finish was way too quick, but I guess that comes with the territory when you’re booking a hell in a cell match for a tv episode with an additional angle going on in the background instead of this being Roman’s main story and it being on PPV. Either way, this was really good. My pleasant surprise has me thinking 4, my cynicism insists it’s only a 3.5, so I’ll split the difference...

Hell in a Cell (2021)

Bianca Belair vs Bayley

Backstory

Bianca has the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Bayley tried to get it from her at Backlash, but lost. This is her second chance to become a 3 time SmackDown Women’s Champion.

The Match

This was a pretty solid encounter. This is the only match I watched twice for this video. I watched it live in 2021 and really liked it, but when I watched it again for this video I found it kind of meh. I was tired and kind of nodding off because it was late when I watched it, so I figured I should just rewatch it later, and when I did I was enjoying it but I couldn’t help but think this match could probably use some blood. During the match, the commentary team kept calling Bianca a rookie and Bayley the crafty veteran, and I couldn’t help but think if any match could use the TV-14 or TV-MA treatment, it might be this.

The story here is Bayley knows the ins and outs of the Cell and knows how to really use it to her advantage, and I think this could’ve been a good opportunity to make this sort of like the women’s version of Triple H vs Cactus Jack, where the young gun gets to prove that they actually are that good and they’ll prove it by kicking your ass. There’s a specific spot here where Bianca has a hold on Bayley and Bayley breaks it by biting her arm and you hear Pat McAfee incredulously going “DID SHE BREAK THE SKIN!?!?!” And the camera doesn’t linger on Bianca’s pained reaction to see if Bayley’s teeth even left a mark. And I can’t help but think “What if she actually did break the skin?” Imagine seeing rock solid Bianca suddenly panicking once she sees her own blood running down her arm. Imagine her suddenly realizing “Oh my God, I’m a cage with a sociopath.” And then imagine her having to rally a comeback against that sociopath. There’s also a later bit where Bayley’s telling the outside referee “Hey man, i’ve had enough. Let me out! Please let me out!” And as the referee tells her “I’m sorry, you want out, you have to win the match.” And then Bianca kicks her head into the door of the cell. Imagine Bayley’s face coming away covered in blood and her realizing she’s bleeding and suddenly going from “I’m screwed.” To “OH DEAR GOD I AM SO SCREWED!”

But enough about hypotheticals, the match is still pretty good. I like how the match does more or less still follow the format I described just in a more PG sort of way. And it’s a pretty solid finish with Bianca delivering her KOD finisher to Bayley onto a ladder that Bayley introduced into the ring. Heels being hoisted by their own petard is always a great finish.

3.5 out of 5.

Bobby Lashley vs Drew McIntyre

Backstory

Again, pretty simple stuff. Drew wrestled Bobby at Backlash 2020 and won. Then he lost the WWE championship to the Miz several months later. Miz cashed in on Drew after Bobby beat him up after they'd had won their Elimination Chamber match. The next night on Raw it was revealed Bobby beat up Drew as part of a deal with Miz, if Bobby helped Miz, Bobby would be first in line for Miz’s WWE championship. Drew then met up with Bobby at Wrestlemania 37 and came up short when he passed out during a submission hold that he couldn’t break but refused to tap out to. The Almighty and the Scottish Warrior then had a rematch in a triple threat with Braun Strowman at Backlash 2021 which Bobby won… By pinning Braun. So now Drew is 1-2 against Bobby, but Bobby has never once managed to pin Drew or make him tap out. So now we’ve got a match set up for the Hell in a Cell PPV with two stipulations. It will be in the cell and if Drew loses he can’t challenge Bobby again for the WWE Championship.

Can the Scotsman pull it off?

The Match

This one is personal to me. I’m a big Drew McIntyre fan and I wanted him to win and be the champion again so badly and I was so pissed when he lost. I mean if they were going to have him lose then I guess there were worse ways to do it because this match is great. How’s the line go E? “BIG MEATY MEN! SLAPPING MEAT!”

The only real issues I have with this match are two specific points, one is an issue I’ve noticed with the camera work in all of these ThunderDome matches, that being that it sucks. There are a few points where the camera either shows something it shouldn’t or doesn’t show something it should. Like when Bobby shoves Drew into a steel chair, you can clearly see Drew stopping himself from hitting the chair but the commentary still sells it like his face actually hit the chair. Or on the flip side, there’s a moment where Bobby throws Drew onto a table but the camera completely misses the table breaking apart because it shows the angle of Bobby and Drew from the camera outside the cell, instead of the camera inside it. You’d think with the benefit of pre -taped matches they could actually get better angles for these matches, but instead the camera work is even worse. It’s absurd!

The other issue I have is more about the actual structure of the match than anything to do with its presentation. Halfway through the match there’s a spot where Drew accidentally knocks down the referee. He manages to nail Bobby with his Future Shock DDT right after this but the referee is unconscious, so they can’t count the pinfall. Drew then tells the outside referee to come inside and cover for the guy already inside, which makes sense, but when that guy comes in and manages to count the pinfall on Bobby after Drew hits him with a Claymore, Bobby’s manager MVP pulls the referee out of the ring, having snuck in while the door was still open. MVP then takes a minute to laugh about screwing Drew over but when he turns around… the door to the cell is now closed and locked up, meaning MVP is stuck with a very angry Drew McIntyre who has no intention of letting this crap slide. Drew then of course whales on MVP a little bit before returning his attention to Bobby and eventually knocks him out again with the Future Shock has him set up for one more Claymore Kick that would almost certainly score the Scottish Warrior a perfect victory but as he’s about to start running to deliver the kick, MVP grabs his leg, which slows Drew down just long enough for Bobby to roll his ass up for the win. Which is a pretty good finish, and I absolutely love the way Drew sells the heartbreak of realizing he’s lost his last chance at the title as long as Bobby has it, but here’s my problem. Why the heck would the new outside referees lock the cell with MVP inside when he isn’t a legal competitor? They didn’t do that with KO and Jericho, Jericho had to relock the cell from the inside back in 2017. When Del Rio locked John Cena out of the cell in 2011, he relocked the cage from the inside. Why would the referees leave MVP inside the cell? Why didn’t they just tell MVP “Alright, that’s enough. Get out of there.”? Why didn’t MVP knock someone over and take the chain? I don’t get the choices being made here.

Still an epic match up though.

Bobby Lashley vs Xavier Woods - Monday Night Raw (June 2021)

Backstory

Well there’s the backstory and then there’s the “backstory.” The word on the street was WWE wanted to boost the ratings on SmackDown so they moved the Hell in a Cell match between Rey and Roman from the PPV to the tv show before it and so USA got a little jealous that Fox got a Hell in a Cell match on TV but they didn’t. So Vince said “Ugh. Fine! We’ll give you guys an extra match on Monday! Alright?”

“Backstory”

The story reason for this match was that Bobby and MVP were talking smack the night after Bobby beat Drew and then Kofi and Xavier walked out talking about how “oh you ain’t that great!” Kofi also noted that when Brock Lesnar beat him for the WWE title two years ago, he never got a rematch despite the fact that he pinned Bobby clean on Raw a few months earlier thanks to distractions from Drew and Xavier. So a challenge was made, Kofi vs Bobby at Money in the Bank, but as preparation, Bobby wanted to whoop Xavier’s little ass. Xavier, unbothered by this challenge, decided to up the ante, you and me inside Hell in a Cell.

And thus we would have the first Hell in a Cell match on Raw since 1998.

The Match

A pretty solid match! I’m usually a firm believer in the principle of more is more, take your less is more garbage and shove it up your ass, but every tv Hell in a Cell match I’ve seen has been pretty good save for Mankind vs Kane. Bobby was definitely going to win this but I’ll be damned if Xavier didn’t make him work for it with the PhD student getting in a lot of offense against the Almighty, even managing to deliver an elbow drop through a table to Bobby. Bobby claims the victory however when he tosses Xavier into a chair set up in the corner then hits him with a spear leaving the G4 host pretty dazed before being forced to tap out to the Almighty’s Hurt Lock.

A pretty good match!

Edge vs Seth Rollins - Crown Jewel (2021)

Backstory

Edge had previously retired in 2011 after multiple neck injuries but would eventually return 9 year later at the 2020 Royal Rumble, a completely new man with a rejuvenated career! He had a great feud with Randy Orton before going away on a torn bicep but came back again to win the 2021 Royal Rumble from number one! He had a match against Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania but came up just short in a really epic match, then three months later he came back to face the Tribal Chief again, this time at Money in the Bank, and who should rear his ugly head again? Seth Freaking Rollins. A face that Edge remembered all too well. Seth cost Edge his match with Roman and the two began a feud with the two going 1–1 going into Crown Jewel. After the history they had, that I won’t go into because this video is long enough already, it was time for these boys to face each other in HELL!

The Match

Small funny story before we get into this match; I was actually late for like my fourth or fifth day of work at my first job post pandemic because I was watching this show. My shift was at 4 but for some reason I thought it was at 5, the show started at around noon my local time I wanna say so I figured I could finish it up and then get to work in time. But then I get a call from my manager in the middle of the main event and I’m suddenly freaking out and I tell them I’ll be right over. I can’t drive so I managed to finish the show while I waited on a ride but yeah that’s a thing you know now.

Anyway, yeah this match was pretty epic! A recurring trend I’ve noticed in a lot of these matches is that heel or babyface, the loser is always defeated because they try to go for the perfect victory instead of just taking the win when they can. Drew tried to go for a claymore instead of just pinning Bobby when he had him dead to rights. In both of Shane’s solo outings, he goes for an elbow off the top of the cage so he can put an exclamation point on the match and both times it’s what cost him the match. But on this day, Edge saw clearly. He had Seth about ready to tapout when he had him in a crossface with wrench in his mouth but then he stopped and delivered a stomp onto a steel chair instead, a little callback to their earlier history when Seth tried to break his neck by delivering a stomp onto his Money in the Bank briefcase in later 2014.

Plenty of spectacular spots throughout the rest of the match as well. Definitely one of the best men’s cell matches in a good long while.

Are these percentages asinine? Yes. Do they sum up my opinion well? I think so!

Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins - Hell in a Cell (2022)

Backstory

The grandson of a plumber left WWE in 2016 to cut his teeth on the independent scene becoming the IWGP United States Champion, the Ring of Honor World Champion, and the NWA Worlds’ Heavyweight Champion, before founding All Elite Wrestling in 2019 with his buddies Kenny Omega, Nick Jackson, and Matt Jackson, creating the first serious competitor to WWE’s monopoly on pro wrestling since WCW died in 2001. But then, three years later, Cody decided he wasn’t happy in AEW anymore and did something that no one in the world would’ve expected even a year earlier, Cody Rhodes, the American Nightmare and Executive Vice President of All Elite Wrestling, returned to WWE at Wrestlemania 38 as the mystery opponent of Seth Freaking Rollins.

Cody would defeat Seth at Mania and again at Backlash 2022, but the Drip God was a glutton for punishment and said that he would meet Cody’s little ass inside Hell in a Cell! And it seems Cody was also a glutton for punishment because we have a bit of a strange plot twist with this match. You see Cody had partially torn his left pectoral muscle during a match on Raw earlier in the week, and then he tore it off completely while he was working out in preparation for his match with Seth. While any sensible human being would just call off the match, and maybe let management put another match inside the cell, I mean I would’ve suggested Becky vs Asuka vs Bianca but Corbin vs Madcap Moss would warrant it from a story point of view, Cody did the insane thing. He wrestled a HELL IN A CELL MATCH WITH A TORN PEC! I think I summed it up pretty well in a TikTok I made that night.

The Match

Full disclosure, while I watched the 2009-2014 and 2019-2021 Hell in a Cell shows prior to this video, I actually made an effort to avoid Hell in a Cell 2022 specifically because I knew Cody was wrestling with a torn pec. I thought it was irresponsible of Cody to volunteer to still do the match in his condition and I thought it was irresponsible of management to let him. This is 2022, not 1972. When you know you’re injured, you go home. Cody isn’t some midcarder being given the opportunity of a lifetime that he can’t pass up, he’s a bonafide main eventer with probably the sweetest deal in WWE behind only Roman, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Vince agreed to an even sweeter deal for Cody than he did with Roman when they renegotiated the Tribal Chief’s contract after Backlash. Because whether Cody wants to stick it to Tony Khan or not, you know that Vince wanted to rub it in Tony’s face as much as possible that he took one of his best guys from him, and he wants to do that by giving Cody literally everything he wants. So if Cody wanted to pass on this match and just go home, not only would they let him, they’d be keeping his locker room just how he likes it. Not a single item out of place.

But I’m not here to talk about Cody and his obsession with seeming like the toughest, coolest dude evur!!!!1!!!111!!!! Let’s get into the actual match which is… Pretty awesome! If I were to change it, I would actually have Seth go over here not just because I like Seth more. Cody was already 2-0 against Seth going into this match, his promos were talking about how Cody can’t just talk smack about WWE for six straight years and then come back and be the biggest star in the world, and if Cody was injured and going to need surgery, does it really make sense to give the win who won’t be here on Monday? *picture of Cody on the Raw after this show* Okay, next Monday I guess. And top of all that, I mean if Cody wins he looks like the toughest guy in the world but if Seth loses he looks the biggest dumbass on earth.

That aside though, these are two of the best guys in this company and in pro wrestling going at it no holds barred for 24 minutes and Mania 38 and Backlash had already proved these guys had next level chemistry. A lot of the early part of this match is Cody doing everything he can to protect his injury while Seth goes out of his way to go after it. As the match progresses the story becomes about if Seth’s mind games and cruelty can overcome Cody’s insane will. Can Seth keep this stupid, crazy son of a bitch down for just three seconds? And unfortunately for him he can’t. Two cross rhodes and a sledgehammer shot and it’s game over for the Visionary.

This was a really great match. I can see why Meltzer gave it five stars. I’m not gonna go that high but make no mistake, this a great match if you’re comfortable with watching a visibly injured man wrestle in such an intense bout.

Edge vs Finn Balor - Wrestlemania 39

Backstory

On February 28th, 2022, Edge turned heel for the first time since 2010, and would go on to form a faction known as the Judgement Day, with his recruits being former Raw Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley and former United States Champion Damian Priest. This faction was not greeted warmly by audiences who, while interested in seeing Edge bringing up new talents and seeing him mixing up his character for the first time since returning, were not terribly pleased with the specific direction this faction was taking. So WWE pivoted and had Damian and Rhea betray Edge and install former Universal Champion Finn Balor as their new leader… Despite literally kicking his ass in an intergender trios match the night before at the Hell in a Cell PPV… Okay.

Well anyway, after they betrayed Edge, Edge turned face and would return to help out Rey and Dominick Mysterio at SummerSlam. The feud would continue off and on for the next year with both sides picking up wins and losses. Edge and Rey beat Finn and Damian at Clash at the Castle in September, Finn would beat Edge in an I Quit match at Extreme Rules in October, Edge would eliminate Finn from the Royal Rumble in January while his wife, Beth Phoenix, would beat up Rhea just before the women’s Rumble, Edge and Beth would beat Finn and Rhea in tag team match at Elimination Chamber, Finn would cost Edge a US title match on the following episode of Raw, and so the two decided on a Hell in a Cell match at the Showcase of the Immortals with Edge making an additional request of his opponent, don’t give me Plain Jane Finn Balor, give me your super powered evil side. Give me the Demon King. And thus his wish was granted.

The Match

This match marks the return of the original Cell and the first Hell in a Cell match to be held at Wrestlemania without the Undertaker present. While he was surely at the stadium watching the proceedings along with most of the hall of fame roster, Mark Calloway had no presence in this match. Not even on commentary or as a guest referee, which I think was a missed opportunity. It doesn’t make the match bad, but it could’ve been cool to see Taker be a part of the match in some capacity, if for no other reason than to offer his blessing.

All the same, this match might have had a lot going for it as far as pure entertainment value goes. Were it not for a bit of an oopsie that happened about ten minutes into the match, this could’ve been an all timer, but as it stands it’s still a pretty great match. The action before that was pretty standard stuff for a Hell in a Cell match, lots of hitting each other with chairs and kendo sticks and throwing each other into chairs and into the mesh of the cell but then Edge pulls out a ladder and tosses it at Finn and it hits him right in the fucking head. Full force. And it busts him wide open and causes Finn to bleed all over the place! And not the “somebody made a small cut to their forehead with a razor while the cameras weren’t looking” kind of bleeding, the “oh God! We need to get you to a doctor really quick!” Kind of bleeding.

WWE’s medical staff then spend a couple minutes tending to Finn before he resumes the match and Edge and Finn don’t waste any time on hitting the gas again. They just lost a precious precious time on a Wrestlemania card and now the fans are getting restless, so gotta get them pumped up again. The match ultimately concludes after a sequence where Finn goes for a coup de grace with Edge on top of a table but before it connects, Edge then hits a staggering Finn with a spear for a 2 count, Edge then pulls out the same trick that put away Seth at Crown Jewel and his old Randy back at WrestleMania 36, he slides a steel chair underneath Finn’s head and then slams a second steel chair against Finn’s bleeding noggin. Edge then covers Finn and it seems like the ConChairTo did the trick because Edge has picked up his third win at Wrestlemania since his return in 2020.

Despite clocking in at over 18 minutes, this match feels like it went a bit short, I feel like the match might’ve been intended to go longer but it had to be cut short thanks to Finn’s unfortunate injury. Still the injury might’ve been the best thing to happen to this match, the match looked like it was going to be a bit slow to start, but the minute the medical team finished up with Finn, these two put the pedal to the metal and didn’t let off the gas for the next eight minutes.

When it gets going, oh man does it get going! And kudos to Finn for gutting it through an injury that wound up requiring 14 frickin staples! I’m not showing that picture here because I’m pretty sure it would get flagged by YouTube, and editing out music is easier than editing pictures and videos. So just go check out Finn’s Twitter or Instagram because it’s nasty.

Conclusion

And there we have it! That is my ranking for every single Hell in a Cell match ever produced by WWE. Thank you so much for watching! I really hope you’ve enjoyed this video! If I may offer some final thoughts I’d say the three best Cell matches were probably Brock vs Taker at No Mercy in 2002, Taker vs Mankind at King of the Ring in 1998, and Triple H vs Taker at Wrestlemania 28 in 2012, while the three worst for me were Kane vs Mankind on Raw in 1998 again, The Undertaker vs Kane at Hell in a Cell in 2010, and Seth Rollins vs Bray Wyatt in Hell in a Cell in 2019.

And while they didn’t make it into my three most notable matches, I’d say the MVP for these matches was definitely Randy Orton for the men and Sasha Banks for the women, these two are both just so great playing both sides of the moral alignment, particularly Randy who swings from chaotic evil in 2006 to neutral evil in 2009 to neutral good in 2010 to chaotic good in 2011 to lawful evil in 2013 and 2014 to arguably chaotic neutral in 2018 and then back to full on chaotic evil again in 2020. Nothing but respect for the Viper! And shoutout to Sasha who swings from underdog babyface in 2016 to bitter heel in 2019 to heartbroken babyface in 2020, there’s a reason Jon Faverau scooped up this girl for The Mandalorian, she’s brilliant. Shit, maybe Randy should get some calls from Hollywood. Or maybe he shouldn’t, I like my Randy Orton where he is right now.

If I could be perfectly honest while I enjoy the Hell in a Cell stipulation quite a bit and cage matches in general really, after sitting through 51 of these sons of bitches in the span of a month I don’t think I want to see another one of these for the rest of my life. I swear, I’m going to have an anxiety attack by the time WWE does this stipulation again or the next time I watch an MMA fight.

But anyway, thank you all for reading. Have a great day!

Woodstock out

Friday, March 8, 2024

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Friday, March 10, 2023

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Friday, January 20, 2023

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

CM Punk vs The Undertaker

Backstory

The Match

John Cena vs Randy Orton I

Backstory

The Match

Legacy vs DX

Backstory

The Match

Randy Orton vs Sheamus

Backstory

The Match

The Undertaker vs Kane

Backstory

The Match

Aside

John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio vs CM Punk vs Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler - Monday Night Raw (2011) - A Dark Match

Randy Orton vs Mark Henry

Backstory

The Match

Alberto Del Rio vs John Cena vs CM Punk

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

Backstory

The Match

CM Punk vs Ryback & Paul Heyman

Backstory

The Match

Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan

Backstory

The Match

John Cena vs Randy Orton II

Backstory

The Match

Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins

Backstory

The Match

Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt

Backstory

The Match