Mick Foley Recalls Convincing Undertaker to Start Hell in a Cell on the Roof, Kevin Sullivan Saying The Match Ended The Monday Night War

– During an appearance on Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory podcast, Mick Foley looked back at his legendary 1998 Hell in the Cell match with Undertaker. Foley discussed how much difficulty he had convincing Undertaker to do the spot where they started atop the ring, and how the match didn’t catch on until a little while after. Foley recalled that Kevin Sullivan — a member of WCW at the time — was one of the only people who saw how crucial the match would be to WWE and the Monday Night War right away.

Highlights from the discussion are below, as well as the full podcast:

On convincing Undertaker to start the match on the roof: “So much of the struggle was just getting Taker to get on board with that idea, you know. It was like a two-week process. And he finally turned to me, and he said, ‘Jack, why are you so intent on killing yourself?’ And I just told him, ‘Man, we have history together. We have a legacy and I can’t do what you guys [Taker and Shawn Michaels] did. But if we can find a way to start the match in a way that no one started before, and create something no one’s ever seen before, maybe we can make people think they’re seeing a great match even if they’re not.’ And this is going back to the idea there was more than one way to do a great match. And just, I thought we could catch people off-guard, create something they’d never seen.”

On the match not catching on with audiences until later: “No, they weren’t [talking about it the next night]. It was not part of the cold open [for Raw], it was not talked about. Shawn Michaels was making his return that night, just as a guest. And he referred to it, he came back and he said, ‘Well, they weren’t gonna talk about it, I figured I would.’ It was not something that I thought had registered at all.”

On Kevin Sullivan’s knowing the impact right away: “I didn’t know that in Atlanta, whether it was a house, or at the office, I don’t know. But Kevin Sullivan was watching the PPV with Eric Bischoff and some of the other WCW office people. And Kevin just goes, ‘It’s over!’ Nick said, ‘What’s over?’ He goes, ‘The war, it’s over, they just won it! They just won the war, brother!’ He saw so much more in that than anyone else did. He saw that the momentum was — it wasn’t over, but it was part of the momentum shifting.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chasing Glory with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

Listen to “Mick Foley – 21 year Anniversary of Hell In A Cell Match & Honoring the Memory of Ashley Massaro” on Spreaker.