How The Undertaker And Mankind’s Hell In A Cell Match Changed Pro Wrestling Forever

Next month will mark the 20th anniversary of when The Undertaker and Mankind met in a Hell In A Cell match. Since then WWE has since put on 36 dangerous Hell In A Cell matches since but none of them took the risk that The Undertaker and Mankind did during the 1998 King Of The Ring.

“I think it encouraged people to do more dangerous things” Dave Meltzer recalled during Wrestling Observer Radio. “I think it probably sped up the end of Mick Foley’s career, pretty much for sure it did. It’s a pretty memorable match, not necessarily in a good way but it’s remembered in a good way.”

“I remember that night I was like, ‘god everyone’s going to remember this match and it’s not a good thing for wrestling at all.’ But [Foley] made a career — it definitely boosted his career and led to the end of his career at the same time.”

At the time, WWE might not have realized how important that match was because the next night on Raw Foley was just featured in a random backstage segment without barely mentioning the Hell In A Cell match. “They didn’t realize what it was until [later].” Meltzer continued.

“I remember what I wrote I wrote it was a legendary thing in both good ways and bad ways. I didn’t think it was that hard to figure it out. But yeah it took a couple weeks to figure it out because the thing is [Foley] did get way more over, he was a much bigger star.”

Although Mick Foley was already popular for his unique approach to pro wrestling, it’s easy to see how his Hell In A Cell match against The Undertaker was the pivotal shot in the arm his career really needed in order to take him to that next level. All it took was plummeting from a massive steel structure twice in one night to figure it out.

If you use any portion of the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Radio with a H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription