Whassup kids? Just wanted to do a quick dive into AEW's Blood and Guts 2025 episode of Dynamite, which was pretty much an all-timer, if you're into wanton, depraved wrestling violence (For those of you who aren't, don't worry, WWE has you covered with a sanitized version of this show in just a couple weeks).
The show opened with the first-ever women's Blood and Guts match, and while messy in some spots, this delivered big. The match went 46 minutes and featured loads of blood, weapons, clever spots, chaos, and in the end some fine drama. Skye Blue stood out for just gushing crimson almost from the start of the match. Julia Hart and Thekla had the unexpectedly creative moment of the match, as both women were small enough to fit through the holes in the trusses holding the two cages together and were able to squeeze through to the outside for more weapons. Kris Statlander and Mercedes Moné battled quite a bit and ended up taking each other out of the match via a suplex through tables on the floor. Marina Shafir was made to look like a monster, slamming Kris on a bed of nails and smashing a mirror over Toni Storm's head. Toni brought back the taped-fist-with-broken-glass spot, using a smashed champagne bottle Mercedes had brought out. The heels managed to isolate Toni and Mina Shirakawa (who also bled buckets), and Hart, Skye and Thekla held Storm down and made her watch as Marina locked Mina in a submission hold while Megan Bayne whipped her repeatedly with the TBS Title. Storm eventually surrendered to protect her friend, to give the match an emotional climax and help build toward Storm/Mina vs. Megan/Marina in the Women's Tag Title semifinal (which really ought to be the finals). Great inaugural women's Blood and Guts, if sloppy in spots. ****1/4
The "cooldown" match, if you can call it that, pitted AEW Men's Champion Hangman Page vs. Powerhouse Hobbs in a Falls Count Anywhere match, and this did not disappoint. They beat the snot out of each other, battling all over ringside before a scary-looking bump where Hobbs tried to powerbomb Page on the announce table but Page countered with a back body drop, sending Hobbs landing on his ass on the floor. They fought into the crowd, Page hit a moonsault off a railing, Hobbs hit a spinebuster through a table, and finally they ended up over an entranceway, where Hobbs went for a powerslam but Page escaped and hit Hobbs with his boot, sending Hobbs crashing through two tables below. Page then covered him for the win. Joe and Shibata attacked Page after the match and tried to trap him by lowering the cage, but Hook and Eddie Kingston made the save. Page then told Joe their match at Full Gear would be a Steel Cage match. Great stuff here as well. ****1/4
After an okay but somewhat awkward segment featuring FTR and Ricky Steamboat (apparently Ric Flair was supposed to appear but backed out last minute due to injury, leaving Steamboat scrambling to cut a promo), it was time for the men's Blood and Guts match. Like the women's bout this was absolute carnage and spectacle, like the Hangman match it featured some extremely dangerous spots. The interesting twist was that the babyface team had the man advantage, usually the kiss of death for this match type, but they booked around that in such a way that Team Darby still got the sympathy and came off as huge underdogs. For the first third of the match the babyfaces would control things when they had the advantage but the heels would take over once it evened up. But when it was Mark Briscoe's turn to come out it was revealed that the Don Callis Family had taken him out backstage. Thus the heels now had the man advantage. Clever workaround. Claudio Castagnoli was booked like a monster here, at one point doing the giant swing on Darby with Orange Cassidy on his back attempting to choke him. Jon Moxley entered and went wild with a fork, stabbing everyone in sight. Once Pac entered last, the cage was officially locked, but Mark Briscoe finally emerged with bolt cutters to get the door open and even the teams up. Briscoe and Wheeler ended up atop the cage, destroying each other with chairs. Gabe Kidd attacked Darby on the outside and dragged him up to the entranceway before gorilla press slamming him onto a pair of flaming tables (Darby had to roll around to put the fire out). Moxley stapled Orange Cassidy's hands into his pockets and locked Kyle O'Reilly in a bulldog choke, but KOR flipped him off and refused to submit. Cassidy ripped his hands free and made the save. It all boiled down to KOR and Mox. KOR caught him in an anklelock, Mox eventually countered into a bulldog, and KOR countered back into an anklelock (a callback to their two singles matches), and dragged him onto the pile of broken glass Mox had brought in, and Mox furiously tapped out. Fantastic finish to an epic Blood and Guts match. Some of the spots on this show were uncomfortably dangerous, to be sure, but goddamn was this great. Kyle O'Reilly came off like a total badass in the end. ****3/4
Best Match: Men's Blood and Guts, one of the best of this match type they've ever done
Worst Match: None
Overall Rating: 9/10 - An incredible Dynamite from top to bottom
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