It sounds like Blood & Guts will be a ‘super long’ match

AEW’s first ever Blood & Guts match was supposed to take place one year ago, but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The global pandemic is still keeping packed audiences away from pro wrestling venues, but AEW is proceeding ahead with Blood & Guts on the May 5 episode of Dynamite. It will feature Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle against MJF’s The Pinnacle. This will be AEW’s version of WarGames.

On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained to his co-host Bryan Alvarez that it’s going to be an incredibly long match:

“By the way, did you know that Blood & Guts is gonna be this like, super long match?

I think it’s a one match show. Like, that’s going to be the only match. I mean, there might be some taped stuff. But I was told it will be one live match, and there might be some taped matches thrown in. Bunch of features and everything. But they’re building the whole show around the one match. It’s a two hour show, so I mean, the match has got to be really long. I mean, I know by the old rules it’s got to be long anyway. You know, it’s a 10-man match. They’re doing the old rules. No pins...they’re doing the cage with the top, because that’s what Dusty [Rhodes] invented, and they want to do the Dusty version.”

The timing of the match doesn’t make much sense to me, given that MJF’s faction is just getting started, and it’s taking place just a few weeks before AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view (PPV) event. I would think this is the exact sort of attraction that can reliably sell a PPV card, or can be used as a television bridge between the Memorial Day and Labor Day PPVs.

Instead, Blood & Guts will be the showcase of the May 5 episode of Dynamite, and perhaps the only match of the night (while also being interrupted by several commercial breaks). If AEW does have other matches taped for the broadcast, these matches will presumably have to be taped with the double ring there, otherwise it would seem bizarre for there to suddenly be two rings when it’s time for the Blood & Guts match.

Given how AEW tries to cram so many wrestlers into one broadcast, maybe they couldn’t figure out how to keep a PPV at a reasonable length while including most wrestlers on the roster, as well as a match that may go an hour or more. Perhaps they don’t want to do a four hour PPV with the double ring setup. Maybe they have an even bigger attraction planned for Double or Nothing in May. The simplest explanation of all could be that they just want to maximize television ratings right now.

I don’t really understand the decision-making process there. But with all of that said, I’m still very hyped up to see Blood & Guts after waiting for more than a year.

How do you feel about the way that AEW has handled the booking of Blood & Guts?