BLOOD AND GUTS

November 12, 2025

Skye Blue . . . is apparently part feline, because she dies a few times during Blood and Guts, and is still standing at the end.

Powerhouse Hobbs . . . hands the AEW World Champion his ass on a silver platter.

Kyle O’Reilly . . . submits Jon Moxley and becomes a made man in the process.

Blood and Guts: MERCEDES MONE/MEGAN BAYNE/MARINA SHAFIR/THEKLA/JULIA HART/SKYE BLUE vs. TONI STORM/KRIS STATLANDER/WILLOW NIGHTINGALE/HARLEY CAMERON/JAMIE HAYTER/MINA SHIRAKAWA

Maybe it’s because there weren’t many expectations for this match; with so many limited and/or inexperienced workers involved. But everyone manages to come in and do their bit just fine, and as a result, this is the surliest Blood and Guts match since the first one. Every time the new fresh person enters the match, everyone else goes all out to bump and sell for whatever they bring to the mix, be it Thekla with the belt or Bayne and Stat using their power to bump them around. Even Mercedes’ bit works, with the idea that everyone else is so worn down that she can get away with her showboating.

There are some slow periods to the match, namely during the commercial breaks since AEW can’t very well do anything too major there. The match can’t end until all twelve enter anyways, so it’s not a big deal for them to slow things down a bit when they’re not even halfway to being able to finish yet. Plus, especially during the last stretch, it’s hard to really expect too much out of the likes of Willow, Harley, Skye and Julia, who were the first four in the match. But even then, they try to make things work by staying somewhat active, or by selling (such as Willow’s superplex between the rings taking more out of her than it did Bayne, resulting in her not being able to help Mina at the end). Those who were raised on War Games being the be all end all of everything probably won’t care for all the plunder involved, but it’s been happening since before AEW was even a thing, so there’s not much to be done about it at this point.

When it comes down to it, this works so well because all twelve women manage to keep the match believable to some degree. At one point, Harley brings out her Mercedes puppet, which seems to only be designed for laughs, until she reveals the brass knucks underneath. The same thing happens with Toni having a bunch of pearls wrapped around her hand. It seems like another goofy Timeless Toni thing, and then Bayne’s selling for her punches gives it meaning. But everyone involved shows that they’re willing to do whatever it takes to keep the credibility of the match intact, whether it’s borderline insane bladejobs or completely insane bumps on nailbeds and tables or getting a mirror shattered over their head. There’s an especially clever moment when Bayne wants to give Harley her running powerbomb and Harley grabs the cage and uses it to climb up and escape her grasp. Bayne tries to chase her, and she opens herself up to getting a powerbomb of her own, which would never happen otherwise.

Say what you will about the finish, but it’s something that none of the men wrestlers, outside of Marko Stunt, could pull off. Julia and Thekla crawl through the trellis to get outside the ring and steal the key to bring back their numbers advantage. Harley and Jaime find themselves locked out, and Mercedes shows how committed to her team she really is by sacrificing herself to take Stat out of the picture, with them both going through a table. This leaves Toni and Mina in a 5-on-2 situation, and after some brief hope from Mina, when she takes a bat to Bayne’s knee and tries to figure four her with the bat for extra pressure, she gets trapped in Marina’s choke, and with Toni being held back, she’s choked and whipped with a belt until Toni surrenders. In addition to simply being a clever finish, it also perfectly aligns with the ongoing storylines. Toni has been the centerpiece of the AEW women’s division for the better part of two years, but this showed how fully committed she is to her new tag team partner. The ongoing tournament to decide the first women’s tag champions is also kept in mind, with Willow/Harley and Julia/Skye already set in one semifinal, and all signs pointing to Toni/Mina and Bayne/Shafir being the other one. So yes, two of those teams might have gotten the big win on this night, but the babyfaces still have the opportunity for revenge down the road.

Realistically, everyone in this match stepped up as much as humanly possible. This may not hit the levels of the classic War Games matches from WCW, but it easily surpasses the later ones, not to mention the WWE offerings. Despite some of the deviations from the classic formula, the twelve women involved understood that the match is supposed to be a heated and hateful fight, and all their combined efforts led to everyone (with the exceptions of Toni and Mercedes, who were already pumping out high end matches) punching way above their weight. ***1/2

Falls Count Anywhere: ADAM PAGE vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS

Although this will be best remembered for the two big bumps from Hobbs, this is a good match throughout. Page comes into the match with his ribs taped up, and Hobbs goes right after them with some simple and effective spots that showcase his power. Page understands that he’s already behind the 8-ball and when he gets even the slightest opening, such as when Hobbs misses the charge and hits the ring steps, he has to swing for the fences to take advantage, and even that doesn’t always work out for him a good bit of the time. There’s an example of this early on when Page finds himself between the two rings and manages to stun Hobbs for a second, Page goes for the Buckshot Lariat, but Hobbs is still far too strong and stops Page dead in his tracks.

The only questionable thing here is Hobbs hitting the spinebuster through the table and Page still kicking out. There were any number of other things that he could have used other than his established finisher, and Page wouldn’t have shown any less heart and grit from kicking out. They go to the big finishing spot right after, which is the thing that people would take away from it anyway. Hobbs goes for broke with a powerslam off the first riser of seats, and Page fights out with a couple of elbows to the head which disorient Hobbs, and Page follows up with a couple of big lariats that keep him woozy and then Page clocks him with a boot and it’s Hobbs who takes the fall off the riser. Page holds off Samoa Joe’s enforcer and gets the win, and even while he’s walking over to make the pinfall, Page is still favoring his midsection. ***

Blood and Guts: JON MOXLEY/CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI/PAC/WHEELER YUTA/DANIEL GARCIA vs. DARBY ALLIN/MARK BRISCOE/RODERICK STRONG/KYLE O’REILLY/ORANGE CASSIDY

The only area where this tops the women’s match is the volume of blood spilled. But the men never come close to accomplishing what the women were able to. There are a few cute moments as the match goes on and the various entrants are getting involved, since almost nobody is able and willing to bump like Darby, and nobody is physically able to pull off the mind-blowing things that Claudio can. But things like that are the exception instead of the rule. As a whole, the guys aren’t that interesting when they need to fill time, especially later in the match when the TV show goes to commercial, it looks like the middle portion of a battle royal with the guys paired up and looking busy but are actually doing very little. The angle with Mark Briscoe allegedly being attacked in the back is pretty much a waste, seeing as not only did Briscoe eventually make it to the match, but he was none the worse for wear.

Like every match of this sort, it doesn’t stay confined to the inside of the cage. But it came off better in the women’s match since, (A. They found a clever way to get outside of the cage, and (B. It was used to set up the finish. Neither of that happens in this case. Mark just makes his way out and cuts off the lock to add even more plunder, and everyone can just come and go as they see fit. He and Wheeler wind up on top of the cage and Mark pulls up a bunch of chairs with them, which plays more for comedy than anything else, which is just about the last thing they ought to be shooting for.

Outside of the few creative spots, bumps and sequences that happen during the early and middle portions, the finish run is the best thing to see here by quite a large margin. Despite being outnumbered after Pac took care of Darby and Mark still being outside of the cage, Cassidy and Strong both individually and collectively start laying waste to all Moxley’s teammates while O’Reilly outwrestles Moxley into his ankle lock (yes, someone decided to actually do a little bit of wrestling). With nobody left to bail him out, Moxley has to submit for the second time in four months. But, still, that’s about two minutes of a match that goes for nearly an hour. Maybe the bar for the women’s match just seemed so much lower that it was easier for them to clear, but this has to be the most underwhelming Blood and Guts match since AEW started the concept. It looks far closer to a WWE “War Games” match or even just a random post-ECW/FMW hardcore brawl. And that just shouldn’t be the case in a match with this many good and great workers.

Conclusion: The main reason to seek this out is the women’s match. Despite its good ending, the men’s match is just a chore to sit through.