AEW hosted its first-ever Blood & Guts match during last week’s AEW Dynamite. And while there was some criticism regarding the post-match spot involving Chris Jericho and a crash pad, the overall match was met with widespread praise from fans thanks to its sheer brutality and star-making moments for MJF, Sammy Guevara, Santana & Ortiz and Wardlow. The WarGames-style match brought in more than a million viewers for the episode and even managed to make Dynamite the highest-rated show on cable for the night for the first time in its existence.
And yet, despite all that, WWE officials reportedly hated it. PWInsider’s Dave Scherer wrote over the weekend, “I have heard from people in [WWE] management and they hated it. One person told me, and I quote, ‘That just set the business back 30 years.’” Did it? I don’t know but I was told that the people in charge weren’t happy. On the other hand, I talked to wrestlers that loved it because they would love to do something like that themselves.”
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Dave Meltzer followed that up on F4WOnline message board by writing, “It is totally consistent with Vince [McMahon]. There absolutely were high-ranking people who said that and at least one who thought the opposite.”
Meanwhile, AEW president Tony Khan gave an interview with Entrepreneur last week where he blasted WWE for some of their most notorious booking tactics.
“I don’t do really cheap DQ [disqualification] finishes to prolong something,” Khan said. “There are other wrestling programs where you might see multiple DQs and countouts in a week. I believe in giving the fans a finish to the match. I believe in not false-advertising programs and people. I might hype something I really believe in, but there’s a big difference between hyping something and false-advertising outright, and I’ve never done the latter. I think that’s why we have a lot of goodwill with the audience. Following through on the things you say you’re going to do and trying to deliver a show that’s in the spirit of what the fans want to see week in, week out and offering fresh matches and fresh programs is a big part of it. You know, not doing the same matches 17 weeks in a row over and over again.”
What did you think of Blood & Guts? Did it “set the business back 30 years” like on WWE official reportedly said? Let us know in the comments below!
