If WWE is breaking out the Hell in a Cell, fans expect a long, vicious fight to settle the score. But that is not always the case. Three cell matches have failed to last 10 minutes. In 2011, John Cena won a 5-minute, five-man cell match for his WWE Championship in a dark match after Raw went off the air. The shortest televised cell match lasted less than 8 minutes, a 1998 bout between Mankind and Kane that ended in a no contest. The shortest PPV cell match was the infamous contest between Undertaker and Big Boss Man, which ended in 9:48 and then continued with Taker hanging Boss Man from the cell. By comparison, most Hell in a Cell matches tend to last between 20-25 minutes, with four cracking the half-hour mark. But the longest cell match is the longest by far: a 47:26 affair between Triple H and Shawn Michaels in June 2004. The former (and future) DX partners had been defeated in back-to-back triple threat World Heavyweight Championship matches against Chris Benoit and decided to settle the score inside a cell. Both men bled during the contest, which Triple H won. And before anyone jumps up and down that it was Triple H throwing his weight around to get that much time, Bad Blood was a seven-match PPV and there was about an hour left in the show.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.
