Opinion: The 5 Greatest WWE Hell In A Cell Matches (So Far)

4. Triple H vs Shawn Michaels (Bad Blood 2004)

Bad Blood 2004

Could you really go wrong with this match? Two longtime best friends are torn apart by one's jealousy, this relationship had dissolved into a vicious series of attacks on the part of Triple H in an attempt to take out his former best friend, whom he now saw as his biggest threat. The Heartbreak Kid, beloved by seemingly everyone at this point in time, made the perfect target for a brutally jealous & bitter Triple H, who felt his many accomplishments were being overlooked in favor of Shawn's charismatic, never say die, babyface persona. For most of the near decade leading up to this feud and this particularly brutal match, Trips had indeed always seemed to be viewed as only slightly more than Shawn Michaels' sidekick. But by this time, The Cerebral Assassin was born, and Triple H had come into his own.

After months of build-up, then General Manager Eric Bischoff decided to end this feud at what turned out to be the aptly named Bad Blood Pay-Per-View. Both men walked into this match undefeated in HIAC matches, and both men came in with something to prove. What followed was another instant classic. Forty-seven minutes (the longest HIAC match on record) of bloody chaos. From bell to bell Shawn & Trips took each other to their absolute limits. With chair shots, table spots and vicious blows leaving both men bloodied and battered this was a hard fought match if ever there was one. It had everything you could ask for from the emotions of the story being told, to edge of your seat near falls you were, at multiple points in the match, completely convinced that these two wanted to kill each other. And even after Triple H hit that final pedigree to seal the victory, it was Shawn Michaels who received a standing ovation from the crowd, only further solidifying the feud's entire story.