Undertaker Says He Once Lied To Shawn Michaels About Nearly Fighting Him At WrestleMania 14
For 23 years, the Hell in a Cell structure has become the place where bitter rivalries are settled in the WWE. However, the main reason the five-sided cuboid cell structure was created back in 1997 was to introduce WWE fans to Kane, according to The Undertaker.
As per storyline, Undertaker faced Shawn Michaels at Badd Blood: In Your House 1997 inside the new cell structure to ensure HBK’s DX stablemates, Triple H and Chyna, would not be able to interfere in the match to determine the No. 1 contender to Bret Hart’s WWE Championship. However, the idea was that only Kane could break through the cell and stare down with Undertaker, his brother in storyline.
During his recent appearance on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions, Taker revealed that although WWE “were killing two birds with one stone” and keeping DX out of the match, the structure was built mainly to debut Kane.
“The main reason for Hell in a Cell was Kane. It was all about Kane,” said Undertaker. “The whole thing was designed for Kane’s debut. You’re gonna keep all outside interference out, and boom, here comes Kane.
“For Kane to come in and do what no one else could do, which is rip the door off and come face-to-face with his brother. I still think it’s one of the most iconic stare downs ever. It’s a story that lasted 23 years, and one of the greatest stories ever told,” added Undertaker.
The match ended with Kane hitting the Tombstone piledriver on Undertaker and Michaels crawling back into the ring to secure the victory.’
During the podcast, Taker also addressed the infamous story that he was willing to beat up HBK backstage if Michaels refused to drop the WWE Championship to Austin at WrestleMania 14.
According to Taker, he was sitting in gorilla the whole time during the Austin-Michaels match, and even Vince McMahon was aware of his intentions had Michaels not “done the right thing” and put over the Texas Rattlesnake.
“If business wasn’t gonna be done the way it was supposed to be, I was gonna take matters into my own hands,” said Undertaker. “I was sitting in gorilla with my hands taped up, and it didn’t take long for people to figure out what I was doing there. I even told Vince about it.”
Taker also revealed that Michaels recently approached him about the story.
“Shawn recently asked me, ‘were you really gonna beat me up?’ and I just went, ‘no, of course not.’ I totally lied through my teeth to him because I felt bad because we’re good friends now, even though I didn’t care much for him back then.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions with a h/t to PWrestling.com for the transcription.