The ‘Blood and Guts’ special of AEW Dynamite from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee on July 24 delivered everything fans were expecting from it.

The main event of the show was the classic cage match brought back to life where Team AEW took on The Elite. The bout was every bit as brutal as expected with memorable spots such as Darby Allin’s coffin drop from the ceiling of the cage and The Elite teaming up to attack Swerve Strickland with staple guns.

The Babyfaces won the match at the end after Darby almost set Jack Perry on fire, and it was the perfect cue for a…marriage proposal.

A video has surfaced online which shows ringside announcer Justin Roberts helping a fan in the front row propose to his girlfriend after Dynamite went off air:

What Happened on Dynamite

The special episode of the Wednesday night show featured many notable story developments before the main event. The opening segment saw the new AEW International Champion MJF cutting a promo.

The Salt of The Earth did something unthinkable and threw the International title belt in the garbage. He said that he deserves a better title, before unveiling a new belt dubbed the AEW American Championship.

The show also included matches such as Chris Jericho vs. Minoru Suzuki and Hikaru Shida vs. Dr Britt Baker. If all this wasn’t enough, the long-anticipated debut of a female star also took place during the night. You can check out more about it here.

• MJF vs Will Ospreay Rematch Set For All In

All Elite Wrestling presents AEW Dynamite: Blood and Guts tonight live on TBS from the Bridgestone Arena. (Get Tickets). This is historically one of AEW’s best shows of the year, and Blood and Guts is a big-time stipulation match. Here’s a preview of the matches and segments confirmed for tonight:

Blood and Guts: Team Elite vs. Team AEW

• Team Elite: Adam Page, Kazuchika Okada, Matthew & Nicholas Jackson and Jack Perry
• Team AEW: Swerve Strickland, Darby Allin, Mark Brisco and The Acclaimed

The Young Bucks come into the match with the most experience after winning a Blood & Guts match last year. They’ll try to use their knowledge to help give their team the victory and remain the dominant faction in AEW.

Blood & Guts Rules

Blood and Guts is AEW’s take on the classic ‘WarGames’ match created by Dusty Rhodes in the 1980’s. This ‘match beyond’ involves two teams of 5 wrestlers fighting inside a roofed cell structure surrounding two rings. Two men begin, there are staggered entrances and a winner cannot be decided until all participants have entered. The match can only end by pinfall or submission – there’s no disqualifications, no count-outs and no escape.

Official AEW Blood and Guts 2024 Poster

FTW Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki

Chris Jericho puts his title on the line for the third time against New Japan Pro Wrestling legend Minoru Suzuki. The match was made official last week with the added stipulation that other members of the Learning Tree(Big Bill & Bryan Keith) would be banned from ringside.

Dr. Britt Baker, DMD vs. Hikaru Shida

Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, makes her return to in-ring competition against former rival Hikaru Shida. It will mark the former AEW Women’s World Champion’s first match in over ten months.

The Debut of “The Glamour” Mariah May

Mariah May will reintroduce herself in AEW under the moniker “The Glamour.” The episode is being advertised as her debut, so she’ll be in action against an opponent who will be revealed during the show.

Keep it locked to SEScoops for more coverage of AEW Blood and Guts and head over to our AEW News section for more.

What Happened Last Week?

Last week’s Dynamite saw MJF and Will Opsreay deliver a 60-minute match-of-the-year contender for the AEW International Championship, Mercedes Moné in action against Nyla Rose, an appearance by ‘Timeless’ Mariah May and more here:

Watch: AEW Dynamite 250 Highlights: July 17, 2024

AEW: Blood & Guts 2024 comes to Nashville, TN on Wednesday, July 24 at the Bridgestone Arena. The event will air live on TBS as part of a special edition of AEW Dynamite. This year, the dreaded 5-on-5 double cage match will pit Team Elite against Team AEW.

• Team Elite will be The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, Jack Perry and one more partner TBA.
• ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe is the first member to declare his participation on Team AEW. The four remaining spots will be announced in the week ahead.

Blood & Guts is an annual TV special produced by All Elite Wrestling since 2021.

The Blood and Guts match is AEW’s version of the classic WarGames match. This involves two teams fighting inside a roofed cell structure surrounding two rings.

The event was originally scheduled for March 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, eventually debuting in May 2021. It has since become an annual mid-year event, with subsequent shows held in June 2022 and July 2023.

According to a new report, one of AEW’s injured wrestlers is already on the way to recovering.

A few weeks ago, during the Blood & Guts match on AEW Dynamite, AEW star Santana suffered an injury. He injured his left knee during a spot with Daniel Garcia just minutes after he entered the match. It was a non-contact injury.

Update & Timetable

Dave Meltzer reported, in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, that Santana had “reconstructive knee surgery and looks to be out about eight months.”

This confirms what Chris Jericho said on the True Gordie Podcast. Jericho said that Santana injured his knee doing a simple rock bottom and that he would be out for eight months.

It was previously reported that Santana attended a live event in Puerto Rico last weekend to relinquish a championship that he was holding. He was also seen walking on crutches at the indie wrestling event.

Konnan recently confirmed reports of there being a rift between Proud & Powerful or Santana & Ortiz. They had not worked a normal tag team match together in 2022. Before he was injured, Santana had been working as a singles star on the indie scene this year.

• Wrestling Injury Tracker: Updated List of Everyone Out of Action

AEW is planning on bringing back their ‘Blood and Guts’ match soon, according to Dave Meltzer.

The ‘Blood and Guts’ match earned its name when Vince McMahon dismissed AEW, saying in 2019 that TNT will not appreciate “blood and guts” on their programming.

Back in April, Tony Khan said he expects Blood & Guts to be back this summer.

On Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said he does not know who will be in the match, but current storytelling suggests that the Jericho Appreciation Society will be involved.

On this week’s Dynamite, the JAS was confronted by Eddie Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz as well as all four members of the Blackpool Combat Club.

At this time, neither the JAS, the BCC nor Kingston, Santana, or Ortiz have been announced for Double or Nothing 2022.

Next week’s AEW Dynamite will see Jericho and BCC’s William Regal go face-to-face in a promo segment.

The first ‘Blood and Guts’ match

AEW has hosted just one ‘Blood and Guts’ match so far, which was originally meant to happen in March 2020.

That show was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the first-ever ‘Blood and Guts’ event would take place over a year later in May 2021.

In the show’s main event, The Pinnacle defeated the Inner Circle in the titular match, after the Inner Circle surrendered when MJF threatened to throw Chris Jericho off the cage.

Throwing Jericho off anyway, the spot was heavily criticized as the former World Champion clearly landed on a crash pad (disguised as steel on the entrance stage).

At the time, a member of WWE management reportedly said that the ‘Blood and Guts’ match “just set the business back 30 years.”

• New Trademark Filed by Chris Jericho (May 2022)

Last week, AEW presented a War Games style match titled Blood & Guts from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. According to PW Insider, WWE management hated the match with at least one person believing it will have serious negative implications for the industry.

“That just set the business back 30 years,” one person from WWE management reportedly said anonymously to PW Insider.

The match featured several wrestlers bleeding and Chris Jericho being pushed off the cage at the end.

The term “Blood & Guts” was actually a reference to similar criticism lobbied against AEW by Vince McMahon. At WWE’s 2nd quarter earnings call in 2019, McMahon stated he didn’t feel TNT would put up with AEW’s “blood and guts” approach for too long.

“As far as competition is concerned, the old adage is ‘competition is good for everyone,’ I think that’s generally the case,” McMahon said on the call about AEW. “We’re hoping that, to the extent that they are competition, they don’t continue with blood and guts and gory things that they have been doing, which would be bad. I can’t imagine, I can’t speak for TNT, but I can’t imagine they would put up with that.”

WWE has had similarly violent matches and segments recently, however. At Extreme Rules in 2020, Rey Mysterio’s eyeball was completely removed from his head in storyline. Bray Wyatt was also set on fire recently on WWE RAW.

This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite ended with the spectacle of the Blood & Guts match. This is a bout that had been in consideration since 2020, although originally it was believed that Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle would be taking on The Elite.

With the COVID-19 pandemic putting those plans on hold, we had to wait over a year to see exactly how AEW would pull off their own version of WarGames. This time we would see MJF and The Pinnacle take on The Inner Circle, with MJF and his group taking the win after The Inner Circle had to surrender to try and save their leader, Jericho.

MJF threw Le Champion off the top of the cell anyway, with the show going off air with EMTs and The Inner Circle helping the former AEW Champion. After the match, The Pinnacle’s ‘mentor’ and Four Horsemen legend Tully Blanchard spoke to cameras backstage about the group and their massive win on Dynamite.

Tully Blanchard on The Pinnacle

“What you’re looking at is King of Blood & Guts!” Blanchard began. “These guys right here took everything that the Inner Circle could dish out.”

“And yet, they’re over there waving down, ‘No, no, no, no! We give up, we give up!” Blanchard continued, slamming The Inner Circle. “And that’s all it took to get our hands raised. You guys right here [pointing at The Pinnacle], you dug deep inside, you took everything they could dish out, and you walked out on top.”

“That’s the way it is! That’s what it’s about, being on the top!” Tully Blanchard concluded. “Being at the Pinnacle, that’s what it’s about. Ladies and gentlemen, it is your honor to look at these five guys.”

Do you think that the feud between MJF and Chris Jericho will continue? Let us know in the comments

All Elite Wrestling will present the first Blood and Guts match in company history on the May 5th edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT. Blood and Guts is AEW’s version of War Games, the double steel cage match created by the late Dusty Rhodes.

Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle will square off MJF’s Pinnacle faction in what’s sure to be a violent affiar that lives up to the Blood and Guts name.

On a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed some details about what fans can expect from this special episode of Dynamite.

“I think it’s going to be a one match show,” said Meltzer. He clarified that AEW might pre-record some other matches and video packages, but he expects that entire show to be built around B&G and for it to be the only live match that takes place that night.

AEW Blood and Guts: May 5th

AEW Dynamite is a 2-hour show, so Blood and Guts will be a long match. The 10-man elimination match will feature ‘old school’ rules – with no pinfalls.

The Blood and Guts double steel cage will feature a roof, which stays true to Dusty Rhodes’ original concept. WWE’s version of the match, War Games, did not feature a roof.

AEW is just the latest promotion to present their own version of the mythical War Games match. Aside from the original War Games match presented by the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987, other companies that put their own spin on the “match beyond” include ECW, Smoky Mountain, Ring of Honor, Impact Wrestling, Major League Wrestling and WWE/NXT.

AEW has announced that they are postponing the special “Blood & Guts” edition of Dynamite to a later date because the timing and circumstances for it are not right.

The company president Tony Khan released a statement on the matter on Twitter saying that their goal with Dynamite is to produce great shows for their fans.

He continued by announcing that the Blood and Guts match which was originally planned for next week’s episode of the show will happen when the time is right:

“We plan to continue answering that calling with live weekly shows every Wednesday night on TNT, but the time and circumstances aren’t right for the card we had planned next week for Blood and Guts.

That show will happen when the time is right, but what you can count on instead this coming Wednesday night is a great live episode of AEW Dynamite.”

While this match has been postponed, the company has announced a confrontation segment between Chris Jericho and the newest AEW star Matt Hardy for the next episode of their TV Show.

Matt is expected to join the Elite and face off against the Inner Circle when the Blood And Guts match finally happens. No word yet on if the other announced matches for the show will take place as planned or if they have been postponed as well.

You can check out the company’s full statement below:

AEW will be reportedly be going forward with their plans for the six-man tag team match between The Elite and The Inner Circle on this Wednesday’s Dynamite.

There have been several changes regarding AEW Dynamite’s location. Originally, AEW was going to Rochester, NY for Dynamite but it was then moved to Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place.

On Friday, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry announced that the city is suspending all events and gatherings at city facilities due to the coronavirus outbreak. TIAA Bank Field, which is one of the impacted venues announced by the mayor, is connected to Daily’s Place where Dynamite will be held. It is, however, believed that the show is still on at the venue but will be held without an audience.

Coming back to The Elite-Inner Circle match, the winners of this bout will receive an entry advantage in the upcoming Blood and Guts match. The match features two factions, Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz vs. Cody, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and a partner that is yet to be determined.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Radio, AEW President Tony Khan was rewriting this week’s show and chose to keep the six-man tag team match in. Since this match is being held to determine who will get an entry advantage in the Blood and Guts match, it is being speculated that said match is going to take place on March 25 as planned.

While the show was originally scheduled to take place on March 25 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, it will possibly be held at the same venue as this week’s show – at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida.

All Elite Wrestling will reveal the rules for the upcoming “Blood and Guts” match this Wednesday on Dynamite. The promotion revealed the participants in the match today, however.

The 2-ring steel cage match will pit two teams against each other: The Elite and the Inner Circle. Based on the match graphic released by AEW, it will be Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz representing the Inner Circle against Cody Rhodes, Adam “Hangman” Page, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks.

The rules for Blood and Guts will be announced on this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite.

AEW’s first Blood and Guts match takes place on a special edition of Dynamite on Wednesday, March 25th from Newark, NJ at the the Prudential Center.

AEW Dynamite Preview (3/11)

The following matches are scheduled for Dynamite this week:

• Cody vs Ortiz
• MJF & the Butcher and the Blade vs Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy, Marko Stunt & Luchasaurus)
• Joey Janela & Private Party vs The Death Triangle
• Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs Hangman Page & TBD

• Kenny Omega Not Medically Cleared, Hangman Page to Team With Mystery Partner Next Week

The show will emanate from the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah, USA. The following week AEW will broadcast from the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York.

AEW has filed to trademark the name, “All Elite Wrestling Blood and Guts” with the above styled logo. The news was first reported by Pro Wrestling News Hub.

According to a search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Electronics Search System, AEW applied for the trademark last Wednesday, November 13th.

The trademark application includes dozens of uses, including, “Live video streaming of video pay-per-view events on the internet; communication services, namely, transmitting streamed sound and audio-visual recordings via the internet; streaming of audio material on the internet; streaming of video material on the internet; transmission of information in the audio-visual field; mobile media services in the nature of electronic transmission of entertainment media content; podcasting services; webcasting services; video-on-demand transmission services.”

AEW President Tony Khan has stated the promotion plans to hold four (quarterly) pay-per-view events per year. This year, we’ve had Double or Nothing, All Out and Full Gear. This trademark application indicates that AEW’s next pay-per-view, expected to be held in February, could be titled, AEW: Blood and Guts.

The “Blood and Guts” moniker is a reference to a remark from none other than WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. During a WWE Investor call back in July, McMahon was asked about his upstart competitor.

McMahon said competition is good for everyone, but said he hopes AEW does not resort to “blood and guts” content. Referencing AEW’s occasional violent matches, he said, “I can’t speak for TNT but I can’t imagine they’d put up with that.