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(Author’s Warning: This post has some graphic imagery. Viewer discretion is advised.)
Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker, Hell in the Cell, In Your House: Badd Blood 1997
As part of my 22nd birthday, I am going to review a match I actually watched for the first time on a prior birthday.
When I was newly-turned 14 on August 9th 2003, I received the From the Vault - Shawn Michaels DVD from my brother as a gift. At the time, I was still a relative newbie to the scene, and thus haven’t heard much less seen most of the classics on that set. YouTube wasn’t invented yet, and the only other wrestling media in the house was a WWF Legacy version of Wrestlemania 13, with warped audio but somehow okay video. Of course, Wrestlemania 13 was known for the Submission Match between Bret Hart and Steve Austin. Coverage on that match from this entry.
So I will say this: this match scared me to death as a younger person. Not having seen a ton of blood yet at that point, this one was a total eye-opener. Despite the non-decorated crimson mask of Shawn, I raved about the match, thinking it was one of the greatest “David vs. Goliath” bouts to ever occur. I still think that way, and this review will prove it.
To the uninitiated, a little backstory. It all started at Summerslam in August, when Shawn refereed a match between Bret and ‘Taker for the WWE Championship. Bret, who legitimately couldn’t stand Shawn, spat in the face of Shawn’s officiating. The funny thing here was that Bret claimed if he didn’t win the match, he’d never wrestle in the US again, while Shawn was held to the same agreement on his person if he showed any bias. So Shawn, knowing this, was about to blast off Bret’s head with a chair that Bret himself brought into the ring. However, Undertaker accidentally intercepted that shot like a Wide Receiver in the NFL, and lost the title due to it.
Seems like death is comin’ a-knockin’ to Mr. HBK, won’t it?
At first, Michaels claimed it was an accident. The video doesn’t lie: Shawn was clearly aiming for Bret’s dome. Even with the visual evidence, fans weren’t convinced. In response, Shawn told the fans to go to hell, and thus turned heel.
On the August 18th Raw, Shawn teamed up with a young man named Hunter Hearst Helmsley and they went up against Undertaker and Mankind. Now these teams are a little funky, because both men on both teams on paper despise each other. HBK wants nothing to do with HHH, and Undertaker had a very long war with Mankind, who had only turned face recently off of the feud with Triple H. Long story short, the match was thrown out, and HBK drove two hard chair shots to the head of ‘Taker.
Answering the four thousand dollar question, ‘Taker bled pretty well, and it was only the beginning.
From there on, Shawn would associate himself with Hunter and his bodyguard Chyna. Add in the insurance policy of Rick Rude (who debuted the week before in the match of Shawn vs. Mankind), and these untitled gang of degenerates were causing havoc amongst the whole federation.
In their first PPV encounter together, HBK and ‘Taker headlined the Louisville Gardens for the PPV in September called Ground Zero. A wild and wholly affair, the set was trashed and there was close to no law in the land. When law was called to order, the match was thrown out, but not before Undertaker did a death-defying leap over the top rope taking some ten men down with him!
Although he was just an announcer at the time, it was Vince McMahon that told the world the next night that the October PPV, entitled “Badd Blood”, would feature Shawn and ‘Taker battling inside a Hell in the Cell. More on that in a little moment.
The most infamous promo of the feud came on September 15th (which is also available in the DVD linked above). Shawn, sporting nothing more than biker shorts stuffed with gauze, came down to the ring to have a “serious” interview with Jim Ross. Shawn declared that if he was going down, he’d go down in a “blaze of glory”.
In real life, Vince was incensed by Michaels’ juvenile behavior and fined his Showstopper 10K. After some talking, the fine was scrapped, and Vince actually took heed to proceed with the “Attitude”.
So after some more mind games and ballyhoo, and add in the fact that now it’s a #1 Contender’s match, the match came to the Kiel Center for October the 5th. 21,000+ fans, a big crowd even for Wrestlemania in the day, piled on in to watch the spectacle.
Although this picture is from 2000, this is in a nutshell what the fans saw for the first time on that fateful night. 
As for the pre-match interview, Shawn looked surprisingly cool and collected. Vowing victory, he proclaimed to be the Showstopper, the Headliner, the Icon, and the Main Event. It was amongst the first times he used that rhetoric, but it all made sense (i.e: arrogance and egotism).
After Sgt. Slaughter and Earl Hebner looked underneath the ring for potential shenanigans, everything cleared and thus the order was brought to bring the cage down. Shawn came down to his usual strutting, while the commentators noted that Shawn was like a rat in the trap waiting for the arrival of Undertaker.
“The Phenom... of the WWF,” McMahon proclaimed as Undertaker was just now starting to spook out Michaels a little bit. With the candles up and about like a rock concert, the pop for Undertaker was truly mesmerizing.
As the lights come back on, Shawn’s getting his punk ass stalked! Shawn tries to flee back into the ring as the bell ring, but runs right into a big boot by ‘Taker. “This isn’t gonna be pretty,” quips McMahon, something we would all wholeheartedly agree with.
Like a cat on a poor and helpless mouse, ‘Taker pounces on Michaels. Luckily for Michaels though, he exits a Chokeslam attempt, and gets some desperation offense in. After trying to Irish-Whip Taker (wrestling rule #334a.b: If a small guy tries to whip a bigger guy, bigger guy usually reverses momentum!), Michaels goes up onto the turnbuckles, and is clotheslined HARD back into the canvas.
After a lackadaisical cover, ‘Taker slowly beats down Michaels some more. During the offense, Michaels also gets the move known as Old School, and HBK goes flying off the impact! Another highlight of this is when Michaels goes for the ride on a simple body drop, but his feet hit the roof of the Cell!
Undertaker hurls Michaels out of the ring and over the top rope. At the same time, Michaels makes contact with the mesh wall, which given the positioning of the cell, looks quite revolutionary. Michaels is grabbed by the neck near the corner of said “wall”. Undertaker received a thumb to the eye, but yanks HBK by the pants and takes him down! Unlike the prior month where HBK’s derriere made a cameo, there’s proper undergarments this time.
After getting up, HBK goes for another roller-coaster ride. This time, ‘Taker whips him into the cell wall, and clotheslines him back down. REPEATEDLY! In the following sequence, Undertaker tries to powerbomb Michaels but fails. Michaels is able to grab the cage and flurry the big guy, but hardly fazes him as Michaels would get repeatedly rammed into the cage post SPINE FIRST. At this point, Shawn looks dead or is a finger poke away from it!
‘Taker takes the time to get some more free shots in. During that flogging, the phenom then proceeds to carry Shawn like a small child and repeatedly ram him spine first... into the steel ring post and cage post! Good lord, that’s why he has a plate in his damn back!
Although Shawn escaped getting his head chucked into the cage, but he isn’t able to escape a knockdown by Taker on the slip-out! Going once more to the dance that brought him. ‘Taker whips Michaels into the corner, but Michaels sidesteps the run, and beats down the dead man! Suddenly, Michaels is in control!
Undertaker gets back onto the apron and jaw-jacks Michaels on the ropes. Subsequently, Michaels is able to shoot a replanted ‘Taker right back into the cage thus having control again.
To the outside, Michaels does a suicide-dive-like move, and then does off the cage elbows for good measure. Off the ring apron, Michaels does a leaping clothesline on ‘Taker to sustain the momentum. Retrieving some steel steps, Michaels drives them into the spine of ‘Taker multiple times. After not getting all the weight up, Michaels then is able to successfully piledrive ‘Taker on the base of the steps! HOLY CRAP BATMAN!
Cursing at a cameraman instead of feeling momentous, Shawn takes a short breather. Going to the top rope, Michaels executes to the double axe on ‘Taker’s head. After both men enter the ring again. Michaels gets a freaking steel chair and drives that baby right into the spine of ‘Taker! And another time! HBK does the pin cover, but gets a near fall!
After a struggle of power, Michaels ties up Undertaker in the ropes. The only thing that connects is the boot of Undertaker to Michaels’ face once again! Trying again, Michaels instead gets body dropped on the camera man! Jose Ole is then called a son of a bitch by Michaels as he is leveled. Vince does a fake apology, unlike the real apology he’ll give to Melanie Pillman the next night!
While trainers are attempted to be reached, a typical HBK sequence follows. The flying forearm, followed by a top rope elbow. With the camera guy being attended to, the band is being tuned! SWEET CHIN MUSIC CONNECTS!
At this point, the phenom should be DONE. FINISHED. DON’T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT OF THE FUNERAL PARLOR!
However, like a bad horror movie come to life, ‘Taker rises and Michaels tries to run like he’s seen a ghost! Jim Ross, with great feeling, exclaims, “BUSINESS IS ABOUT TO PICK UP!”
The dead man grabs Michaels by the hair, and with appropriate positioning, both men are now out of the cage!
Well, Michaels tries to dropkick ‘Taker, but instead it gets intercepted into a slingshot straight to the cage! Busted wide open, it’d happen a couple more times! After giving ‘Taker Sweet Nut Music, HBK is climbing up the cage while losing blood at a horrendous rate. Shawn is able to keep Undertaker at bay for now.
With the crowd buzzing and screaming, Jim Ross does another quotable, “THERE’S NO WHERE TO GO, BUT DOWN!” At the top of the cage, it’s the big guy’s domain.
Shawn, like the somewhat dumb shit he was, tries to piledrive ‘Taker onto the mesh! Instead, ‘Taker reverses into a body drop and Michaels lands right on the mesh back first! Following that, Undertaker rakes Michaels' face at the top structure while a cameraman below tries to capture it. “AH SHIT!” proclaims Michaels in certain agony as the camera is now “blessed” with the blood from the “Showstopping” one.
Slammed another time, Michaels almost goes through! Trying to escape by climbing down, dead man don’t play like that! ‘Taker steps on both hands, and Houston, we have a problem!
Crashing through the announcer table, Shawn makes announcer notes look like strawberry pudding! After slam on the table, and both men are about to go back into the cage!
Once in, Undertaker is prepping Michaels for doom. After a chokeslam from the top rope, Undertaker gets yet another chair from the ring. With dramatic irony in mind, Undertaker GONGS HBK in the head with it! With Jerry Lawler saying how payback’s a bitch and the crowd heat at it’s proverbial apex, the signature throat slash motion of ‘Taker is exclaimed. Tombstone is being called for...
(lights go out)
Creepy unheard-of music (at the time) plays. Once pyro at the ramp flares up, Paul Bearer is revealed walking with a mysterious masked figure. Vince thinks it’s Kane, the burnt younger “brother” of Undertaker. Once down to the entrance of the cage, the door is ripped off the hinges and Earl is thrown around like a doll!
In the ring, the fire on the ring posts bring back the light! The two brothers have an epic faceoff, followed by a slow setup to a somewhat awkward Tombstone by Kane on ‘Taker.
Slowly and methodically, Michaels leaves mini pools of blood in vain to finally pin Undertaker 1-2-3 to win the match and thus receive #1 contendership status for the WWE Championship!
With Hunter and Chyna rushing down the ring to help, it seems as if Michaels is far from looking like a winner. Some 31 stitches were needed to close the cuts sustained on the Icon, but at least it meant that a future title match would be in place. One that would change the course of history. That’s another story for another time.
As for the match, it was the fourth match in WWE history to be given ***** by Dave Meltzer and his Wrestling Observer. A well-deserved rating, it’s a 30 minute match that honestly doesn’t feel like it. The pace was fast, it’s hits were brutal, and the story was genius. Those were two legends (even at the time) going at it in the most epic of battlegrounds, and I hope I was able to accurately convey the scenario for you. So happy birthday to me!
DVD’s: WWE - Undertaker - This Is My Yard (has scratch WWF logo on the bottom), WWE From the Vault - Shawn Michaels (preferred version to watch, unedited and un-bleeped with time-correct block WWF logo on the bottom), WWE Tombstone - History of the Undertaker (has WWE logo on the bottom, plus all WWF references are muted), WWE: Hell in a Cell (HBK’s entrance was modified slightly, and all WWF references are muted)
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