It was the third Hell in a Cell match in history, and took place at the King of the Ring pay-per-view on June 28, 1998, at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.

[1][3] During the match Paul Bearer (William Moody), The Undertaker's longtime manager, turned on him by hitting him with an urn, allowing Mankind to apply the Mandible Claw for the win.

[2] With no manager, The Undertaker was developed into a more human character, with a gothic and rebellious attitude, proclaiming himself to be "The Lord of Darkness".

[9] Foley had become famous for wrestling a violent and "hardcore" style,[10][11] and in 1995 had been crowned "King of the Deathmatch" by Japanese promotion International Wrestling Association (IWA) at their Kawasaki Dream event, defeating Terry Funk in a tournament final,[12] a match Foley has said he is the most proud of.

[18] During the match, Hickenbottom performed a stunt where he dangled off the roof of the cell and crashed through the announce table, setting a "dangerous precedent".

That night, the Undertaker and Kane had a match to determine who would be the number-one contender for Stone Cold Steve Austin's WWF championship.

The event was scheduled to take place at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, 25 miles (40 km) from Freedom, Pennsylvania, where Foley had trained to become a professional wrestler at Dominic DeNucci's wrestling school, bringing his career full circle.

[22][23] According to WWE producer Bruce Prichard, the original plan for the PPV was for Mankind to challenge Austin for his championship, before Vince McMahon changed the direction in an attempt to be unpredictable.

[28] Foley credits head-writer Vince Russo for believing in the Mankind character, giving him confidence heading into the PPV.

"[24] Writing in his autobiography Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Foley recalls being asked by Calaway about why he wanted to execute the plan, and his response being, "I'm afraid this match is gonna stink.

[27][34][35] In a 2018 interview with former wrestling announcer Sean Mooney, match referee Tim White said that although he knew some of the planned moments, he recalled feeling like he was "having a heart attack through the whole match",[36] while commentator Jim Ross remembers hearing rumors backstage of Foley's plans, but dismissed them as absurd and unrealistic.

Once on top of the cell, Foley considered aborting the planned stunt, but quickly changed his mind, later telling Ross he "wanted to create a moment" for the fans.

[38] Then, in an "unbelievable moment", The Undertaker grabbed Mankind from behind and threw him from the top of the structure, propelling him 22 feet (6.7 m) through the air,[39][27] sending him crashing through the Spanish commentators' table and landing on the concrete floor of the arena,[21][30][38] which triggered Ross to famously shout, "Good God almighty!

"[18][40][41] Ross later said his reactions were real,[37][30][42] and Calaway said he experienced an out-of-body experience in the moment, visualizing himself watching Mankind fly off the cage.

[26][43] It was seen as extra surprising as stunts involving announcers' tables are usually telegraphed by a performer removing bulky CRT monitors to protect the recipient.

[45] Foley later said that the only reason he survived the fall was because he did not take the chokeslam properly, as he had been too exhausted to lift his body weight in response to the chokehold.

[47][27] In his memoir Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Foley called it both the best and worst chokeslam he ever took, saying that despite its looks, he would have likely died if he had landed properly.

Foley would later explain that the roof of the cell was supposed to sag sufficiently so that The Undertaker could kick Mankind through, allowing him to dangle by his feet and eventually fall in a rotation to land on his front.

[18][29][35][48] This is supported by Prichard, who claimed that the original plan was for Calaway to chokeslam Foley at least three times, which would cause the roof of the cage to gradually collapse to a safe distance above the ring.

[8] The Undertaker climbed down and chokeslammed Funk, a move which was not pre-planned, but which Calaway explained happened because he couldn't "just stand there and look around".

[18] In a 2020 interview with Wrestling Inc, Foley recalled that there was no mention of the match on the following night's Raw is War, as there was a belief that it was not a big moment due to the long history between the two wrestlers.

[58][59] After considering retirement, believing wrestling had passed him by,[60] the match made Foley change his approach to wrestling, concluding he could not continue taking such dangerous bumps, leading his Mankind character to become a more gentle one who would later form a tag-team with The Rock (The Rock N Sock Connection) and use an anthropomorphic sock named "Mr.

[65] Michael Landsberg called it "maybe the most famous match ever",[66] while David Shoemaker heralded it as the pinnacle of Foley's career.

Many future matches attempted to replicate some of the spots from the match at King of the Ring,[25] most notably during a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania 32 in April 2016 also featuring The Undertaker, where his opponent Shane McMahon paid homage to Foley's first fall by performing a diving elbow from the top of cage, breaking the announce table when The Undertaker moved at the last moment; Michael Cole on commentary yelled "for the love of Mankind" in tribute to Foley.

Critics charge that the falls in the match were so extreme and they set the bar for further bumps too high,[18][111] that the inevitable attempts to equal or surpass them would be very dangerous for any wrestlers involved.

[18][44][77][111][113] In 2019, Meltzer wrote that "with 20 years of perspective", the match was "a terrible thing because of all the stunt bumps it encouraged and how guys got into the business thinking they could get over by doing that stuff rather than wrestling".

[32] Meltzer also wrote that a New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) match of Kota Ibushi versus Tetsuya Naito at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall was the modern successor, in terms of lacking safety for the wrestlers, but is "probably going to be copied and admired".