10 Best Old School WWE Cage Matches
It was big, brutal and (usually) blue. For 15 years this was the cage that settled feuds in WWE.
If you want to settle a bitter blood feud, there are few ways more effective than within the confines of a steel cage. Modern day WWE offers an abundance of structures when it comes to mesh-based mayhem, with a dizzying array of rules, number of participants, and levels of anticipation. From Hell in a Cell to the Elimination Chamber to the revived War Games and even the odd Punjabi Prison. But never again the Kennel From Hell.
But during the '80s and '90s the most common way in which to settle these disputes was within the confines of a 15-foot-high, blue-barred steel cage. The top stars of the day would battle one another behind the big, TV-friendly bars, hoping to settle scores and leave their opponent incapacitated in the ring. All of the biggest stars of the time found themselves locked inside the structure at some point, from Hulk Hogan to Roddy Piper to Bret Hart to the hairless horror, King Kong Bundy.
As the men and women of the Raw roster recover from the more elaborate modern-day spectacle of the Elimination Chamber, let's take a look at the best old blue bars had to offer.
10. Edge Vs. Christian (Rebellion 2001)
Following St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the WWF returned to the more ominous and violent-looking mesh cage, the black bars apparently not providing enough attitude for their new demographic. Coupled with the more frequent use of Hell in a Cell, it seemed that the blue-barred cage was consigned to the past with Virgil.
However, there was still one more old school cage match left for the history books. For the U.K.-only pay-per-view Rebellion in November 2001, Intercontinental champion Edge was booked against his then-storyline brother Christian inside a cage. As Edge has since recounted, the WWF had yet to get one of the new mesh cages to the UK, so the pair had to go old-school.
It was a dispiriting way to see out the old cage, on one of the neglected UK-only pay-per-views as part of a disappointing feud. But, Edge and Christian were two of the best workers in the company and they sent the old school cage out on a high with a big-bumping match. It was a far cry from the structure's loft legacy which had seen it headline WrestleMania, but in a world of ever-more complicated cage stipulations, the simple effectiveness of the old school cage is missed.