Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
This Saturday’s WWE Bad Blood 2024 will feature a Hell in a Cell match between Drew McIntyre and CM Punk, as their feud has reached the boiling point and nothing can sustain them better than Satan’s Structure.
Given the long history of Hell in a Cell matches that date all the way back to the original In Your House: Badd Blood from 1997, there have been many memorable moments over the years that are burned in our minds and etched in the history books.
My question for you today is “Given some word association, if you hear the words ‘Hell in a Cell’, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below, and try not to think too much about it. Just say the first thing that pops into your brain. That’s the point of quick word association!
As far as my answer…
Without fail, the first thing I think of is the image of The Undertaker standing on top of the cage, throwing Mick Foley off as he plummets down and crashes through the commentary table. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that a good number of other word associations with pro wrestling could come up with the same idea for me, such as if someone just mentioned violence in general in WWE or if someone asked me to say one quick Mankind memory.
I was knee-deep in my fandom when Hell in a Cell first came around, so you’d think that I would go with Kane’s debut. That’s a close second. I was absolutely astonished at his presence during that moment, and I still think it is the coolest way any character has come onto the scene. For a little while, Shawn Michaels falling off the side of the cell was also one of my top favorite extreme moments ever, if not my #1. But they managed to top it (and then some) with Foley and Taker.
That whole match is just a gas. It’s one of the few segments that I can rewatch until the end of time and never get tired of it. I still get goosebumps any time I see a clip or think about it. Absolutely insane.
It really is a shame WWE neutered this gimmick so much over the past ~30 years. Too many people had too many generic matches where nothing interesting happened. Toning down the blood and violence turned this into a regular cage match of sorts where people would take smaller bumps halfway off the side and it wouldn’t even look like it hurt. Would I do it? Absolutely not. But I wouldn’t take a flat bump from a clothesline, so that’s not a great metric. Yet once you’ve seen all the crazy things that happen at King of the Ring 1998, you just aren’t as impressed when people do lesser stunts. That’s a danger of topping yourself too quickly.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
