Hell in a Cell Match History: From Badd Blood 1997 to Brock Lesnar's Last Match
Michaels and the Undertaker in St. Louis, Mankind through the roof in Pittsburgh, 14 years of its own pay-per-view and Oba Femi retiring Brock Lesnar inside it at SummerSlam.
The last time WWE lowered the cell was on August 1, 2026 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, where Oba Femi beat Brock Lesnar in the main event of SummerSlam's first night. It was the final match of Lesnar's career and the 54th Hell in a Cell match in WWE history. Femi had given up his King of the Ring title shot to get it.
Badd Blood 1997: Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
The first Hell in a Cell match was held on October 5, 1997 at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, at the pay-per-view called Badd Blood: In Your House. It grew out of SummerSlam that August, when Shawn Michaels was the special referee for the Undertaker's WWF Championship match against Bret Hart and cost the Undertaker the match. Their meeting at Ground Zero ended in a no contest after both men went after the officials.
The rematch was first planned as an ordinary steel cage match. What WWF built instead was a much bigger roofed cage that enclosed the ringside area as well as the ring, leaving room for wrestlers to fight on the floor and for cameras to sit inside. Jim Cornette is most often named as the one who came up with it, although Michaels and the Undertaker have both claimed it too, and WWE itself says the match was based on the Last Battle of Atlanta, a 1983 cage match between Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer.
Michaels won. Kane, presented as the Undertaker's brother, made his debut by tearing the cell door off and hitting the Undertaker with a Tombstone, and Michaels covered him. The win made Michaels the number one contender for Hart's title at Survivor Series, the night of the Montreal Screwjob. Earlier in the match Michaels had dangled from the roof and crashed through an announce table, and big falls became part of the match from then on.
How the match works
The original cell stood 16 feet high and weighed more than two tons. The version used since is 20 feet high and weighs about five tons. Its door is locked with chains and a padlock.
There are no disqualifications or count outs. A match normally ends with a pinfall or submission inside the ring, though Triple H once pinned Chris Jericho on the roof of the cell at Judgment Day in May 2002 and it counted. In 2018 WWE switched to a smaller crimson cell made of stiffer mesh, stronger and lighter than the old one, and Randy Orton beat Jeff Hardy in its first match. The gray cell came back at WrestleMania 39 in 2023.
King of the Ring 1998: the Mankind fall
Mick Foley, as Mankind, faced the Undertaker inside the cell at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on June 28, 1998. The match had very little build. The Undertaker went in with a fractured ankle. Foley had sat down with Terry Funk to watch the 1997 match and work out how to top it, and Funk suggested he could let the Undertaker throw him off the roof.
Foley climbed to the top with a steel chair before the bell, the Undertaker followed, and after a short exchange of punches the Undertaker threw him off. He fell through the Spanish announce table onto the concrete. Medical staff, Funk and Vince McMahon came out, and Foley was put on a stretcher and wheeled toward the back. Then he got off it and climbed the cell again.
The second fall was not planned. When the Undertaker chokeslammed him on the roof, a mesh panel gave way and Foley dropped straight through to the ring, with the chair landing on top of him. He was knocked out for the first time in his career, and the cameras caught a loose tooth hanging below his nose. Foley insisted on finishing. The Undertaker won after a chokeslam onto a pile of thumbtacks and a Tombstone.
Foley wrestled in four Hell in a Cell matches and never won one. The last came under his Cactus Jack name at No Way Out on February 27, 2000 in Hartford, Connecticut, where he challenged Triple H for the WWF Championship knowing that a loss would force him to retire. It was also the first title defense inside the cell. Triple H won.
Before the cell had its own show, 1998 to 2008
The early 2000s added some odd variations. At Armageddon in December 2000, Kurt Angle kept the WWF Championship in a six-man cell against the Undertaker, Triple H, Steve Austin, Rikishi and The Rock. Lesnar kept the WWE Championship against the Undertaker at No Mercy in 2002, the first of two cell matches between them.
Triple H was in seven cells between 2000 and 2006. He beat Kevin Nash at Bad Blood in Houston in June 2003 and then beat Michaels at Bad Blood in Columbus, Ohio on June 13, 2004 in a match that ran 47 minutes and 26 seconds, still the longest cell on record. Batista beat him inside it at Vengeance in 2005. The structure also turned up at WrestleMania XV in 1999, where the Undertaker beat the Big Boss Man.
The pay-per-view years, 2009 to 2022
In 2009 WWE named an October pay-per-view after the match, replacing No Mercy, and ruled that its main event would always be fought inside the cell. The first one, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on October 4, 2009, had three. In one of them the Undertaker won the World Heavyweight Championship from CM Punk, the first time a title changed hands in the cell.
The event ran every year through 2022, mostly in October, once in September and twice in June, and the match lost some of its shock value along the way. Arn Anderson, a former WWE producer, said in 2020 that too many feuds had been sent into the cell without earning it.
In Boston on October 30, 2016, Charlotte Flair beat Sasha Banks for the Raw Women's Championship in the first women's Hell in a Cell match, and it was also the first time a women's match closed a WWE pay-per-view. In Sacramento in 2019, Seth Rollins and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt became the first cell match to end in a referee stoppage, and the finish was panned. In June 2021 the cell was used four times in four days, including Roman Reigns against Rey Mysterio on SmackDown, the first title match in the structure that was not on pay-per-view. Bobby Lashley wrestled in it on back to back nights.
The final Hell in a Cell event took place in Rosemont, Illinois, outside Chicago, on June 5, 2022. Cody Rhodes beat Rollins in the main event with his pectoral muscle completely torn and surgery already booked for that Thursday. After Triple H took over creative that summer, the event was dropped, and the cell went back to being saved for the end of a big feud.
Recent cells, 2023 to 2026
Edge beat "The Demon" Finn Bálor inside the cell at WrestleMania 39 on April 2, 2023, its fourth appearance at a WrestleMania. Bad Blood came back on October 5, 2024 in Atlanta, 27 years to the day after the first cell, and CM Punk beat Drew McIntyre in one of the best reviewed cell matches in years. Before it Punk said, "I don't want to have a cell that needs a match. I want to have a match that needs the cell."
The SummerSlam match in Minneapolis lasted 11 minutes and 40 seconds. Lesnar had won both of his earlier cell matches, against the Undertaker in 2002 and 2015, so the loss to Femi was his first inside it as well as his last match. Femi had also beaten him in the opening match of WrestleMania 42 in April.
Records
| Wrestler | Matches | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| The Undertaker | 14 | 8 |
| Triple H | 9 | 6 |
| Randy Orton | 8 | 5 |
| CM Punk | 6 | 3 |
| Roman Reigns | 5 | 4 |
| Seth Rollins | 5 | 1 |
| Shawn Michaels | 4 | 3 |
| John Cena | 4 | 2 |
| Mick Foley (Mankind, Cactus Jack) | 4 | 0 |
The Undertaker's last cell match was a win over Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 32 in 2016. Among women, Sasha Banks has the most appearances with three and won one of them. The shortest cell was a five-man WWE Championship match that John Cena won in five minutes and one second at a Raw taping in Kansas City on September 26, 2011. It was a dark match, the only cell never televised. Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon are both 0 for 3.
Questions
What was the first Hell in a Cell match?
Shawn Michaels vs. the Undertaker at Badd Blood: In Your House on October 5, 1997 at the Kiel Center in St. Louis. Michaels won after Kane debuted and hit the Undertaker with a Tombstone.
How tall is the Hell in a Cell?
The current structure is 20 feet high and weighs about five tons. The original cell used from 1997 was 16 feet high and weighed a little over two tons.
Who has the most Hell in a Cell wins?
The Undertaker, with eight wins in 14 Hell in a Cell matches, both records. Triple H is next with six wins in nine matches.
What was the longest Hell in a Cell match?
Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels at Bad Blood on June 13, 2004 in Columbus, Ohio, which lasted 47 minutes and 26 seconds. Triple H won.
When was the last Hell in a Cell match?
At SummerSlam on August 1, 2026 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, where Oba Femi beat Brock Lesnar in the final match of Lesnar's career.
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