WWE: The Top 5 Hell in a Cell Matches in History

Although the third annual Hell in a Cell PPV is just around the corner, the match has been a WWE staple since October 1997.

For the last 14 years, combatants have been thrown into unforgiving steel mesh, crawled, climbed, clung to everlasting hope and bled for the glory of victory.

We've heard the sickening sound of steel on bone, witnessed the impact of a body flying off the top of the cell—eventually splattering after a seeming eternity, the vibrato of the thud echoing throughout the arena.

The "devil's playground," the ultimate culmination of enmity, has harbored and served as the effective means to an end.

Several matches have had us on our feet, jaws agape and feet trembling at the sight of slaughter, but only five chosen classics have been indelibly etched into the tapestry of the WWE.

They are...

5) Triple H vs. Mick Foley (No Way Out 2000). Who can forget the blood cascading down poor Mick's face, as he slyly countered Triple H's trusty sledgehammer with a flaming barbed wire bat?

Mick would not stop, his body aching with every step, even as he fell fifteen feet through a table, finally succumbing to a thunderous backdrop through the mesh rooftop down to the neck-snapping canvas.

Triple H may have won, but Mick rode off into the sunset, a tear waddling down his endearing cheek, as he waved to the hardcore faithful. Granted, Foley did not hold firm to his "retirement," returning in time for WrestleMania 2000, but it is his selflessness and willingness to cement Triple H's credibility that is brought up to this day.

4) Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (Badd Blood 1997). The one to kick off the concept with a literal bang is the one many argue to be the best Hell in a Cell match in history. For The Undertaker, this match was about seeking corporal retribution against the cocky, profligate founding father of Degeneration-X.

For Shawn Michaels, the goal was to escape, or use any cunning tactic necessary, including taking out a cameraman, to escape or, at least, survive the horror. Alas, the "Heartbreak Kid" was broken in half, falling through a table after his fingers were bludgeoned by the Undertaker's boots.

The punishment didn't stop there as Michaels was battering-rammed into the grating steel, his blood-wearing mask a profuse mess, only to be saved by the debut of one of WWE's most enduring characters, Kane.

3) Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker (No Mercy 2002). While the aforementioned bout may have been the epitome of David vs. Goliath, this match pitted Goliath vs. Goliath. Two bulls huffed and puffed as they sprinted toward each other, their horns tangling in a tornado of destruction.

The strikes, the bloodletting and sheer disdain rung loud and clear in a match with no frills, only the bare essentials.

After 30 minutes of unremitting intensity from both sides, The Undertaker was exhausted, his head hemorrhaging buckets of blood into Lesnar's mouth, an alluring sight for any vampire, as the two grounded and pounded each other into oblivion.

Finally, "The Next Best Thing" proved his mettle to be more durable, as he ended the brutal bedlam with an "F5."

2) Triple H vs. Batista (Vengeance 2005). Triple H isn't the insidious plotter behind the scenes many accuse him of being, as this match was his way of giving back to Batista the way Mick Foley did for him.

On that fateful day, Las Vegas overdid itself as the "city of sin," becoming the city of sadism.

Two former friends and members of Evolution splintered once and for all on a battleground that saw Triple H swinging a steel chair wrapped in barbed wire, at a velocity to make anyone squirm, into the bare flesh of Batista's back.

It was at that moment when time came to a screeching halt, the razor-blade remainders jutting out of the "Animal's" spine, crimson fluid dripping everywhere. After 26 minutes of hair-raising hell, Triple H's body unwillingly capitulated to a "Batista Bomb" on the incapacitating steel steps.

1) Mankind vs. The Undertaker (King of the Ring 1998). There is one match more than any other that redefined what was possible inside a wrestling ring.

13 summers ago, ECW was the cool, rebellious organization that made organizations like the WWF/E and WCW passe, whose fans became blase toward the mainstream wrestling product.

That is until Mick Foley recaptured his ECW roots to the 10th power, free-falling off the top of the cell, shattering the Spanish announcing table and rupturing his spleen.

For any man, that would've been the coda to an already epic war, but Foley pushed on despite his body breaking down in plain view, only to be choke-slammed through the cell roof, a chair simultaneously landing on his head, dislodging a tooth into his nose.

Any living being, let alone human, would've withered gradually into a comatose state, or even mustered whatever remaining vitality to screech at the top of his heaving lungs, but Foley...smiled.

These cauterized-in-time images have collectively been seared into the brains of all wrestling fans, still glowing as vividly as ever.

No matter how hard we try, we cannot let go of the spectacle of one man (Foley) who endured more bodily damage than humanly possible, and another (Undertaker) who could not be trifled with in a structure that has become synonymous with his name.

Thanks for reading.