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Welcome to smackwrestling.’s (presumably?) annual review of WWE Bad Blood, the show that yes, probably should have been main-evented by the Hell in a Cell match. As it turns out, there’s a previously undiscovered law of physics that says CM Punk can never main event a show if Dwayne Johnson is there — even if he’s only there for a few seconds.
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Anyway, we have lots to say about Punk and Dwayne and Hell in a Cell, as well as most of the other matches on the show. The key exception is Damian Priest vs. Finn Balor; not for nothing, but Priest taking multiple Balor finishers and still scoring the win despite an entire stable’s worth of interference tells you basically everything you need to know. We have meatier things to dive into, things that had us either very happy or very upset — Tiffany Stratton’s briefcase, Goldberg vs. GUNTHER, Raquel Rodtriguez coming back! You can read about what we missed on our Bad Blood results page, but we didn’t miss much. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE Bad Blood 2024.
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Loved: CM Punk and Drew McIntyre finally have the match their feud justifies
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The CM Punk and Drew McIntyre feud that has been brewing since the former’s shock return in November last year finally got a match that befitted the purported animosity between the pair. Inside Hell in a Cell, there were no corner minigames, no guest referee to make the cardinal error of putting on a bracelet. Just unadulterated violence and a whole lot of blood – or at least something that looked a lot like it. The pair pummeled one another with all manner of plunder they could find under the ring: wrenches, a toolbox, table legs, and… beads? (Admittedly, that was a bit lame but I will concede it went with the story). When all was said and done, it took a weaponized GTS for Punk to put McIntyre way. But he was hardly leaving the «Hellish structure» as whole as he entered it, with McIntyre notably getting the most offense in and Punk merely outlasting his nemesis with the fumes left in the tank. To further sell McIntyre as the barbarian who found his aggressive zeal to be his undoing, Punk stumbled and collapsed as he tried to walk up the ramp.
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After futile attempts to leave of his own accord, he accepted help from medics, receiving oxygen before being walked out at last. This was what the feud always promised and needed, typically with the third time serving the charm. And the argument can be credibly made that it is the ending that matters. At least with the benefit of hindsight the previous two matches appear to have been building to this as the true decider, and looking at it more cynically this absolutely should have came sooner. But in the bubble of the action tonight, and with the third act seemingly closing the tale, the HIAC bout was everything it needed to be and some. This was Punk’s first true great match since returning to WWE and set the stage for both to move on with their respective arcs, Punk with his a crucial victory in his bid to reach the top of «WWE Raw» and McIntyre a sizeable setback to reinforce his descent into violent, blind-rage afflicted insanity. A great way to open Bad Blood.
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Written by Max Everett
Loved: Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax moving on?
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I suppose this is a bit more of a hope than a loved, but from what I saw tonight following WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax retaining over Bayley, I truly believe that we’re going to see Jax and Miss Money in the Bank Tiffany Stratton move on from their on-screen frenemy-ship that’s become a little dull, and frankly, a little uncomfortable, over the last few weeks. I thought the ending to this match was pretty great, and as good and interesting as it could be following a Hell in a Cell match that opened the show, making everything else feel a little more weak and slower than it normally world if a regular singles match opened the PLE. I digress, as I’m a huge fan of Stratton and I think it’s soon to be her time to shine. I really liked their interaction on «SmackDown» where Stratton argued with Bayley over the fact she could beat Jax, and I’m glad that carried over into tonight.
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When Stratton’s music hit when both Jax and Bayley were down, I was hopeful she’d cash in, but I just couldn’t see it on a night like tonight, so the story we got out of it was enough for me to like. When Stratton handed the still-stunned referee (who had taken a bump from Jax) the briefcase, only to have Jax sit up like The Undertaker and give her a death stare, that was a highlight of the night for me. Obviously, Stratton didn’t cash in tonight, but she was left ringside, slightly cowering and holding her briefcase, as Jax retained and left the ring and walked up the ramp by herself, so it seems safe to say that their «friendship» is over. I don’t think this is going to fully turn Stratton babyface, as she did smack Bayley with the briefcase in an attempt to cash in, but it’s close enough for someone like me who adores her act.
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I think Stratton is way too strong of a character to have hanging around the champion with the «will she or won’t she cash in on a friend?» storyline to work for her, so I’m hopeful that tonight was enough for them to move on from each other as friends. Stratton needs to be racking up the victories to look like more of a credible threat for the championship, and that’s what WWE needs to do for her. This also gives Bayley the justification to ask for a rematch, as Stratton interfered, so if WWE wants to continue that story while Stratton gets her Ws, I wouldn’t be mad about that at all.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Hated: Curse you, monkey’s paw
WWE
I may never forget the moment the smackwrestling. crew — the ones on the clock for Bad Blood, at least — noticed that, as Triple H came out for his «historic announcement,» there was a covered title belt in the ring. The immediate guess was that it was a new midcard women’s title, given that the idea of such a thing has been floating around recently. This was followed by the realization that the covered title belt was sitting on a podium with the words «Crown Jewel,» after which we glumly agreed the new women’s midcard champion would probably be crowned in Saudi Arabia. One person made a joke about Triple H making Braun Strowman defend the bizarre «Greatest Royal Rumble» title belt he won back in 2018.
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The fact that that last guess turned out to be the closest thing to the truth is so mind-numbingly stupid that my brain is still trying to process it hours later.
So technically there is a new women’s singles title, but it’s not for the midcarders. It’s for whoever wins the match between the WWE Women’s Champion and the Women’s World Champion at Crown Jewel. There’s also a new men’s singles title which will go to the winner of a match between the Undisputed WWE Champion and the World Heavyweight Champion at Crown Jewel. At least I assume there will be two separate titles; Triple H only displayed one belt but he said multiple times there would be a men’s winner and a women’s winner, so it’s slightly unclear. But honestly part of me hopes the women don’t even get one because the thing Triple H unveiled at Bad Blood was almost as much of an atrocity as Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations (not to mention those of their good friends, the United States).
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Anyway, long story short, we’re running back the god-awful «battle of brand supremacy» concept Vince used to use at Survivor Series every year, only now it happens at Crown Jewel every year, and it’s not just for brand supremacy — there are stakes! There’s a title belt! A brand new title belt that nobody cares about and that will presumably only be defended once per year, to be exact! Or will it even be defended? Does its lineage merge with the lineage of the winner’s world title until the next Crown Jewel? How does any of this work? Nobody wants to explain and even fewer people are interested in the explanation because we’ve already seen this movie and it sucks. It’s like AEW’s stupid Continental Classic idea, with 15% more narrative coherence and 2000% more blatant pandering to Saudi royals. Not exactly the new women’s title I was hoping for.
The worst part about it is that now they’ve got my Sami-Zayn-loving ass thinking he might have a chance at beating GUNTHER on Monday because Sami always goes to Saudi now, which is just rude, WWE. It’s the hope that kills you.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Hated: GUNTHER goes after Goldberg
WWE
There was a lot about Triple H’s «surprise» segment on tonight’s show that I absolutely hated, which I’m certain we’ll go into more in this article, but I have to mention that whatever’s going on with the Crown Jewel Championships is terrible. There, I said it, time to move on to the other ridiculous, not-so-great portion of this segment. When Triple H announced that it would be the reigning Undisputed WWE Champion versus the reigning World Heavyweight Champion competing every year for the belt, that brought out GUNTHER. Seeing the champion wasn’t what I hated, though it did certainly make this segment quite a bit longer, which this show didn’t need. GUNTHER ran down his own accomplishments a bit and mentioned that he’ll be facing Sami Zayn for the championship on «WWE Raw» on Monday. No problems there, made sense to me.
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Then, GUNTHER wanted to «acknowledge the legends» in the crowd. At this point, my brain was like, «Alright, get on with it,» not remembering the segment from a few weeks ago when GUNTHER told Bret Hart that his favorite wrestler is Goldberg, to take a shot at «The Hitman» who has noted problems with Goldberg. At the time, it was a pretty funny quip, but tonight, it got a little too serious about the chance of seeing Goldberg back in the ring for me. GUNTHER basically challenged Goldberg without saying as much, but got him up and over the ring barricade when he said he hoped he was a better father than a professional wrestler. That of course brought out the WWE security that had to get Goldberg to back off, though I did like the fact it caused the distraction to bring in Zayn to beat up on the champion.
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There is no place in the current landscape of WWE for a Goldberg match. There wasn’t the last time he was involved with the company, but now, with Triple H in creative control, there really isn’t a place for him. Possibly, this entire thing and tease of a final match for Goldberg against GUNTHER is just something to get the Goldberg haters all riled up and talking. If so, that’s definitely working, as I’m sitting here writing about it, and I’ve already seen the groans about it on social media. I’m hoping this is something that stays in Atlanta, since that’s where Goldberg is from, but on a show that felt pretty darn long for starting at an earlier time, the way this drug on after a pretty crappy announcement about Saudi Arabia just wasn’t for me tonight.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Hated: Tyson Kidd, I guess?
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Don’t get me wrong, I love Tyson Kidd, but according to Fightful he’s the one who produced the Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley match, which presumably includes the finish. TJ, my dude, this was not your best work.
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I’m absolutely here for the idea of a heel Raquel Rodriguez acting as the Kamille to Morgan’s Mercedes Mone. That’s fine. What’s not fine is the fact that Rodriguez drops Ripley, the bell rings for a disqualification, and then Rodriguez pulls Morgan onto Ripley to steal the pinfall in a match that’s already ended, causing Michael Cole (who was having a rough night on commentary anyway) to stammer out something about a «symbolic pin.» So Ripley wins, Morgan keeps the title, and Rodriguez, who should be out here looking like a force, instead looks like an idiot. Great job everyone.
It’s very hard to know what happened here. Did Rodriguez and the referee botch their timing, so the ref wasn’t taken out or distracted when Rodriguez attacked, forcing him to call for the bell? Did somebody think the shark cage stipulation implied a no disqualification match? Did Ripley politic her way out of taking a second straight pinfall loss to Morgan, regardless of how protected she was both times? Sean Ross Sapp claims «the finish got changed on the spot» and that sportsbooks had Morgan as the favorite, but when did the plan change and why, and why did Rodriguez not know about it? If nothing else, dragging Morgan into the pin after the DQ is wild — she was right there, did she not hear the bell ring?
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You know, in hindsight, probably not Tyson Kidd’s fault, but somebody has to take the fall for this and Rodriguez and Ripley are both far too intimidating for me to call out publicly. How could you have let it go down like that, TJ? Where were you when we needed you?
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Loved: Plenty of seeds sown for The Bloodline, Cody Rhodes, and The Final Boss
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The main event was pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Roman Reigns and The Bloodline after the past three years: a middling match weaved in to epic-level storytelling aplenty. Reigns locked up with Cody Rhodes as his unlikely partner, turning WrestleMania rival into ally for a classic «Can they co-exist?» match-up against The Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu. For the most part, the match fell somewhere in between the level of TV main event to pay-per-view opener, with moments of brilliance specifically coming from Fatu and Rhodes as the workhorses of the match.
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Reigns’ presence in this match was reminiscent of his old Shield matches in that he spent much of the bout tagged out and neutralized. That’s when the Guerrillas of Destiny made their presence known, providing a pivotal distraction for Sikoa to all but have Reigns beat in the middle of the ring. Alas, behind G.O.D had appeared a masked assailant — Jimmy Uso, returning for the first time since he was ejected from The Bloodline by Sikoa in April. That moment fed into the finish, seeing Reigns deliver the spear for the pinfall win.
Unlike when Uso last appeared under bandana and hoodie to help Reigns, costing his brother at SummerSlam 2023, this actually made sense to the storyline and brought a crucial piece back to The Bloodline chess board. They embraced, and it was a moment of earnest redemption in the fans’ eyes considering their status as villains just five months ago. You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s all she wrote, but Reigns is on limited appearances so the Atlanta faithful was treated to even more of an expo dump: The Bloodline jumped Rhodes as Reigns and Uso made their exit, with the latter convincing the former to make the save.
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Faithful to the narrative, Reigns hesitated, «This was only a one-time thing,» he told his cousin. But this is a Reigns that listens to his family, clearly, as he acquiesced and cleared the ring of The Bloodline with his new allies at his side. Reigns then held the WWE Championship for the first time since losing it at WrestleMania and gave the ultimate show of respect for his adversary-turned-ally by handing the title over without conflict. Even still, that wasn’t enough. Making his own return for the first time since April, «Final Boss» Dwayne «The Rock» Johnson made a post-credits style cameo, signaling towards both Reigns and Rhodes without saying a word.
There was a lot to the entire main event from start to finish, not all of it great, but it’s clear this was just another step in the wider story. Reigns appears to have members of a would-be WarGames team, The Rock is beginning to make his presence known in ongoing affairs, and it was good progress in The Bloodline angle after many months of treading water while waiting for the stars to align.
Written by Max Everett
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