Badd Blood 1997(technically called Badd Blood: In Your House, but I changed to avoid confusion with the '03 and '04 versions) is a show largely remembered for two things. The first was the inaugural Hell in a Cell Match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, a large scale pay-off to their feud that began when HBK accidentally cost 'Taker his title at SummerSlam. The second was the unfortunate passing of Brian Pillman just hours before the event was scheduled to begin, which caused some significant changes to the card. I'll have more to say about the WWF handled Pillman's death in the review proper, so let's get into it.
- Badd Blood 1997 comes to you from the Kiel(now Enterprise) Center, the home of the St. Louis Blues, with Jim Ross, Jerry "The King" Lawler and Vince McMahon on the call, the final pay-per-view appearance in the broadcast booth for Vince, thanks to the events that would transpire the following month. That pay-per-view poster is quite something, maybe a little bit too purple but still extremely memorable. I have no idea why The Undertaker is holding his own dismembered head and I quite honestly don't care, it just seems like something he would do.
- So yeah, we need to talk about Brian Pillman. He was originally scheduled to wrestle Dude Love(Mick Foley), but was found dead in his hotel room due to a heart attack. It's an incredibly tragic event, especially with Brian aged just 35, and it adds an incredibly bleak aura to everything surrounding this night. As always, the WWF went forward with the show, certainly a less controversial decision than Over the Edge in 1999 but there's probably still room for a debate, especially because you can clearly see several wrestlers visibly affected by Brian's death. The decision to go forward also meant two replacement matches were thrown together at the last minute with very little or absolutely no build. I don't think Pillman's death should stop anyone from watching this show if they so please, but just be aware that it can be something of a depressing watch.
- We open proceedings with a handicap match, as the Nation of Domination, represented by D'Lo Brown, Kama Mustafa and Rocky Maivia take on the Legion of Doom. Ken Shamrock was originally intended to be teaming with Hawk and Animal, but was taken out by Faarooq with a kayfabe injury. This is a reasonably fun opener that mostly just consists of tons of cheating by the heels, using their numbers game to keep the referee distracted and then attacking on the outside. Hawk and Animal still have one of the best hot tags in the business, and they clean house to a big pop before Faarooq gets involved. The leader of the Nation causes enough of a distraction for Maivia to get the win with the Rock Bottom, though it didn't have the name at this point.
- In the first of the substitute matches, faces Max Mini and Nova take on heels Tarantula and Mosaic. Asking any of these three commentators, especially Lawler, to take a Dwarf wrestling match seriously is completely impossible, as he just fires insults and cheesy one-liners the entire time. The match itself is a bit sloppy, I'm pretty certain everything was just called on the fly, but it's still quite good when they can start stringing moves together. Mini pins Tarantula for the win, even though Mosaic appeared to break the pin up in time and Tarantula might've kicked out before 3, but eff it, let's just move on.
- The tag titles are on the line in the next bout of the evening, as the Headbangers defend against the Godwinns. Mosh and Thrasher just won the belts the previous month, but in a somewhat surprising title change, drop them here to Henry and Phineas. The match was incredibly boring, very much expected given the talent in the ring, but the finish was solid enough, Phineas catching Mosh with a powerbomb as their manager Uncle Cletus held off Thrasher. The Godwinns were just transitional champions, quickly losing the titles to Hawk and Animal just 8 days later.
- A special ceremony for several legends of St. Louis wrestling is now held, hosted by JR and Sunny, who I'm guessing is only here to keep the male 18-34 demographic engaged. Gene Kiniski, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk Jr., Harley Race, Terry Funk, Lou Thesz and promoter Sam Muchnick are all honored here, with a short video package playing for each to highlight some of their biggest accomplishments. I definitely would've expected a segment like this to bomb in front of an Attitude Era crowd, but the fans in St. Louis were very respectful and popped big for the biggest names, especially Terry and Race, so props to them.
- We now have the finals of the tournament to crown a new Intercontinental Champion, and it's an all-heel affair, as Faarooq takes on Owen Hart. Before the match can begin, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin makes his way down to ringside, here to give his belt up to the winner, as he still isn't medically cleared following his broken neck at SummerSlam. Austin steals all of the spotlight, taking both Lawler and Vince's headsets to offer his own commentary, before harassing the Spanish and French commentary teams as well. Absolutely no one cares about what's happening in the ring, and Owen and Faarooq both know it, putting on perhaps the worst match of their careers as they do pretty much nothing. Austin directly interferes for the finish, clocking Faarooq with the belt to let Owen get the win, before tossing the gold over to his rival to the complete befuddlement of the announcers. I thought this was a good way to keep Austin involved without having him actually wrestle, and he was absolutely gold with some of his lines, especially during his altercation with Vince, you can already see the chemistry between those two.
- The second fill-in match is a SummerSlam rematch, as the Disciples of Apocalypse take on Los Boricuas. After 9 minutes of perfectly acceptable wrestling, the DOA get their win back as Crush pins Jesus Castillo with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. The WWF's "Gang Wars" storyline has pretty much run of steam already by this point, but this wasn't a terrible choice for a last-minute addition as there was still some slight heat between these two factions.
- Time for a tag team flag match, certainly the only time I've ever seen this version of the gimmick, as Bret Hart and The British Bulldog defeat Vader and The Patriot(90's journeyman Dell Wilkes). There's some good action to be found here, with the biggest highlight coming from Vader, who leaps into the damn stratosphere for a moonsault, landing on his feet after Bulldog rolled out of the way. But 23 minutes, not including a messy pre-match brawl, is just way too long for a flag match, and I had completely lost interest by the finish. The rules for the match were also very confusing, as you could win by pinfall or submission as well as just grabbing your country's flag, which was apparently added because all four guys were banged up heading in. If no one can actually retrieve the flag, then maybe you shouldn't have had a flag match? Just a thought.
- Main event time, as Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker do battle inside of Hell in a Cell. HBK was accompanied to the ring by Triple H, Chyna and bodyguard Rick Rude, the four founding member of D-Generation X, which would be officially named a couple weeks after this. The opening 15 or so minutes are mostly fine, as Undertaker batters Shawn, using the cell to inflict some extra damage. Michaels gets back into following a tope that sends Undertaker into the steel before HBK scales the wall to deliver an elbow drop, a very cool spot. You can tell that Shawn came up with that one, there's always at least one inventive spot in every gimmick match he wrestles in. Business really picks up when Shawn kayfabe injures a cameraman, forcing WWF President Sgt. Slaughter to open the padlock of the cell. Shawn tries to escape but gets caught, and Undertaker tosses him head first into the cell multiple times, allowing Shawn to blade and quickly get his forehead coated with blood. The crowd pops huge for both men scaling to the top of the cell, which ends up with Michaels sent plummeting through the Spanish announce table, as is tradition. It's not quite as iconic of a spot as what we'd get from Mankind less than a year later, but it still looks great and adds a ton of drama to the match. Both men end up back inside the cell with the door once again locked, and Undertaker brains Shawn with a vicious chair shot, getting revenge for Shawn's chair shot at SummerSlam. It looks like the match is over, but then we get one of the best debuts ever. The lights go out, the organ music hits the speakers, a huge burst of pyro erupts and out comes Kane, accompanied by Paul Bearer. Kane's debut has been hinted at for months, and the crowd catches on pretty quickly, popping once again for Kane just straight up ripping the door off the cell. Kane and The Undertaker stand face to face, a great visual, especially because Glenn Jacobs is taller than Mark Calloway, who is a giant in his own right. A Tombstone Piledriver connects, and Shawn steals a completely unearned win, earning a title match with Bret Hart at the Survivor Series. The brawling on the outside of the cell, plus Shawn's table bump and Kane's debut definitely elevate this match, which is otherwise a somewhat mediocre Hell in a Cell contest. This was the last WWE match to earn a 5 star rating from Dave Meltzer before 2011, and I'm not quite certain that was earned. It's an entertaining match to be sure, and a great debut for one of the best gimmick matches in wrestling, but there are definitely better Cell matches.
6/10
If I'm being completely honest, this show probably deserves a 4 or a 5, especially because of the incredibly weak undercard, but I've decided to be a bit generous. It was obvious that a lot of guys were struggling with Pillman's death and likely under-performed because of that, plus the main event is a very fun watch. I don't think anything outside of HBK-Taker is worth watching, but I don't think there's anyone to blame for that. Sometimes, life just refuses to be fair.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Survivor Series 1997, the most controversial night in the history of professional wrestling as Bret Hart defends his world title against Shawn Michaels. See you soon.
- Henry
Comments