Bad Blood 2024: CM Punk and Drew McIntyre Put Hell Back in the Cell

CM Punk and Drew McIntyre enter Hell in a Cell with the correct objective: make the audience believe the structure is necessary. Their rivalry has already consumed most of 2024 through injuries, championship sabotage, family insults and a bracelet carrying the names of Punk's wife and dog. A normal wrestling match would feel like administrative paperwork. The cell needs to be the place where the feud finally runs out of exits.

They start with punches rather than a tour of the weapons under the ring. That restraint matters. McIntyre's size controls the early fight, Punk uses the cell and ringside area to create openings, and the violence increases in stages. A chair appears, then a wrench, then the metal support from a table. By the time Punk grinds steel into Drew's cut forehead, the weapons feel like escalation rather than decoration.

Blood transforms the match. Punk is opened first after being driven into the cell, and McIntyre later bleeds heavily after Punk launches a toolbox into his head. WWE spent years making blood inside the Cell feel accidental or forbidden. Here it becomes visual proof that the rivalry has crossed beyond ordinary weekly television conflict. Neither wrestler acts shocked by it. They simply keep going.

The wrestling between the violent moments is excellent. McIntyre's deadlift suplex from the apron through the table is a brutal strength spot, Punk's Sharpshooter recalls the Bash in Berlin submission, and each man's finisher is protected through ring positioning rather than endless kickouts. Punk hits a Go to Sleep and Drew falls outside, preventing the pin. Drew lands the Claymore and Punk survives because the match has earned the nearfall.

The steel-step sequence is the moment the match becomes unforgettable. McIntyre hits White Noise onto the steps, then later misses a Claymore and lands spine-first on the metal edge. The bump looks awful because it is awful. Punk does not immediately sprint into another move. He recognizes that Drew has finally created the opening he has been searching for.

Then the bracelet story, often the most mocked part of the rivalry, finally becomes useful. Drew empties the broken beads from a bag and pours them onto Punk. Punk reverses the humiliation by shoving the beads into Drew's mouth, wrapping a heavy chain around his knee and delivering the final Go to Sleep. The prop stops being sentimental jewelry and becomes ammunition in the feud's last act.

A+ / 9.8 makes this WrestleFile's Match of the Night and one of the highest-graded WWE matches in the first 100 Event Files. Meltzer and TJR give it five stars, Pantoja gives it 4.75 and 90 percent of Pro Wrestling Dot Net voters choose it as the best match. The consensus is deserved.

What makes the match exceptional is not the blood alone. It is the patience. Punk and McIntyre allow each major piece of violence to matter before moving to the next one. They sell exhaustion, hatred and consequence. Hell in a Cell does not become a stunt show. It becomes the only room large enough to contain a feud that had spent ten months refusing to end.

Nia Jax and Bayley receive the impossible assignment of following a match that leaves both wrestlers bleeding on the floor. The crowd needs time to recover, but fourteen minutes of uneven championship wrestling is not the ideal recovery mechanism. Bayley tries to create pace and movement. Nia tries to make the size difference the story. Too many exchanges land awkwardly for the match to settle.

The basic structure is sound. Bayley has to survive power, use speed and find moments where Nia's momentum can be redirected. Her suicide dive, sunset-flip powerbomb and elbow drop create credible bursts of offense. Nia's bear hug, barricade work and powerbomb onto the steps reinforce the idea that one mistake can erase several minutes of Bayley's progress.

Execution is the problem. The attempted hurricanrana counter collapses awkwardly, a Samoan Drop never looks fully controlled and several transitions force commentary to explain what the visual evidence does not. Nia has improved substantially during this run, but this match exposes the difference between having more ideas and being able to execute every one cleanly.

The referee bump leads to the expected Tiffany Stratton sequence. Bayley hits the Rose Plant with no official available to count, Tiffany runs in with the Money in the Bank briefcase, and the crowd immediately becomes more interested in whether a cash-in is coming than in the championship match already happening. Nia catches Tiffany considering it, Tiffany retreats, and the tease becomes another chapter in their eventual split.

Bayley gets one final rollup before Tiffany distracts her from the apron. Nia responds with the second-rope Samoan Drop and Annihilator for the retention. The finish is coherent, but the match has again become a vehicle for the champion's relationship with the briefcase holder.

C- / 5.8 lands between wildly different contemporary reactions. Meltzer gives the match 1.75 stars, Pantoja calls it a dud, Slimmer gives it two and TJR is much warmer at three. WrestleFile gives credit for Bayley's work, the crowd response to Tiffany and several effective power sequences while docking heavily for the sloppy execution.

The match is not disastrous. It is simply the first reminder that Bad Blood has already peaked. Bayley and Nia have enough story to fill the time, but they cannot make the wrestling feel as controlled as the angle surrounding Tiffany Stratton.

Damian Priest and Finn Bálor have the kind of rivalry that should produce something uglier than a technically good twelve-minute match. They were Judgment Day allies for years, Bálor helped cost Priest the World Heavyweight Championship, and Priest enters wanting revenge. The opening strikes carry that resentment. The rest gradually settles into a familiar WWE television rhythm.

The wrestling is smooth because the opponents know each other well. Bálor's Sling Blade on the floor gives him early control, Priest's strikes carry more force, and the Broken Arrow and Razor's Edge sequences create believable nearfalls. Neither man has to search for chemistry. Their problem is making the match feel larger than something that could have headlined Raw.

Carlito and JD McDonagh arrive once Priest gains control. Their interference is predictable but logical given the Judgment Day story. Bálor lands Coup de Grâce after the distraction and receives only two. Priest then deals with both outside men quickly enough that the numerical advantage barely feels like an advantage.

The ending makes Bálor's problem worse. He lands additional Coup de Grâces to Priest's back, goes up again and gets caught by the throat. Priest turns the fourth attempt into South of Heaven and wins. The visual is impressive, but the accumulation makes Bálor look less dangerous every time his signature offense fails to finish the job.

B- / 7.2 matches the critical consensus closely. Meltzer, TJR, Pantoja and Slimmer all settle around 3.25 stars. The work is good, the strikes are sharp and the final counter is strong. Nothing rises to the emotional level the betrayal story should theoretically support.

Priest gets his revenge. Bálor remains attached to a Judgment Day group that can interfere without reliably changing results. That imbalance becomes a recurring issue for the faction. Good wrestling cannot entirely hide that the villain leaves Atlanta looking smaller than when he entered.

Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley spend the first half of the match proving the eventual disaster was not inevitable. Liv attacks the previously injured left knee, uses the apron and ring post intelligently, and keeps Rhea from simply bulldozing through her. Rhea sells enough of the damage to make the champion's strategy feel legitimate. The match has a useful spine before everything around it begins demanding attention.

Dominik Mysterio is the complication from the beginning. He is suspended above the entrance area in a shark cage and sells his fear well enough to become a parallel attraction. That is entertaining television, but it creates an odd championship dynamic: the audience is constantly checking a man outside the match while the two women supposedly deciding a world title are wrestling underneath him.

Liv's control work is better than the final reputation suggests. The dragon screw, half crab and repeated attacks around the post all connect to the knee. Rhea's comebacks through clotheslines, the Northern Lights suplex and the frog splash have enough force to feel earned rather than automatic. For ten minutes, the match is closer to good than bad.

Then Dominik escapes the cage door and gets caught upside down by the chain around his ankle. Rhea hits Riptide on Liv and has a championship victory available. Instead of covering, she leaves the ring, takes a kendo stick and begins beating Dominik. Character-wise, the revenge makes sense. Championship-wise, it tells the audience that Liv's title matters less than embarrassing an ex-boyfriend.

Raquel Rodriguez returns and attacks Rhea in full view of the referee. The disqualification is correct under the circumstances, but the performers appear to be expecting a different finish. Raquel places Liv on top of Rhea after the bell, only for everyone to realize there is no pin to count. The confusion damages what should have been a strong return.

C / 6.3 is slightly warmer than Meltzer's two stars and Pantoja's 2.5, close to TJR's 2.75 and below Slimmer's three. WrestleFile gives credit for Liv's knee work and the competitive portion while treating the ending as a serious deduction.

The story advances: Raquel is back, Liv has another ally and Rhea has another enemy. The championship match does not advance with it. By the time the bell rings, almost every person in the angle matters more than the title being defended.

Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns teaming six months after WrestleMania XL is enough to justify a main-event atmosphere even before the wrestling begins. The question is not whether they can execute a tag match. The question is whether two men who spent years opposing each other can stand on the same apron without the partnership collapsing before Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu take advantage.

The opening is deliberately slow. Cody tests Fatu and discovers that normal offense barely changes his expression. Roman tags in against Solo and the crowd immediately treats the stare-down like the real attraction. The Bloodline then isolates Roman, followed by an even longer control stretch on Cody. The structure is familiar enough that some of the middle feels less like suspense and more like waiting for the hot tag paperwork to finish.

Fatu is the match's bell-to-bell revelation. His no-sell of the Disaster Kick, explosive moonsault and speed around a much smaller Cody reinforce why WWE had protected him so heavily. Solo works better here as the emotional opponent for Roman than as the wrestler expected to carry long sequences by himself.

The match wakes up once Cody and Fatu leave the ring together. Cody sends Fatu through the barricade, hits Cross Rhodes at ringside and then climbs the top turnbuckle for a splash through the commentary table. It is the kind of unnecessarily heroic idea Cody specializes in, and the crowd responds because the match finally feels as large as the names involved.

Inside, Roman and Solo trade blows until Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa appear. Before the interference can decide the match, a hooded figure attacks them and reveals himself as Jimmy Uso. The reaction is enormous. Roman uses the opening to spear Solo and get the pin, giving Jimmy an immediate role in the family war and Roman a direct victory over the man claiming his position.

The post-match material is part of the value even though it occurs after the bell. Roman embraces Jimmy, initially walks away while Cody is attacked, then turns back to help. He picks up the WWE Championship and hands it to Cody rather than keeping it. For a character whose identity had been tied to possession of that title for years, the gesture says more than a speech.

Then The Rock appears. He does not explain himself. He counts, makes a throat-slash gesture and leaves Cody, Roman and Jimmy staring from the ring. WWE closes Bad Blood by opening several future possibilities at once.

B+ / 8.3 reflects a match whose final ten minutes are far better than its first fifteen. Meltzer gives it 4.25 stars, Slimmer gives it 4.5, TJR gives it 3.75 and Pantoja gives it only 2.75. WrestleFile lands near the middle because the story payoff is excellent while the formulaic control sections genuinely drag.

Punk and McIntyre have the better match by a mile. Cody and Roman have the more important closing scene for WWE's ongoing weekly story. Bad Blood needs both. The opener ends a feud; the main event restarts a family.