WWE Podcast Throwback: Badd Blood 1997 HBK vs Undertaker

no shortage of things to talk about there. But there's just something special about the wrestling nostalgia portion that I do. And maybe it's because of just that it's a nostalgia and maybe it's me living in the past a bit from the memories that brought me into wrestling, the memories that I go back to on YouTube, the memories that I go back to on the WWE network, And there are times when you know, I live for the glory days, and I think we're all at times guilty of that,

for better or worse. I mean, when you go back to your roots and you go back to what brought you to the dance, it reminds you why you're a fan, and no memory serves me better for this purpose. And then the one I'm sharing with you guys today, And I can't say it's my favorite memory, because, as Jim Ross always says, it's like picking your favorite child. I mean,

I don't know how you pick a favorite moment. This is one of my favorites, but just because it's the first one that I really have doesn't mean it's my favorite. But it is up there wherever that may be, in my top five list or whatever. And it brought me in, it captured captivated me as a at the time, a oh my gosh, let me do the math, a twelve year old fan, very naive to the product, very new,

and not educated whatsoever on what professional wrestling was. And this is, of course, what I'm talking about, is the very first hell in a cell with Sean Michaels versus the Undertaker.

not watching this match. It is just awesome, and not just because it's the first, but there are two pros in there doing what they do best, and that's telling a.

talking points. And I also notice that WWE on their homepage is I don't know if they're taking a poll on who should main event WrestleMania, whether it's Seth Rollins and brock Lesner or the triple threat for the Women's Raw Women's Championship. Now, I agree that there was only one main event, but WWE loves to press the narrative every year that you'll be in a main event or it's one of the main events. BS, there's one main event, you want to know what that main event is, the

one that goes on last. Don't give me a main event. Main event is a singular term. Main event means there's one. Main event means you are the show. Main event means you are the lasting image as they show goes off the air a lah, you are the main event. It's never main events. That's not a plural. If you think it's a plural term, you have been you have been influenced by the corporate speak of WWE. It is not a plural term. So guys, thank you once again for

joining me. You could find me everywhere that you have audio whether you have Android, whether you have Apple, it really doesn't matter. And I also encourage you to go ahead and give me if you think I deserve it, a five star review on Apple Podcasts.

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can remove every single ad. Every show that I do is ad free on Patreon, So head over there and if you want that link and you don't want to write it down, just go to my Twitter feed at the WWE podcast you can click on that link right in the bio and head over to Patreon dot com and get yourself an ad free experience of the show that I know many of you probably want. I know ads are sometimes a bit of an inconvenience, but you got to remember it is what keeps this show rolling.

Doing a podcast is not a free gig. Trust me, it's not a free deal. There are expenses that come with it, and it helps support those expenses. So anyway, guys, I'm going to take a very very small, small break, and you're not gonna You're gonna want to stick around. And the reason we want to stick around is because this is one of my favorite memories. It is something

I'm very passionate about. This is this match, and I'm gonna give you us some audio from it, and of course my opinions and my thoughts and memories from twenty two years ago. Man twenty two years ago. So guys, stay with me on the other side, all of that coming your way.

Learn more about the host at the website powerful Eric dot com. And to be clear, it's not just about addiction recovery. It's about making a great life and being the best version of yourself. Learn more, stream today, share with your social networks as well. That's porn Talk. End the porn Habit. Reclaim your power with porn Talk, go listen, download and subscribe today. You can also follow on Instagram that Powerful Underscore Eric.

didn't believe it. Paul Barre continue to insist that Caine was alive, and allah, we have Paul Bart producing Cain at this pay per view, costing the Undertaker the match. As you know, we all know. I don't think it's spoilers at this point, but Cain debuted man. Will he ever be the Undertaker?

WrestleMania A fourteen. It was just, oh my gosh. And when you look and when you guys heard that chair shot from Kine or from Undertaker to Sean Michaels, that was one of the most just flush brutal chair shots. Michaels is covered in blood. He cut himself perfectly. The story leading up to this because to me, that is so important. They had a series of matches before this that psychologically made sense to put these two in a cell.

They had a one on one match, they had a I believe a lumberjack match at Ground Zero, the pay per view before this, in which it ended in a no contest and Michaels is able to escape. So their third match should be a hell in a cell. It wasn't just a a pay per view built into the schedule of the year that we now have, which and

the mystique of the cell is all but gone. And it's not only gone because of the fact that it's just built into the schedule and whatever rivalries happen to be going on at that time, they're going to put them in the cell. It's it's that the stories don't warrant. They don't warrant the cell. These two, of course are Hall of famers, but the story was perfect. And then having the loss to the Undertaker or the loss to Shawn Michaels at the hands of Cain was just it

was a just a moment. And I at that time, I was twelve years old.

I was like, are you sure this is fake? You know, like these guys were laying in each other and I was watching this rivalry between Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, and they were so convincing. The story was so convincing. And I remember, and I was just watching the promo video of the workers who were brought in flown in from all over the country to build the cell and they had this really just dramatic music in the background

and it's never been done before. It was just amazing, and it is just an example of what you can

do with great storytelling. And yes, it didn't hurt that these two are all star Hall of Fame, first ballot Hall of Famers, I mean, of course, but it was just in the match itself, of course, where you had Undertaker dominate Shawn Michaels for the majority of the match, a couple of hope spots for Sean getting some offense, and you know, one of the standout moments for me is when Sean hit that sweet Chin music on Undertaker. An Undertaker sold it for about three seconds and then

sat up and then Michael's just went ballistic. Didn't know what to do. It was good timing for a referee who had just taken a bump to escape the cage. Escapes the cage or excuse me, the cell escapes the cell and then ends up taking a bump about halfway up the cell, off of the cell into in the announced tables, and just so well done. Michael's bloodied. I mean, he looked like a million bucks. And I mean that

as a compliment. I don't mean that facetiously sarcastically. Shawn Michaels caught himself just perfectly for that crimson mask, as they say, and it just added to the drama. And I missed the blood once in a while, I really do. I miss the blood. And I know that that's not going to create ratings in and of itself. I know that's a PG environment now, But sometimes blood is warranted, and in this case, it was absolutely warranted based on how hot their feud was. And you're in hell in

a cell, so it made total sense. And it happened when undertaker catapulted Shawn Michael's into the outside of the cell when they eventually made it to the outside. And if you watch, you can actually see Shawn Michael's cutting himself as he's being catapulted into the cell. But you know, I just try to suspend my disbelief there and pretend that didn't happen. But it was Again, guys, I just can't say enough about this match. You know, was it a five star classic by today's standards? No? Not by

today's standards. That we have now re kind of rejiggered or reconstructed our five star rating system. In other words, what we as fans think of as five star matches. Now you'd look back and go, really, Matt, this is a you think this is a five star match. Well, here's the difference between then and now. Now we look at five star matches as only what happens inside the ring. How many cool flips and flops somebody can do in near falls we can have versus back then, when things

the pace was slower and the story was better. Do you wonder that last line the story was better. Stories and storytelling can make up for a lackluster physical portion.

save that WrestleMania that was a classic. They are just peanut butter and jelly when they get in there. Their styles compliment each other. They wouldn't need twenty nineteen, but they did back in two thousand and nine when they face each other at WrestleMania twenty five and then obviously in nineteen ninety seven collision that they had at Bad Blood.

So again, you guys, I just I love it. I'd highly recommend it anybody to go take a look and it just trust me when I say this, though, you can't look at it and judge it by today's standards because the product has changed so much in twenty two years that your ideology and your idea of what a five star match is evolves, and what it is now may not be what it was back then, at least in your mind, but in real time, in that era, in that moment, it was one of the best matches

I've ever seen, especially in Number one. Main reason is a story it told, which is all we want to do, right. I mean, that's what professional wrestling is. So highly recommend you guys check it out and I'll leave it at that. So I'm going to take one more quick break. But on the other side, guys, I know this is the wrestling, this Stallenge show, and it is by all means it is. But on the other side, I'm going to get to some comments about WrestleMania, some news coming out, injury reports,

that kind of stuff. Just give you guys a little bit of an update. I know RAW is tomorrow night, so obviously we'll have a lot more talking points to discuss and then smack down live on Tuesday night. So on the other side, guys, I'm going to get to more current events. So stay right here, go.

Learn more about the host at the website powerful Eric dot com. And to be clear, it's not just about addiction recovery. It's about making a great life and being the best version of yourself. Learn more, stream today, share it with your social networks as well. That's porn Talk and the porn Habit. Reclaim your power with porn Talk. Go listen, download and subscribe today. You can also follow on Instagram that Powerful underscore Eric.

into cigar Talk. It's available on iTunes, Anchor, and Spotify, and you can also find them at cigar talkpodcast dot com. All right, welcome back, Thank you guys for sticking with me. Some little news I want to go over here is this whole controversy of Kurt Angle in the fans being outraged that Baron Corbin was his selection for his final opponent at WrestleMania thirty five. And I give you, guys my opinion on this in my show last time, and while I'm not thrilled with it, I don't think anybody's

thrilled with it. And now, guys, this is of course, assuming that this is going to stick. WW could very well may switch his opponent out for as we all hope John Cena or another opponent of his choosing that is much more high profile. And I'm sorry, deserving of a WrestleMania spot with the guy this is Kurt freaking Angle, I mean the Olympic gold meda. I don't care if you think that his TNA days tarnished his WWE legacy. It hasn't, it is not, And Kurt Angle is deserving

of more than Baron Corbyn. That's again, Baron Corbin's just not anywhere near Kurt Angle's level of accomplishment and having him at WrestleMania face Kurt Angle for in his final match just to me, while storyline wise, I will fully admit makes sense. It's not a WrestleMania makes sense moment. This is a this needs to be a feel good moment for Kurt, who needs just to tap somebody out and right off into the sunset and call it a career.

I think that's what it needs to be. And I just hope it's not Baron Corbyn, but I'll watch if it's Baron Corbyn, you know, a watch. But I'm not outraged like most fans are. I'm not freaking out. I'm just kind of disappointed that it's like, oh, okay, it makes sense, but I'm sorry, Baron Corbyn is not big enough, you know, I'm not sorry. Corbyn is not a big name, end of subject, and it's not WrestleMania worthy. So that's that.

And again that's one of the few times you guys will hear me say that it's not worth even the storyline to have a guy in there, but it's it is Kurt Angle's last match, so that kind of washes out that. But some late breaking news that Kurt Angle is going to be facing aj Styles on SmackDown Live this week. That's a channel changer. I mean, these two have a story history in TNA. There's no doubt that the ability of AJ styles far out weighs Kurt Angle

at this point in his career. So it'll be interesting to see how these two mesh. I think that they will mesh. Just find the problem is Kurt Angle is, you know, two and a half steps slower than he was. His body has got a thousand miles on it. I said, that's not a whole lot, about one hundred thousand miles on it. And he is just he just father time has gotten to him and injuries and everything else. You know, he's taken probably you know, hundreds of thousands of pumps

in his career. I mean, it's just called time to call it. But it'd be interesting and cool to see Kurt face AJ Styles and what I'm sure will end up being a some kind of non finish as Randy Orton may interject himself in in the match, and as you know, we probably won't get a finish that smells of a of a non finish. So that was just some late breaking news on the kurd Angle front. And you know some of the things I want to talk

about it. You know, I talked quickly on the blood I know, I don't need blood, but sometimes man blood just adds to the story, even if it's by accident. Think about what happened with Brock Leathern at WrestleMania a couple of years ago. Think about what happened to Becky Lynch more recently, when she accidentally got her face busted open by Nia Jacks. It was an iconic moment. Becky has sold thousands of shirts by that accident.

by this. I just don't know what to think about it anymore. And not because I want one on one we all know that, but but because the storyline is just so convolutedly ridiculous, and again it's filled with arrests and non life threatening ongoing forever injuries by Becky Lynch and Ronda going quote rogue and calling out the business and trying to get attention by calling wrestling fake. Well, that gets you attention, but that's not good attention. Attention is good attention?

And it just was, I don't this whole build, And I know there's a couple of weeks ago, but why put the fans through this. I'm not following the logic. I know they have time to fill, but this could have been a very straightforward match. Straightforward is not always bad. Sometimes having too many people in the room with creative can create mayhem. You ever heard the analogy too many cooks in the kitchen. Well, I think that this is a victim of that. But I'm still looking forward to it,

but I'm starting to get bored by it. And boy, has Becky Lynch cooled off? You?

is fourteen days away. Two weeks until WrestleMania. And of course, for those of you who are baseball fans, Opening Day it seems really early this year. Typically it's not until the first week April March twenty eighth. Oh, you know, they're going to be playing in snow. Some teams are going to be playing in snow. It's just I don't know why it needs to start this starlier. I love baseball, but boy does it feel early this year, March madness is going on. There's just if you're a sports fan,

everything's heating up. It is a great time to be a sports fan. Baseball, basketball, wrestling. I mean it is a it's a cool time to pay attention to sports. So well, guys, thank you for sticking with me here.

I will be back later this week Wednesday night. You know why, I know exactly Wednesday night because I will be traveling and I'll have a hotel room myself, which means I can do it in a quiet space and I will be able to deliver a raw and SmackDown live review show with only at that time, what do I have? How many days to WrestleMania. We're going to count down here, folks, eleven days to wrestle Mania at that point, it's coming quick. But thank you guys for

joining me. And don't go anywhere though, because I just have a couple last words from the sponsors of the show. I think you'll enjoy these quick mentions and then you can head out into the sunset. But thank you guys for listening, and please give me that five star rating and review if you think I deserve it. Wink wink. And I will be back later this week with Raw and SmackDown. Until then, take care, I'll talk to you next.