Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Mathew Lehmann asks, You made a comment a while ago about a WrestleMania event that was so interesting you rewatch it every year. Can you explain why, as someone who has never watched wrestling before, insight into why it is appealing or special would be nice.

OK, Matthew, I’m going to tell you the story of one of the most famous professional wrestling matches in history. The Undertaker vs. Mankind Hell in a Cell match at the 1998 King of Ring show.

This single match has been the subject of documentaries, has its own Wikipedia page, and, twenty-five years later, is still the number one question they get.

The Undertaker, aka Mark Calloway, and Mankind, aka Mick Foley, were scheduled to have a Hell in a Cell match at the King of the Ring show. A hell-in-a-cell match is just like a steel cage match, except there is a roof on it. The entire structure is made out of chain link fencing. This was to be the third hell in a cell match in history.

In planning the event, Foley was talking with hall of famer Terry Funk about how they could top the previous hell-in-a-cell matches. Funk suggested that they fight on the top of the cage, and maybe the Undertaker could throw Foley off the top of the cage.

This was an unprecedented suggestion. The top of the cell was 16 feet off the ground. The Undertaker was concerned that this could kill Foley. While professional wrestling matches are scripted and the outcomes predetermined, the action in the ring is all real.

Being thrown 16 feet off a structure can’t be faked.

They lied to WWE officials about what they were going to do. The announcers weren’t aware of it.

When the match came, they climbed up to the top and sluggishly hit each other. It turns out chain link fencing wasn’t designed to support people walking on it, especially two guys who were both around 300 pounds. In fact, they both almost fell through.

They eventually get to the edge, and they perform the spot where the Undertaker threw Mankind off the top of the cage and he crashed through the announcer’s table.

Everyone in the area was shocked. The announcers were shocked. No one had ever seen anything like this. A stretcher was brought out, which was not an act. He was put on the stretcher to be taken out to an ambulance. If that was the only thing that happened, it would have been one of the most memorable moments in wrestling history.

However, Mike Foley then wakes up on the stretcher, gets up, and climbs back to the top of the cell.

Everything at this point was unplanned. They keep fighting on the top of the cage, and the Undertaker then does a chokeslam on Foley onto the top of the steel cage. Normally, this is a very safe move on a wrestling mat.

However, as I mentioned, the top of the steel cage wasn’t designed to support the weight of people walking on it, and certainly not a 300-pound man landing on it.

Foley broke through the top of the cage and fell into the ring below. On top of the fall, a folded steel chair that they were using fell down with him and hit him in the face.

Once again, staff and medical officials went into the ring. Foley refused to be sent out on a stretcher twice in one match, so he was assisted out of the ring walking. On the camera, you can see something in his nose that looked like a booger. It turns out it was his tooth that was sticking out of his nose.

This still wasn’t the end of the match. Foley goes back in to continue fighting, and the final spot of the match was Foley spreading thumbtacks on the mat, real thumbtacks, and getting slammed once again into the thumbtacks by the Undertaker.

At that point, the match ended, and everyone was in disbelief as to what they just saw. There had never been anything like it before, and there will never be anything like it again, as there is no way something so dangerous would ever be allowed.

It wasn’t technically a “good” wrestling match, but it is one of the most famous ones in history.