The road to “Full Gear” came to a screeching halt last night, when AEW returned to the First Horizon Colliseum in Greensboro for the special “Blood & Guts” edition of Wednesday Night “Dynamite.”
While the televised event afforded little grace to the promotion’s upcoming pay-per-view, it was the culmination of months’ worth of groundwork in its own right. Unlike most special episodes, this two-and-a-half hour rendition of “Dynamite” felt like a grand occasion.
Much of that can be attributed to the spectacle of it all: two rings, one cage, and buckets of blood.
This year’s “Blood and Guts” featured both a men’s and women’s iteration of the titular match, as well as a terrific non-title falls count anywhere match between “Hangman” Adam Page and Powerhouse Hobbs.
While “Blood and Guts” may be a seminal event in AEW’s calendar year, the promotion’s monthly pay-per-view cycle seemed to detract from this year’s rendition. This seemed less like the culmination of two blood feuds and more like an unintended stop on the road to “Full Gear.”
Still, the matches themselves were delightfully violent, and I applaud Tony Khan for finally giving the women’s division a crack at the WarGames style affair.
Show rating: ***¼
Matches
Women’s Blood & Guts
The affair began with the women’s Blood & Guts match, featuring six women on each team. The Triangle of Madness aligned themselves with Megan Bayne, Mercedes Moné, and Marina Shafir to face Willow Nightingale, Harley Cameron, Kris Statlander, Jamie Hayter, Mina Shirakawa, and “Timeless” Toni Storm.
In theory, the babyface contingent seemed like a veritable dream team – complete with the current AEW Women’s World Champion and two former world champions. However, the star of the show proved to be Shafir, who proved to be an inviolable wrecking machine.
In the end, it was her chokehold on Shirakawa, coupled with vicious chair shots from Bayne, that forced Storm to surrender on Shirakawa’s behalf.
The women’s Blood & Guts match was a resounding success, building a foundation for the division’s imminent future.
Rating: ***½
“Hangman” Adam Page vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
The “Hangman” has done it again. This was a falls-count-anywhere match, which proved to be the perfect buffer between both Blood & Guts matches. The narrative crux of this match was that Hobbs was acting as a deterrent, trying to injure Page before his match with Samoa Joe at “Full Gear.”
To that end, Hobbs succeeded – more focused on punishing Page than outright defeating him.
Ultimately, Page proved to be far too resilient for Hobbs – even managing to approximate the wrecking machine’s physicality.
Rating: ***¾
FTR interacts with another legend
Before the main event, Tony Schiavone introduced Ricky Steamboat to honor the legacy of the Greensboro Coliseum. The “Dragon” was unceremoniously interrupted by FTR and Stokely Hathaway, who ultimately tried to cripple the legend. Brodido thwarted the contenders, forcing Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler to retreat.
While I commend AEW’s attempt at honoring Steamboat and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, this segment was awful. Steamboat seemed out of his element, and Brodido’s intervention felt woefully anticlimactic.
Some of those may be attributed to a sudden change of plans. Ric Flair was slated to appear in this segment, but was unable due to a torn rotator cuff. While the “Nature Boy” was in attendance and even greeted the live audience, he wasn’t featured on television.
Men’s Blood & Guts Match
For weeks now, Jon Moxley’s cowardice has doomed him to fail against the likes of Darby Allin, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong. Here, his cowardice came to a head – forcing the former champion to conquer the rising tide or drown. Fortunately, the odds were stacked against the babyfaces.
The Don Callis Family attacked Mark Briscoe shortly before the match, giving the Death Riders a momentary advantage against Allin, O’Reilly, Strong, and Orange Cassidy. Even after an injured Briscoe entered the fray, the return of Gabe Kidd seemed to be the final nail in the Conglomeration’s coffin.
In O’Reilly, the babyfaces found an unlikely hero – whose coagulated blood formed an indelible crimson mask. O’Reilly forced Moxley into a familiar position, struggling to escape an ankle lock. Moxley briefly reversed his submission attempt, but O’Reilly remained pliable – regaining control and reapplying his patented ankle lock. With nowhere else to go and no more emissaries to employ, Moxley was forced to surrender.
The Conglomeration’s victory felt like a fatal blow to the Death Riders. Daniel Garcia and Claudio Castangoli looked at their general in complete dismay, unwilling to accept Moxley’s surrender.
Rating: ***½
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