Throwback Thursday: Looking back at WWE Badd Blood: In Your House

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last time, I covered the WWE No Mercy 2008.

WWE Badd Blood: In Your House

Date: Oct. 5, 1997

Venue: Kiel Center (Scottrade Center), St. Louis, Mo.

Some random notes

Since the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view is at the end of the month, I have decided to look back at some of the events that featured Hell in a Cell matches in the past, including the very first.

Vince McMahon, Jerry "The King" Lawler and Jim Ross were on hand to do commentary, but were forced to open the show on a somber note with the announcement that Brian Pillman had died earlier that day.

Pillman was scheduled to have a match against Dude Love during this event, but never showed up to the building.

After being instructed to find him, Pillman was found dead in his hotel in Bloomington, Minn., which is where WWE had a show the night before. He was 35 years old.

McMahon said during the show that his death might have been caused by a fatal drug overdose. It was weird that he would report such a thing before the toxicology reports became available.

He even admitted that what he was reporting wasn't official. It was almost handled as if it was a wrestler suffering an injury in the ring and being sent to the hospital for an angle of some sort. However, this was the real-life death of a man.

There was nothing wrong with reporting that Pillman had died, as that was the only real fact at that point and people should know why he wasn't appearing on the show, but to update the news of his death with the possible cause was irresponsible on WWE's part, especially considering it was eventually revealed that wasn't what caused his death.

Pillman died due to a rare genetic heart condition that also caused the death of his father five years earlier. Pillman's drug and alcohol use didn't help matters, but it wasn't technically what caused his death.

WWE honored the legends of St. Louis wrestling after the WWE Tag Team title match. Among those honored were former NWA World Heavyweight champions Gene Kiniski, Jack Brisco, Harley Race, Terry and Dory Funk Jr. and Lou Thesz.

Also honored was long-time St. Louis wrestling promoter Sam Muchnick. WWE put together nice video packages for each man. During Muchnick's, WWE put up an old newspaper clipping with a headline that said that wrestling in St. Louis drew 208,952 fans in 1952.

That was an average of 4,018 per week.

With that said, let's get to the matches.

The Nation of Domination def. The Legion of Doom

This was supposed to be a six-man tag, but Ken Shamrock was injured and couldn't compete, making it a handicap match with The Rock, D'Lo Brown and Kama Mustafa representing The Nation of Domination.

The match was pretty standard with The Nation using classic tag team tactics such as distracting the referee.

The Nation's leader, Farooq, eventually came down to distract Animal right before he and Hawk were set to deliver the doomsday device The Rock.

The Rock then capitalized on the distraction by hitting The Rock bottom on Hawk to pick up the victory.

Max Mini & Nova def. Tarantula & Mosaic

Apparently, this match was added to the show at the last minute due to the untimely death of Pillman.

Tarantula and Mosaic were on the wrong page in the beginning of the match. They inadvertently hit each other a good three or four times.

I'm not sure who the legal man was half the time. Apparently, they were using traditional lucha libre rules, which means tags are essentially optional, especially in trios matches.

At one point Max Mini was dumped on the announce table by Tarantula, which Lawler found to be hysterical.

Max Mini eventually recovered from that and helped his team secure the win.

WWE Tag Team championship – The Godwinns def. The Headbangers

Uncle Cletis, who was better known as the Dirty White Boy and T.L. Hopper, managed The Godwinns during this time period.

Why WWE didn't use The Headbangers' old music during their brief return to Smackdown Live a little more than a month ago is beyond me.

The Headbangers and The Godwinns engaged in a spitting-into-the-air contest at the beginning of the match. It was as disgusting as it sounds.

During the match, The Headbangers delivered a flapjack to Phineas Godwinn and his head was nearly driven into the mat. It was rather scary to watch.

Unfortunately, that was probably the most exciting part of the match. The Godwinns won and I'm not sure a whole lot of people cared.

WWE Intercontinental championship – Owen Hart def. Farooq

Owen Hart had the unfortunate distinction of wrestling the same night his faction mate Pillman died. Unfortunately, Owen Hart's peers would have to do the same thing the night of his death, which took place during Over the Edge May 23, 1999.

On this night, Owen Hart and the Hart Foundation weren't the only ones appearing with a heavy heart.

Obviously the entire roster was emotional given Pillman was part of a tight-knit locker room, but none probably more than Steve Austin, who was tag team partners with Pillman during their days together in World Championship Wrestling and considered him a close friend.

You may have noticed Austin wearing a gold chain around his neck during this period. Pillman bought Austin the chain as a gift. Austin began wearing it on television in remembrance to Pillman.

Austin went to the ring on this night to forfeit the Intercontinental title, which he won at SummerSlam two months earlier after defeating Owen Hart.

Unfortunately, Austin broke his neck during the match and was unable to defend the title, forcing him to relinquish it. Before relinquishing it, however, he sat ringside and grabbed the commentary team's headsets on multiple occasions to talk some trash.

He even grabbed the headsets at the Spanish announce table and had a verbal exchange with former Intercontinental champion Tito Santana.

He then made his way to the French announce table and promoted the fact that he was going to be in Montreal, Quebec (Which is not France, but is a French-speaking city) for Survivor Series the next month. We all know what happened at that show.

The match itself wasn't really about Owen Hart or Farooq. It was really about Austin and the antics he was pulling at ringside.

Austin eventually hit Farooq in the head with the Intercontinental championship to help Owen Hart. After Owen Hart pinned Farooq, Austin tossed the title into the ring and left.

I'm pretty sure he wanted Owen Hart to win so that he could defeat him for the title at Survivor Series, since Owen Hart was the man that broke his neck at SummerSlam.

The Disciples of Apocalypse def. Los Boricuas

This was apparently another match that was added to the card at the last minute due to Pillman's death.

Each member of Los Boricuas shook hands with the Spanish announcing team before the match, which I found pretty funny.

The match itself was rather forgettable.

Flag match – Bret Hart & British Bulldog def. Vader & The Patriot

The typical flag match sees the winner grab a flag. However, this flag match, a team could also win by pin fall or submission. It didn't really make sense to me either.

Vader used some rather colorful language during his promo during the match. I can't use the word he said here. I'll just say that it rhymed with bull spit.

All four men brawled for a couple of minutes before the match officially started.

Once it did start, thematch went for a really long time. It got rather repetitive at certain points. Two guys would be in the ring, someone would either go for a pin or attempt to pull down a flag and someone from the other team would intercept. You could tell all four men were just physically spent at a certain point.

At one point of the match, Vader performed a moonsault from the top rope. British Bulldog, Vader's intended target, moved out of the way just in the nick of time. However, instead of crashing and burning, Vader, who weighed almost 400 pounds, landed on his feet like Seth Rollins would today.

It was pretty amazing to watch.

Bret Hart absolutely clocked Vader in the head with the ring bell at one point in the match. I guess he felt like he had to lay it in a little more than usual since Vader is so damn big.

Plus, it wasn't like Vader held back on his punches.

A fan jumped into the ring at one point. He was caught in plain view by the cameras. This was before the days of television cameras looking away from the idiot that runs into the ring/runs onto the field.

Television networks use that tactic to not give any attention to the idiot, hoping that it would discourage anyone from doing it again. It does not work, as people still do this from time to time today.

After a long and grueling match, Bret Hart won by pinning The Patriot.

Hell in a Cell – Shawn Michaels def. The Undertaker

So you're probably wondering how the first Hell in a Cell match came about.

It all started at SummerSlam when The Undertaker defended his WWE championship against Bret Hart with Michaels serving as the special guest referee.

As most of you probably remember, The Undertaker lost the title to Bret Hart due in part to Michaels mistakenly hitting him over the head with a steel chair.

This obviously made The Undertaker quite angry. So he went on the hunt for Michaels and eventually got a one-on-one match with him the next month at Ground Zero: In Your House.

Things did not go well, as the match devolved into chaos rather quickly. Two or three referees were knocked out, a pair of brass knuckles got involved and calamity ensued.

This prompted WWE to book these two in a steel cage match just to keep these crazy men from hurting anyone else besides each other.

However, this wouldn't be any ordinary cage. This would be a new one that WWE had never used before called a Hell in a Cell.

The Cell was taller than a normal cage, it rested outside of the ring as opposed to the ring apron and it had a roof on it, making it impossible to get out of.

Once you went in, you didn't come out until the match was over. That was the intention at least.

On top of settling their grudge, The Undertaker and Michaels had something else to fight for, and that was to become the No. 1 contender to Bret Hart's WWE championship. That distinction would go to the winner of this match.

Michaels seemed very confident walking in, but backed away from The Undertaker to begin the match.

The proceedings began like a normal wrestling match at first. The Undertaker and Michaels stayed in the ring and had what looked like a traditional wrestling match.

That didn't last long though, as Undertaker tossed Michaels out of the ring and literally knocked his tights from around his waist. If Michaels didn't have underwear on under his tights, his bare butt would have been hanging out.

It wouldn't have been the first time.

I don't think Michaels landed a bit of offense for the first 10 minutes of the match. It was all about The Undertaker finally getting his hands on Michaels.

It looked like Michaels spit on a fan early on. It shouldn't come as a surprise if he actually did that given how volatile a personality he was at this point of his career.

Michaels introduced the first weapon into the match by using the steel steps to hit The Undertaker. Michaels eventually delivered a pile driver to The Undertaker onto the steel steps.

After doing that, he cussed at a cameraman for being in his way. Michaels wasn't always the nicest guy in the world back then.

Michaels then introduced a steel chair into the match, which was what he used on The Undertaker at SummerSlam.

Michaels was eventually flipped on top of another cameraman. He took exception to this and sucker punched him. McMahon took time to apologize to his family on commentary just in case they were watching.

Michaels wasn't always a pleasant guy in real life, but this was part of the match because this was how the cage door was opened. The referee opened the door so that the cameraman could be helped backstage to receive medical attention.

While that was happening, Michaels hit The Undertaker with sweet chin music, but Undertaker sat right up. This was enough for Michaels to go back on the run, but with the door open, he saw his escape route.

The Undertaker followed Michaels out of the cage and the fight continued. After being tossed into the cage multiple times, Michaels was cut open and bleeding everywhere.

Michaels was so desperate to get away from The Undertaker he climbed to the top of the cage. While Michaels was lying face down on top of the cage, another cameraman stood right under him to catch the action.

However, Michaels' blood began raining down through the cage and inside the ring. A drop of his blood hit the camera lens. The cameraman was not happy about this and audibly said, "Oh (word that rhymes with spit)!"

The Undertaker slammed Michaels on top of the Cell multiple times. Michaels was eventually able to begin to climb down, but The Undertaker caught him. He then stepped on Michaels' hands, which caused him to fall from the Cell through an announce table below.

It was quite the spectacle that was only topped by Mick Foley falling off the Cell the next year.

The moment was made better by Lawler yelling, "Incoming! Incoming!" before Michaels fell helplessly through the table.

The two men finally made their back inside the Cell and back into the ring. It looked like it was all over but the shouting at this point, as The Undertaker looked poised to finally vanquish Michaels.

That was until the lights went out and an unfamiliar sound blared through the speakers.

Suddenly, fire shot up from the entranceway and out came Paul Bearer with a massive masked man.

Let's rewind here a bit.

While The Undertaker was dealing with Michaels, he was also dealing with Bearer and his warnings that his brother Kane was still alive and was coming for him.

There was no telling when Kane would appear, so no one knew who the hell this guy was until McMahon yelled, "That's gotta be Kane!" 100 times before he got to the ring.

Kane ripped the padlocked door to the Cell off its hinges and stepped into the ring. He stood right in front of a stunned Undertaker and thrust his hands down, causing fire to shoot up from the ring posts. That had never been seen in WWE at that point.

The Undertaker looked like he had just saw a ghost. That's because in storyline he did, as he thought for years Kane was dead.

After the fire shot up from the ring posts, Kane grabbed The Undertaker and hit him with a tombstone.

Referee Earl Hebner climbed into the ring just as Michaels dragged his own body over The Undertaker to count to three, giving Michaels the unlikely victory and making him the No. 1 contender to the WWE championship.

Triple H, Chyna and Rick Rude returned to the ring and dragged a bloody Michaels backstage to celebrate the win.

WWE was on a roll with its main events in 1997 and this was just another example. In one night, WWE ended one hot angle and began two more.

By making Michaels the No. 1 contender, it set up the long-awaited rematch between him and Bret Hart for the championship at Survivor Series. Again, we all know what happened that night.

At the same time, it began a new mythology and rivalry for The Undertaker, as his brother Kane had arrived in WWE and would run through the WWE roster all the way up until WrestleMania 14 in March of 1998 when The Undertaker finally defeated his brother.