Blood and Guts (2023)
# Blood and Guts (2023)

The 2023 Blood and Guts is the upcoming third annual Blood and Guts professional wrestling television special produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It will be held on July 19, 2023, at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The event will air as a special episode of AEW's primary weekly television program, Wednesday Night Dynamite, which air live on TBS. The July 21 episode of Friday Night Rampage on TNT, which was a special episode titled Royal Rampage, will also be taped the same night as Blood and Guts.

## Production

### Background

On July 25, 2019, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), as a publicly traded company, conducted a conference call to announce its second-quarter fiscal year 2019 results. During the call, Eric Katz of Wolfe Research, LLC, asked WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vince McMahon questions regarding naming Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman as Executive Directors to WWE and its relationship to the future of WWE content, especially with stricter Broadcast Standards and Practices at the Fox network for SmackDown's upcoming move to broadcast television. McMahon responded to Katz's question:

   We're going to be a bit edgier, but still remain in the PG environment. We just haven't come anywhere close actually to going into another level. So that will be something we'll do in terms of direction of content, more controversy, better storylines, et cetera. But at the same time, we're not going to go back to the Attitude Era, and we're not going to do blood and guts and things of that nature such as being done on perhaps a new potential competitor. We're just not going to go back to that gory crap that we graduated from. And again, a more sophisticated product, again, attracting much better writers and attracting better management, and things of that nature. So again, as I said, I feel really good about it.

The term "blood and guts" used by McMahon was perceived as a reference to rival wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). On November 13, 2019, AEW filed a trademark for "Blood and Guts," a play on McMahon's term. During Revolution on February 29, 2020, AEW announced that the March 25 episode of Dynamite would be subtitled Blood and Guts, and feature the promotion's first WarGames match, billed as a "Blood and Guts match" since the WarGames trademark is owned by WWE. The WarGames match features two rings enclosed by a steel cage and was developed by wrestler Virgil Runnels, better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, the father of former AEW executive vice president and in-ring talent Cody Rhodes.

The rules for the Blood and Guts match are based on the classic WarGames format from Jim Crockett Promotions, and not the modern WWE format. The notable format differences between the classic Crockett rules and the modern WWE rules are an enclosed cage with a roof (which was removed in modern versions) and the match can only be won with a submission or surrender. Like the classic Crockett format, a pin situation is not a win condition.

### Storylines

Blood and Guts will feature professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.

In June 2023, AEW announced a men's tag team tournament consisting of eight teams that would begin that summer. The rules of the tournament were that all men would be paired at random via a draw, which was conducted on and off screen by Renee Paquette and RJ City. The tournament began on July 5, airing live on AEW Dynamite and on tape delay on July 7 on AEW Rampage.

This concept is similar to World Championship Wrestling's BattleBowl tournament where the teams were drawn at random in a "Lethal Lottery".

## Matches

Dynamite (airing live July 19) :

| No. | Matches* | Stipulations |
| - | - | - |
| 1 | Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta), Konosuke Takeshita, and Pac (with Don Callis) vs. The Golden Elite (Kenny Omega, "Hangman" Adam Page, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and Kota Ibushi) | Blood and Guts match |
| 2 | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) vs. Adam Cole and MJF | Blind Eliminator tag team tournament final for a future AEW World Tag Team Championship match |
| 3 | Hook (c) vs. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry | Singles match for the FTW Championship |
| (c) – the champion(s) heading into the match*Card subject to change |||

Rampage (airing on tape delay July 21) :

| No. | Matches* | Stipulations |
| - | - | - |
| 1 | Royal Rampage Battle Royal | 20-man Royal Rampage Battle Royal for a future AEW World Championship match |
| 2 | The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) and Billy Gunn vs. QTV (QT Marshall, Johnny TV, and Aaron Solo) (with Harley Cameron) | Six-man tag team match |
| *Card subject to change |||

### Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament

In June 2023, AEW announced a men's tag team tournament consisting of eight teams that would begin that summer. The rules of the tournament were that the teams would be paired at random via a blind draw, which was conducted on and off screen by Renee Paquette and RJ City. The winners will receive an AEW World Tag Team Championship match on the July 29, 2023 episode of Collision. The tournament began on July 5, airing live on AEW Dynamite, with the finals taking place on the July 19 edition of Dynamite.

| Quarterfinals Dynamite (July 5, 2023) Rampage (July 7, 2023) | Quarterfinals Dynamite (July 5, 2023) Rampage (July 7, 2023) | Quarterfinals Dynamite (July 5, 2023) Rampage (July 7, 2023) | Semifinals Dynamite (July 12, 2023) | Semifinals Dynamite (July 12, 2023) | Semifinals Dynamite (July 12, 2023) | Final Dynamite: Blood and Guts (July 19, 2023) | Final Dynamite: Blood and Guts (July 19, 2023) |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Adam Cole and MJF | Adam Cole and MJF | Pin | | | | | |
| Matt Menard and The Butcher | Matt Menard and The Butcher | 8:50 | | | | | |
| Matt Menard and The Butcher | Matt Menard and The Butcher | 8:50 | Adam Cole and MJF | Adam Cole and MJF | Pin | | |
| | | | Big Bill and Brian Cage | Big Bill and Brian Cage | 10:14 | | |
| Matt Sydal and Trent Baretta | Matt Sydal and Trent Baretta | 12:24 | Big Bill and Brian Cage | Big Bill and Brian Cage | 10:14 | | |
| Big Bill and Brian Cage | Big Bill and Brian Cage | Pin | | | | | |
| Big Bill and Brian Cage | Big Bill and Brian Cage | Pin | | | | Adam Cole and MJF | Adam Cole and MJF |
| | | | | | | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) |
| Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy | Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy | Pin | | | | | | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) |
| Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland | Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland | 11:16 | | | | | |
| Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland | Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland | 11:16 | Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy | Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy | 12:55 | | |
| | | | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) | Pin | | |
| Matt Hardy and Jeff Jarrett | Matt Hardy and Jeff Jarrett | 7:38 | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) | Pin | | |
| The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) | The Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) | Pin | | | | | |
