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Nov 11, 2024

Worst Steel Cage Matches In WWE History

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The Steel Cage match is one of the most iconic stipulations in professional wrestling, and the early days of the cage helped to spawn many variations over the years, such as Hell In A Cell, War Games, Elimination Chamber, and err… The Punjabi Prison (the less said about that the better). In WWE, there have been some tremendous Steel Cage matches over the years, though there have been some duds too.

The Undertaker was one of the greatest big men in wrestling history, but he wasn't always able to put on good matches.

Per TheSportster’s rating system, the following matches are the absolute worst Steel Cage bouts in the history of the company. These ratings will be compared to those from Cagematch.Net and Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

To learn more about how we rank wrestling matches on TheSportster, please check out our match ranking criteria guide here

Storytelling

1/2.5

Technical Ability

1.25/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

1.25/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.25/2.5

The main event of No Way Out 2012 was a painfully boring one between John Cena and Big Show. Cena was presented as the anti-authority babyface and Big Show as the heavy to John Laurinaitis, but no one cared for the story.

Despite the match looking decent at the start with Big Show pulling out some rare top rope moves, the action dragged and slowed right down, going on for nearly 20 minutes. The action put the fans to sleep due to the awful pacing and lethargic ring work. At the very least, Cena’s win led to Laurinaitis being fired from his authority role.

Storytelling

1/2.5

Technical Ability

1.25/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

1.25/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.25/2.5

On paper, and with the personal build that had preceded it, this should have been a great match. Instead it was just… there. It is shocking how uneventful this match was, with Randy Orton and Batista having a very slow match with a few spots of being thrown into the cage here and there, a few escape attempts, and then a quick win out of nowhere for Batista. Considering this was Batista’s first ever time winning the WWE Championship, it didn’t feel special or earned because of how abrupt the ending was and how boring the match ended up being.

Storytelling

0.5/2.5

Technical Ability

1.5/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

1.5/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.25/2.5

In terms of completely random matches, this is one of the most undeserved Steel Cage matches of all time. Despite not really feuding with him, Kofi Kingston was put into a Steel Cage with The Big Show, with the sole purpose being to showcase John Laurinaitis abusing his power in charge of WWE.

Big Show beat Kingston around for a little bit before beating with ease. Despite a small comeback, Kingston was presented as fodder.

Storytelling

0.75/2.5

Technical Ability

1/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

1.25/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.5/2.5

The rivalry between Shane McMahon and The Miz had various ups and downs, and this Steel Cage clash at Money In The Bank was one of the poor moments. McMahon outwrestled The Miz here, making Miz look incredibly weak as he sold (poorly) to the non-wrestler.

While WWE opted for a more family-friendly approach in the PG Era, the company still put on some amazing matches.

Moments such as a rope break despite it being no disqualification and McMahon winning due to sliding out of his shirt, made this even worse. They had no chemistry, the wrestling was poor, and the crowd didn’t care all too much.

Storytelling

0.25/2.5

Technical Ability

1.5/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

1.25/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.25/2.5

WWE had the chance to make Bray Wyatt a star in his feud with John Cena, but things plunged to awful depths in this terrible Steel Cage match. The match was going fairly well at first, with pretty standard and basic wrestling with some minor and uninventive use of the cage, but it became an overbooked mess.

The interference of the Wyatt Family was ridiculous, with Cena overcoming them with ease, with it finally taking a child with a creepy voice to distract him, eventually allowing Wyatt to win.

Storytelling

0.5/2.5

Technical Ability

1.5/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

1/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.25/2.5

In the midst of Randy Orton’s botched babyface run in 2004, he ran into Kane, and the pair did battle in a pretty underwhelming Steel Cage match on an episode of Monday Night RAW. Initially, the pair wrestled in a normal singles match in which the babyface Orton got himself disqualified, only for an immediate rematch inside a Cage that Orton won by escaping, looking very weak in the process.

The in-ring work wasn’t especially bad, but it was just boring, with nothing being done to wake up the crowd and excite them.

Storytelling

0.5/2.5

Technical Ability

0.75/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

1/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.75/2.5

Hulk Hogan’s matches followed a very similar formula, and this was no different. The heel offered some slow and boring offense, all waiting until Hogan scored a comeback, performing his greatest hits and winning the match.

The Steel Cage acted as a spectator, hardly playing a role and only serving to make the action harder to see. Even with some blood, this match was clunky and unimpressive.

Storytelling

0.75/2.5

Technical Ability

1/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

0.75/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.25/2.5

Roman Reigns’ feud with Baron Corbin had several awful moments (most of them including dog food), but their rivalry-ending match was a dud. They battled in a very lethargic Steel Cage match with poor moves, boring spots, and a crowd who only cared for Reigns’ flurries.

This storyline went on for way too long, Corbin’s spotlight was far too bright, and it all resulted in this bad match.

Storytelling

0.5/2.5

Technical Ability

0.75/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

0.75/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1.25/2.5

The storyline between Kane and Snitsky was horrendous anyway, and this Steel Cage match was an example of just how awful it was. The action was plodding and uninteresting, the interference of Trish Stratus didn’t make much sense and Snitksy trying to save Stratus was odd given the babyface/heel dynamic.

These WWE ladder matches were far from a fun spectacle, as the gimmick was totally wasted.

Kane & Snitsky had several awful matches in their series, and this was one of the worst for sure.

Storytelling

0/2.5

Technical Ability

1.25/2.5

Character Work/Psychology

0.25/2.5

Crowd Reaction

1/2.5

The worst Steel Cage match in WWE history was this disastrous effort between The Brothers Of Destruction and the incoming WCW tandem of DDP & Kanyon. The latter pair were essentially dismantled and squashed by Undertaker & Kane, killing their momentum and potential in WWE in a terrible booking call.

There was no heat, the psychology was non-existent, and it served to complete an awful storyline.

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