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It’s been building for months. WWE incorporated super-producer Metro Boomin and WWE star Cody Rhodes pumped out a series of vignettes hyping the pair’s October 5 return to Cody’s hometown of Atlanta. Aptly titled “Bad Blood,” the cinematic promos featured the duo staking out the State Farm Arena in ATL where the Premium Live Event was advertised to take place.
Back in August, Metro Boomin told Variety he was planning something big.
“As a lifelong fan of WWE it was an honor to work with the legend and undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes on bringing the iconic Bad Blood back home to Atlanta, Georgia. Cody’s story is inspiring to me, as I’m sure it is to millions of others and I’m very excited for October 5th so the world can see what we’ve been cooking up!”
However, Cody Rhodes caught wicked beat downs during his match, after it was over and apparently The Rock put a “hit” out him.
The alliance of hip-hop and wrestling was played up heavily during the event. Just minutes before the event’s 6:00 PM EST start time, you could see WWE Hall of Famer and Atlanta native Bill Goldberg walking to his floor seats with his family. Five minutes later, Killer Mike and his entourage casually strolled on the floor, sat next to the former World Heavyweight champion, and was greeted with nothing but love by the Goldbergs.
“It was dope, sitting next to him and his family,” Mike said on Sunday morning, coming from a walkthrough of his soon to be opened new restaurant Bankhead Seafood, a joint venture between Mike and fellow Atlanta rapper T.I.
“Goldberg was one of those character that was just perfect for wrestling. He was brought excitement to the ring.”
As the show started, it was a parade of WWE legends and current rap luminaries settling in their chairs to watch the action. Booker T., “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner, X-Pac, half of The Four Horsemen; Arn Anderosn and Tully Blanchard, and Diamond Dallas Page were among the Hall of Famers in the audience. While the rap world was heavily repped by Atlanta’s biggest label QC (Quality Control) and its platinum stalwarts Quavo, Lil Yachty and Lil Baby, who brought his children along as well.
“I want to thank Metro Boomin,” WWE Hall of Famer and its Chief Content Officer Triple H said at the press conference afterwards. “Also, I want to thank all the artists who came here tonight. There’s been a lot of support from the hip-hop community and the music community. It’s wonderful to see that engagement.”
“Bad Blood” featured WWE’s two biggest superstars, Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, in the main event. They squared off against emerging superstars Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu.
It was a homecoming for both. Cody is a Atlanta native, while Reigns played football for Georgia Tech in the mid 2000s. As a wrestler, the last four years have been the best of his career, transcending him into GOAT conversations. He had title reign that started in 2020 and lasted all the way until April this year.
Roman led his real-life cousins (twin brothers) Jimmy and Jey Uso and their younger brother Sikoa in the faction known as the Bloodline. Roman took the mantles as the “Tribal Chief” and “Head of The Table” making his collective arguably the most successful stable in the history of wrestling. Cody and Roman had a two-year long feud where Solo caused Cody to lose to Roman at WrestleMania 39 in 2023 with his outside interference. Leading up to their Main Event rematch at Mania 40, Jey Uso defected from the Bloodline, feuded with his brother and cousins, and was actually part of the alliance who helped Cody even the numbers against The Bloodline and beat Reigns to win the title. Roman disappeared from wrestling for months in the aftermath. In the interim, Solo physically excommunicated Jimmy Uso from The Bloodline six months ago and started his own version of the group with Jacob Fatu as his enforcer.
Reigns ended his long hiatus from WWE in August, interfering in the main event title match at Summer Slam between Rhodes and Solo. He attacked Sikoa, causing him to lose.
At the challenge of Solo and Fatu (who is also a real-life blood cousin of Reigns and Sikoa), Rhodes and Reigns formed an uneasy alliance and agreed to tag with each other at “Bad Blood.” It was vicious back and forth on Saturday, but with Jimmy Uso making a surprise return and distracting Sikoa, Roman was able to get the drop on his younger family member and pinned him.
Seeing Reigns and Uso stand with Cody Rhodes did not sit well with another cousin, The Rock, who “hates” Cody. The Rock made a surprise appearance and came out to an ovation. He gave the triumphant trio a death stare, put up three fingers; seemingly one for Roman, one for Jimmy and one for Cody. He then took two of his fingers and ran them across his throat, giving the universal mob boss (Rock calls himself “The Final Boss”) signal that their days are numbered.
After the show, Rock went to Instagram live and said “The Final Boss is feeling a lot of things about what he just witnessed. Because there’s been a bunch of bullshit going on the last six months… What just happened out there at Bad Blood, that was heat, that was hell.”
While the fans were filing out of State Farm Arena, so was Cody Rhodes. Before he could leave on his tour bus, he was confronted by his friend Kevin Owens in the parking lot. K.O. who has had beef with Reigns for four years, also took exception to Rhodes teaming with Roman. Owens attacked Cody, kicking and punching him while he lay on the ground, making for a viral moment as fans recorded the fracas and posted it on social media.
Another hip-hop star is already helping WWE hype up a 2025 Premium Live Event. Cardi B is featured with Bianca Belair in the commercial for Summer Slam of next year at New Jersey’s Met Life Stadium.
“It’s exactly what it should be,” Killer Mike said of the wrestling and hip-hop union. “I remember being a kid, if you weren’t into playing the big three; baseball, basketball or football, you were one of the kids that was into comic books and/or wrestling and/or hip-hop.
“It’s working class people’s theater,” he continued. “It gives us an opportunity to get our shit off, whether it’s our highest ambitions or lowest of the lows, these character represent that for us. It’ll be forever dope. WWE put together some dope product. I’ve enjoyed it my entire life — shout-out to my wrestling heads.”
According to Triple H, Bad Blood’s 16,000 plus sell-out crowd had the largest arena gate total in WWE history and it was their 60 th sell out this year.
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