WWE Hell in a Cell – 9 best HIAC matches of all time

Too often since HIAC became its own pay-per-view, matches are forced into the structure without having built up enough bad blood to warrant it. Here, the Cell was absolutely warranted as the most serious rivalry in recent WWE history was (for a short while) resolved.

A great back-and-forth full of classic moments that both nodded to the past of Hell in a Cell while also taking advantage of the young wrestlers' own character, athleticism and imagination, this felt like making good on all those "new era" promises we'd been hearing for so long.

This time Bray Wyatt got involved before the finish, gifting Seth Rollins the win. Many fans are still peeved by how it played out, but hey, the first ever HIAC match ended with interference so it's hardly unprecedented.

A significant step in the Women's (R)evolution, even if it seemed to be a false dawn a year later. Two of the standouts of the NXT Golden Generation go head to head in the first women's Hell in a Cell match, and the first all-woman match to headline a main roster pay-per-view.

The pressure was absolutely on, but both women absolutely delivered. There were nods to Mankind/Undertaker with Sasha Banks leaping off a stretcher after an early beatdown to get the match going, and more than one hat tip from The Boss to her hero Eddie Guerrero, too.

In the end though it was about the here and now, and after some heavy blows with chairs (and through announce tables), it was Charlotte who edged a thrilling match-up with Natural Selection to take the Raw Women's Championship.

You could argue that this is too gimmicky to be in a best-ever bouts list, but if you're arguing against gimmicks in a Hell in a Cell debate you're missing the point.

What this match-up lacks in brutality and blood is made up for in sheer thrills, spills, spears, TV monitors, ladders, chairs 'n' stairs. And when you think it's all over, there's a chokeslam off a mousetrap arrangement of ladders through the canvas straight to hell.

Triple H and Shawn Michaels both took part in the most grotesque HIAC, when – as a classic vintage DX – they shoved Vince McMahon's bloodied head up the ass of the Big Show at Unforgiven in 2006. It's fitting that The Game returned to hell with HBK as special guest ref for this most respectful of battles.

Third time unlucky for HHH in his bid to end the Phenom's streak, it's the moments after the count that elevated this contest. Shawn Michaels helps the Undertaker to his feet for an embrace, before the pair of them do the same for Triple H. Enough to make a grown man cry.

Supposedly the End of an Era, both men met once more for the Last Time Ever at the Super Show Down in October 2018.

If you want something a bit more rough and ready, you can't do better than The Game supposedly retiring Mick Foley. "What could be worse than a 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire...?" we're asked. "Oh my god, the 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire is burning!"

Add a drop through the cage with a canvas-denting thud and Stephanie McMahon playing Lady Macbeth on the edge of the cell and you've got a match that lives long in the memory.

The first Hell in a Cell match, and a toss-up still as the best ever. The Deadman's power looked like prevailing over the athleticism of Michaels before the interruption by Paul Bearer and his long-trailed unveiling of The Undertaker's "darkest secret".

Ripping the door off the cell, Kane turned his brother into a rabbit in the redlights, administering his sibling's own Tombstone Piledriver. That left HBK memorably "crawling out of a pool of his own blood" for the win.

The absolute shock of watching that bump the first time around can never be relived. What stuns isn't so much the distance, but the sheer casualness of The Undertaker flinging his opponent off the top of the cage."Good gawd almighty, they've killed him! As god is my witness, he is broken in half!" yells JR, and you believe it.

Much has been said in the years since by those involved, but this match has to be seen to be believed. It was necessarily stop-start and relatively short on action, but that just added to the drama. And there was still time for that second bump through the cage, plenty of chair action, Terry Funk getting chokeslammed out of his shoes and, of course, a bag full of thumbtacks.