Repost - WWF IYH Bad Blood

I said these might be in order...this is kind of true because this is one of the earliest reviews I ever did. This isn't even formatted right nor does it have snowflake ratings. It's also a horrible read but let's get the shitty ones out of the way first eh?

The Furious Flashbacks – IYH Bad Blood

Hell in a cell. Why is it over? Because of IYH Bad Blood. Hell in a cell was born here and Shawn Michaels fought his legendary battle with the Undertaker. What happened? Stay tuned.

This PPV will be graded on the Furious Grading Scale. FGS grades are as follows –

A One of the greatest matches anywhere, ever.
A- Damn near perfect
B+ Excellent
B Very Good
B- Good
C+ Average
C Mediocre
C- Bad
D Terrible
F Hulk Hogan
U or Ungraded = Hacksaw Jim Duggan v Ultimate Warrior v Goldberg in a submissions only Ironman match. My worst nightmare.

Vince McMahon, JR and the King welcome us to IYH Bad Blood. Brian Pillman is dead. They have no information about it but he’s gone. He actually died from a heart defect and over using his prescription drugs. It was a loss.

The Nation (Rock/Kama/D’Lo) v Legion of Doom

This is a handicap match because Shamrock is “spitting up blood”. Hawk starts out fast with a hip toss and a dropkick. D’Lo tags out quickly to avoid a further beating and in comes the Rock. The Rock bails as soon as Animal tags in because he’s still green and he wants to eat up some time. Animal hits Rock with a couple of dropkicks and Rock bails again. Rock tags in Kama because Hawk is too fast for him. Animal comes in and powerslams Kama off the ropes. Rock sneaks in and DDT’s Animal. Hawk distracts the ref and Animal gets his ass kicked out on the floor. D’Lo comes in and hits his signature leg drop. Rock tags in and snap mares Animal over into a sleeper. Kama tags in and Animal is now isolated well and truly. D’Lo hits the frog splash on Animal while the ref isn’t looking but Animal kicks out. Animal finally gets out after Rock gets levelled with a clothesline. Hawk takes control and all 5 men are in the ring. LOD call for a doomsday device on Rock but Faarooq comes out to distract the LOD. Rock Bottom on Hawk and it’s over at 12.20. Match rating – C+

Tarantula/Mosaic v Nova/Max Mini

This is a midget match. In a typical midget match it’s kind of hard to follow whats going on and there’s lots of armdrags and crappy looking lucha stuff. Tarantula slams Max Mini on the announce table and King laughs at him. Max gets back in and wins with a crucifix which wasn’t on properly. The other guys shoulders weren’t even down from the one count. Nevermind. Match time – 6.41. Match rating – F. How many blown spots?

Tag team titles – Headbangers (c) v Godwinns with Uncle Cletus

Headbangers start out by drop kicking the Godwinns out of the ring. Both teams manage to stall for over a minute after that. Mosh manages to hurracurana Phinneas through the ropes. Mosh springboards and clotheslines Phinneas off the apron. The Headbangers hit a flapjack on Phinneas and he lands on his neck. Henry tags in and takes charge. Henry misses a clothesline and Mosh rolls him up for a two count. Thrasher finally tags in and hits a dropkick. Thrasher hangs Phinneas up on the ropes and Mosh jumps onto his back in a move reminiscent of the Orient Express. Thrasher comes off the ropes with a clothesline. Henry gets tired of it and jumps in with a double clotheline. Uncle Cletus intervenes with a clotheline on Thrasher on the outside. Back inside Phinneas drives his knee into Thrasher’s neck 5 times. Thrasher hits a sunset flip but the ref doesn’t see it. Hank tags back in and slams Thrasher for a two count. Phinneas comes back in but Thrasher fights back with a side suplex. Thrasher tags in Mosh and he levels all 3 Godwinns. Thrasher powerbombs Mosh on Phinneas for a two count. Thrasher goes for a hurracurana on Phinneas and Phinneas counters with a powerbomb for the win and titles at 12.24. Match rating – C. Long and sloppy. Godwinns are appalling.

We get a lengthy video package of Austin recovering from his neck injury by stunning every authority figure in the WWF. Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Sgt Slaughter and of course Vince McMahon.

Back in the ring we meet and greet some “wrestling greats” from St Louis. We have Canada’s greatest athlete Gene Kiniski, former NWA champion Jack Brisco (a much superior wrestler than his famous brother Gerald), Dory Funk Jnr (Terry Funk’s brother), 7 time NWA champion Harley Race (now sadly sans-sideburns), Terry Funk, Lou Thesz and Sam Muchnick (the legendary promoter).

IC title tournament final – Faarooq v Owen Hart

Steve Austin comes out to do commentary which causes mayhem around the ring. “Start wrestling you piece of trash”. “Cheap heat at it’s best – Owen 3.16”. “You didn’t break my neck either you piece of trash”. Austin is a constant distraction the whole match. In the ring Owen hits a spinning heel kick and opens up with a series of kicks to Faarooq’s knee. Owen works a couple of submission holds on the legs as he warms up for the sharpshooter. Austin joins the Spanish commentary and tells Tito that he speaks enough Spanish to know that he’s talking trash about him. Back in the ring Faarooq hits a backbreaker for a two count. Owen comes back and goes for the sharpshooter but can’t get it on. Faarooq hits a powerslam for a two count. Jim Neidhart is out to keep an eye on Austin. Austin nails Faarooq in the head with the IC belt and Owen wins by pinfall at 7.17. Match rating – I didn’t really notice the match because like everyone else I was watching Austin. C-.

Los Boricuas v DOA

This is an additional match because of Brian Pillman’s passing. This is a big old 8 man tag which was thrown together at the last minute. DOA is Brian Adams aka Crush, Brian Lee aka Chainz and the Harris Brothers aka Skull and 8 Ball. Los Boricuas are a bunch of Mexicans but at least Savio Vega is from Puerto Rico and has a little talent. Crush gets a two on Savio with a big belly to belly power suplex. We have a lot of boots, fists and clotheslines. Chainz gets isolated and Savio hits a big ass spinning heel kick in the corner which he has to follow through to the floor. Sweet. Crush comes in but gets planted by Miguel for a two count off a DDT. Crush nails a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and gets the pin at 8.16. Match rating – D.

Flag match – Bret Hart/British Bulldog v Vader/The Patriot

Bret looks really pissed off and he should because Shawn Michaels scooped his heat a few months ago and now Bret has lost his place as the number one heel in the WWF. The match starts out on the floor with Patriot working Bulldog over with old glory. Davey fights back and snaps old glory over his knee to big heat. Meanwhile Vader is beating Bret down with the Canadian flag. After scrapping for 3 minutes on the floor the match is in the ring. Patriot greets Bulldog with a snap suplex and he goes after the flag but Bret cuts him off. Patriot hits a couple of bad back drops and tags out to Vader. Bulldog tags in Bret and Bret gets drawn into a slugfest. Vader wins it of course. Bret comes back with a side Russian legsweep. Bret goes for a sunset flip but Vader drops south and scores a two count. Both teams make tags. Patriot misses a charge into the corner and hurts his own shoulder but Bret comes around and slaps on a figure 4 around the ringpost. Bret tags in and slams Patriot. Bret tries to draw a little cheap heat but the crowd isn’t interested. Bret goes for the sharpshooter on the Patriot but Patriot reverses it into a sharpshooter of his own. Blasphemy. Bulldog breaks it up. Bret with a backbreaker on Patriot and Bulldog drops an elbow for a 2 count. Vader tags in and gets a two count on Bulldog but Davey grabs the ropes. Vader with a splash on Bulldog but Davey kicks out at 2 and a half. Bret tags in and side suplexes Vader. Bret slaps the sharpshooter on Vader but Patriot breaks it up. Vader goes for a sharpshooter but Bulldog breaks it up. Patriot tags in and puts a figure 4 on Bret. Bret tags out while in the figure 4 and Bulldog levels Patriot and Vader on the apron. Bulldog with a vertical suplex on Patriot for a two count. Bulldog comes off the ropes and gets powerslammed by Patriot for a two count. Bret tags back in and suplexes Patriot and then drops a couple of legs. Both teams tag and Vader slams Bulldog in the corner and goes up for a moonsault but misses but adjusts to nearly land on his feet. Cool. Onto the outside and Bret KO’s Patriot with the ring bell. Back inside Bret gets a two count off a DDT on Vader. Patriot tags in and hits Uncle Slam on Bret but Bulldog breaks it up. A fan does a run in and Bulldog belts him. Vader goes up for Vaderbomb and he connects on Bret Hart. Patriot goes for a roll up and Bret reverses him for the 3 count at 23.48. Match rating – B-. It was a good match but it just went on for way too long.

Hell in a Cell – The Undertaker v Shawn Michaels

This is the first ever Hell in a Cell. It’s been designed so that Shawn can’t run away from Taker. Backstage Shawn cuts a decent promo where he claims the good news is the match will not be for his coveted European title. Shawn looks scared as soon as he’s in the ring though and that means his selling has started already. Michaels spends the first few minutes taking huge back bumps to every tiny piece of Undertaker offence. Taker goes for early chokeslam which Shawn fights out of with a shot to the knee. Taker hits the top rope walk of doom early and Shawn sells it like death. Taker gives Shawn a back body drop and Michaels feet hit the roof of the cell. Taker throws Michaels over the ropes and he hits hard on the concrete floor. Michaels climbs up the inside of the cage but there’s nowhere for him to go. Shawn gets whipped hard into the cell wall and then gets clotheslined down on the concrete floor hard. Shawn is taking a beating. Taker tries to powerbomb Shawn on the floor but he hangs onto the cell wall to avoid it and fights back with right hands. Taker picks Shawn up and drives him into the ringpost, then the cell, then the ringpost, then the cell. Shawn can barely stand. Shawn manages his first offence in about 5 minutes after Taker misses a clothesline on the floor. Taker hits a hot shot on Michaels and Shawn sells it like machine gun fire. Shawn dives through the ropes with a tope and wipes out Taker on the floor. Michaels climbs the turnbuckles and hits an elbow down to the floor. Michaels hits a clothesline off the apron to keep Taker down. Michaels grabs the steel steps and batters Taker with them. Michaels spikes Taker with a piledriver on the ring steps and then swats away a troublesome cameraman. Michaels heads upstairs and hits a Savage style double axehandle to the floor. Michaels brings a chair into play and waffles Taker in the spine twice. Michaels only gets a two count. Michaels wraps Taker up in the ropes and peppers him with right hands. Taker backdrops Michaels as he comes in for the kill though and Shawn lands on a cameraman on the floor. Shawn takes offence and beats the crap out of the cameraman. Michaels heads up top and hits the Savage elbow on Taker.

Meanwhile Sgt Slaughter orders the cell opened to allow the cameraman to be removed. Michaels hits Taker with Sweet Chin Music and Taker no sells it. Shawn runs away like a pussy and escapes the Cell. Taker chases him and this one has gone out of control. Taker catapults Shawn into the outside of the Cell and Shawn is busted wide open. Taker picks Shawn up and rams him into the side of the Cell like a human javelin. Shawn gets in a low blow and escapes up to the top of the cage. Taker of course pursues him. The crowd goes nuts as Shawn hits the very top of the Cell. Michaels takes a huge back drop on the Cell (the kind that sent Foley through a future cage). Taker press slams Shawn and Shawn nearly falls off the edge. Shawn tries to lower himself down but Taker stamps on his fingers and Michaels crashes through the announce table. It looks tame now compared to Foley’s bump but it looked awesome at the time and it’s still cool. Michaels is even more busted open than he was before and Taker throws him onto the spanish announce table. Shawn Michaels is a bloody mess. They go back inside the Cell and the door is locked again. Taker hits a super-chokeslam on Michaels. That ought to be it but it’s not. Taker goes after a chair for a receipt for the earlier shots. Taker waffles Shawn with a stiff ass chair shot. The lights go down and Kane appears on WWF television for the first time. Cool flames entrance for the brother of the Dead Man. Kane rips the door off and tombstones Taker. Shawn crawls over and bleeds on Taker before pinning him for the big win at 29.54. Match rating – A. 30 minutes of sheer Shawn Michaels brilliance and proof if you ever need it in an arguement that on his day Shawn was the greatest wrestler of his generation by a mile.

Best matches –

3. LOD v the Nation of Domination. Proof that there were only two good matches on this card.
2. Bret/Bulldog v Vader/Patriot. Bret proves he can pull a decent match out of not one, not two but three other stiffs.
1. Shawn Michaels v Undertaker. Proof positive that Shawn Michaels was a great wrestler when he felt like it.

Overall PPV rating –
C+. The card was mediocre apart from the main event and a decent tag match that preceeded it. Shawn Michaels earned the vast majority of the C+ entirely on his own in the main event. If it needed to be said again – on his day Shawn was the best ever.