So… this was going to be the musings for the Bound For Glory show that took place a couple weeks ago… but TNA doesn’t believe in Joe Hendry and thus I changed my mind.
Instead, we’re looking at WWE’s October PPV offering, Bad Blood 2024, which is the first time that we’ve had a Bad Blood PPV event since 2004, which was headlined by a horrible HBK/McSon-In-Law cell match. This show is bookended by an opening Cell match between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre and the main event tag-team match that saw Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns teaming up against that Solo guy and other Fatu guy… and the Rock shows up after to steal everyone’s thunder and remind us that he exists.
I don’t typically watch the WWE PLEs that aren’t the major shows. The last one I saw was Backlash and that’s about as far as I went. The shows were great, but nothing really grabbed me. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a strictly WWE problem, as even other wrestling shows have trouble producing content that interests me… or in one case, fail to provide a satisfying pay off to months of viewership and re-investment in a promotion that has let me down on so many occasions… but I digress. Let’s get into this Bad Blood show and see if it’s worth it.
CM Punk defeated Drew McIntyre in a pretty brutal Hell In A Cell match that felt like a proper conclusion to a long-running feud than something that felt like a gimmick match for the sake of a gimmick match, which is how a lot of these Cell matches had felt in recent years. In many ways, it is a return to form of sorts. Hell In A Cell is back to being the brutally sadistic horror chamber that it was in the old days; ditching the day glow red cage in favor of the classic (reinforced) version. But most importantly, it is a return to form for CM Punk, who has not always had the best performances in the ring since his return to WWE last year, but may very well have put out his best work since his matches with John Cena from 2011-2013. No longer looking or moving like the tired old man that he came across as months prior, Punk looked about about as good as he has in decades, which is perhaps the strongest compliment I could give him these days. Both men blood gushers and when all was said and done, Punk felt less like a winner and more like a survivor, selling the experience as something that affected him deeply… so deeply that he decided to go home and take a break… presumably until the upcoming Rumble show. In any event, this was an excellent Cell match, a perfect way to end a feud, and in terms of violence, hit that nice balance of being bloody fierce for a blood feud, but nowhere near the ridiculous levels that another cage match in another promotion would go to. Good opener.
WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax defeated Bay Ley to retain the title… this wasn’t a particularly good match, but to be fair, I’ve seen worse Nia Jax matches over the years that this comes across somewhat passable and not quite cringe. There’s also the part that at no point did I feel like Bay Ley was a threat to Nia’s title reign, which all but numbs the excitement somewhat.
Damien Priest defeated Finn Balor despite interference from that JD fellow to avenge Finn’s betrayal at Summerslam that cost Priest the World title. This was a perfectly acceptable big guy vs little guy with doses of interference match. Nothing more, nothing less… and also, the ending was never in doubt. You knew Priest would win this one and get his revenge, but where does he go from here?
HHH comes out to announce the new attendance record of 16K people or something, but the key thing is that WWE is returning to Saudi Arabia for the latest of their Blood Money PPVs there and of course, that gets booed by the lowly Americans. Oh, and we already have matches. The reigning WWE and World champions (both men and women) will face off against each other and whoever wins their respective matches will earn their very own Blood Money championship belt, which looks extremely gaudy. Some have compared this to AEW’s World title, but that belt looks very elegant. This looks dreadful… also, didn’t Braun Strawman already win a Saudi Arabia title at that Oil Rumble show from 2018? Whatever happened to that title anyway?
Anyway, this brings out Gunther to flaunt his success and then tease a possible encounter with Bill Goldberg, who was sitting in the audience for the short time that he was booked to sit in the audience. And then Sami Zayn attacked Gunther to further promote their World title match that would happen on RAW the following Monday… Gunther retained the World title for anyone who didn’t know.
Rhea Ripley defeated World Women’s Champion Liv Morgan via DQ when the returning Raquel Rodriguez (fresh from a skin infection of some kind and looking healthy enough to put on some make up… a shame since I liked the natural look she sported in her last appearance, but whatever)… anyway, the story goes that it was supposed to be a pinfall win for Liv to retain the title with outside interference, Raquel jumped in early, the ref caught her, and rang for the bell to draw the DQ. So I guess Rhea is going to be feuding with Raquel before eventually getting some sort of interaction with Dirty Dom, who was stuck in a shark cage, but was still dropping stuff for Liv to use. Why even keep him in a shark cage if it proves ineffective in preventing him from interfering? It’s such a stupid gimmick. Also, try as I might, I am not buying Liv Morgan as any kind of threat to any major female force on the roster and yet she’s the champion… eh.
WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns defeated that Solo guy and the other Fatu guy in the main event tag team match that started off slow and deathly dull before eventually picking up steam and getting exciting again. The Samoan guys from New Japan try to interfere, but we get the returning Jimmy Uso to cut them off, allowing Roman to spear and spin Solo for the win… which should technically end all dispute as to who the “real” Tribal Chief happens to be, but I guess THIS FEUD MUST CONTINUE because we need to build towards a Bloodline Civil War at Survivor Series or something and I’d be lying if I said this got me all kinds of excited. On the contrary, for what it is supposed to be the hottest program in WWE right now, I am less interested in what goes on here than I’ve had in years. It’s not necessarily that the matches are bad; they’re actually quite good. The storytelling has also been improved over the years and the overall production is quite dynamic and fresh compared to the stagnancy of the final years of the Kevin Dunn-produced monotony, but I’m just not feeling the Bloodline stuff. Fact is that Solo is not an interesting enough rival to Roman Reigns and you’re just waiting for this faction to fall apart and watch these guys go their own separate ways and truly flourish. And just as I’m lost in thought over this lack of interest in a major WWE storyline, out comes the Rock to remind us that he’s still around and tease that eventual match with Cody Rhodes that may or may not happen at Wrestlemania 41. And sure, it got a pop from the crowd, but it also minimizes the Bloodline stuff; why should I care about any of that when the match that people would really want to see is (potentially) still months away?
Bad Blood 2024 started off strong with Punk/Drew in Hell In A Cell before it dropped off considerably. It’s not that the matches after were bad, but none of them matched the excitement and intensity of that opening match. Even the main event felt lacking for what was supposed to be a monumental event in WWE. All in all, not a particularly great PPV offering from WWE… I’d go so far to say that it’s their weakest showing this year, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing all things considered. If a PPV featuring an excellent Punk/Drew Hell In A Cell match is considered to be the WORST outing this year, it only serves to highlight how much of a good year WWE has had so far.
dtm666 