Last night, we saw the first Blood & Guts match finally take place after waiting for year sue to the pandemic delaying the original plan. The million dollar question, did it deliver after all this time?
To answer this question, we have to see different aspects about this match and the build of the Inner Circle – The Pinnacle feud.
The Right Build
One of the many problems with WWE nowadays is that stipulation matches have their own PPV. Like with Hell in a Cell taking place on October every year, instead of using the stipulation when needed and saving it for special moments.
The feud of Inner Circle and The Pinnacle was brewing for months and the build for this feud and match were perfect. You could feel that both teams hated each other and the natural development was a Blood & Guts match. The match wasn’t booked for the sake of it.
Chris Jericho and MJF did some incredible promo work for the build of this match and in particular MJF came out of this as better than ever.
This was the perfect build for a match of this type and had the right people involved in it.
The Match
The match itself was a war and both factions wanted to kill each other. That’s what a Blood & Guts (WarGames) match should be. The NXT version of it have all been fun, but they didn’t feel like the WarGames matches previously seen with WCW. AEW managed to captured the original spirit of the WCW WarGames match.
Choosing a MVP for this match is hard, everyone worked hard, but Sammy Guevara was the MVP. Guevara worked his ass off and was on many of the highlights of this bout throughout the night.
Santana & Ortiz and FTR were incredible on this match everything they did was just awesome and fun to watch. After tonight, there’s no doubt that Santana will one day have a very successful singles run in AEW and even AEW champion.
Wardlow was a beast and everyone in the Inner Circle made sure to make him took like a monster. Wardlow is another of the wrestlers that come up looking really good after the match.
MJF had a coronation moment and after the match he had his iconic moments with blood on his face and posing on the top of the cage.
The Finish
The most divise part of this match was the finish, to this moment people are still talking about it. The camera angle used for Jericho’s bump was the wrong one. That unfortunately was the case, but it doesn’t take away how good this match was.
Another of the problem seem was the use of a crash-pad. Some fans wanted Jericho to hit concrete ala Mick Foley ROTR 1998. The use of a crash-pad was fine, but again the problem has more to do with the angle used than anything else.
The right team won, but the feud seems to not be over. Next week we’ll know more about what’s next for both factions.
Overall, this match was fantastic and I really hope AEW do another Blood & Guts match down the line. Most likely, it will take place on PPV or maybe on TV depending on the ratings this match gets.
