All Elite Wrestling returned to Boston for its annual Dynamite event of Blood and Guts! Last year’s rendition of the crazy bloodfest saw some of the coolest innovations in a double cage to date. Could The Elite and Blackpool Combat Club turn this year’s event into another special one?
Let’s talk about it!
FTW Championship: Jack Perry vs. HOOK
A video played before the match began showing a leather laden Jack Perry seemingly burying the Jungle Boy moniker. Out with the trunks, boots, and arm waving and in with a badass Jack in black and a new theme song — Beethoven’s “5th Symphony.” An interesting choice, but classical music is never a bad one.
This was a very good match that showcased a dark side of Jack Perry we’ve never seen before. He had all the quintessential heel tactics: eye poking, taunting, methodical offense ala Randy Orton. He even did the draping DDT. Granted it looked nowhere near as devastating as Randy does it, but I digress. Jack looked great in this match.
But not to take anything away from HOOK too. This was HOOK’s longest singles match and he was impressive too. The best part of the whole match was when Jack hit HOOK with a German Suplex and HOOK no sold it. It makes total sense too because the son of the Human Suplex Machine would be a suplex expert.
But HOOK isn’t an expert in cunning heel tactics, which Jack Perry went to the school of Christian Cage. HOOK hit a big suplex finisher, except Paul Turner was taken out too. Cue the belt spot where Christian, I mean Jack, grabbed the FTW belt and knocked HOOK over the head with it. Jack Perry is the new FTW Champion in a very good match.
3.5/5
Segments:
- Alex Marvex was on a mission this week to find out everything about the doings of Chris Jericho and Don Callis. Marvez found them having a secret meeting at a restaurant, to which he was quickly thrown out.
- There was another Adam Cole and MJF segment this week, and this one was about facing MJF’s fears…Spicy Food and poor people. Of course that’s what they are! This was another hilarious segment between the two as they ate spicy Asian food and drank very strong liquor. They hilariously Double Clotheslined the waiter. For the love of god, don’t break these two up.
- Alex Marvex was back to find Don Callis and Jericho arriving at the arena. They insulted Alex and that was it. Cool.
- Dr. Britt Baker made her ring return to beat newcomer Kayla Sparks in a quick minute after a neckbreaker and Lockjaw. Also cool.
- Renee Paquette was backstage then with Adam Cole and MJF before their final Blind Tag Team matchup. They both surprised each other with matching trunks and jackets. They’re full on besties now and Roddy Strong popped up out of nowhere again looking sad that he lost his friend. Or maybe he’s just worried. Probably that one.
Adam Cole & MJF vs. Daniel Garcia & Sammy Guevara
If we didn’t love Adam Cole and MJF enough, this match cemented it. It all started with Cole surprising everyone with a mash up of their songs, and then the match started with a dance off. Yes, a dance off. And it was amazing. Okay, before we go any further, let’s talk about this.
AEW is telling a story here, right? MJF and Cole are becoming best friends which leads to MJF’s betrayal and reignites everyone’s hatred of him. Can we just…not do that? At least not for a while? Seeing Adam Cole, and especially MJF, getting the biggest cheers of the night warms my heart. AEW has to let this breathe for a little while. This is a lighting-in-a-bottle situation here. Adjust your plans on the fly. The ending of this match already teased the betrayal, and I think that’s a mistake. Adam Cole is helping MJF grow as a person and it’s a blast to watch.
Okay back to the match. It wasn’t anything special, but another story-driven one. MJF was again isolated for Adam Cole to get the hot tag save. The whole match revolved around the newfound friends hitting their new finisher, the Double Clothesline. The fans stood up every single time they teased it until they finally hit it at the end to monster applause. They won and became the number one contenders for the AEW World Tag Team Championships.
3.5/5
A bunch of teases happened after the match. Jericho attempted to console his proteges after their loss, but they ignored him due to his new connection to Don Callis. And then in the ring, Adam Cole lingered his gaze onto the AEW World Championship a little long, which angered MJF. Cole swore it was an accident, but the cracks have formed. That’s probably all the tease MJF needs to stab the knife in Cole and the fan’s backs.
- Up next was a quick segment with Renee Paquette joined by a lot of people, in all honesty. The Best Friends, Orange Cassidy, Kris Statlander, Darby Allin, and phenom Nick Wayne were surrounding Renee. Was anyone challenging for the International title? Not really. Darby wanted to do a favor to AR Fox and requested an International title shot for him. Weird, but okay.
BLOOD AND GUTS
We all know the rules, right? Two men enter, then one participant every three minutes until all ten men have entered, yes? Alright cool.
Stories galore for this match. The Blackpool Combat Club’s main beef with the Elite was the overhanging reason for the match itself, but there were plenty of side stories too. PAC joined the BCC team because of his hatred for The Elite, Kota Ibushi joined the Elite team because of his history with Omega, and Takeshita and Callis joined because of their hatred too. The Elite reunited because they were a family, the Blackpool Combat Club team joined forces out of hate. Family and love trumped hate this evening.
But it wouldn’t be called Blood and Guts without there being blood and guts. One guess as to who brought that violence. Ibushi duh! No, of course, it was Jon Moxley. The Ace of AEW brought shards of broken glass, a screwdriver, a fork, and a bed of nails. A bed of freaking nails. Even saying that the only one who really bled was Moxley. He covered everyone with the amount of blood he shed. Compared to last year’s blood bath, this one was tame. (Remember Angelo Parker hanging from the cage completely covered?)
They replaced gratuitous brutality with fun spots and storylines. The memorable ones were Yuta and Matt Jackson fighting on top of the cage, and Pac climbing up the side of the cage to hit a double stomp. That stomp was incredible and innovative. PAC also had a nice callback to his first AEW win against Omega with a Brutalizer.
When all things came to a head, The Elite worked together and the Blackpool Combat Club did not. PAC and Claudio inadvertently attacked each other, which caused PAC to walk out on his teammates. Then, Don Callis pulled Konosuke Takeshita out of the match too. This left a three-on-five leading to The Elite’s inevitable victory by choking out Wheeler Yuta with a chain. Whew…that was a marathon.
3.75/5
Okay, I have thoughts. Was this crazy? Obviously. Where would it rank on a scale of AEW Blood and Guts matches? Third out of three. The match felt discombobulated and, while Moxley did bleed a lot, literally nobody else did. Give me blood and guts in my blood and guts matches. Is that sadistic? Maybe. It was still good, but I’ve seen plenty of better WarGames-style matches.
OVERALL
And that was AEW Dynamite Blood and Guts! What did you think about this show? Let me know on Twitter!
Overall, this show was a lot of fun, but the first hour trumped the second. Both Jack Perry/HOOK and the Blind Eliminator Tag match were more enthralling than the sluggish marathon that was Blood and Guts. Dynamite is always a good time, regardless of analytical greatness or not. There was a dance-off an hour before someone was bleeding from a bed of nails. Pro Wrestling is something special.
Verdict: 4/5