The Bad Blood pay-per-view, an event that has been dormant since the Raw brand hosted the show 20 years ago, will return to the WWE calendar this weekend. Ironically, it will be on the same day, October 5th, as the original Bad Blood pay-per-view 27 years ago in 1997.
The show itself is known for the announcement of the tragic sudden passing of Brian Pillman, who was scheduled to wrestle Dude Love that night. Historically, it’s known for not only the first cell match, but also the debut of Kane, who would go on to be one of the most consistent quality performers In the history of the company.
With the anniversary of the pay-per-view falling on the same day as the latest edition this weekend, I decided to review the original pay-per-view from the early stages of the attitude era for this edition of the VHS memoirs. Perhaps it’s just nostalgia, but the opening video package to hype the main event between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, similar to many of the video packages of this time, still seems epic and adds a lot to the overall presentation of the show. Keep in mind, this was at a time when WCW ran monthly pay-per-views, and earlier that same year, ECW had gotten into the pay-per-view game as well so there was a lot of competition for the PPV dollar, which necessitated promotions trying to push the biggest selling point possible to get fans to dip into their wrestling budget on any given month. I think it’s fair to say, the new concept of the cell in 1997 was partially designed to do exactly that, get a portion of pay-per-view by rates at a time when WCW was doing very well, generating a lot of revenue at the time when the WWF still struggled.
The first match on the card was a handicap match as the Nation of Domination of D’Lo Brown, The Rock, and Kama squared off against the Legion Of Doom. A clip was shown to explain that Ken Shamrock was originally scheduled to be in the match, but was injured at the hands of Farooq, who was scheduled to compete later in the night. It goes without saying that the LOD were probably past their prime at this point, but they still received a tremendous reaction from the crowd and definitely still had something to offer to the major leagues of the sport. The match was basic, but still a fun segment. D’Lo took some great bumps and made his opponents look tremendous in the process. Of course, the three-on-two aspect was used throughout the contest. The finish saw Farooq run in for distraction, which allowed The Rock to land the rock bottom on Hawk to get the win.
Next, it was reiterated that the scheduled match-up with dude love was canceled because Pillman passed away earlier that day. As a replacement, a Mexican minis tag match of Max Mini and Nova vs. Mosaic and Tarantula was booked. There were some fun spots, but there were also some clunky portions as well. The crowd seemed somewhat lost because they were working with traditional lucha tag rules. The athleticism of the minis was impressive, but this became it almost mishmash of spots that didn’t build to anything because the radically different style didn’t connect with the WWF crowd. I wouldn’t say the match was terrible, but the five minute segment was rather disjointed with a few bright spots as it just seemed lost in this particular setting of a WWF event. Max Mini and Nova got the win.
Sunny shows up to be the special guest ring announcer for the tag team title match when The Headbangers defended against the Godwinns. This was basic, but still had its moments to be entertaining. The babyface team shined in the opening moments before the heels got some heat on Thrasher. At one point, The Headbangers gave Phineas a flapjack maneuver and he just barely missed landing directly on his head. The finish saw Mosh get a hot tag and start to clear the ring until he went to the top rope and dove off before Phineas countered it into a power bomb for the three count to win the titles. Again, there was nothing too flashy or spectacular about this match, but it included some very memorable characters from this era so there was entertainment value in the segment.
Following that, there was a really neat segment to honor the wrestling legends from the St. Louis area. Gene Kiniski, Jack Brisco, Lou Thez, Dory Funk Jr, Harley Race, Terry Funk, and Sam Muchnick each got very nice video packages to highlight their careers. In a very nice moment, when Musnik was introduced, Lou Thez walked with him to assist him to ringside. The audience gave them a very nice round of applause as a show of respect.
Owen Hart vs. Farooq was held for the vacant intercontinental championship after “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was infamously injured with a pile driver at Summer slam that year. As an in-ring segment, this was basically a television match-up on pay-per-view. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, but the storyline was the priority ahead of the in-ring work for this contest, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Steve Austin was at ringside and his shenanigans, including interrupting the international announce teams, was the focus of the segment. Jim Neidhart made his way to ringside to distract the ref, and Stone Cold nailed Farooq with the belt to allow Owen to get the win. Of course, the theory behind it was that Austin wanted to set up another match with Owen to get revenge for the injury.
Another impromptu match that was added to the card was an eight-man tag between Los Barricas and The Disciples of Apocalypse. Unfortunately, this is another TV match that happened to be placed on pay-per-view, which probably suggest how scrambled things were after the death of Pillman earlier that day. Again, there wasn’t anything wrong with this match, but it was an eight-man tag that went less than 10 minutes so there’s simply not a lot to say about it. Eventually, Crush landed a back breaker to get the win.
Given how memorable Bret Hart’s heel run that year was, I have to be honest when I planned to re-watch this pay-per-view for this review, I expected more from this tag team flag match. Bret and Bulldog were paired against Vader and The Patriot. Ironically, some of the same things can be said about Vader and The Patriots in terms of how their careers didn’t propel in the WWF In retrospect, on the surface, it appeared like both of them could’ve had a much bigger run, but injuries and missed opportunities prevented it from materializing to any noticeable level. I’m not sure why this was booked as a flag match because during the entrances, it was noted that a potential pinfall or submission was added as a way to win the match instead of just capturing the flag. The match itself was very disjointed and didn’t have quite the amount of sizzle I would’ve expected thought these four would bring to the table. Vader looked extremely tired at some points in the segment so this was probably an example of him being past the prime of his career, as he never quite had the same intensity in the WWF as he did earlier in his career. In all fairness to The Hart Foundation, it had to be very difficult to perform just hours after the news that Brian Pillman passed away. Toward the conclusion the contest, a fan legitimately hit the ring and was dispatched of quickly, and then Bret reversed a roll up to get the win. So, the flag match was won without the flag actually being involved in the match at all.
Considering the underwhelming flag match, and the very basic undercard, this pay-per-view was essentially a one-match show so the main event had to deliver. As we know, it did and is remembered as one of the highlights of the history of the company. Shawn Micheals was well-known for being obnoxious and difficult to deal with throughout this portion of his career. Was it one marine in Syracuse or 15 of them? Nothing excuses Micheals being an arrogant jerk earlier in his life, and if he’s truly changed for the better than that’s legitimately wonderful. Micheals might’ve been a jerk in the late-90s, but the guy could go bell-to-bell. Everything that was done made this performance and this match-up absolutely tremendous. The action was crisp and smooth, keeping a pace that had the audience anticipating what was going to happen next. The Undertaker pummeled HBK early in the match, which added to the finish later. An injured camera man allowed for an excuse to open to door so the two could take the match outside the cell. Micheals bled buckets as he was rammed into the cell, and the visual of the two of them on top of the cell, including the press slam, was really impressive. Shawn bleeding through the top of the cage onto the camera lens below gave this WWF bout a rare level of grotesque action. As we know, Kane made his debut in one of the most memorable moments in pro wrestling history when he hit the tombstone on The Undertaker, allowing for Micheals to get the win.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
