WWE Bad Blood (originally stylized as Badd Blood) is a professional wrestling event produced by WWE, a Connecticut-based professional wrestling promotion. The event was first held in October 1997 when the promotion was still called the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and that first event was held as the 18th In Your Housepay-per-view (PPV) event. After six years and after the promotion had been renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Bad Blood returned as its own PPV event in June 2003, replacing King of the Ring. In 2005, One Night Stand replaced Bad Blood; Vengeance had also moved to June that year as The Great American Bash moved to July. Bad Blood had been announced to be revived in 2017; however, these plans were scrapped in favor of an event titled Great Balls of Fire. After a 20-year hiatus, Bad Blood returned in October 2024, and became the first Bad Blood to air on WWE's livestreaming platforms.
The first Bad Blood is known for introducing the Hell in a Cell match, a 20-foot high roofed cell structure that surrounds the ring and ringside area. It has been contested at every Bad Blood with the match headlining the events in 1997, 2003, and 2004. To coincide with the first brand extension, the 2003 and 2004 Bad Blood events were both held exclusively for wrestlers of the Raw brand division. The brand split ended in 2011 but it returned in 2016. Since April 2018, all of WWE's main roster PPV and livestreaming events have featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown brands.
In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a result of a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund over the "WWF" initialism.[3] Also around this time, the promotion held a draft that split its roster into two distinctive brands of wrestling, Raw and SmackDown!, where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform.[4] In 2003, WWE reinstated Bad Blood as its own PPV (with the stylization being "Bad Blood" instead of the previous "Badd Blood") to replace the previously annual King of the Ring PPV; King of the Ring ceased being produced as a PPV (until 2024), but the titular tournament continued to be produced periodically. To coincide with the brand extension, both the 2003 and 2004 Bad Blood events, which were both held in June, exclusively featured wrestlers from the Raw brand. Like the original event, the 2003 and 2004 events featured a Hell in a Cell match as the main event.[5][6] After the 2004 event, however, Bad Blood was discontinued and doubly replaced by One Night Stand and Vengeance;[7][8] the latter had also moved into the June slot as The Great American Bash moved into the July slot that Vengeance previously held.[9]
In March 2017, WWE announced that it would be reviving Bad Blood to be held on July 9, 2017, from the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.[10] However, these plans were scrapped in favor of an event titled Great Balls of Fire.[11] After 20 years since the last Bad Blood event, WWE announced that Bad Blood would in fact return and be held at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia on October 5, 2024, the 27-year anniversary of the first Bad Blood.[12] Like the previous editions, the 2024 event also featured the Hell in a Cell match but it opened that year's show instead of closing it. This would also be the first Bad Blood to air via WWE's livestreaming platforms, a medium that WWE began using in 2014. The event also featured wrestlers from both Raw and SmackDown as WWE's pay-per-view and livestreaming events have featured wrestlers from both since 2018.[13]
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