Backstory
If you’ve seen this show or if you have read about it, you know it’s famous for two reason. The first reason is because WWF performer Brian Pillman passed away one night earlier in his hotel room in Minnesota. He was scheduled to wrestle Dude Love at this event, so they had to improvise by adding a match while also extending some of the others. Pillman was one of those guys that could get over as face or heel, cut a killer promo and then deliver a solid match. Sadly, injuries robbed him of the greatness he had in the ring, he turned to drugs to help him deal with the pain and that ultimately led to his tragic death. He was a part of the Hart Foundation group that hit its stride in 1997 while also being one of the few close friends of Steve Austin among others, so his loss really affected the entire roster.

The other reason this show is famous is because it featured the first Hell in a Cell match involving The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Michaels cost Undertaker the World title when he accidentally hit him with a chair shot while he was refereeing Undertaker’s title match against Bret Hart. Michaels didn’t show that much remorse, so he turned into a top heel while fans clamored for Undertaker to get revenge. When they me at the September PPV, Ground Zero, Undertaker was so pissed that he beat up refs just to get to Michaels and they brawled all over the ring. The match got thrown out due to all the extra curricular activities, which left the fans wanting more. All of that led to the creation of the Hell in a Cell cage, which was a fifteen foot high structure that covered the ring and also had room between the ropes and cage. It was unlike anything we had ever seen in the WWF before. Not only did they have a hot feud between two great wrestlers that were in their prime, but they also had a gimmick match that had never been done before. A lot of good stuff happening all at once meant a highly anticipated match that delivered the goods.

Also prior to the match Paul Bearer had promised the Undertaker that Kane will arrive and the Undertaker’s life will never be the same. At the time, it was not universally known when Kane would appear or what he would look like. However, his music and a red light appeared in the weeks prior to this event basically to scare the Undertaker. Kane was an unknown. We didn’t know how big he would be or what he would look like. They did a great job in building up to his appearance.

Other than that, there wasn’t much going on. The Intercontinental Title was up for grabs due to Steve Austin having to vacate it after having his neck injured at Summerslam two months earlier, so Owen Hart (the former champ) would battle Farooq in the finals of a tournament to determine the winner. The World Title picture was pretty bleak even though Bret Hart was a great champion. Problem was there weren’t enough viable challengers, so Hart teamed with his Hart Foundation partner the British Bulldog to face Vader and The Patriot in a Flag match. Now you understand why this is a one match show.

The last thing you need to know is that the blood for this show is so bad that they need to put a second D on the word bad to emphasize it. That’s how bad the blood will be on this show. You’ve been warned.

Note: There will not be any play by play rundown of these matches except for the Hell in a Cell match because I have already written that years ago. I will go back to doing the full play by play for Survivor Series ’97.

That poster is fantastic. The announcers are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. Note that this is the last PPV where Vince McMahon would be an announcer. I know that I personally have missed his “Ohwhatamove” or his “1…2…he got him…no he didn’t get him” reactions during the matches. How about you?

Nation of Domination (Rocky Maivia, Kama Mustafa and D’Lo Brown) vs. The Legion of Doom
Not a lot happening here since LOD weren’t known for their in-ring work, Kama was never very good and Brown was still pretty green at this point. Rocky was the key guy although they didn’t let him do that much. Still, the fans got on him a lot starting a lot of those “Rocky Sucks” chants that helped him get the opportunity to show what he could in the ring as a singles competitor. The match broke down, Faarooq ran down to distract LOD and Rocky got the pin with the yet to be named Rock Bottom for the win. Basically it took four guys to beat two here because LOD weren’t fans of losing. Let’s just put it that way.
Winners via pinfall @ 12:20 – Nation of Domination

Analysis: 1/2* Awful match although the crowd’s hatred of Rock grew, which of course was a great thing for the company going forward.

Tough moment followed with McMahon announcing Pillman’s death, which they also did in the pre-show. I remember hearing about it through a friend that must have read about it on the internet because I wasn’t really reading about wrestling on the internet until the next year. Due to the death, a new match was added to the show.

Max Mini and Nova vs. Tarantula and Mosaic
Pretty basic match featuring the little people with Max Mini getting the star spots because he’s shorter than the others and the fans would get into him more than the others. And of course he got the pin.
Winners via pinfall @ 6:43 – Max Mini and Nova

Analysis: *1/2 Okay match, but nothing really memorable here.

WWF Tag Team Titles: The Headbangers (c) vs. The Godwinns w/Uncle Cletus
The Headbangers won the belts a month earlier at Ground Zero, which was a big thing because they were basically losers. Thing is the fans liked them because they were different than the norm. This one had no flow, very little crowd reaction and not very much good work in the ring. The Godwinns were never good in the ring while the Headbangers could have okay matches with the right opponents, which the Godwinns were not. The match broke down so many times that it’s hard to know if the finish was even done correctly. The end result was that the Godwinns won after PIG (that’s Phinneas I. Godwinn) hit an ugly powerbomb.
Winners via pinfall @ 12:17 – The Godwinns

Analysis: DUD Terrible match that was a shining example of how bad the tag division was at the time in the WWF. It would get better thankfully.

We see a video package showing all the people that Austin gave the stunner too while being pissed about being injured. Man, I can’t begin to describe how impactful this stuff was at the time. Like a breath of fresh air because it was unlike the usual stuff we saw in wrestling.

Next up was a segment hosted by Jim Ross honoring some of the legends of the St. Louis area. The legends were: Harley Race, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk, Jr., Gene Kiniski, Terry Funk, Lou Thesz, and promoter Sam Muchnick. This happened because the WWF ignored their own Hall of Fame at this point.

For the Vacant WWF Intercontinental Title: Owen Hart vs. Faarooq
Steve Austin had to give up the IC title due to his neck injury, so they had a tournament for it. Faarooq made the finals because I’m pretty sure Ahmed Johnson got hurt, which gave us a heel vs. heel final. To make up for the dead crowd, Austin came out to ringside to commentate as well as harass the announcers. I can’t imagine this being an easy match for Hart or Austin since both were so close to Pillman. The match was pretty bad because there was no rivalry to go on, Faarooq wasn’t a very good worker and fans were more interested in what Austin was doing. He ended up giving a belt shot to Faarooq, which led to Hart winning. It was confusing initially because Hart was his main rival, but it made sense because Austin wanted to beat Hart for his belt instead of somebody else.
Winner via pinfall @ 7:12 – Owen Hart

Analysis: * It was more of an angle than a match, really. Amazingly this PPV was the last one Austin would miss for about two years despite the brutal neck injury he suffered at Summerslam.

Disciples of Apocalypse (Crush, Chainz, 8-Ball and Skull) vs. Los Boricuas (Savio Vega, Jesus Castillo, Jose Estrada, Jr. and Miguel Pérez, Jr.)
Want to know what one of the worst feuds in WWF history was? It’s DOA vs. Los Boricuas. They had multiple PPV matches against one another ranging from singles to regular tags to six man to eight man and they all stunk. This was no exception. Crush got the win with his backbreaker.
Winners via pinfall @ 9:11 – DOA

Analysis: DUD A clean PPV win. Did it end this awful feud? Of course not.

Flag Match: Bret Hart and The British Bulldog vs. The Patriot and Vader
The flags were placed on the ring posts despite the fact that Bulldog was British (he did live in Canada) and Vader didn’t come off as the most patriotic guy even though he was American. I was pretty tired while I watched this and I admit to dozing off a bit, which never happened during a Bret Hart match for me. I guess it was also because I vaguely remember it as being boring. The best part of the match came near the end when a drunken fan decided to enter the ring to get at Hart I presume and he got stomped on for his efforts while being taken out by security. That was great. I love stupid fans getting beat up. The finish came soon after with Hart beating Patriot with a rollup even though Hart had taken a beating. I dig the rollup finish from Hart because he did it perfectly in the underdog roll. Very underrated as a finish when you use it at the right time, which it was here.
Winners via pinfall @ 23:13 – Hart and Bulldog

Analysis: **1/2 It was too long. Felt like a TV match more than anything except that they had about 30 minutes to kill, so they had to stretch it longer here. I felt really bad for Bret here because not only was he working with a heavy heart due to Pillman’s passing, but you could also sense that he knew the company was losing faith in him by only giving him a tag match despite the fact that he was the champion. They probably should have done Hart vs. Vader and Bulldog vs. Patriot instead although I’m pretty sure they were down on Vader as a performer at this point. It’s a shame we never really got a good Vader vs. Hart match because they would have worked really together given their ability to adapt to different styles.

Michaels delivers a very cocky speech backstage where he sarcastically makes fun of his “coveted” European title and delivers a very nice line: “Ain’t nobody crazy enough to do this gig ‘cept for the Heartbreak Kid.” Awesome visuals of the cage coming down follow that. I can remember watching with my buddies and thinking how cool the whole thing looked.

Hell in a Cell: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
This write-up will be the full play by play because it’s one of the greatest matches ever and I think it’s important to cover the whole thing. It comes from the full review of the match that I wrote about nine years ago that you can read here if you want. Most of the analysis will come from that too.

The winner of this got to become the number one contender for the World Title. “Sexy Boy” plays and Shawn is HATED by the crowd while Taker gets a big pop. Shawn is scared as hell so he runs outside the ring. Taker stalks him back inside where he nails Shawn with a boot to the head that Shawn oversells. Taker tosses him into the turnbuckle three times and goes for a chokeslam but Shawn fights back with some stiff punches. Taker whips him into the corner, Shawn flips upside down and bounces off so he can be drilled by a clothesline that gets a two for Taker. Taker works on Shawn’s shoulder and proceeds to deliver his patented top rope clothesline on the shoulder he just worked on. Taker with a slam followed by a legdrop and that gets two. Taker whips Shawn into the buckle and tosses Shawn over the top to the floor via a back body drop. Shawn hits the ground hard and hits his feet on the side of the cage on the way down.

Taker joins him outside as a small but audible “make him bleed” chant erupts. Taker picks up Shawn and holds him up against the cage, Shawn begins to climb up but Taker pulls him down again. JR mentions that there’s probably some idiot saying Shawn knows how to fall hard like that. Taker whips him into the cage, Shawn bounces off and is decked with a clothesline for another hard bump. Taker’s offense is described as a “physical dissection” by the announcers. Taker does it again as the crowd pops in appreciation of Taker kicking serious ass. Taker goes for a powerbomb, Shawn fights it so Taker decides to just ram his back into the cage twice as Shawn crumbles to the ground again. Taker whips him into the ring post and punches him several times in the ribs which sort of looks like a boxer hitting a bag in the gym. Taker picks him up and literally tosses him around like a rag doll into the ringpost, cell, ringpost again and finally the cell once more. Taker lifts Shawn up again but HBK tosses Taker into the cell, but Shawn’s advantage is gone quickly because of an Undertaker clothesline. Shawn’s thrown into the steps, Taker sends him to the cage but Shawn bounces off ducking a clothesline and hammers Taker with several punches. As Shawn tries getting Taker inside the ring he is met by a stunner over the top rope which HBK sells as if he were shot out of a cannon. Finally, Michaels shoves him off the side of the ring into the cage, giving him control of the match.

Shawn flies through the middle ropes with a plancha ramming Taker’s head into the cell. Shawn climbs up the cage and drops an elbow in a very cool spot. He follows that up with a clothesline off the apron. Shawn goes for a piledriver on the steps but can’t get him up and almost botches the move. He recovers to deliver a VICIOUS piledriver on the ring steps. As Shawn makes his way up he accidentally hits a cameraman yelling “get the fuck away from me!” This cameraman is stubborn and gets too close again forcing Shawn to say “get this shit away from me!” Very important part of the match as you’ll see later. Shawn climbs in the ring and delivers a double axehandle (wow, a heel actually hit a double axehandle!) off the top to the floor as they finally get back into the ring.

Shawn punches Taker again and slides out looking for a chair, which he finds under the ring. The crowd pops huge as Vince yells out “OH NO!” because he’s an announcer who just cares about his talent and not a man looking to make a few dollars. He’s also thinking about how he will screw Bret Hart at next month’s PPV. Anyway, Shawn drills Taker twice in the back with a chair and only gets two. That pisses Shawn off and causes JR to wonder what Michaels will need to do in order to get a victory. Shawn ties him up in the ropes. Shawn runs at him and is met with a boot followed by an Undertaker back body drop over the top rope landing on a cameraman who just happened to be filming there. (What was he filming, the Undertaker’s ass? Actually it’s a brilliant move.) Shawn is angry so he punches and kicks the guy as the announcers overreact saying the camera guy has a family. They say that he’s just a young camera man and he’s not here to take a beating. Shawn shoves the camera guy conveniently in front of the door so some EMTs could help the poor man out. In the ring, Shawn nails Taker with the flying forearm, an elbow off the top (JR says nobody does it better. Randy Savage who?). As they open the door, allowing EMTs into the cage, Shawn drills the dead bastard with the superkick. Just as we think it’s over, Taker sits up and Shawn practically shits his pants. Great facial expressions there. Shawn runs out of the ring and out the door just as Hebner was trying to shut it.

The excitement builds as they are outside of the cell causing everyone, from the announcers to the fans, to go absolutely nuts. Of course, the thought of fans watching is “I hope somebody falls off the top of the cell” because everybody enjoys seeing others in pain. Anyway, Shawn in control with a dropkick sending Taker into the cell but he gets greedy, goes for it again and Taker stops him here. At this point, pause the DVD (or tape) and watch as Michaels brings out a razor and cuts his forehead open (in mid move by the way) delivering one of the greatest blade jobs ever. Taker slingshots HBK into the cell, punches him stiffly on the open wound and rams him face first into the cell. JR describes Shawn as a “human javelin,” which sounds as painful as it looked believe me. .

Shawn hits a low blow and climbs to the top of the cage because that’s the only place he can go to get away from the Undertaker. As Shawn climbs, Taker follows right behind him as the crowd’s response gets louder with each step the men take. Taker with a back body drop ON THE CELL (big pop). He follows up with the old fashioned “grind the man’s face into the cage” causing even more of Shawn’s blood to leave his forehead. Then he does gorilla press slam on the cell causing an even larger pop from the crowd. I told you they like violence. Taker with a punch sends Shawn flying about 5 feet so Shawn is hanging off the side of the cage right above the Spanish announce table. He steps on his fingers and Shawn goes through the table back first in a HUGE bump that was about eight feet high, maybe ten. Even if you have not seen the match I am sure you have seen the replay because the WWF showed it 1,284 times in the months that followed. The crowd is as loud as they could possibly be as JR uses the now famous “He’s broken in half!” line. By the way, the table that was broken? The Spanish one. Of course.

Taker with a hiptoss onto the broken table as Shawn’s blood is everywhere. His whole face is covered in blood as JR proclaims that he has never seen anything like this in his life. Undertaker drags Shawn to the inside and they come back into the ring as the cage is locked for the second time. The crowd is really hot as Taker delivers a chokeslam off the top rope in a move that I still think is very cool even today. Shawn is helpless now as Taker brings in a chair (another big pop) and he absolutely demolishes Shawn’s brains with a vicious chair shot to the head. That was his revenge for the shot he took two months ago at Summerslam. That’s called storyline continuity, people. Taker signals for the end to the delight of the crowd but the lights go out, the organ plays, the building is engulfed in red and there’s a familiar person to us now although he was new at the time. THROUGH HELLFIRE AND BUFFET TABLES IT’S PAUL BEARER! OH MY GOD, HE’S EATING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT! I mean it’s Kane! Kane rips the door off its hinges (almost), tosses Hebner into the cage (I wonder if Bret Hart liked that?) and stares the Undertaker down. Kane sets the ringposts on fire, Taker looks away (dumb move) and is met with a kick to the gut and a tombstone from the big red machine. Bearer, after stealing Hebner’s wallet so he can have his fourth dinner of the night, throws water on the ref so that he can count the pinfall. Shawn crawls on top of Taker out of a pile of his own blood and gets the 1…2….3 with that classic slow count from Hebner thus giving him the world title match at Survivor Series. The show ends with DX carrying Shawn’s limp ass out of the ring.
Winner via pinfall @ 30:00 – Shawn Michaels

Analysis: ***** Got to go the full five stars here. The ending doesn’t hurt it, in my eyes. It’s part of a great story that was told over the course of many months. I’ve got a lot to say here because it’s one of the best matches ever. I’ve probably watched this match 10-15 times because it’s that good. Like a favorite movie or top episode from a TV show, it never gets old. This was easily one of the most anticipated matches of all time. A lot of people did not even know what the cell was going to look like. That drew a lot of people to be interested in the match. Tossing HBK into the match made things that much greater because he was such a good performer. The feud was built so strongly that Shawn went from a tweener at Summerslam to the most hated man in the WWF by the time Badd Blood rolled around.

I know I mentioned how much Shawn bled in the match and honestly it’s one of the biggest blade jobs I have ever seen. Not only was the blood in his hair and on his forehead, but it was dripping everywhere around the ring too. The angle with the cameraman was also executed perfectly because it allowed the wrestlers to get on top of the cage where the people wanted them to be. The match was booked perfectly because just as Shawn nailed the superkick, Taker sat up and the door was ready to close meaning Michaels wanted to get out of there. A lot of times little things are done wrong and it ruins the match but in this match it was the little things like the blade job and camera guy that made it that much more special. It’s great storytelling because a chickenshit heel Michaels wanted to run away because Taker would sit up after taking everything Shawn could dish out.

I think the best thing about the feud was the use of the steel chair because none of this would have happened had it not been for Shawn’s errant chair shot two months prior. Keep in mind that chair shots in the WWF were not a regular thing by this time and that’s probably why the crowd reacted so well to it. When Shawn first grabs the chair in this match the crowd popped huge fearing for Taker’s life. Then later, after Shawn only gets two out of the chairshot it makes you realize just how tough Taker is. Later in the match when Taker seizes control of the chair he hits Shawn with a chair shot as hard as any I have ever seen. The crowd reacted perfectly to it because they wanted the heel to get what he deserved.

This match had everything including a storyline, plenty of heat for both men, tremendous psychology, great timing, a killer blade job and one hell of a bump by HBK. Throw in the fact that it was the greatest performance by the Undertaker (up to this point in his career for sure) and that Michaels was the best wrestler alive at the time and you have yourself one of those special matches that you will never forget. Everything just seemed to go right. I know I certainly won’t forget it and if you’ve seen the match you probably feel the same way.

Simply put, one of the best professional wrestling matches ever.

Final Thoughts
It’s very hard to criticize people for having bad matches knowing that one of their comrades died less than a day earlier. That’s incredibly tough to deal with, so I do understand why there was some bad wrestling on this show. The other part of it is that the roster was so thin at this point that they were simply unable to have good matches from start to finish.

This was a one match show. It had a lot of hype and it delivered. And no, I’m not talking about Los Boricuas vs. DOA for the 3,167th time. It was all about Michaels/Taker. Immediately after the show not only were we thinking about how great this match, but also what would happen when Michaels went after Hart a month later? Believe me when I say none of us had any idea of what would actually go down at Survivor Series.

Three Stars of the Night
1. Shawn Michaels – Awesome. Probably the best performance of his legendary career even to this day 12 years later. That’s saying something considering the greatness before and after this match. His heel act was fresh, he was in his physical prime before injuries slowed him down a bit and he was against a fresh opponent that he worked with perfectly.

2. Undertaker – I feel the same way about him as I do Michaels. It was as good as he’s ever been. He was perfect in his role as the bully in this match even as the babyface.

3. Bret Hart – I have sympathy for the guy, alright? He didn’t deserve being in such a lame tag match as this.

4 out of 10 – That score is for the main event. The rest is mostly garbage. I figure if you give us one of the best matches ever in the main event the show deserves some recognition for having at least one really great thing on it. That’s why it gets the four. Don’t bother with the whole show. Find the match on DVD somewhere if you haven’t seen it yet. You won’t be disappointed. Really, though, if you haven’t seen it yet what the hell are you waiting for? Any true wrestling fan has to see Michaels vs. Undertaker in the Cell.

Next Up: Survivor Series 1997 – Arguably the most memorable wrestling pay per view ever.

Past Reviews
In Your House: Ground Zero – September 1997
Summerslam – August 1997
In Your House: Canadian Stampede – July 1997
King of the Ring – June 1997
In Your House: Cold Day in Hell – May 1997
In Your House: Revenge of the Taker – April 1997

Smell ya later,
John Canton – [email protected]
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