AEW Blood and Guts took place tonight on Dynamite and it was a bloody brawl between The Inner Circle and The Pinnacle! Join host Denise Salcedo on Speak Now Pro Wrestling as she recaps the entire night of events. If you are an AEW fan this is the place to tune in for analysis on matches, storylines and more. In this hour long stream, Denise breaks down every match and segment while also getting feedback from live viewers and what they thought about the show.
Topics:
AEW Blood and Guts: Did the match deliver? Plus, how did we feel about the finish?
Kenny Omega roasts Orange Cassidy
QT Marshall vs. Cody Rhodes
Darby Allin crazy STUNT on concrete steps
Why Britt Baker should be AEW Women’s Champion
The Acclaimed rap
PLUS A WHOLE LOT MORE!
Don’t miss out on this energy filled wrestling talk show!
Denise now has multiple shows per week, you can catch her post-show coverage for NXT on Tuesdays, AEW Dynamite on Wednesdays and Smackdown on Fridays! In addition you can also view her weekly commerical breaks during Wrestling Observer Live on Twitch with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive.
The Pinnacle emerged victorious in tonight’s Blood and Guts match that took place on AEW Dynamite.
In what ended up being a bloody match, the finish had Chris Jericho and MJF winding up on top of the Blood and Guts cage, with Jericho taking MJF down with the Walls of Jericho in a submission attempt. MJF low blowed Jericho and put him in an armbar. He then let go and dragged Jericho near the corner of the cage, threatening the other members of the Inner Circle that if they didn’t surrender, he would throw Jericho off the cage. Sammy Guevara then surrendered the match, giving The Pinnacle the win.
After the match, MJF paused, then grabbed Jericho and threw him off the cage anyway, with Jericho landing on a gimmicked pad near the entryway. AEW medical staff and the rest of the Inner Circle tended to Jericho as the show went off the air.
The build to the match started when MJF turned on Jericho and the rest of the Inner Circle (Jake Hager, Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz) to form The Pinnacle with Shawn Spears, Dash Harwood, Cash Wheeler, Wardlow, and Tully Blanchard. MJF’s new stable beat down The Inner Circle upon their formation. The Inner Circle later retaliated with a beatdown of their own, with Jericho later challenging The Pinnacle to the Blood and Guts match.
How the NHL deal affects both WWE and AEW is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We look at the deal, have Tony Khan’s comments on it, update on AEW and TNT, AEW vs. NHL ratings, declining ratings equals larger right fees, notes on the next WWE and AEW deals, and key contract years for AEW and WWE.
Also in this issue:
A complete rundown of UFC 261, background of the show, match-by-match coverage, poll results, business notes, as well as what categories UFC won in television ratings this past week.
Peacock subscribers, Supreme Court ruling on a WWE case, WWE going back on the road, Mickie James talks her issues with her final run, why no second Evolution PPV show, front office changes in WWE, Daniel Bryan talks his future goals, Paul Levesque talks physical Hall of Fame, new WWE announcer, new WWE signings, how wrestling fared as compared with other sports on television, former headliner says he’s returning to WWE, upcoming major TV matches and the most-watched segments on YouTube of recent shows.
CMLL and ROH relationship falling apart, how Mexico is changing with a new promotion, the question a lot of the CMLL and AAA wrestlers have to ask themselves and money figures the top talent is getting with the new promotion.
What other wrestlers held three major world titles in three different companies besides Kenny Omega and details of that.
Impact Rebellion with match-by-match coverage, star ratings and poll results, as well as early PPV notes, where the company is going forward and what happened in the Omega vs. Swann match.
WWE’s highest stakes television match in a long time with Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan.
A feature on Jake Paul, Triller’s lawsuit, and Paul challenges involving Daniel Cormier, Nate Diaz and Kamaru Usman.
PPV numbers from television from every company over the past six months.
More on last week’s feature about historical world title unification matches from different companies, including a reference to Babe Ruth.
How long the average fan watches the key wrestling shows, how many different people are actually watching, what show is watched live the most and what show is time delayed the most.
More into detail on the ratings than any other source, how every segment on NXT and AEW did as well as how it did with different age groups, genders and more, plus a look at all other wrestling shows of the past week.
Results of the major pro wrestling events of the past week.
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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Here is an excerpt from Drew McIntyre’s memoir, “A Chosen Destiny: My Story”, which is out now. There is also an excerpt in audio form.
Congratulations to WWE producer Pat Buck, who announced the birth of his son today.
Today has an article on Mustafa Ali and how he works out and performs during the holy month of Ramadan.
Rhea Ripley spoke to Ryan Satin on his Out of Character series. She mentioned that she has been taking acting lessons lately to help improve her confidence. “When I’m in the ring, that’s where I get all my confidence and where I get to be Rhea Ripley, but still myself, which is weird to say out loud because it doesn’t make sense but then it does when you’re there doing it,” she said. “I want to be myself, as in Rhea Ripley, but I want to have that confidence that everyone else seems to have all the time. I’m working on it.”
Forbes has an article on WWE’s new signature that opens their programming. “Ultimately what the signature does is it recognizes our fans, it recognizes our community, and the message of inclusivity is so important,” Stephanie McMahon is quoted as saying. “WWE has always been about inclusivity. We are all about bringing people together, putting smiles on people’s faces and creating moments and memories that last a lifetime”
W Magazine has an interview with Bad Bunny. He praised his time in WWE, saying “It has been a good way to relieve stress. Focusing on something else, working more with my body, the mind, and doing something different. It couldn’t have been a better time.”
In a news conference today, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot held a press conference where they said the state was on a timeline to reopen by July 4.
In an interview with The New York Post, Chris Jericho talked about the differences between AEW’s version of WarGames and the WCW and WWE versions of the match. “Our apparatus, if you will, is different. We are putting it in Daily’s Place so there were some configurations you kind of had to switch around a bit just out of space restrictions, which kind of adds to the originality of our match and our structure. If you watched WarGames back in 1992, it’s a little different from that and if you saw kind of WWE’s bastardized version, it’s different from that. We kind of have a little bit of a different thing. Some of it is by design, some of it is from necessity.”
In the same interview, Jericho mentioned that he would love to see Samoa Joe in AEW. “Those guys have three months before they can go anywhere. But I’d love to see Joe in an AEW ring at some point. That’s another dream match if you want to go there. I’ve never. I think we had one little, three-minute s—tty little match on Raw and it was just kind of thrown away. And I didn’t want to do it because I said this is a pay-per-view match, but that’s the WWE style. I think Joe and Jericho, Joe and Omega, Joe with Cody, Joe with put name here is a money match.”
Yahoo Sports has an article on MJF, talking about his feud with Jericho ahead of their Blood and Guts match on Wednesday. “With these 8 months that Chris and I have been on this wild journey, the fans are foaming at the mouth to see us get physical still,” MJF said. “We already had a match at a pay-per-view, I beat him on a pay-per-view. When people look back on this and they see that we were conjoined for 8 months, they are going to be pleased with the fact that I was intelligent enough not to strike on him quickly but you got to see incredible television for 8 months. That’s a long time to see home run after home run on a weekly basis.”
In an interview with Spencer Love, Nick Aldis discussed the release of his wife Mickie James from WWE. “There’s a pro and a con to this,” he said. “Obviously, the con is yes, she’s no longer with the WWE, and her last run didn’t work out the way she’d hoped and that guaranteed income is no longer part of our revenue streams. But we have plenty of revenue streams. The good news is, okay, now, the pro is that there are now a bunch of other potential revenue streams that were previously unavailable based on that contract. So, hey, it swings around about.”
Talking to Comicbook, Jeff Jarrett said that Cody is one of the few in AEW that he sees has a real connection with their audience. “You talk about the acorn not falling from the oak tree, he’s got a magnetic charisma about him. He looks the part and he’s obviously a great athlete, but the one thing that, fast forward a couple of years, when I saw Cody and Nick Aldis in Nashville in the NWA 70th Anniversary, knowing obviously the box office numbers and the live event are sold out in the sports arena and the pay-per-view numbers, but when I saw the work that he had been away from the machine and gotten Stardust behind him, just all that with it. So your question was, “Did you know he had it?” In the, we’ll call it the Global Force days, yes. I knew, Next*Gen champion, he had a different aura about him… but on AEW when you see him and he’s one of the few, in my opinion, that really is connecting with his audience, and that is what sets him apart.”
Sammy Guevara spoke to Wrestling Inc about the “dangerous” label some have placed on him based on the feud with Matt Hardy. “It is what it is man. People can have their opinions. That’s their right. I know who I am. It’s wrestling. This isn’t the easiest of things to do, and I know everybody wants to be safe and stuff, but this stuff is dangerous to do. As much as everyone wants to be like, ‘He’s dangerous.’ There’s a reason I’m in the ring. These people are not. What we do is very dangerous, and there’s a reason I’m doing this dangerous thing and they’re watching this dangerous thing.”
Chelsea Green on Instagram wrote about a recent surgery to remove a plate from her arm: “The plate in my arm is out & I’m ready to get back to work!! It’s been a long 2 years of struggling with breaks, surgeries, hardware and some complications but we’re finally at the finish line.”
OVW television this Thursday will be a two-hour event.
Trevor Murdoch spoke to Metro about Harley Race’s reaction to him hitting the Canadian Destroyer for the first time. “He stops,” Trevor remembered. “He goes, “What the f**k was that?!” And I said, “I think it’s a snap sunset flip!” And he goes, “You need to use that as a finisher, holy s**t!”.
Taz on Twitter noted that today is his son Hook’s birthday. “Want to wish my son @730hook a VERY Happy Birthday today, 22 years of hard work… paying off,” he wrote.
AEW’s first-ever Blood and Guts match will take place next month.
Chris Jericho and the rest of the Inner Circle (Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz) appeared on Dynamite tonight and challenged MJF and The Pinnacle (Shawn Spears, Wardlow, and FTR) to a Blood and Guts match on the Wednesday, May 5 episode of Dynamite. Similar to a WarGames match, Blood and Guts will feature two rings enclosed in a steel cage, with wrestlers coming in during timed intervals.
The Blood and Guts match was originally scheduled to debut with members of The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Hangman Page, and Cody Rhodes) taking on members of The Inner Circle on the March 25, 2020 edition of Dynamite. However, that event was postponed following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his promo tonight, Jericho said that he brought MJF into The Inner Circle to keep him down, but he didn’t expect to be outsmarted. He said that MJF is not as good as he thinks he is and will never be better than Jericho. Jericho then made the Blood and Guts match for May 5.
Episode 196 of Being The Elite chronicles events surrounding last week’s AEW Dynamite in Jacksonville, Florida.
Some highlights include:
Matt Jackson gave a coronavirus update and urged people not to hoard toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
Kenny Omega stole toilet paper from Matt’s hotel room, leaving Matt to use a shower curtain for toilet paper.
Omega rocked and sang a lullaby to a bunch of toilet paper rolls as if they were a child. Self-quarantine is driving Omega to madness.
Brandon Cutler and Matt navigated a nearly empty airport in Florida.
Omega started to give an update on his injured hand but was interrupted by Matt. Matt asked Omega to carry out some cases of water with his injured hand. Omega moved the water cases, revealing that Colt Cabana had been hiding behind them.
Omega and Cabana did a slapstick chase routine. Cabana got away. Matt retrieved the water himself.
Matt Hardy cut a promo threatening to eat blood and guts and delete the Inner Circle.
Hangman Page was drinking alone at a bar. He forgot his wallet and couldn’t pay his tab. Matt approached and paid the tab, then started to have a conversation with Page as the episode ended.
Are you interested in attending our annual F4W/WON convention? We will hold it during AEW Double or Nothing weekend. For more information, check this post for activities and prices.
A story on the Corona Virus and pro wrestling and MMA shows around the world is the lead story in a double-issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter this week.
We go through:
Where everything stood at press time for large and small promotions all over the world, as well as other sports.
Which companies can survive this period the best and how this threatens the future of many companies and wrestlers, a well as WWE and other name indie talent that likely can’t be coming to the U.S. because of travel bans.
This is one of the biggest stories to have faced the world in our lifetime, and it affects every business, but sports and entertainment businesses, like all, will take an unforeseen shock.
The issue also covers:
Rob Gronkowski and WWE, what is believed to be the extent of the deal, who is Gronkowski, his prior experience in WWE, what he had said about doing pro wrestling in the past and what kind of impact his being in WWE could have.
The series of copycat lawsuits filed by a number of legal firms against WWE, the claims in the cases and a response by Jerry McDevitt to the cases.
The situation with David Starr being pressured out of wXw and Progress, the attempt to unionize wrestlers in the U.K. and companies that have jumped on board.
Full coverage of the Elimination Chamber show with notes on the show, updated plans for WrestleMania, business notes and match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
Update WWE PPV talks, Davey Boy Smith in Hall of Fame, salary of WWE’s top executives, the change in Paul Levesque’s backstage role, how talent contracts have changed, who owns the most WWE stock, XFL ratings and how this week changed the narrative, Cena movie delayed by a year of release due to Corona Virus, Rousey in WWE offices, change that was made in Friday tapings, Canadian ratings, UFC star talks about doing WWE, injury updates, more on a new athlete that just started, plus he most-watched shows on the WWE Network and details of all NXT & WWE arena events over the past week.
An extensive feature on Wayne Bridges, one of the biggest names in European pro wrestling during the 70s and 80s. We look at his sports background before pro wrestling, how he could into pro wrestling, his unique role in some major movies, his Japanese tours and his time in North America, the history of the world heavyweight title as recognized in the U.K., plus his biggest run as world heavyweight champion, appearing on the big Wembley and Royal Albert Hall shows, tragedies in his life and much more. This is a great history piece about an era of pro wrestling that a lot of U.S. fans aren’t aware of.
Complete coverage of UFC 248, including the show, what happens next, the judging, who the media thought won the key fights, and business notes.
Oregon wrestling in the 80s and its top heel, Rip “The Crippler” Oliver, who passed away last week. We look at the atmosphere when he first arrived, his life and career before Oregon, his attempts to leave and why he always ended up back, his records set, biggest feuds, extensive title history, the 1982 tag team tournament at the Omni in Atlanta,Billy Jack Haynes, Roddy Piper, Buddy Rose and the death of the Don Owen territory.
Update the situation with Scott Steiner.
End of an era, as after 41 years, Stu Sacks leaves Pro Wrestling Illustrated and a career in wrestling journalism that goes back 50 years to his childhood.
Regarding the Wednesday numbers, we’ve got full details, demos that each side won, how every segment did and what match ended up as the difference maker.
All the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
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In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
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If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
I guess the No. 1 thing today is to give everyone you know some moral support; this situation has escalated badly and it’s like Tuesday was a lifetime ago. This will pass in time, I’m sure we’ll have memories of this week for the rest of our lives very distinctly. This is the time where everyone has to stick together for the common good. I just hope politicians, and this goes for both sides of the aisle, drop the game playing because agendas right now are totally meaningless when it comes to the big picture. For people with legit power, this is the time that heroes are made, and hopefully, right now it is workers in key fields that are the most affected that need to be protected as well as small businesses.
This disease first came from China as best we know. This site for whatever reason is very fortunate to have so many people from all over the world, experts in respective fields and we have been very lucky that they have been so willing to give of their time and knowledge. Dr. Alex Patel of course has helped out tremendously as have other doctors. This is from a reader in China, and hopefully this is positive news as far as the time frame we are looking at:
I’m from England but have lived in Zhangjiagang, China a city of about 1.5 million for nearly six years. It’s about two hours away from Shanghai. Reports started coming here about it around Jan 18th and by the time I came back from holiday on Feb 1st the virus had taken hold so every person coming in had to self quarantine for 14 days. That’s still the case today but they have reduced it to 7 days unless someone on your plane had the virus.
In terms of what it’s like now in my province, shopping centres and parks opened back up in the last week of February. Shops had reduced hours from 10am to 5pm. Just this weekend that was expanded to 8am-8pm. Restaurants opened back up last week. They are open til 10pm with seats moved apart 2 meters from each other and one member of the group has to leave their name and phone number in case anything happens. The things that are still shut here are large entertainment facilities like cinemas, bars and karaoke. The schools are still shut and will remain so until at least April. Aside from that it’s pretty much back to normal here except everyone is obviously wearing masks in public.
Cody Rhodes tweeted about doing a six-man tag on an empty arena show Wednesday which was the match to determine who would get the man advantage in Blood & Guts. Right now WWE is still doing empty arena shows on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week, AEW on Wednesday, while UFC is looking for an arena somewhere to do upcoming shows since Nevada put a stop to their show this coming Saturday at least.
The Nevada commission meets on the 25th to determine whether they will allow shows after the 25th to go on. UFC looks like they don’t believe they will be allowed to run at their APEX arena on their campus and are looking for a spot for Saturday, 3/28, 4/11 and 4/18 at this point since none of those shows can take place in the locations first booked.
Leon Edwards, who was to face Tyron Woodley in the main event this coming Saturday, is not coming since he would have to fly out of England. Colby Covington has said he would face Woodley on no notice. Since so many of the fighters on Saturday’s show were from Europe and can’t come in, UFC is scrambling to get new fighters with guys both under contract and perhaps free agents. Dana White is not coming off well at all.
Vince McMahon was not at the show on Friday.
The Australian government has placed a 14 day mandatory self-isolation period for anyone, including citizens, coming to the country. Unless that restriction is dropped by June, that will kill the World Series Wrestling tour as well as all tours from international wrestlers. Japanese wrestler Yuu was to work this weekend but couldn’t get into the country.
UFC’s Fight Night was the seventh most searched topic in the country yesterday with 100,000 searches. Conor McGregor was No. 8 for clarifying that his aunt who just died did not die of the coronavirus. His first mention of his aunt’s death strongly implied that she did.
WWE
Steve Austin, Edge and Undertaker (for a contract signing with A.J. Styles) are all scheduled for tomorrow night’s Raw show.
Jerry Lawler was on Cerrito Live arguing with the host about the Coronavirus. The host is very concerned about Lawler flying to Orlando tomorrow for Raw and well, at 34:00 you can see Lawler blowing it off.
WWE has told talent that if they aren’t comfortable coming for tapings right now they didn’t have to come and there would be no repercussions.
Reelz will be airing autopsy shows on the last hours of the life of Chyna at 7 p.m. Eastern tonight, and Chris Benoit at both 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Impact has had to move its Lockdown show scheduled for 3/28 at St. Clair College in Windsor, ONT since the college is closing everything down.
House of Hardcore announced its 4/11 show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia and the Icons of Wrestling convention that afternoon have been postponed.
The 3/26 world premiere of the documentary on the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles has been postponed.
Melbourne City Wrestling canceled Saturday’s show. They would have been under the government’s 500 person limit for such an event, but they made the call to cancel anyway.
As of last word, PWA on 3/20 is Sydney, Australia is still on and will air live on OvoPlay at 5 a.m. Eastern.
Australian Wrestling League on 3/21 on the Gold Coast has been canceled.
PCW did a stadium show last night in Melbourne before 1,500 fans (the 500 person limit is a recommendation and they have no agency outright banning): Nate Cross b Casss Stone to win the Ignition title, Charlie Matthews won over Syd Parker, Waik and JJ Furno, Black Diamonds b Stallions, Sammy Falcon b Lucas Daniels, Mark Kage b Ryan Rapid in a TLC match, Ryan Rapid won Rumble. PCW owns their regular venue and at this point all events are still going on (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
CWE is still running 3/29 in Saskatoon, SK at JT’s Bar and Grill with Savio Vega as the headliner.
CZW and WSU will be running empty arenas shows today and on 3/21, which will both air on FITE.TV and IndependentWrestling.tv The WSU show ran this afternoon.
Mid Missouri Wrestling Alliance ran last night in St. Louis at the South Broadway Athletic Club: Bobby D b Freddy Fury, Ricky Cruz b Damion Cortese, Damian Blade b Keith Smith Jr., Frankie D b Waco, Gary Jackson b Ryan Ash, Moondog Rover b Attila Khan-DQ, Rick Ruby b Jimmy D (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
Limitless Wrestling on 3/21 in Yarmouth, ME which sold out 250 tickets is still scheduled. (thanks to Philip Laine)
The stipulations for the AEW Blood & Guts match has been announced.
The rules, announced tonight on Dynamite, are similar to a WarGames match. Two men will enter the cage and start things off for one five minute round. Every two minutes thereafter, another participant will enter the match. The match officially begins when all ten men have entered the cage. The winning team will be determined when they make their opponent either submit or surrender.
It has already been announced that the teams will consist of members of the Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz and Jake Hager) taking on members of The Elite (The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Hangman Page and Cody). However, with Nick Jackson being laid out indefinitely at the hands of Inner Circle members on tonight’s episode of Dynamite, he will likely be replaced.
The Blood & Guts edition of Dynamite is scheduled to take place on March 25th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
