[1997-08-03-WWF-Summerslam] Mankind vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Cage)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes. We join as Chyna slams the door on Mankind's head as he is trying to leave the cage. She ends up attacking the referee as well. Chyna takes her first bump of the year when Mankind catapults HHH into the cage where she's standing, and the crowd pops huge. Great moment as Mankind is about to leave the cage when he realizes he can do the Snuka splash from the top of the cage. Mick was hugely over with this crowd. Post-match Dude Love stuff is super fun too. Great stuff.

[Zenjo]

This was really fun with Mankind having his Superfly moment. That series of interviews was such a great idea as they got him over like never before. Then the foot tapping for the Dude Love transformation ruled too.

[Kevin Ridge]

Summerslam took place so early in August. Chyna enters the ring way too quickly and HHH has to tell her get lost. Mankind takes off his mask and does the big elbow of the top of the cage. Chyna hits her cue now to pull out Hunter but Mankind escapes first. The crowd goes nuts for when the Dude starts moving his foot to the music. Felt like this ended up being one of the last blue bar cage matches in WWF.

[Childs]

This was a great payoff to those Foley profile segments, and it felt like the first time Mick Foley was a fully realized character to the WWF fanbase. On the other hand, no one seemed to give a shit about HHH.

[soup23]

Really fun finishing run starting up right at the sick cage door slam into Foley's skull. The buildup to Chyna's first bump was satisfactory and played out even though she took it very awkwardly. Mick's payoff of taking off the mask and delivering the big splash was awesome even with Ross overselling a little bit as I didn't hear those Superfly chants. Great start to the show.

[Robert S]

Chyna enters the ring way too quickly and HHH has to tell her get lost.

Foley doesn't mention it in his first book but I would assume Chyna forgot about the elbow and entered one spot too early, correct?

[BackToBionic]

Yeah, then she looks like an idiot wandering around while Foley does his spot.

[PeteF3]

Chyna's timing is pretty far off here at multiple spots--she also absolutely killed Mick with the door, hitting him with it so hard that he didn't grab his head, he grabbed his shoulder. Then of course her jumping into the cage too early and having to leave. The crowd picks up on things as soon as Mankind starts climbing the cage, dropping a "Su-per-fly" chant. Mankind takes off his mask and rips off his shirt to reveal what was supposed to be a Dude Love heart, but by this point is just a pink smudge. Fun follow-up to a pretty fun mid-card feud, and the Dude basically Hulking Up out of his coma afterward in time with the music is great.

[raul]

really liked the ending stretch. rest of the cage match was alright, foley was killing himself and chyna helped. foley unmasking was an awesome moment as was the dude love transformation. great payoff/satisfaction stuff.

[Exposer]

Great match. There are some logical holes in it if one doesn't know the context such as HHH deciding not to exit the cage early or Mankind climbing back up to hit elbow. In context though those moments make sense because HHH had said in an interview after KOTR that he enjoys hurting Mankind & in the Mankind interview series he talks about being live for the Snuka cage splash & wanting that same kind of adulation. Lots of big bumps & spots from both guys in this. The superplex from the cage is nuts as is the famous flying eblow of course. HHH hanging upside down over the cage & getting hit with Mankind's running elbow is great too. This New Jersey great is incredibly hot. Chyna gets involved a lot such as slamming the cage door on Mankind's head in a nasty spot, but also messing up & getting in the cage to drag HHH out before the elbow. She takes her bump after HHH is slingshotted into the cage to a massive pop. Mankind climbs over before Chyna can drag HHH out. He gets an enormous pop for winning which is awesome to see & here. The post-match Dude Love stuff is tremendous & the camera work on it is fantastic. The fans ate that up too. I do wonder wonder how Dude Love's theme started playing all of a sudden. I'd have given an explanation for it, but that's a very minor complaint. I liked this a lot.