Where Are They Now?: All Wrestlers At Badd Blood: In Your House (1997)

With Hell in A Cell fast approaching, it seems fitting that we look back on the first ever Hell in A Cell. This bout contested between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels took place at the Badd Blood: In Your House PPV, with the new gimmick match main eventing. Here, we look at all the wrestlers on the card to see where they are today.  

It was announced at the top of the show that Brian Pillman had died earlier that day. At the time, he was the owner of Goldust’s manager Marlena and was scheduled to wrestle Mick Foley’s Dude Love persona. In actually his last PPV as the chief broadcaster, Vince McMahon made the point of commentary that this was a common occurrence in sports to try to defend the company’s honor.  

D’Lo Brown 

In the first match of the show, The Nation of Domination defeated The Legion of Doom in a 2-on-3 handicap match.  

The always exciting Brown would go on to have a memorable mid-card run during the Attitude Era, becoming the first Euro-Continental champion – being one of the defining faces of the European title belt.  

The underrated master of the Lo Down would go on to find later success in TNA, currently serving as a commentator in Impact! Wrestling alongside Josh Matthews since January 2021. 

Kama Mustafa 

Previously the fighting machine, Kama gained a surname and joined The Nation in a profile-raising spot that even saw him become the 2^nd person to pin The Undertaker on Raw. 

Perhaps known better under other guises such as Papa Shango, The Goodfather or mostly memorably The Godfather – Charles Wright managed Cheetah’s Strip Club in his years after wrestling. An avid smoker of marijuana, Wright was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016 and has made sporadic WWE appearances with the most recent being at Survivor Series 2020 during his good friend The Undertaker’s retirement ceremony.  

Rocky Maivia 

Over a year away from becoming WWE champion, it was clear even from this stage that the future The Rock had a great deal of talent. In this, the recently turned heel Maivia got the win, pinning Hawk after a Rock Bottom. 

Today, The Rock is very hard to miss as the biggest movie star in the world, with his films grossing over $10 billion worldwide. His work in acting has made him one of the best-known people in the world today. 

Animal 

Ken Shamrock was scheduled for the show but this had to be altered when ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man’ was injured. With this, the members of the Legion of Doom faced The Nation trio in unsuccessful fashion, helping the renovated faction to further cement themselves as a threat. 

Unfortunately, Joseph ‘Animal’ Laurinaitis passed away in September 2020 at 60 years old. Animal had appeared in pretty much every wrestling promotion of the past few decades such as: the NWA, AWA, WWF, TNA, NJPW, WCW and AEW. He also has left a legacy on fashion, being an investor in Zubaz pants.  

Hawk 

Hawk ate the pin in the match after a distraction from Faarooq, blindsiding shot by Kama and Rock Bottom by Maivia – with the Road Warrior protected in defeat. A pretty enjoyable match, it was likely the best tag match on a card featuring many match types of that stipulation. 

Despite going on to win tag gold shortly after this event, the duo would not survive much longer with Hawk’s real-life drug issues being tastelessly brought into storyline making for hard watching. Hawk continued wrestling until his death at age 46 in 2003 from a sudden heart attack. 

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