La Zona Muerta

You know what? Despite some gnashing of teeth, despite the fact that there’s a pay per view nine days from now, so the timing is a little hinky… despite claims of “struggling” to fill the room… you’d have to say AEW’s annual Blood and Guts was a success, certainly creatively. Both Blood and Guts matches turned out really well. There are some story elements that don’t quite jibe… BOTH matches featured the by now customary walk and brawls OUTSIDE of the ring that I HATE… the men’s match, in particular had a lot of extra curricular activity… but both matches featured so much effort, a lot of risky spots and a love of the game that I think you’d be hard pressed to see or find elsewhere. Overall, this was probably one of, if not the best Dynamites of the year, even if the build was uneven, even if some of the participants just parachuted in at more or less the last minute.

THAT.

BEING.

SAID.

You’ve heard (well, read) me being frustrated before at the portion of the AEW fanbase that seemingly lives to make gender equality (maybe parity to be more accurate or even dissatisfaction at anything less than OVER correction) not just a priority but a competition. The men’s battle royal versus the women’s battle royal at All In was a really good example of this; the women 100% had a better match because it was laid out better; the match was tighter, featured less extraneous fluff. But the thing there was… despite the cries of “the ladies did it better!” IT WASN’T A COMPETITION. BOTH GROUPS OF PEOPLE ARE WORKING FOR THE BETTERMENT OF AEW. The women in that case did really well with the remit they were given; the men were given a different sheet of paper to draw on and their match meandered. Here, during Blood and Guts, there was howling about “relegating” the women to be on first, why couldn’t the women main event, etc., etc., ad nauseum, ad infinitum. To my way of thinking, the women got to go out there, be the fresh match up, do all the crazy stuff they did (and BOY, did a couple of ladies do some crazy stuff) and kick the show off right without the weight of expectation from following another match. Women’s plunder matches in AEW are almost always a guarantee for fun (and a guarantee for weirdos to moan about violence, but we’ll get to that)… and every woman here worked her ass off. Of course, even the ladies having a great match, kicking the show off well isn’t enough- “show the boys how to do it!” “This proves it should have been the main event!” “Tony Khan better give them more match time!” It ALWAYS has to be this bizarre competition of who DOES better.

MAYBE THE WOMEN CAN MAIN EVENT WHEN THE STORYLINE IS A MAIN EVENT STORYLINE. Again, they ALL WORK FOR THE SAME COMPANY. They are ALL trying to raise both their own stocks and that of AEW. THEY ARE NOT IN COMPETITION WITH ONE ANOTHER; IT IS NOT A MATTER OF THE EVIL MEN GETTING THE ‘WIN’ BY GOING ON IN THE MAIN. THIS IS NOT A CASE OF THE COMPANY FAILING TO DO RIGHT BY THE FEMALE WORKERS, unless you’re upset that the original storyline got sort of watered down, to which, yeah, maybe there’s a gripe, there. Overall, this match should be treated as a triumph, not a blemish or punishment.

The women’s Blood and Guts feud has definitely been a story that has been playing out all summer… Willow Nightingale, Harley Cameron (to a lesser extent), Queen Aminata and Jamie Hayter have all been feuding in some permutation with Megan Bayne, Penelope Ford and the Triangle of Madness (Thekla, Julia Hart and Skye Blue) since at least July, but it’s really just been kind of there, almost omnipresent as the women have traded wins back and forth, very much a good girls versus bad ones sort of thing. I think Hayter finally challenged for Blood and Guts back at the end of September or thereabouts… and then the feud sort of ground to a halt, or at least got stuck in molasses. They didn’t officially say who was going to be in the match (or if the heel ladies had even accepted) until, what? Two weeks ago? Actually, it might have been on a Collision… a week and a half ago? And now suddenly, the feud which had been brewing (long steeped if a bit repetitive) since the summer now had some extra faces; Toni Storm, Kris Statlander and Mercedes Moné. I get it from a business standpoint; the tickets were sitting idle and the ANNOUNCEMENT of the match without the announcement of who would be competing in it didn’t jump off the page, so why not load it up with the three biggest stars in the division? Makes sense from a logistics standpoint if not a storyline one. Plus, we’re in the middle of the women’s tag tournament, so there is probably more connective tissue there than I am giving them credit for but it seemed like a strange bolt on; suddenly it was two teams of six. The clearly laid out story and the story ending blow off match was now host to a LOT of bodies.

Unfortunately, poor Penelope Ford (REALLY bummed for her) got hurt, as did Queen Aminata (another woman we have yet to see the best of, but I have faith that they’ll get there), so Marina Shafir and Mina Shirakawa got shuffled in, again further getting us away from the original issue… so you have main event talent in a story that has very much been a mid card feud… I’m not sure that, giving the last minute crossing of streams, that this should have been the main event. THAT IS NOT A REFLECTION ON THE WOMEN OR THE LEVEL OF EFFORT THEY EMPLOYED.

My main bugbear with the match (a savage match where Skye Blue gigged MUTA SCALE STYLE, people had MIRRORS thrown in their faces, beds of nails were employed, Taipei death match shout outs, kendo sticks, and yes, even a dumb puppet was used, but honestly, it was okay) was the ending; a logical finish in a vacuum; the bad gals menaced Mina Shirakawa, friend and possible love interest of Toni Storm, so Toni had to submit. Makes sense on the surface.

BUT IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH Jamie, Willow, et al. vs Megan Bayne and the Scary Gals. You know, the whole reason there was a match in the first place? There were a couple of spots where Moné and Kris Stat faced off, but it didn’t particularly further THEIR feud, either. Really, it didn’t feel like Moné, either their biggest or their 1a biggest star, was much of a factor. NOTHING was solved in the matter of Jamie vs. Thekla, of Willow against them all. They did pay a touch of attention to Willow and Stat trying not to get in each other’s way, so that was good continuity, at least. I guess you have some intrigue in regards to the eventual matchup between Toni / Mina and Megan Bane / Marina Shafir, but… I dunno. The ending really left me cold. A logical end… to a DIFFERENT story. I hate enumerating like this but on a match structure / effort / did they do cool shit scale, the match was probably like an 8 or 9 out of 10… but on a making sense within current AEW storylines level? I think a six might be generous. Your mileage likely varies. Hopefully next time, there’s a really good issue that makes Blood and Guts make more sense for all involved, and sure, maybe it will be the main or even the ONLY match. The women getting to do this for the first time is a WIN, not relegation or punishment.

I do want to take the time to shout out one wrestler in particular, here. Everyone gave their all (Skye Blue may have given TOO much; there was a point where referee Paul Turner was talking to her for an extended amount of time and I was worried as she had clearly lost a lot of blood, even if it was aspirin-thinned)… but I want to talk about one Marina Shafir.

It was a zillion years ago on AEW Dark where she was briefly part of a mean girl stable with the mighty Nyla Rose and led by detestable in real life human being Vickie Guerrero. I recall vividly that she wore a wacky straw hat and screamed her way through a promo of sorts: “I’m the Problem!* Me! The Problem! I am!” or words to that effect. Everyone laughed and laughed; career suicide right there on the screen. We still meme it in Casa de Convoy from time to time.

AND YET.

She stuck around. Did a cool hybrid MMA gimmick on the times she was invited to Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport (a series of events that tries to look like something similar to RINGS or Pancrase of old)… and eventually… I don’t know who’s brainwave this was but bless them for it… she became Jon Moxley’s heater. Yes, a bad ass chick being the bodyguard for a tough man.

And it has been GREAT.

I can’t tell you she’s a world beater in ring. She still has a way to go (although I think she’s come a long way)… but as far as persona goes? Aura? She’s dialled in. Mox wouldn’t be as interesting without her slapping him, firing him up, cheating for him, even occasionally beating dudes up for him. It’s worked great. She deserved the spotlight she got during the show last night, and I hope she and Mox never split on screen. She WON THE GOLDURN MATCH.

Still needs to beat Roddy up, tho’.

An anti shout out to the Man in the mask (TM Steven William Regal); despite there likely being PLENTY of “pearl clutching” going on today, you well and truly did NOT need to explain the joke when Toni Storm had bundles of pearls wrapped around her punching hand. Christ.

A smash cut to the back and Jurassic Express were SPLATTERED by some members of the Don Callis Family as Callis continues to drive (perhaps too) strong to the hoop in his quest to get the Young Bucks onside. I REALLY don’t want the heel Bucks to end but they seem to be telegraphing the reunion of the Elite. Maybe it’s what the boys themselves want before the spectre of ending things full time starts to loom?

Next up… man. MAN. Powerhouse Hobbs and Hangman Adam Page beat the absolute STUFFING out of each other in a match that was nearly as wild as either of the two Blood and Guts affairs. There was some silly stuff (we’ll get to that) and some scary stuff (Hobbs almost hurting himself on the exposed holes in the announcer’s desk). He took a TERRIFYING bump, butt first onto the floor and KARL GOTCH AS MY WITNESS, dude BOUNCED like a foot and a half off of the floor. Oy, that poor tailbone.

Truly, his is a butt that won’t quit

Good LORD.

The ending was similarly wild, a deal where Page did the CRAZY EYES and hurled Hobbs off of a high thing onto a gimmicked low thing, full of smoke and sparks. The slightly silly thing about this; to disguise the gimmicked table, there was an AEW travel case set on it, so it looked like a standard equipment area or what have you. The case was obviously fake (they have utilized fake cases before for backstage punching spots and the like), so when the very real three hundred pounds of Hobbs came crashing down, the styrofoam light “case” floated into the air and gently landed on Hobbs; obviously, if it were real, that would have likely killed the man. THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT ABOUT THEM DOING SOMETHING SAFE, it’s more a complaint about them going to those efforts to make something look real and forgetting how PHYSICS WORK. Weight the bottom of the fake prop so it doesn’t float away like an ephemeral soap bubble. The silliness of the visual took me out of the ending a bit, but what can you do? By the way, this is EXACTLY what a stable is for. Everyone always wants stables, joining this stable and that stable, backstabbing, swerving, joining, turning. It’s the after effects of the STILL hurting the business NWO; a bunch of dudes standing around in a gang, looking cool. NO. The stable is there for the babyface to chew up until he gets to the boss. This is perfect (as was the announcement of Katsuyori Shibata versus Page next week). Beautiful.

Before the final match, KING OF GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, Ricky ‘the Dragon’ Steamboat came out, and best of all; there was no decrepit RIC FLAIR in tow. Maybe Tony Khan has finally realized that a significant portion of the AEW audience does not want Flair making a fool of himself and damaging his legacy on TV?

Steamboat (looking GREAT at 73) put over his wrestling memories in North Carolina, but of course, ended up being interrupted by the dastardly FTR. Look, I know for some FTR is still go away heat death on TV, and I understand that. I was right there with you until they finally turned on the highly useless Edge. Since that point, they have been the best versions of themselves, better than any run they had in AEW or NXT, better than any previous run they’ve had, period. The addition of Stokely Hathaway has made them complete, and now I look forward to their time on the show. Is it too much time? Again, your mileage may vary, but them menacing Steamboat and Brody King and Bandido saving the day was a lovely bit of business, advanced their feud and allowed the Greensboro fans to indulge in the good kind of nostalgia, not the sad kind that Flair’s onerous presence would have changed the segment into. For me, this was a win.

And then it was time for the final Blood and Guts match. Would the crowd be burnt out from two of these?

Nope. Crowd was hot all night long. While there were the standard AEW audio issues, a few missed camera shots… they did something very innovative, here… they actually ran lights throughout the cage and the visibility was a LOT better than usual. The storytelling (is that a thing the kids demand in wrestling these days? STORYTELLING?) was great; Orange Cassidy shed his normal persona, mostly and broke his sunglasses to make a deadly shiv (and one hundred percent punctured Wheeler YUTA in the OLD WAY) and yet was a dope and went for a pinfall, not because the wrestler made a mistake, but because his lackadaisical CHARACTER did. YUTA… man, he’s come so far and he was already awfully good on the indies and under a hood for CHIKARA, but this experience has made him better. Same with young Daniel Garcia. I know there have been times where he was a bit adrift, storyline-wise, there were probably at least two or three opportunities to turn him heel that would have worked well, but he finally landed on the right opportunity and has been a perfect fit for the Death Riders. There was some sort of chicanery in the back… traditionally War Games-style matches have the bad guys win the “MAN ADVANTAGE,” and when you deviate from that, it goes awry. Roderick Strong won the man advantage on Saturday night in a terrific match with Moxley, but to counter that… Mark Briscoe was laid out in the back (leading one prominent voice I used to be semi-affiliated with to proclaim that there was going to be a big return tonight… oops) and I was VERY worried Strong was going to be a turncoat since he dislikes the Conglomeration so much, but fortunately, we did not get that poor avenue of drama. When Jon Moxley came out, he TENDERIZED long suffering Kyle O’Reilly with a fork and he was the second person to lose a worrying amount of blood (seriously, it’s a toss up between him and Skye as to who bled more for their cause). PAC came out as the clean up hitter and the match finally began, but… with the power of THE LOVE OF THE FANS, Mark Briscoe was able to make it out of the medical office and used BOLT CUTTERS to enter the match, finally evening the odds.

The open door led to stuff I wasn’t wild about… the odious GABE KIDD returned, and helped PAC (who is so massive now that he looks like he ate the OLD PAC) LITERALLY SET DARBY ALLIN ON FIRE. Allin stopped, dropped and rolled but HIS LOWER BACK WAS STILL ALIGHT. Good Gotch above. Briscoe and YUTA made their way to the top of the cage and, commercial breaks permitting (I thought the breaks really hurt both matches, but I probably say something similar every year), took YUTA out of the match with a Jay Driller onto chairs. Brutal. The babyfaces rallied, ORange Cassidy turned the tide and finally, eventually, Kyle O’Reilly was able to make Jon Moxley submit. Now, everyone, I mean EVERYONE has been fantasy booking Mox losing control of the Riders as he loses more and more and the on screen product hasn’t really supported that fairly logical theory… but last night, Daniel Garcia one hundred percent looked at Mox as if to say “you lost this match for us.” The fantasy booking is finally starting to be reflected in ACTUAL booking; what remains to be seen is if all the Death Riders kill Mox and babyface him or if it’s a schism and there are two groups that result. Should be interesting, either way.

As always, follow up is key. They hopefully ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING with Kyle out of this. Marina won HER Blood and Guts; Mox failed. What does that mean? As it stands, neither Mox nor Darby have a match on the PPV; do they do one more time?

I mentioned Edge being useless before. If anything, I think he’s done one thing; Moxley has blossomed from someone I genuinely disliked into a selfless performer who is DOING HIS DAMNEDEST to repair what has come before; giving LOTS to the likes of Orange Cassidy, to Kyle O’Reilly, to Roddy Strong, to the young guys out there like Garcia and it seems like a DIRECT RESPONSE to that AWFUL match Mox and Edge had on pay per view (don’t let ANYONE retcon the reception to that stinker), a match Moxley had to redeem with a sacrifice of his own body in the rematch. THIS IS WHAT STARS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO; use THEIR credibility to make OTHERS and then there are MORE stars to work with, MORE people to pass THEIR credibility on. You can be an Edge, a Bob Lashley, or be a Jon Moxley and I hope others follow his example.

Blood and Guts was exciting. Even rewarding, in some regards. I don’t know if it built the pay per view in particular (only really in the sense of the OPPS / Hangman issue. FTR’s feud and then the countdown to the Riders imploding) but as it’s own piece of entertainment, it was great, everything the other guys can’t / won’t do. Was there some bad stuff or even some over the top stuff? Maybe. I don’t know if I needed the fire spot. Kris Stat sinking onto the bed of nails wasn’t strictly necessary, I don’t think. The outside the ring brawling in BOTH matches rubbed me the wrong way, as did the ability to freely leave the cage (the women had an innovative around this; two of them simply shimmied out, which I didn’t mind, but then the door got opened and… sigh). But overall, a great piece of wrestling TV, some history in the case of the ladies and some fun stuff all around.

*yes, a capital P ‘problem,’ the name of her new gimmick