This past weekend, WWE rolled into Madison Square Garden in New York City for a stacked WWE Network Special & the beginning of Brock Lesnar’s “Go To Hell” tour.
While the unleashing of Suplex City & The 25th Anniversary of Chris Jericho’s first match were fantastic draws for the night, there was only one match that was significant enough to headlined the hallowed halls of MSG: The Steel Cage Match between WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins & United States Champion John Cena.
WWE has been running Madison Square Garden since the 1960s. They have utilized the steel cage match to culminate some of the biggest & most heated rivalries that they’ve ever produced. As the business has evolved & has became overexposed, the steel cage match has lost it’s luster. But inside the “The World’s Most Famous Arena”, they’re still king. Almost every time WWE has visited Madison Square Garden, they have headlined the show with a steel cage match.
Bruno Sammartino was involved in some major steel cages matches in his career. He was in the first cage match in Madison Square Garden on December 15, 1975 against Ivan Koloff, nearly 40 years before the epic clash between Seth Rollins & John Cena. As mentioned by JBL on the WWE Network Special from Madison Square Garden; Bruno also famously wrestled Stan “The Lariat” Hansen inside the structure in The World’s Most Famous Arena. These are historic matches that paved the way for the future.
The most discussed steel cage match to ever take place at Madison Square Garden was on October 17, 1983 when Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka challenged “The Magnificent” Don Muraco for the Intercontinental Championship.
While Snuka didn’t walk out of MSG with the Intercontinental Championship, he was able to orchestrate one of the most incredible moments in WWE history when he dove off the top of the steel cage with a Superfly Splash to a laid out Muraco. This is the moment that famously influenced Mick Foley to pursue his career in wrestling. (A little over a year earlier, Snuka attempted the dive onto then WWE Champion Bob Backlund unsuccessfully in Madison Square Garden.)
Hulk Hogan basked in the glory of Hulkamania in a series of steel cage matches inside Madison Square Garden. On June 21 1985, The Hulkster defended the WWE Championship against Don Muraco & on March 18, 1989, Hogan defeated The Big Bossman after this earth-shattering superplex from the top of the cage!
In the 1980’s & early 1990’s, MSG also played host to battles including Randy Savage, Tito Santana, The Ultimate Warrior, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Rick Rude, Ted Dibiase and many more. All matches were culminations in their respective rivalries and the wrestlers involved took these fights extremely seriously. It was WWE’s home arena & they wouldn’t let the fans down with a lackluster steel cage match.
This is why Seth Rollins vs. John Cena was such an important match. The WWE Network Special at Madison Square Garden (#WWEMSG) was a glorified house show on paper, but meant so much more after the conclusion.
Rollins and Cena went all out…literally! They utilized the steel cage in a way where it added to the already captivating in-ring displays by both men over the past two months. They knew that a steel cage match inside Madison Square Garden was important and they showed the world why. There is still a lot of work to be done for WWE to bring back the longterm prestige of the cage match, but this was an obvious step in the right direction.
I was thankfully in the building for this match. It was bucket list material as a wrestling fan: to witness a steel cage match inside Madison Square Garden. There’s no doubt that the business model for WWE is ever-changing with the WWE Network, but the presentation of what goes down in the ring will always be the same. Utilizing the steel cage match in arenas all over the world the way they do in Madison Square Garden would be best for everyone.
The significance of the steel cage match at Madison Square Garden has been historically driven by captivating rivalries mixed with the one-of-a-kind feel of a New York City crowd. As long as Madison Square Garden allows WWE to run shows at their hometown arena, WWE will produce some of the most compelling steel cages matches that they can.
