WWE King of the Ring 1998

During his Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker, Mick Foley, wrestling under his Mankind moniker, performed what remains the defining act of hardcore wrestling in the history of the business. Sure, since that day there have been other acts performed, in or around a wrestling ring with a higher degree of risk. There have undoubtedly been moments where an individual has fallen from higher platforms and there have been hundreds of wrestling matches with bloodier visuals than that of Foley at the end of this one. In truth, there were even matches before the 1998 King of the Ring that, it could be argued, were ‘more’ hardcore than this. What ensures that this match stands out from the crowd, however, is the stage on which he did it, the moment in which it came and the way in which it was performed. Here Mankind takes a flying fall off of the roof of the Cell, another crash through it and then a double portion of drawing pins (or thumb tacks, as they are called in the US) to his back, all in front of a mainstream pay-per-view audience much more used to the brightly coloured hair metal wrestling of the 1980’s and early 90’s, than to the dark, grunge based fare that had been saved for regional US promotions and niche Japanese groups up to this point. Not only that, but he did it at a moment when pro wrestling was on the crest of a wave, and just entering a 2-year period of peak popularity.