It had been a tough year for The Undertaker. After 6 years of domination in the WWF he had been waylaid the day after Wrestlemania XII by his first real serious threat: Mankind (Mick Foley, who in the beginning of his WWF career wasn't allowed to be Cactus Jack, which he was known as and had a cult following for worldwide) due to Vince's unwillingness to acknowledge the existence of other organizations.Their King of the Ring match ended with Paul Bearer accidentally hitting Taker with the urn and giving the win to Mick. Their Boiler Room Brawl that August at SummerSlam saw Paul Bearer betray his longtime friend and join forces with Mankind (later adding Vader and Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy (under a mask as The Executioner) to the stable.)
Taker feuded with them, but ended up busy with another project: A shot at Wrestlemania XIII for the Heavyweight Belt, which he ended up winning after planting Psycho Sid Viscious on his head.
He wasn't able to enjoy his reign as champion long. Paul Bearer gave Undertaker an ultimatum: submit, and join his stable, or else he would reveal to The World the sinister secret that they've been hiding all these years. Undertaker briefly complied, but after King of the Ring '97 said the Hell with it and went on his own again.
Without delay, Paul Bearer told his story:
Years ago he had been an apprentice mortician at the mortuary owned by Undertaker's parents. He had witnessed a 7 year old Taker and his younger brother Kane playing with matches. Later that evening a blazing inferno engulfed the business, killing Kane and his parents. Paul Bearer kept shouting that Undertaker was a Goddamn murderer until Taker rushed out, choking out Paul and threatening to kill him (Yeah, that'll convince people you're not a murderer)
Paul Bearer squeaked out that Kane was still alive, that he had secretly raised him all these years. He was horribly disfigured, and the only thing that's kept him alive all these years was his desire to one day get revenge on his brother.
***
Meanwhile, the real life dislike between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels had blossomed into a full fledged hatred. The writers tried to capitalize on this in the stories, with Hart and Michaels just barely staying professional enough to get the job done. An actual fight backstage (where Bret ended up pulling a chunk of Shawn's hair out of his head, you can see the spot on his forehead if you look closely) had both off tv for a couple weeks.
The Main Event for SummerSlam '97 was Undertaker defending the title against Bret, with Shawn as the guest ref. To appease Hart, Michaels was warned that if he showed a bias against Bret during the match he would be fired.
When Shawn had his back turned Bret had used a chair on Taker. Shawn turned around, grabbed the chair and asked Bret if he used it. Bret said "fuck you" and spit at him; Shawn swung, Bret ducked, and Undertaker took one of the first nasty headshots on WWF programming. Bret went for the cover, and Shawn had no choice but to make the count.
The audience turned on Shawn, so he told them off and decided to look out for himself. Upset with the way he was being used by creative, and incensed that Vince was kissing Bret's ass every which way, Shawn asked to be let out of his contract so that he could join his Clique buddies Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in WCW (at that time WCW was #1 in the ratings, in large part due to the NWO story). Of course Vince refused. Undaunted, Shawn tried everything he could to be fired. At one show he gave a profanity-laced interview in his boxers with a stiffy trying to poke out. That ended up being editted. On a live edition of Raw which couldn't be editted Shawn mooned The Hart Foundation. His coop de gracie was showing fancam footage of an MSG incident.
[At the risk of breaking the flow, such as it is, I want to cover the MSG Incident. It was in May 1996 and Kayfabe (Acting as if what you see is real) was still strictly enforced. It was the final WWF night for Scott Hall and Kevin Nash who were on their way to WCW. The main event saw Shawn defeat Kevin in a steel cage. After the match was over Shawn kissed the fallen Diesel's forehead and they got up and celebrated together. Scott Hall came in from the back and joined them, and after him was Triple H (not widely known at the time as a member of their clique). Two Faces and Two Heels celebrating together was unheard of and Vince McMahon was outraged. Hall and Nash were already gone and untouchable, Shawn was the champion and nobody else at the time was marketable, so HHH took the fall. Originally slated to win King of the Ring '96 he was completely taken off the show.(Indirectly that might've saved the WWF's ass but that's another story)]
When Shawn and HHH were showing the footage on Raw a year and a half later I nearly busted a gut laughing when Shawn narrated "Wait a minute, who's that joining us? Hey! [to Hunter] That's YOU! What are you doing there? You're a Bad Guy!"
At this point it became apparent that Shawn's attempts at getting fired were planned by management and a swerve to the fans. The following weeks Shawn, Hunter and Chyna would push the envelope farther and farther. They also took turns causing trouble for Undertaker and Bret Hart. The September '97 pay-per-view was main evented by the first time ever meeting between Shawn and The Taker. When it became clear that all of Shawn's offense was being shrugged off by Undertaker he panicked and attacked the ref for a DQ. Shawn would do everything he could to avoid being caught by Taker so at the October '97 ppv Badd Blood the stakes were raised: Undertaker would take Shawn into the Hell in the Cell.
It was a steel cage with a roof so that there could be no escape.
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The Match
The ppv is remembered only for this match and for the unfortunate fact that The Loose Cannon, The Ticking Timebomb, Flyin' Brian Pillman had been found dead in his hotel room an hour before showtime.
After the cage was lowered Degeneration-X was sent to the back, leaving Shawn to face The Taker alone. Most fans at this point were preparing to give Shawn his Last Rites.
He tried to avoid being caught, but it didn't last long and Undertaker took his sweet time beating the almighty fuck out of Shawn. A very nasty spot saw Shawn get tossed over the rope where he bumped the cage and landed hard on the ground.
Jim Ross, on commentary: Some idiot at home is saying "But he knows how to fall"
Out of the ring Undertaker continued the ass-kicking, grinding and slamming Michaels every which way with the cage. The few times Michaels got some shots in they were shrugged off. Shawn would climb up the cage and drop an elbow, Taker would shrug it off; He'd Tope-con-something-or-other over the rope, sending Taker crashing into the steel, it would get shrugged off.
Finally, Shawn was able to use the Steel Steps to gain some advantage, ramming them into Taker's back then piledriving him on them. Shawn found a chair and continued to pummel Undertaker.
It still wasn't enough to put an end to Taker and Shawn found himself backdropped over the rope again, landing on the cameraman who had remained inside when the cage was lowered. Shawn beat him up, requiring security to open the door so EMTs could attend to him. Shawn returned to the match and hit Undertaker with The Superkick, but Taker sat up so Shawn headed straight for the open door and got the Hell out.
Undertaker followed him and started the ass-kicking up again in the aisles. He catapulted Shawn into the side of the cage: Watch that moment in slo-mo, Shawn fucking blades while flying through the air. If you didn't know to look for it you would've missed it, which is what good blading is about.
Taker continues to use Shawn as a battering ram until Michaels follows through on the Eric Cartman threat. And then like in a bad horror movie Shawn climbs up the cage to escape the unstoppable monster. Taker follows him up to the roof, and when I was watching this live I was wondering if someone was going to get killed.
Taker backdropped and press-slammed Shawn, how the meshing supported their weight I don't know. Shawn ran for the edge and tried to climb back down but got his hands stomped on which sent him falling into the Spanish Announce Table.
That wasn't good enough for Taker, who threw Shawn through the French Table as well, smearing his blood all over the place. Taker kicked Shawn back into the cage and threw him in the ring.
He placed Shawn on the top turnbuckle and Chokeslammed him off. He then gave a wicked chairshot to Shawn's face and was about to finally finish him off with the Tombstone when the Lights went out.
Familiar now, but brand new then, Kane's music started up and intense red pyro went off, marking his debut. A shocked Undertaker stood and watched while Kane TORE THE DOOR OFF THE CAGE and entered the ring. Undertaker didn't resist as Kane grabbed him and planted his own Tombstone before leaving. The last pitiful remnants of Shawn Michaels crawled over and got the pin. Hunter and Chyna rushed in and carted Shawn out before Taker could come to.
***
This match was great, had proper psychology, and stands the test of time. To date only one other HitC match was any good but we have to wade through some crap first.
Next Part: Hell in the Cell: The Bad (Undertaker vs. Mankind, King of the Ring '98)
