Tags
1998 King Of The Ring, Hell In A Cell, King Of The Ring, Main Event Madness, Mankind, Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels, Terry Funk, The Undertaker, Wrestling, WWE, WWE King Of The Ring, WWE King Of The Ring 1998, WWF, WWF Badd Blood
It’s January 19TH which means a couple of things and that is Exceptional Eddie Valiant (Me) is celebrating his 35TH birthday which means that it’s my birthday and I’ll watch what I want to. Last night I began to watch the Mick Foley WWE Documentary For All Mankind: Mick Foley and one of the matches he talked about that stood out to me the most was the 1998 King Of The Ring match he had with The Undertaker in the third ever Hell In A Cell match at the Pittsburgh Civic Center. The only time we had seen a match like this before was the one The undertaker had with Shawn Michaels eight months earlier at WWF Badd Blood and a tornado tag match a couple weeks before the King Of The Ring on RAW. We know that the structure looked deadly, but we had no idea how dangerous it really was until both men came down to ringside. As soon as Mankind came to ringside, he almost immediately climbed to the top of the cell challenging The Undertaker to follow him to which he obliged. They immediately started to brutalize each other on the top of the cell which at one point looked like they were going to break through when they simply stepped on one part of it. Mankind was ready to try and DDT the phenom on the cell, but The Undertaker immediately stunned him with an uppercut and then it happened.
One of the most shocking moments that I will never forget happened next in the match as the phenom grabbed Mankind and through him off the cell from the top and through the commentary table (I believe the Spanish one). The man looked as if he might have fought his very last match ever as he just laid there motionless. The medical staff was quick to rush out to his aid which included Terry Funk. They brought the stretcher out and began to take him to the back. As soon as they started to bring him out back, Mankind refused to stay down, got up from the stretcher and started climbing back up the cage. Wrestling fans couldn’t believe that he was actually doing this and as he soon as he met Taker at the top, another holy sh** moment happened. Taker started beating Mankind at the top with a right and as soon as he could, he grabbed him and choke slammed Mankind right through the top of the cell to the wrestling mat. I was thinking to myself, how is this man not dead yet? The medical staff once again came to the side of Mankind begging The Undertaker to stop the madness.
However, The Undertaker did not care as he came down from the top of the cage to finish what they had started even if it meant choke slamming Terry Funk literally out of his sneakers. Bloodied and a tooth hanging in his nose, Foley continued the match and he tried his best against The Undertaker, but the damage had been done. Mankind was able to buy himself some time in the match when Taker tried to skin the cat (walk the ropes) as Mankind through himself against the ropes, knocking his balance off. After trying to lift the steel steps and not being able to because of the injury to his shoulder, The Undertaker took advantage and started beating Foley. After failing at a couple of pin attempts later in the match, Mankind thought it was a good idea to introduce thumbtacks to the match as he spread them across the ring.
Mankind was trying his best to get The Undertaker to land on the thumbtacks, but he couldn’t get done as Taker fought back to prevent it. In a last ditch effort, Mankind locked in the mandible claw and Taker started to fade. You could imagine that this was the plan for Mankind, but would he pull it off? As the referee started to reach three on his count, The Undertaker got back up with Mick Foley on his back like a piggy back and slammed him right into the thumb tacks which just looked so painful. The Undertaker would proceed to choke slam him on top of the tacks and then finished him off with the tombstone piledriver as the referee counted the 1-2-3. I honestly felt bad for Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kane who were going to have to try and top that match in their first blood match. This was truly an amazing match for the holy sh** moments and it made Mick Foley the legend that he already was. I am giving the match an A for a final grade.