AEW Blood and Guts got people talking - the hype was off the chain and the match for the
most part delivered a violent spectacle, the kind you don’t see very often in televised
wrestling.
Which apparently has pissed WWE right off.
Ringside News are reporting that they’ve been told by a tenured member of WWE creative
that conversations backstage at AEW’s great rival have not been favourable to a match
dubbed “barbaric” with all its “bloodletting” This member of creative said that “it was
a bad image for the industry, especially the obvious blading”.
From a match that was named as a shot at Vince McMahon you would expect that thought in his
camp wouldn’t be overwhelmingly positive.
Especially with WWE’s public statements on the banning of blading in the PG Era, fines
being doled out, I did a whole Explainer video about it over on PFK.
WWE have been known to break their own rules when a moment requires it, but I can’t recall
many recent moments as bloody as AEW cooked up.
Ringside News’ contact also said that Jericho’s big spot to close the show received jeers
backstage at WWE with some saying Y2J “wants to be Shane McMahon” now.
Ouch.
Or I guess, not ouch, because look at the size of that crash mat.
Its presence for the finale with a major bone of contention for fans and set off a whole
thing on Twitter about concrete dives.
Don’t @ me in the comments.
I’m just the messenger So when I saw that AEW had offered people
in the audience refunds I thought the reaction can’t have been that bad, sure the obviousness
of the crash mat was a let down and definitely undermined some of the drama of that finish,
but it wasn’t refund bad.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a case of Chris Jericho didn’t donk himself on the concrete
so I want my money back.
Let me explain.
Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio pointed out that the first hour of the show had been
pre-taped a few weeks ago with no fans in attendance, something we have spoken about
before on the WrestleTalk Podcast.
Meltzer said that this choice was made because of how long it takes to set up the two rings
and cage needed for the Blood and Guts match.
Explaining: “The first hour-plus of this show was really interesting because it was
all taped with no fans a couple of weeks ago, the whole first hour.
They did it to pretend it was live so they actually set up the two rings when they did
the taping.
Because to set up the cage for the thing would take forever and they couldn’t do it live,
they just couldn’t.
So that’s why when they did the advertising, they advertised it was gonna be a one-match
show, the idea was a one-match show for the people who bought tickets and so they wanted
to tell everyone.
There were people who didn’t know even though it had been advertised that way.”
Fans in attendance for blade-apalooza were played the pre-taped first hour so meaning
that the crowd noise heard on TV for that time was genuinely coming from people in the
arena watching the show on big screens.
According to Meltzer this situation was explained to the audience by Tony Khan before the event
kicked off.
Dave said: “when the show started, Tony Khan before
the cameras went on, just goes, ‘Okay, this is the situation, the first hour of this show
is taped, we’re gonna be playing it on the screens.
However, your crowd noise is going to be the crowd noise in this match, so cheer and boo
like you would’.
“So the crowd noise was not fake crowd noise, it was the real crowd noise from this crowd,
but the matches themselves were taped a couple of weeks ago.
And he (Tony Khan) explained before that, ‘If for some reason you didn’t hear this
and you’re unhappy, you can get a refund’, and they did give five refunds.”
Interestingly PW Insider are also noting that Darby Allin’s latest crrrrrazy stunt, being
thrown down concrete steps by Ethan Page, was also live.
Insider was also told that Cody Rhodes and “several talents” in the Blood and Guts
match were busted open hardway, meaning there was more blood than planned during the main
event, but no major injuries overall.
And all the red stuff and the hype going in managed to bolster Dynamite’s viewership
to a healthy 1.09 million, up from last week’s 889,000 viewers.
It is still however the second lowest rating Dynamite has pulled since NXT moved to Tuesdays
- but possibly indicative of the faithful audience beginning to settle in.
AEW also got a 0.58 rating in the 18-49 demo and was the number one show on cable for the
night for the first time in the show’s history.
More news in a mo, but here’s Luke with a quick word from this video’s sponsor.
Fresh off the press the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is out and brings with it another
monolithic star rating for a New Japan match.
At Wrestling Dontaku Night Two current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay defeated
Shingo Takagi in a 45 minute main event that Dave Meltzer handed a 6* rating!
Meltzer quoted commentator Kevin Kelly saying: “we’re prisoners of the moment.
I’ve called Omega and Okada.
I’ve called Tanahashi and Okada.
I’ve called Jay and Ibushi but this is the best wrestling match I’ve ever called.”
Dave’s review said that Ospreay and Takagi “had to pick up the slack from six guys
including the semi-main event not being there.
They did that and then some.”
“This was the
best
of the three classic matches the two have had up to this point, and their 2019 match
beat Omega vs. Tanahashi at the Tokyo Dome for match of the year.”
At six stars it joins Okada and Omega 1 and a few others as the third highest rating Dave
has ever doled out, Okada and Omega 2+3 are 2+1 respectively.
Ospreay goes on to face Okada at Wrestle Grand Slam on May 29th.
Guess who’s high on someone backstage?!
Oh wait sorry, read that wrong, guess who’s high backstage?
That’s right, it’s Riddle.
Who has consistently been one of the more entertaining parts of Raw, sailing over that
low low bar with a barspin for good measure - longitudinal dude.
Riddle’s odd couple pairing with Randy Orton, RK-BRO has been a fun diversion from the same
old matches we’ve had for three months now and thankfully it seems like this isn’t
some short term fling.
A new report from PWInsdier has said that the pair are in line for a sizeable push and
new merchandise for the team will be released shortly.
RK-BRO branded flip flops NOW.
As the Raw Tag Team division is undergoing something of a restructure/collapse at the
minute, Randy’s star power and Riddle’s comedy chops could see these bros floating
to the top of the division.
Riddle, in his last mismatched team up with Pete Dunne managed to win the NXT Tag Team
Championships and Orton has previously held tag gold with the Wyatt Family and alongside
Edge as Rated RKO.
Other talk in the wrestle-sphere this week has centered on the series of A&E documentaries
currently airing about WWE legends, with the latest taking a no holds barred look at Macho
Man Randy Savage.
It was not to everyone’s liking, especially not Hall of Famer and fellow nWo alumni Sean
Waltman who buried the doc during an appearance on pro Wrestling 4 Life saying:
“I didn’t like it man.
They went in hard on Mach.
He’s not around to defend himself.
He’s not around to say, ‘Hey, that’s not true.’
He’s not here man, and I just didn’t like it.
I wasn’t a fan of it, and I don’t understand how Bubba the f**king Love Sponge ended up
having so much air time.
I was in Tampa back then, and they were hard on Mach over the airwaves in Tampa.
It was f**ked up, and I’ve even been on the air with some of them and actually said,
‘You’re not going to talk s**t about Mach while I’m here.’
They respected that.
I love Mach.
A lot of that stuff they said, it was obviously stuff everyone’s heard before.
I don’t even want to go into it.
I just didn’t think it was cool at all.
I really was highly disappointed
in that.”
Meanwhile, WWE’s trial by trashbag has been trundling on and as more former stars reveal
that they too received their gear in a trash bag upon leaving the company, or sometimes
someone else’s.
Chelsea Green revealed that she had accidentally been sent Natalya’s gear which opened the
door for the former Renee Young, now Renee Paquette to talk about it on her Oral Sessions
Podcast: She said:
“I also had my stuff sent to me in a trash bag.
I didn’t think much of it.
It was a similar experience to Chelsea Green.
She was on her podcast saying she got stuff that wasn’t even hers, it was like Natalya’s
boots.
That’s what happened with mine.
I ended up texting a bunch of girls in the locker room.
I got a bunch of makeup, someone’s full makeup bag.
No-one claimed it.
I can picture the person packing it up and not really thinking twice about it because
that’s obviously how it’s been done for so long and no thought put behind it, not
thinking of what the subliminal message might be to the person on the other end.
The hurt feelings.”
Paul Heyman has always been one of the best talkers in the wrestling business, and his
pairing with Roman Reigns has only exemplified that, with him being able to change his promo
style entirely to fit The Tribal Chief character as opposed to the loud and boisterous one
when he was paired with Brock Lesnar.
However, in news that would be entirely unsurprising if you’ve been paying attention, Heyman
revealed in an interview with Sports Illustrated that the goal of a Heyman promo is to put
over Reigns’ opponent, to make Reigns look better when he wins:
“At this stage, the Paul Heyman promo is to enlighten the audience as to just how talented,
how great and how marketable the opponent for Roman Reigns is, and then, by contrast,
even if Roman Reigns’s opponent is a 12 on a scale of zero to 10, he’s still not
at Roman Reigns’s level.”
Booking 101 that.
A prime example of this was Heyman’s promo from last week’s episode of SmackDown, where
he put over the entire list of Daniel Bryan’s accomplishments, before Bryan was beaten by
Reigns in the main event.
Smart man that Heyman.
Learn more about the fan fury over AEW’s Blood & Guts by pressing the video to the
right, and you can watch Luke & Denise Salcedo on the WrestleTalk Podcast discuss by pressing
the video below that.
Don’t forget to subscribe here for daily wrestling news videos, I’ve been El Fakidor
Laurie Blake, Jam That Jam.