Pro wrestling legend Matt Hardy took to an episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including the Hell in a Cell Match between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre at Bad Blood.
Hardy said, “I thought that match was storytelling at its best. It was very dramatic; they had both done an amazing job of building this rivalry. You get into Hell in a Cell, the fact that it was kind of advertised and Punk promoted it like it was means he didn’t have another Hell in a Cell left in him; he doesn’t know how much longer he can go. And I dig that. That’s something that — Jeff and I are doing something very similar to, ironically, going forward. But I thought it was done well. The way it was just a very vicious, violent battle. The blows with — even, you know, the toolbox. Once again, there was nothing dangerous in it, obviously. Just, the toolbox ended up being too hard and just split Drew open when it hit him. It just was what it was. One of those things with pro wrestling, everything about it is a risk, you know. And there’s a risk you can get hurt, banged up, or cut open hard way, and that’s what happened in this. But just the way they went back to the wrench. The thing like, where Drew was picking it up, and he was going to break the hold again when he put him in the Anaconda Vice. And Punk took it from and started stabbing him, and then we get into more false finishes out of it. I just think the drama was built so well, and it was just such a smartly worked match there. The way they put this match together was very intelligent. And it was very simplistic, it was very basic. But it was fundamentally so strong for what their overall story was about, how they just absolutely despise one another.”
On how Punk and McIntyre were really in sync during the match:
“It was excellent. And they didn’t — even though we had Drew that got hardway opened up, there weren’t any really dumb chances in it. They were very intelligent in the way they worked the match. And it was great storytelling. One of the things I was such a huge fan of is the spot where Drew picked Punk up and carried him across the ring and launched him into the cage? The way that was shot, how it was tight; you couldn’t see how he landed, whatever else. And then it followed you all the way back, and you came back and saw he was busted open like that. That was shot so well, and it was just excellent execution. And you could tell that the truck and the people that were documenting this match, really were in sync. They were all working together.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
