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Mick Foley Reflects On 25 Year Hell In A Cell Match Anniversary

By John Canton • Published 28th June 2023
mick foley mankind the undertaker hell in a cell

Mick Foley has shared some of his thoughts on the infamous Hell in a Cell match between The Undertaker and himself from 25 years ago.

The first Hell in a Cell match was at Badd Blood in October 1997 when Shawn Michaels beat The Undertaker in an absolute classic match thanks to the debut of Kane.

At King of the Ring 1998, which took place 25 years ago today (June 28th), The Undertaker had another Hell in a Cell match, this time against Mankind aka Mick Foley. Those two legends had a very physical rivalry throughout 1996 and WWE felt like it should continue inside the cell.

It is a match that many wrestling fans consider to be one of the most famous pro wrestling matches ever. That’s of Foley’s bumps. The first big bump saw The Undertaker toss Foley off the side of the Hell in a Cell structure so that Mankind could go crashing through the Spanish announce table about 20 feet below.

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Somehow, Mick Foley was able to come back from being wheeled away on a stretcher and he climbed to the top of the cage again. That was a big mistake because The Undertaker gave Foley a Chokeslam that broke the top of the cell and sent Foley hard onto the mat below while a steel chair also hit Foley in the head. Foley ended up having a tooth jammed into his nose for a disgusting visual display.

They managed to wrestle for about 18 minutes with The Undertaker finally putting Mick Foley away after Foley took a few more scary bumps onto thumbtacks.

While speaking on his Foley Is Pod podcast, Mick Foley shared his plan for the second big bump that saw him take a Chokeslam through the top of the cell and into the ring.

“The idea was that Undertaker, this is the big visual I was looking for, Undertaker’s going to chokeslam me, and a corner of that cell, of that panel, would just give way. And he’s eventually going to stuff me down, headfirst. So the visual I thought was ‘I’m going to be upside down, flailing my arms around, and eventually he’ll let go of my knees, where he’d be kind of holding me, and I would just have to take my own bump into the ring, just doing a semi-turn. It would be a big height, but I thought I could do it.

“And it was only during the course of the day that I said ‘Hey, how about you throw me off the top of that thing?’ going back to what Terry Funk said.”

As he continued, Mick Foley spoke about how the top of the cell wasn’t as strong as they thought while referencing some twist ties that were used to support the top of the cell.

“We can actually see these little things … shooting off the cell. And I remember thinking ‘I don’t know there being twist ties in that match with the Undertaker and Shawn.’ At first, I thought ‘I’m like 70, 80 lbs heavier than Shawn, but that shouldn’t be enough for this thing to be giving way.’”

“There’s this moment where I attempt to … suplex the Undertaker on top on the cell, and brother, he shot that s**t down in a hurry. Just cut me off, and the next thing I know, I’m taking flight. He just said ‘Are you ready?’ I said ‘Yup.’ And off we went.”

In addition to Mick Foley talking about the Hell in a Cell match, WWE’s Youtube channel posted a video of Undertaker and Foley watching the match together and talking about it in-depth.

H/T WrestlingInc