Last weekend I flew down to the ATL to check out WWE’s Bad Blood PLE at State Farm Arena and I can’t even lie… I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!! First off, I’d like to say THANK YOU to WWE for the opportunity to even come down and cover the event for Kiss & 3NT Wrestling. I’ve been a lifelong fan of pro wrestling, ESPECIALLY the E, so being able to go watch an event live to take pictures & notes is a blessing in itself.
SO LET’S GET TO IT!
I got down to the A Friday afternoon and I linked up with my homie Rob Aurelius from ARCG Media & The Resilience Podcast in the airport and we caught the MARTA over to the Marriott Marquis hotel we were both staying in. Once I got checked in to my room and settled and everything I went back down to sit with Rob so he could interview me on his podcast. We talked about mental health, what resilience means to me, why peace is my priority and quite a bit more. That interview should be releasing soon, when it does of course I’ll post it here on 1019online so you guys can check it out. But after that.. I went back to my room, ordered some BBQ on DoorDash, watched Smackdown and went directly to sleep because I KNEW Saturday was about to be a lonnng, busy day!
Saturday morning was kinda insane. I was scrolling through Instagram and I see a headline saying that a man jumped from the 40th floor of the hotel I was in to the ground. Yikes. To be having a conversation about mental health and how important it is to find your peace just a few hours before and then to get some news like that.. is crazy. Personally I didn’t see or hear anything about the incident other than online.. no one in the hotel made mention of it at all. Anyway, fast forward.. I get an Uber from the hotel to the CNN Center so I can visit the WWE Bad Blood SuperStore to see what they had to offer in there. Atlanta was SOOO busy last weekend, my 15 min Uber ride turned to almost 45 because traffic was so bad. It was cool seeing everyone walking around the streets of ATL in their WWE merch, people yelling YEET and throwing up the ‘Ones’ for the OTC. Once I saw that I was like yeah.. these are my people, lol.
So once I got to the arena I went to the media check-in area to get my wristband and everything and once I walked into the arena.. you could literally feel the energy. That Atlanta crowd was LIT and ready for the graps for sure. I had a GREAT seat (Section 120, Row JJ, Seat 1) not too far from the floor on the hard camera side, right behind production and the FIRST thing I noticed when I walked in there was that huge Hell in a Cell structure hanging over the ring. It was a friendly reminder that s*** was about to go down.. and it definitely did! I’m not gonna rundown everything that happened in every match, but that opening match between CM Punk & Drew McIntyre in that cell set the tone for the whole night. 5 Star Match, no question. The perfect amount of violence without going too far over the top, which was the best way to finish up that rivalry. We also so Nia Jax retain her Undisputed Women’s Championship against Bayley, Damian Priest put hands and feet on Finn Balor for the W, Raquel Rodriguez made her return costing Rhea Ripley her match against WWE Women’s Champion Liv Morgan. The wildest part about that match was Dominic Mysterio hanging upside down by his foot from a shark cage while Rhea whipped his a** with a kendo stick, lmao! Finally, in the main event we saw the unlikely duo of Roman Reigns & Atlanta’s own Cody Rhodes get the win over The Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa & Jacob Fatu with the help of a returning Jimmy Uso. To close the event out we had one more surprise return… IF YA SMELLLLLL.. WHAT THE ROCK… IS COOKIN’! Not even gonna lie to you guys, when The Rock’s music hit I completely fanned out, lol. I’ve got some videos dropping soon and you’ll see my exact reaction.
After the event was over I was escorted to the back for the post-show press conference where Liv Morgan, Damien Priest & the Chief Content Officer & one of my absolute FAVORITE wrestlers of all time Triple H, fielded questions from the media about the event & other topics. I didn’t get to interview anyone or ask any questions this time unfortunately but the experience alone was still amazing!
Overall, I had a great time in Atlanta. If I had to rate Bad Blood on the 5 Star system I’d give it a solid 4 out of 5, MAINLY thanks to that Punk/Drew match. Another thing that I thought was cool as hell about Bad Blood in ATL was that it felt a lot more…. ‘urban’ than usual. The theme song for the event was Metro Boomin & Future’s ‘GTA’ from the We Don’t Trust You album that dropped earlier this year. Every time that joint came on in the arena you could see people vibing to it.. ESPECIALLY me. Felt like I was in the club, lol. Speaking of Metro, he was also in the crowd with his family sitting ringside enjoying the show along with Quavo, Lil Yachty, Lil Baby, Killer Mike and a few more ATL based artists. It was dope seeing Quavo & Metro reacting to all the big spots & whatnot.. like they were there living out their childhood fandom with huge smiles on their faces.. ya love to see it.
I booked my hotel for WrestleMania 41 in Vegas next April already and I’m patiently waiting for tickets to go on sale and PRAYING I get approved to do media for that as well when the time comes. But you guys know me.. I’ll have plenty of more info & news on upcoming wrestling events in the very near future. Hope you guys enjoyed the read! Check out some of the pics I got below!
