WWE Bad Blood takes place tonight (Sat., Oct. 5) at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

The event begins at 5:00 p.m. ET with the free countdown show running for one hour on YouTube, WWE.com and various other social media channels. That leads directly to the PPV at 6pm ET, which you can stream on a range of devices if you have a subscription to Peacock in the US and WWE Network everywhere else.

Roman Reigns’ return match is nothing special unless “the big guy” finally returns to WWE

The main event of Bad Blood is a tag team match between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu of The Bloodline.

On paper, this game should be a pretty big deal. Rhodes and Reigns are the two biggest stars in WWE. This is Roman’s first match since losing the WWE Championship to Cody six months ago. Jacob Fatu is the most protected heel on the SmackDown roster. When you add it all up, there’s a lot to like about this fight. The problem is that this match is being promoted as the main event of Bad Blood, even though it pales in comparison to CM Punk’s Hell in a Cell match with Drew McIntyre.

Solo Sikoa’s stock took a big hit when he was beaten clean by Cody a few weeks ago, and this tag team match is zero stakes. “The Return of Roman Reigns” would normally be a solid hook for the main event of a WWE PLE, but not when there is a highly anticipated Hell in a Cell match elsewhere on the card while Roman is in a zero-stakes Tag teams will compete against each other in a game in which the decisive point in advance was a face-to-face meeting on a football field.

WWE had plenty of TV time in recent weeks to add more momentum to Roman’s return match, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Cody continued The Pat McAfee Show and hinted that this event will have a major impact on Crown Jewel’s title. McAfee said he heard “the big guy” was returning to WWE this week, and The Rock happened to be in Georgia.

This had led to a lot of speculation that the final boss would make a surprise appearance in Bad Blood. If that’s true, then it’s exactly the missing ingredient that Roman’s return game needs to emerge as a must-see attraction and a fitting main event of “Bad Blood.” But what if The Rock isn’t in the building? Well, the tag team match between Roman and Cody is cool, but it’s nothing compared to Hell in a Cell.

Will The Rock return to WWE tonight for a memorable appearance at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia that will have major title implications? You’ll have to tune in to Bad Blood to see exactly what happens when Roman Reigns returns to the ring as a babyface and teams up with Cody Rhodes to fight The Bloodline.

The rest of the map

Here are the four remaining matches also promoted for Bad Blood:

CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre in a Hell in a Cell match

Punk and McIntyre have been feuding all year, but now they’ve finally reached the end of their tether. There are no funnier one-liners left. There are no more silly bracelets. The hatred these two men have for each other has brought them to the point where they must kill each other in a bloody and violent spectacle that the human body should not endure. This means that their feud can only end in one way, and that is in Hell in a Cell. What else actually needs to be said?

Liv Morgan (c) vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship, with Daddy Dom locked in a shark cage

Ripley has been determined to destroy Morgan and that piece of shit Dominik Mysterio ever since she was betrayed at SummerSlam. Ripley failed to beat Morgan for the Women’s Championship that night, as Dom decided to abandon her in favor of Liv.

Rhea is back to fight for the title again at Bad Blood, but she’s having a lot of trouble with The Judgment Day’s damn numbers game. As a result, Rhea’s knee is compromised ahead of this title fight. However, General Manager Adam Pearce agreed to lock Dominik in a shark cage to prevent him from helping Liv this time, so Ripley has that in her favor.

Can Dirty Dom overcome his fear of being locked behind bars in time to slip a gun through the cage to Liv and help her win?

Damian Priest vs. Finn Balor

Balor blames Priest for never winning the world title last year. Finn patiently waited for the right time to get his revenge, and then he betrayed Damian at SummerSlam and ruined his world title. Now Balor wants to prove that Damian Priest always needed The Judgment Day and The Judgment Day never needed him. Of course, Finn needed that damn numbers game from The Judgment Day the last few weeks to keep Priest on the mat.

Priest is probably the better man in a fair fight against Balor, but he will never win that fair fight until he finds a way to neutralize the other members of his former faction.

Queen Nia Jax (c) vs. Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship

A few weeks ago on SmackDown there was a tag team match where Jax and Tiffany Stratton had the chance to force Bayley or Naomi to leave SmackDown for good. However, Bayley and Naomi won the match, meaning Jax had to defend her Bad Blood championship against one of them. Bayley defeated Naomi to take that spot. So here we are.

Bayley feels like she was cheated out of the belt when Stratton helped Jax beat her at SummerSlam. This is Bayley’s chance to right the wrongs and win back her gold. But what if Stratton decides to steal the spotlight and cash in her Money in the Bank contract on the winner?

Summary

WWE Bad Blood is a hot card that features the top two matches. Roman Reigns steps into a WWE ring for the first time in six months, teaming up with Cody Rhodes. CM Punk and Drew McIntyre will attempt to assassinate each other in Hell in a Cell. The Rock could be in the building and ready to set up a major spot for next month’s Crown Jewel event. Dominik Mysterio is behind bars again. For WWE fans, this sounds like an all-round great time.

What will you pay attention to? Bad blood?