Listing The Best Matches From All 35 WrestleManias

WrestleMania XXVIII: The Undertaker vs. Triple H (Hell in a Cell Match)

While billed as the “End of an Era,” this match didn’t really end anything, though it did represent the culmination of the storyline that began when Shawn Michaels challenged The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXV.

Following The Undertaker’s inability to leave the arena of his own volition the prior year, he demanded a rematch, which Triple H refused, claiming that the Streak was too valuable to WWE. After The Undertaker continued to demand the match week after week, Triple H finally acquiesced, on the grounds that the match would take place inside Hell in a Cell.

While the match’s combatants were Triple H and The Undertaker, much of the drama came from the presence of its special guest referee: Shawn Michaels. Michaels spent the duration of the match appearing as though he was in agony, torn between his loyalty to his best friend and his reverence and respect for the man who had ended his in-ring career two years prior.

Triple H dominated the early stages of the match, obliterating The Undertaker with weapon shots that left his back bruised and covered in welts. Eventually, Michaels felt the need to intervene, preventing The Game from crushing the Dead Man’s head with his trademark sledgehammer.

All the while, The Undertaker, even as he wasn’t able to stand, demanded that Michaels not stop the match, even resorting to locking him into the Hell’s Gate submission when a stoppage seemed inevitable. Michaels later retaliated, hitting a Sweet Chin Music that transitioned into Triple H’s Pedigree and seeming all but certain to end the match. Yet, The Undertaker kicked out, and, though he could barely stand, managed to hit a Tombstone to end the match.