5-Star Match Reviews: CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre – WWE Bad Blood 2024

Now that I’m back from vacation I have a lot of catching up to do on the writing side. As such I received an email from a regular reader to go over this match. And for good reason: everyone seems to have loved this match. Both Dave Meltzer and Scott Keith gave it the full 5-Star treatment. The BoD community voted it the Match of the Year for 2024 and it came close to winning the staunchly opinionated Wrestling Observer’s MOTY as well. It was even considered MOTY for 2024 in WWE (though it tied with Cody vs. Reigns at WrestleMania XL). Personally I didn’t get to enjoy this match to the fullest live because I suddenly fell ill while watching it live. By the time I recovered this show was long over so that cast a pall on things for me. Now, though, I can revisit this beloved match and see what all the buzz was about.

The Story

This feud began at the 2024 Royal Rumble match. Punk, hot off his explosive WWE return at Survivor Series after his even more heated exit from AEW three months before that, ate a Future Shock DDT from McIntyre and in the process injured his right triceps (not the same one he injured in AEW). This scuttled WWE’s plans for a singles match between Punk and Seth Rollins yet WWE make a positive out of a negative by having McIntyre mock Punk on commentary in the months that followed. Then at WrestleMania XL Punk sat on commentary during McIntyre’s World Heavyweight Title challenge against Rollins and then attacked the victorious McIntyre when he gloated too close to the sun. This attack allowed MITB briefcase holder Damian Priest to cash in on a weakened McIntyre and claim McIntyre’s freshly-won WHC. This, coupled with Punk humiliating McIntyre in front of his fellow countrymen at Clast at the Castle: Scotland, gave McIntyre even more reason to loathe Punk and seek revenge on him. Eventually Punk recovered from his injury and returned to wrestling at SummerSlam. There he faced McIntyre but lost because he thought Seth Rollins, the special guest referee, was trying to sabotage him. Then they had a rematch at Bash in Berlin, which was a strap match that Punk won. With the score tied a deciding contest was needed, one without the possibility of shenanigans, interference, or the notion of a crooked official: Hell in a Cell. With this stipulation there would be no questions or controversy and both men would settle their differences once and for all. And just to make sure he was firmly under Punk’s skin, McIntyre attacked Punk shortly after their strap match, stole a friendship bracelet he wore on his wrist, and shoved the beads into his mouth.

The Match

This took place on October 5, 2024.

After a long staredown and some trash-talking they start trading punches. McIntyre overpowers Punk and throws him to ringside which leads to a chant of “we want tables”. Punk reverses an Irish whip and sends McIntyre into the cell wall. Then he gives the fans what they want and pulls out a table, along with a chair. He puts the table in the ring but McIntyre wrestles the chair from him and cracks him in the back with it. McIntyre smashes Punk into steel steps and pulls out a toolbox from under the ring. Finally, something under the ring that logically belongs there. He grabs a wrench and swings at Punk but misses, losing the wrench in the process. Punk grabs it and squeezes it into McIntyre’s forehead. He chases McIntyre back into the ring but McIntyre creates some distance with a cross chop to the throat. McIntyre goes to the table and rips off one of the legs to use as a weapon. Well that’s inventive. But Punk avoids getting hit and drop toeholds McIntyre throat-first onto the edge of the table in a nice moment of tit-for-tat revenge.

Punk grabs the table leg and drives it downward with McIntyre getting his hand up at the last possible moment. He smashes McIntyre into the back of the table twice and tries to force MvcIntyre eye-first into the table leg. McIntyre breaks free and escapes which leads to a struggle at ringside and a Claymore Kick from McIntyre. McIntyre follows with a javelin toss into the cell wall which leaves Punk bleeding from the forehead. Still not satisfied, McIntyre smashes the steel steps into Punk’s head and then stomps on his head once it’s placed atop those same steps. Then he gloats, saying, “I’m going to end your career. Your wife is going to leave you”.

Back in the ring McIntyre uses the wrench on Punk’s wound and then pulls out another table. He slows the match down as he punches the open wound and basks in his own carnage. Punk escapes a snake eyes attempt and lands a corner kneelift. Punk goes for the bulldog part of that combination. McIntyre resists and attempts some sort of backdrop. Punk fights free and lands a diving ax handle. Punk attempts another diving attack, this time with a wrench in hand. McIntyre catches him and suplexes him across the ring. McIntyre teases another Claymore but Punk bails to ringside. McIntyre walks over to yank him back into the ring but Punk hits him right in the head with the toolbox. Now McIntyre’s bleeding too.

Punk makes his comeback with toolbox shots, a trio of corner kneelifts, and a successful running bulldog. McIntyre avoids one GTS but can’t avoid a second. But he CAN roll out of the ring to escape getting pinned. Punk musters enough strength to get McIntyre back into the ring, only for McIntyre to drill him with a Claymore kick out of nowhere. One, two, Punk kicks out. McIntyre attempts another Claymore. Punk dodges and locks in a sharpshooter. McIntyre fights out with the wrench and digs it further into Punk’s head.

As both men lay on the mat the referee uses a towel to wipe blood out of their eyes which leads to boos. Both men fight to their feet leading to a pay/boo punch exchange. Both guys escape each other’s finishers. Chops from McIntyre. Roundhouse kick from Punk. Both guys end up on opposite sides of the sane corner…which leads to Punk hitting another kneelift and McIntyre landing a vertical suplex over the rope and through the table on the floor below.

Realizing that wasn’t enough, McIntyre slowly brings steel steps into the ring, straining his injured back as he does so. He attempts some move onto the steps when Punk suddenly lands a GTS for two. then McIntyre powers up and lands a White Noise on the steps for another close near-fall. McIntyre tries a swinging sidewalk slam. Punk counters it mid-move into an Anaconda Vise. McIntyre grabs another wrench. Punk steals it and hammers him with it instead. Punk winds up for a big overhead strike. McIntyre gets to his knees and pleads for mercy, which turns into a low blow. Then McIntyre pulls out a velvet bag containing thumbtacks the beads from that friendship bracelet and dumps them over Punk’s head. McIntyre goes for another Claymore…and misses. He hits the steps spine-first. Punk wraps a chain around his knee and grabs two handfuls of beads. He shove the beads into McIntyre’s mouth. Chain-knee GTS. One, two, three! Punk wins!

Winner after 31:23: CM Punk.

You can watch the full match here.

Review

I’m likely to be in the minority here but I don’t think this was that much of a top-tier, GOAT-contender level of a match. It certainly had many strong points that explain why so many people loved it: a dramatic and emphatic conclusion to a months-long story, solid chemistry between two talented athletes, some much-needed creativity in a stipulation that has featured so much already, appropriate and effective us of blood as a storytelling device, and a believable sense of animosity that, to an extent, blurred the line just enough to make people believe that these two men hated each other. By 2024 standards this was exceptional: in an industry that’s increasingly leaning into the phonier and stagier side having this degree of realism and plausibility makes it a much-needed breath of fresh air.

And yet there was still something a bit off here. Compared to Cell matches like Undertaker/Michaels and Triple H/Mick Foley, it falls just a bit short of those same heights due to a collection of small details that, when combined, can’t be easily dismissed. McIntyre shifted between serious and focused on one end and gloating on the other. Punk was obviously extremely limited given his age and physical condition so he had to limit his spots which left McIntyre needing to carry the load of bumping and physicality. The bit with the friendship bracelet, while fitting for the story, was still somewhat tonally childish and contrasted a bit too much with the more serious and violent setting these men were in. But most importantly, this was another case of Hell in a Cell bait-and-switch with it turning into a hardcore match within the cage. Maybe I’m being a bit too much of a purist, but does every big match have to feature tables just because the audience chants for them in a Pavlovian way? Couldn’t these two men tell the same story without the same implements seen in every main-event match showcased for the past several years? Yes, I know, even the best HIAC matches mentioned above featured weapons. And yet in those matches the weapons were used as opportunities and not something to build towards. In contrast, this match had long build towards convoluted spots that, while novel and inventive, didn’t have the biggest payoffs since both guys brushed off big spots quite quickly.

Final Rating: ****1/2

This is a great match but it falls just short of that top-tier threshold. All the right parts were there but these guys just missed the mark by putting too many tools at the wrestlers’ disposal. Had they taken out the tables and trimmed off about five minutes of slowness in which little happened then this would be a much better match than it already is. For a match that was built on such a deep and cutting personal rivalry these two could’ve told either an equally good or a better story without having to rely on the token plunder found with so many setup-heavy weapons spots.

This isn’t to say the match isn’t deserving of the praise; it definitely is given how much carnage and violence were put on display. But there’s a difference between a HIAC match that gives off an unshakeable sense of claustrophobia and man-versus-monster-inspired sense of panic, a HIAC match that makes people surrender to emotions at the sight of the good guy being forced to retire despite giving it his all, and a HIAC match that tries to tell a story of a deep, personal grudge but leans into the token demolition derby trope done just to pop the crowd.

At the end of the day this was a great match but both men had better matches before. McIntyre’s best was that triple threat match with Sheamus and GUNTHER at WrestleMania 39 while Punk’s was either his match with John Cena at MITB 2011 or his match with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2013. Any of those matches will give you more bang for your buck and you’ll feel just as satisfied as here if not more so.

Thanks for reading.