Tonight All Elite Wrestling comes our way from Jacksonville, Florida. Last week, Brian Cage defeated Hangman Page after some pre-match shenanigans, The Elite crammed themselves into a limo, The Young Bucks proved brotherly superiority when they defeated The Sydal Brothers, SCU called out the Young Bucks, Penta and Orange Cassidy delivered an instant classic, The Pinnacle and The Inner Circle made their own definition of parlay, Kris Statlander won her first singles match back from injury against Penelope Ford, The Factory and The Nightmare Family got overshadowed when Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall fought on top of a bus, Miro showed Kip Sabian some extremely tough love, Darby Allin narrowly defeated Number 10 to retain his TNT Championship, and Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page attacked Sting.
This Week’s Headliner:
It’s finally happening, folks! Tonight the Inner Circle takes on The Pinnacle in the first-ever Blood & Guts match!
The first Blood & Guts match was supposed to happen last year, but, well, Covid happened, and it had to be put indefinitely on hold. Nothing puts a damper on a match that promises copious amounts of bodily fluids in the ring like a global pandemic.
It seemed for a while like Blood & Guts was off the table. The Elite moved on, and The Inner Circle was partying in Vegas. Distracted by the literal song and dance with Chris Jericho and MJF, we didn’t even realize that the build to Blood & Guts was happening right before our eyes.
Good storytelling? In this wrestling economy? Surely you jest!
After MJF turned on his Inner Circle bros and formed his all-new, very different faction with Shawn Spears for some reason, it became clear that this feud was one for the history books. History books written in blood and guts!
What’s a Blood & Guts match, you ask? As far as I can tell, it’s a WarGames style match that is more closely following the old school Dusty Rhodes rules than those of the modern iteration. The most significant difference here is that the match can only be won by submission or surrender.
In a New York Post interview, Chris Jericho explained that they are sticking with the old school finish not only as an homage to the late great Dusty Rhodes but to highlight their intense animosity and loathing. “It really is submit or surrender because of the story that we’ve been telling between these two factions.” What’s more shameful than being forced to quit? Not a damn thing.
Sammy Guevara is taking the biggest risk tonight as he offered to be the first Inner Circle member in the ring. The Pinnacle has the advantage meaning Sammy will be on his own for a significant portion of the match. Storyline wise that choice makes perfect sense. Not only is it a great visual move to give the heel faction advantage (shenanigans don’t happen on their own), but Sammy was the target of many of MJF’s attempts to break up the Inner Circle. Tonight he proves his worth.
This match is about staking a claim and getting revenge. And you know what they say: Revenge is a dish best served on a platter full of your enemies’ blood and guts!!
BLOOD AND GUTS!
The Title Scene:
The TNT Championship open challenge has been a highlight of Dynamite. Darby Allin is doing what every good mid-card champion should do and is using his championship reign to highlight the rest of the division. Unfortunately for him, his post-match celebration has been cut short by Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page for the past two weeks. Scorpio Sky notable lost one of these open challengers, and Ethan Page has been hungry for more screen time since his debut. Pairing together and going after Sting and Darby Allin? Sounds like an effective plan to get noticed to me!
Darby Allin has no match scheduled tonight, but I think it’s safe to expect an art school-style video calling out Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page for their actions.
Tonight The AEW World Champion Kenny Omega will team with his long-time pal and sometimes employee, Michael Nakazawa, when they face consistent pains in the behind, Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston. Kenny really should have hired an engineer to rig that exploding barbed wire deathmatch because an alive Jon Moxley is a relentless Jon Moxley.
Nakazawa is 100% taking the pin here and is likely taking 80% of the beatdown. He’s comical cannon fodder in Kenny’s pursuit to avoid facing Moxley for the title.
After their match last week, the AEW Tag Team Champions were confronted by their former friends and current disappointed enemies, SCU. Unhappy with the attitude and actions of The Young Bucks, SCU made their desire to take their championships away known. Tonight they find out if they get that chance when the next challenger is determined in a 4Way featuring SCU, The Acclaimed, Jurassic Express & Varsity Blonds.
SCU has promised to break up if they lose a match, so a lot is on the line for them! My guess is that they win tonight and lose their championship bout. What could be a more heelish move than being the team that broke up SCU??
AEW Women’s Champion has a new number one contender in Dr. Britt Baker DMD. Tonight she “returns to action” because the AEW writers couldn’t be arsed to figure this match out before the promo images went out, apparently. Oh, well. It’ll be one more W in the very important rankings for Britt Baker, which means she’s one step closer to becoming the AEW Women’s Champion.
Other Things to Keep an Eye On:
- QT Marshall has been pretending that he’s a big dog for a couple of weeks now. It was really cute! He got a little faction together and everything. But he took it a step too far when he stole the Nightmare Family bus. Now he’s got Cody’s attention, and tonight, Cody gets his hands on QT Marshall. Be careful what you wish for!
-Team Taz doing Team Taz things.
Tune into AEW on TNT at 8 p.m. EST to see how this all plays out!