Man, Hell in a Cell matches used to be so cool. Well, I say that, but people always overlook the bad ones like Taker vs. Big Boss Man or the weird ones they had on Raw like Mankind vs. Kane. But when it was taken seriously, it was one of the greatest gimmick matches in wrestling history, and this match right here is another example of that. Jim Ross sums up the gimmick perfectly as Triple H makes his entrance. “The first participant…or is he the first victim?” In one line he boils down exactly what those early Hell in a Cell matches were all about.
In this incarnation of the gimmick, Kurt Angle is defending the WWF Championship against Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker and a heel Rikishi. I don’t care what anybody says, heel Rikishi has always been one of my boys. Great theme. Great look. The dude had aura. As each wrestler makes their entrance, you can’t help but notice the ridiculous amount of referees both inside and surrounding the Cell. In almost any other scenario it would’ve felt gimmicky, but here it just makes everything feel bigger. Like everyone knows something’s about to go horribly wrong and they need every body they can get.
One thing this company was always great at was these big multi-man hardcore matches, from TLC to Money in the Bank to Elimination Chamber, and this might honestly be the peak of that style. The opening ten minutes is basically controlled chaos. Everyone pairs off, beats the hell out of each other, and the babyfaces mostly keep control before everything completely falls apart. More than anything, it feels like the payoff to over a year’s worth of storylines all colliding at once. And even in a ring full of guys the WWF would spend the next twenty years calling Hall of Famers, Stone Cold and The Rock still feel levels above everyone else. The intensity and heat they bring here just can’t be matched by anyone else in the match.
The old Hell in a Cell works so well here too. Six guys inside that smaller cage feels incredibly claustrophobic. I haven’t watched modern WWE in years, but man, this version of the Cell is just so much better than the giant red playground they eventually turned it into. The match also makes incredible use of the Armageddon set. The oil drums. The wrecked cars. Every part of the stage becomes part of the fight. It honestly makes you miss when companies built unique PPV sets instead of just wheeling out another LED screen. One spot I’ve always loved from this era is when somebody gets smashed with a camera and then they immediately show the replay from that camera’s point of view. Just dumb wrestling shit that I’ll always pop for.
I’ve always thought the Vince and Stooges stuff gets a bit of an unfair rap too. Is it convoluted? Sure. But in the context of the match it works well enough as a transition into the brawling and the eventual Rikishi spot. The long brawling section outside maybe goes on a touch too long. Since the match obviously can’t end out there, you’re never really biting on anything as a finish. But the action stays entertaining enough that it’s never a major complaint, and as soon as you start thinking, “Okay, can we move on already?” they do.
Like the mainline Hell in a Cell matches before it, somebody has to end up thrown off the roof. Here it definitely feels more like, “Well, the other Hell in a Cell matches did it, so we should too,” than something completely organic. It’s still a good spot, just nowhere near the level of anything Foley did. You can kind of feel the law of diminishing returns creeping in. Luckily we wouldn’t see another spot like this until Ambrose and Rollins nearly fifteen years later.
A quick side note but man JR and King might put on their best performance as a team here. They’re so good for calling this one. They do a phenomenal job getting the match over, adding so much to the atmosphere and knowing exactly when to sell the danger.
The moment Stone Cold and The Rock cross paths, the match immediately picks up. No other pairing here comes close to the heat and magic those two have together. They’d go on to main event WrestleMania the following year, and for good reason. Nobody else in the company could hold a candle to them. The finish is purposefully anticlimactic, and it’s so good. Kurt Angle doesn’t conquer Hell in a Cell like he conquered the Olympics. He survives it. He simply steals the win after Austin does the hard work for him. It’s one of the best cowardly heel finishes the WWF ever pulled off because it’s completely in character. Angle never belonged in this environment, and the match never pretends otherwise.
Despite all the chaos, the match is put together incredibly well. Every section naturally flows into the next. The opening brawls, the fight through the set, the roof spot, the final stretch back in the ring. Nobody steps on anyone else’s toes and everybody gets a chance to contribute. Even as someone who isn’t a particularly huge fan of two of the major players here, I can’t say anyone gives less than a good performance. Everyone buys into the moment and clearly has so much fun doing it. And while it’s just slightly below true best WWF match ever territory, it’s still a fantastic payoff to one of the company’s greatest years while leaving just enough loose ends to carry everything into 2001.
4.5 Stars