Welcome to Falls Count Anywhere! My name
is Chris and I’m sunburned!
I didn’t see SummerSlam. I wish I
had because every report I’ve heard has said that
it featured one of the best matches of the year. The Hell
in a Cell between Undertaker and Edge was a great match
according to everybody, and I missed it. It follows in a
line of legendary Hell in a Cell matches, though to me,
none will ever come close to the first one.
There
had been several places that had done Cage matches with
roofs on the cages. Memphis, the Mid-South Territory, even
World Class. They were all supposed to keep the guys in
the cage and others from interfering.
The
first WWE Hell in a Cell was a different concept. It was
based not only around keeping folks out of the ring, but
allowing them to use the ringside area, which had been done
with the WCW PPV Halloween Havoc match in 1989 in one of
the worst matches of the 1980s.
The
feud between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels had been
going on for ages at that point. The year was 1997, and
we had yet to see the Bret Hart Screw-job (that was a month
away) nor had Shawn Michaels gone on his long sabbatical
after suffering the back injury at the 1998 Royal Rumble.
It was an interesting time, one that’s often over-looked
because of the Bret thing in Montreal.
It was also the night after Brian Pillman
died.
The
show up to that point had been pretty weak, and it was obvious
that Pillman’s passing had affected almost everyone.
The show would have been a huge thumbs-down if Shawn Michaels
and UT hadn’t brought a particular sense of drama
to the event. They were the Main Event, even though neither
of them held the World Championship belt (that was on Bret,
who had a flag match with The Patriot and someone else).
The
thing started with Michaels entering very cocky. Undertaker
came in with his typical evil presence. It was a good combo,
and I think it was during UT’s period where he had
that long collared jacket. I always liked that look. He
had just finished his feud with Mankind, which had raged
for more than a year, and was still feuding with Paul Bearer,
who said that there was an Undertaker secret about to come
to light. We all knew that Undertaker had a brother and
that he’d show up either at the end of the Hell in
a Cell or maybe on RAW the next night.
We forgot about that because of how cool
the match was.
Undertaker
dominated, though Michaels had some periods of success against
the big man. This was the start of the Attitude era, so
you were seeing more violent matches and even some blood.
There was an ECW feeling to this match, mostly in the complexity
of the storytelling. Remember, ECW was still going strong
and had been on PPV for at least 6 months at this point.
They
locked the door and we were supposed to expect them to stay
inside. They did not. Michaels did a dive off of the post
to the outside and hit a cameraman. He also hit UT with
the camera, as I remember it. That meant they needed to
open the door to the cage, which allowed Michaels to escape
and Undertaker to follow. UT beat him bad on the outside,
busting Michaels open with a few rams into the cage.
It was
the most I’d ever seen Michaels bleed, including his
famous matches in AWA with Doug Summer and Playboy Buddy
Rose. He was wearing the famous Crimson Mask. That really
set the match apart from all the other brawls and fights
that these guys had been a part of.
Then,
Michaels climbed the side of the cage, only to be knocked
down by Undertaker, falling maybe 10 feet onto the WWF Spanish
Announcer’s table. It was an impressive spot in the
days before The Hardys redefined what it meant to fall from
great heights.
They
got back in the ring and the door was locked again, and
just when you thought Undertaker was going to win and become
the number one contender to the WWF championship, the lights
went weird and a huge guy walked down the aisle, ripped
the door open and gave Undertaker the Tombstone. It was
the debut of Kane. The place went quiet and it was probably
the greatest introduction of a character of all-time. After
that, he walked out of the Cell and Michaels managed to
get the pin.
This
all reeked of ECW booking, but it was a better wrestled
version of the stuff they’d done with guys like Sandman
and Raven. It was incredible to see and the match was easily
one of the best of UT’s career. Folks always talk
about the Foley-UT Cell in which Foley went through the
cage and was seriously injured, but this one was better
by far. Michaels bumped like nobody’s business and
the Undertaker was his best at the time.
It’s
incredible to think that folks were saying that UT was washed
up right before the Mankind feud rebuilt him. I’d
say that the period from 1996-1999 was the best of his career
and he’s still having great matches today at an age
where most guys are really slowing down. His lighter schedule
might have something to do with that.
Michaels
has taken a step or two back, but he understands how to
work a crowd better than almost anyone and he’s had
some amazing matches over the last five years, starting
with his feud with HHH in 2002.
There’s some other news to note. The
WWE is being sued by several former employees who say that
they were treated as Contractors when they were actually
employees. This is a very bad thing for the WWE because
if they are found to have done so, they’ll owe millions
in taxes and be required to provide insurance and other
benefits for their wrestlers. That’s a big deal, probably
better for the boys, but would hurt the bottom line. Now,
the thing that the WWE has on their side is that the guys
sign contracts that are known quantities and that’s
a solid step, but we’ll have to see how this plays
out.
