Ranking The 28 Greatest Hell In A Cell Matches In WWE History
8. Brock Lesnar Vs. Undertaker (No Mercy 2002)
The top eight Hell in a Cell matches are heads above the rest. A more specific set of criteria was used to separate them, ranging from buyrates and attendance (how many people paid to see them) to crowd response to the usual match grading rubric (storytelling, psychology, quality of the feud, near falls, and climax). With the worst buyrate of the Hell in a Cell matches considered, the bloody war between Brock and Taker failed to contend with the other candidates. It is historically underrated, though, in terms of performance. Broken down to the purest of elements, it really does not get much better than their story. The fact that they managed to produce such a great match inside the Cell in an era in which it was almost a foregone conclusion that the participants would venture outside the structure is a testament to both Takers ability and Brocks uncanny, prodigious rise to prominence in his first year in WWE. Taker vs. Brock was a brutal battle, but the violence was not about what one man was willing to do to his own body a novelty that arguably wears off with repeated viewings. Rather, it was about one man beating the other to a pulp. Both wore the proverbial crimson mask like no other pair in Cell history, so it holds the distinction as the bloodiest Cell match. It tends to get lost in the shuffle during these types of discussions. It was historically memorable, but not to the extent of its peers. Perhaps it suffers from awesome match on a card destined to be forgotten syndrome given that it took place on a B-level PPV during a time when the buyrates were sinking.
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
