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1. Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker – Badd Blood 1997
To end this list of the greatest Hell In A Cell matches in WWE history, we’re going all the way back to the beginning when Shawn Michaels battled The Undertaker at In Your House: Badd Blood on October 5, 1997. Not only was this a great match and a great scared heel performance from HBK, it’s part of a timeline that changed the course of WWE forever. And it featured an amazing debut in the process.
At SummerSlam that year, Michaels was a special guest referee in the WWE Championship match between Bret Hart and The Undertaker, which Hart would win due to HBK inadvertently hitting ‘Taker with a chair that was meant for The Hitman. This essentially turned Michaels heel in the process and he was constantly being helped in his matches by Triple H and Chyna. So when The Undertaker squared off with the man who had cost him the title in a No. 1 Contender’s match for the title, Hell In A Cell was introduced to make Michaels face The Deadman one-on-one with no chance of outside interference and he played it up beautifully upon entering the cell for the first time. He looked believably frightened prior to the bout, and once the match started, it was easy to see why.
HBK took an absolute beating, bumping around the ring and into the cell as only Shawn Michaels can do. He did eventually get some offense in before the action spilled to the outside and to the top of the cage. From there, we were treated to the iconic spot of Michaels hanging onto the cage with one hand before crashing into the announce table, leaving the audience in awe.
However, there was more awe to come. As The Undertaker seemingly had everything under control and was about to pick up the victory, a debuting Kane ripped the door off of the cage and entered the ring to encounter his brother and lay him out with a Tombstone, allowing HBK to pick up the victory in the process. With the victory, Michaels would go on to face Bret Hart at Survivor Series in Montreal (I think we all remember how that turned out) and Kane and The Undertaker would start their famous feud.
Everything about this match was great, and even without a clean ending, it was something that we hadn’t seen in WWE and it was a crucial part of wresting history.
Next: 50 Best Professional Wrestlers Of All-Time
And there you have it, the top 10 Hell In A Cell matches in history. What’s your favorite?