AEW Blood & Guts

AEW Blood & Guts is an annual professional wrestling television special produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) since 2021. The event airs mid-year as a special episode of the promotion's flagship weekly television program, Wednesday Night Dynamite; it originally aired on TNT in 2021, but has aired on TBS since 2022. The concept of the event comes from the Blood and Guts match, which is AEW's version of the classic WarGames match in which two teams fight inside a roofed cell structure that surrounds two rings placed side-by-side. Each main event match of the card is contested under the Blood and Guts stipulation.

AEW Blood & Guts
Official logo
PromotionsAll Elite Wrestling
First event2021
Signature matchesBlood and Guts match

The inaugural event was originally scheduled to occur in March 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed and instead took place in May 2021. The event returned in 2022, which moved it back to June, with the 2023 event held in July. Beginning with the 2022 event, a special episode of Friday Night Rampage titled Royal Rampage has been taped in conjunction with the Blood & Guts special.

History

On July 25, 2019, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), as a publicly traded company, conducted a conference call to announce its second-quarter fiscal year 2019 results. During the call, Eric Katz of Wolfe Research, LLC, asked WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vince McMahon questions regarding naming Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman as Executive Directors to WWE and its relationship to the future of WWE content, especially with stricter Broadcast Standards and Practices at the Fox network for SmackDown's upcoming move to broadcast television. McMahon responded to Katz's question:

We're going to be a bit edgier, but still remain in the PG environment. We just haven't come anywhere close actually to going into another level. So that will be something we'll do in terms of direction of content, more controversy, better storylines, et cetera. But at the same time, we're not going to go back to the Attitude Era, and we're not going to do blood and guts and things of that nature such as being done on perhaps a new potential competitor. We're just not going to go back to that gory crap that we graduated from. And again, a more sophisticated product, again, attracting much better writers and attracting better management, and things of that nature. So again, as I said, I feel really good about it.[1][2]

The term "blood and guts" used by McMahon was perceived as a reference to rival wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW).[3] On November 13, 2019, AEW filed a trademark for "Blood & Guts," a play on McMahon's term. During Revolution on February 29, 2020, AEW announced that the March 25 episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite would be subtitled Blood & Guts, and feature the promotion's first WarGames match, billed as a "Blood and Guts match" since the WarGames trademark is owned by WWE.[4][5]

The inaugural event was originally scheduled to take place on March 25, 2020, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey,[6][7] but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8] Over a year later, Blood & Guts was officially rescheduled to air as the May 5, 2021, episode of Dynamite on TNT and be held at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida due to the ongoing pandemic.[9] The event returned in June 2022 and was held at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan due to AEW's resumption of live touring in July 2021. Instead of airing on TNT, the 2022 event aired on TBS as Dynamite moved to TBS in January 2022.[10] The 2023 event was then held in July.[11]

Beginning with the 2022 event, a special episode of Friday Night Rampage on TNT titled Royal Rampage has been taped in conjunction with the Blood & Guts special.[12][13]

Concept

The concept of the event comes from the Blood and Guts match, and each main event match of the card is contested under the Blood and Guts stipulation. The rules for the Blood and Guts match are based on the classic WarGames format from Jim Crockett Promotions, and not the modern WWE format. The match features two rings enclosed by a steel cage, which was developed by wrestler Virgil Runnels, better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, the father of former AEW executive vice president and in-ring talent Cody Rhodes.[4][5] The notable format differences between the classic Crockett rules and the modern WWE rules are an enclosed cage with a roof (which was removed in modern versions) and the match can only be won with a submission or surrender. Like the classic Crockett format, a pin situation is not a win condition.[14]

Events
# Event Date City Venue Main Event Ref.
1 Blood & Guts (2021) May 5, 2021 Jacksonville, Florida Daily's Place The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz) vs. The Pinnacle (MJF, Wardlow, Shawn Spears, Cash Wheeler, and Dax Harwood) in a Blood and Guts match [15]
2 Blood & Guts (2022) June 29, 2022 Detroit, Michigan Little Caesars Arena The Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard, and Angelo Parker) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta), Eddie Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz in a Blood and Guts match [16]
3 Blood & Guts (2023) July 19, 2023 Boston, Massachusetts TD Garden The Golden Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, "Hangman" Adam Page, and Kota Ibushi) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta), Konosuke Takeshita, and Pac in a Blood and Guts match [17]

See also

References
  1. "World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. Q2 FY19 Earnings Call". Webcasts.com. Webcasts.com. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  2. The Motley Fool (31 July 2019). "World Wrestling Entertainment Inc (WWE) Q2 2019 Earnings Call Transcript". The Motley Fool. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  3. Fiorvanti, Tim and Raimondi, Marc (August 20, 2019). "What you need to know about NXT's move to USA Network". ESPN. Retrieved April 8, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Casey, Connor (February 29, 2020). "AEW Revives WarGames, Takes a Shot at WWE With AEW: Blood & Guts". ComicBook.com. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  5. Lambert, Jeremy (February 29, 2020). "AEW Dynamite: Blood & Guts Announced For March 25, WarGames Style Match To Be Featured". Fightful. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  6. "AEW DYNAMITE Location Changes". All Elite Wrestling. March 12, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  7. Dominguez, Noah (March 12, 2020). "AEW Announces Venue Changes, Including Blood & Guts Show, Due to COVID-19". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
  8. AEW Staff (March 20, 2020). "Message From AEW President & CEO Tony Khan". All Elite Wrestling. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  9. Rose, Brya (April 7, 2021). "THE INNER CIRCLE TO FACE THE PINNACLE IN AEW BLOOD AND GUTS MATCH". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  10. Rose, Bryan (June 1, 2022). "Blood and Guts announced for June 29 edition of AEW Dynamite". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  11. Casey, Connor (June 28, 2023). "AEW Blood and Guts 2023 Match Confirmed". ComicBook.com. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  12. Boone, Matt (June 29, 2022). "AEW Rampage To Feature "Royal Rampage" No. 1 Contender Match & More This Friday (7/1/2022)". PWMania. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  13. Rose, Bryan (July 14, 2023). "AEW announces return of Royal Rampage battle royal". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  14. Powell, Jason (March 11, 2020). "3/11 AEW Dynamite TV results: Powell's live review of Hangman Page and a mystery partner vs. Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara, Cody vs. Ortiz, MJF, The Butcher, and The Blade vs. Jurassic Express, "Death Triangle" Pac, Pentagon, and Fenix vs. Private Party and Joey Janela". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  15. Rose, Bryan (April 7, 2021). "The Inner Circle to face The Pinnacle in AEW Blood and Guts match". Figure Four Online. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  16. "6/29 AEW Dynamite results: Powell's live review of Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta, Santana, and Ortiz vs. Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard, and Angelo Parker in a Blood & Guts match, Jade Cargill vs. Leila Grey for the TBS Title, Orange Cassidy vs. Ethan Page". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. 29 June 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  17. Powell, Jason (July 19, 2023). "AEW Dynamite results (7/19): Powell's live review of Golden Elite vs. Blackpool Combat Club in a Blood & Guts match, MJF and Adam Cole vs. Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara in the Blind Eliminator tourney finals". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
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