Bad Blood (originally Badd Blood) was a WWE professional wrestling pay-per-view event that debuted in 1997. as an In Your House event. Later in 2003 and 2004, it returned as an exclusive event for the Raw brand. The pay-per-view is known for introducing the Hell in a Cell match, which was the main event all three years the pay-per-view was held. In 2005, One Night Stand replaced Bad Blood when Vengeance moved to June and The Great American Bash moved to July.
In 2017, it was originally announced that Bad Blood would be returning as a Raw-exclusive event on July 9, but on April 28, it was confirmed that the July event would be called Great Balls of Fire.
This event contains examples of:
- Advertised Extra: Edge was in the poster of the 2004 event despite only wrestling in its opening match.
- Alliterative Title: Bad Blood.
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- All three consecutive Hell in a Cell matches were won by heels.
- Shawn Michaels defeated The Undertaker after a debuting Kane interfered and tombstoned his brother.
- Triple H had won the Hell in a Cell match in this event twice in a row. In 2003, he defeated Kevin Nash (with Mick Foley as the guest referee), and a year later defeated HBK, ending their heated rivalry that lasted for almost two years.
- The 2003 event also had Rodney Mack and Christopher Nowinski defeating The Dudley Boys, La Resistance defeating Rob Van Dam and Kane for the World Tag Team Championship, Ric Flair defeating Shawn Michaels after interference from Flair's Evolution stable-mate Randy Orton.
- The 2004 event also had Randy Orton defeating Shelton Benjamin to retain the Intercontinental title, Trish Stratus defeating then Women's champion Victoria, Lita, and Gail Kim to win the title for a record-breaking fifth time (and she would win it two more times).
- All three consecutive Hell in a Cell matches were won by heels.
- Briefer Than They Think: The event was only held three times.
- Commuting on a Bus: Bad Blood debuted in 1997 and disappears until 2003 and ceased after the following year's event.
- David Versus Goliath: The event sure loves this trope.
- The inaugural event had The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels. Interestingly, Taker was the Face while HBK was the Heel.
- The 2003 event had Kevin Nash vs. Triple H. But like Taker vs. HBK above, Goliath was the Face while David was the Heel. Played straight with Goldberg vs Chris Jericho.
- The World heavyweight Championship match between Chris Benoit and Kane plays this straight.
- Dawn of an Era: The 2003 event marked the beginning of brand-exclusive pay-per-views until 2007.
- Debut Queue: The 1997 event featured the debut of Kanenote .
- Disqualification-Induced Victory: Christian hit Booker T with the Intercontinental title to retain the belt during the 2003 event.
- Dramatic Irony: Despite technically debuting in this event, Kane never won a match in it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Shawn Michaels was a Heel in the inaugural event. Every appearance he had in this event from after that, he's a Face. Also, it was spelled Badd Blood.
- Establishing Character Moment: Kane showed what he was made of when he showed up at the 1997 event when he ripped the door off the Hell in a Cell.
- Final Battle: The Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels served as their final encounter to end a long drawn out feud that started since July 2002. His 2003 match against Kevin Nash was also this to a lesser extent since their feud lasted for about a couple of months.
- History Repeats: All the main events of this event have been Hell in a Cell matches. All three also involved either or both Shawn Michaels and Triple H.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Undertaker used a steel chair to hit Michaels hard in his head, which was referred to on air as "payback" for a similar incident involving Michaels costing Undertaker the WWF Championship at SummerSlam when Michaels was the guest referee for Undertaker's match with Bret Hart.
- Small Role, Big Impact: While the PPV itself has had only a few editions, it introduced the Hell in a Cell and all of the associated moments and matches, including an entire PPV associated with that kind of match.
- Spanish Announcers' Table: HBK had fallen to one from the top of the cell after Undertaker stomped on his hands.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: While all three Hell in a Cell matches were the main events of the pay-per-view, there are two of them that are non-title matches (1997 and 2004).
- There Can Be Only One: In 1997, HBK and The Undertaker fought inside Hell in a Cell for the right to face Bret Hart for his WWE Championship.
- Wheel of Decisions: Co-General Managers "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff competed in a "Redneck Triathlon" at Bad Blood 2003, where a wheel is spun to decide which game will be played.
