Here's your wrestling news for June 30th 2022
We’re kicking off today with AEW, which hosted their Blood and Guts match during last night’s Dynamite.
The match saw the Blackpool Combat Club get the win over the Jericho Appreciation Society, after nearly an hour or hardcore wrestling in front of a rabid AEW crowd.
While William Regal’s team took home the win, the match had plenty of highlights, and here’s just seven of them from this week’s Blood and Guts.
7: MOXLEY DRAWS FIRST BLOOD
Just days after capturing the interim AEW World Championship, Jon Moxley entered Blood and Guts as part of the BCC.
While Moxley was busted open and bled a ton during his Forbidden Door match with Hiroshi Tanahashi, it was the former WWE Superstar who drew first blood last night.
Using a fork, Moxley sliced the forehead of Daniel Garcia, who was one of the few men to escape the recent Anarchy in the Arena match unscathed.
Garcia wasn’t so lucky this time around, and him being busted open proved to be a sign of things to come for both teams.
6: The Glass
After cutting open Garcia, Moxley kept the momentum, and the blood, flowing, by bringing some broken glass into the match.
Dumping some broken glass outside of the ring, Moxley procee ded to pile drive Angelo Parker right into it, making him a bloody mess, while Jake Hager got some of the glass as well.
The Glass served as yet another reminder as to how different AEW is to WWE, and while the match had many former Superstars, this was action you wouldn’t see in Stephanie McMahon’s company.
5: Moxley Skewers The Competition
So much of the violence in the first half od Blood and Guts came from the interim AEW World Champion, who wasn’t done yet inflicting pain on the Jericho Appreciation Society.
After cutting open Matt Menard's forehead, Moxley shoved a collection of wooden skewers into the cut, in arguably the most gruesome moment of the match.
We say arguably, as Menard would pay Moxley back by choking him with a barbed-wire baseball bat to get some sweet revenge.
4: Thumbtacks Everywhere
After a brief respite from Moxley’s violent ways, the Jericho Appreciation Society were able to get in some offence of their own.
At one point in the match, Moxley and Yuta emptied three bags of tacks onto one of the rings, and Matt Menard took one of the hardest falls into tacks we've seen in a while.
Shortly after, Chris Jericho was able to turn the weapon on his opponents, placing Moxley onto the tacks and putting him in a Walls of Jericho.
The painful manouver only ended after Eddie Kingston got involved, but by then, the interim AEW World Champion had been left worse for wear, and the others on his team had to pick up where he left off.
3: Double Interference Spots
The Blood and Guts match may have been incredibly violent, but not all the big spots from the bout were cantered around weapons and gore.
During one part of the match, Tay Conti knocked out a referee to get a key and rescue Sammy from the cage, a noble gesture for her fiancé which was ultimately in vein.
Conti was immediately met with resistance by Ruby Soho, who put a beating on her, giving her friend Eddie Kingston a big assist.
Like we mentioned earlier, the idea of women being involved in a match like this is unfathomable in WWE, but Tony Khan had no problem giving these two a spotlight during one of the biggest matches of the year.
2: Parker Hangs Out
There was plenty of gore and viscera during last night’s Blood and Guts match, but perhaps the most disturbing image belongs to Angelo Parker.
Shortly before a commercial break, the camera panned around the outside of the cage to see Parker hanging upside down, blood running down his face and head.
Parker looked completely eviscerated as he hung from his legs in agony, and if there was ever a single image to some up Blood and Guts, this is it.
1: Sammy Guevara Flies
Like the first Blood and Guts match, this week’s bout saw some action on top of the cage structure, and this time, it was Sammy Guevara who took the fall.
Guevara is no stranger to massive falls, and on this occasion, Eddie Kingston pushed him off the top of the cage and he landed hard through a set of tables.
Like so many moments from the match, Guevara’s fall proved just how violent Blood and Guts is, and while the match culminated with the recently debuted Claudio Castagnoli making Matt Menard
submit on the roof of the cage, none of the 12 men involved will ever be the same.
AEW Blood and Guts was certainly a highlight last night, but as you’d expect, the wrestlers did not attempt unscathed.
Shortly after entering the match, Santana delivered a urange to Daniel Garcia and it was clear that something went wrong with his left leg.
Some have suggested that Santana suffered a ligement tear, or sprain in his knee, though given the way his foot looks to stay flat on the ground for way too long, it could also be a quadriceps injury.
At this time, AEW hasn’t disclosed if Santana is injured, or what kind of injury he suffered if this is the case.
For the rest of the match, Santana was sitting on the apron, talking to officials near the cage, and were wishing him the best, whatever his condition may be.
Earlier this month, the Authors of Pain announced their new promotion, Wrestling Entertainment Series, and announced a stacked card for their debut show.
While that event has since been postponed until next month, the event will feature plenty of big names formerly associated with WWE, though one ex-Superstar is out.
On the promotion’s website, it’s said that Lina Fanane formerly Nia Jax, will face a yet to be announced opponent to crown the first WES Women’s World Champion.
The former Raw Women’s Champion had been originally announced to face CJ Perry, aka Lana, but this change means that Lana is off the show.
No explanation has been given as to why Perry is off, and we don’t know whether she was removed, or if she chose to leave the promotion.
Ever since her husband Miro joined AEW, there’s been speculation that she could sign with Tony Khan as well, and that may be the case now that she’s gone from WES.
Back to AEW, as CM Punk is the World Champion, but is currently out with an injury.
Punk confirmed his injury just days after his world title victory, but we now know where he’ll be appearing next.
Warner Brothers Discovery announced that Punk will be a part of the AEW panel at the San Diego Comic-Con next month.
The panel has been dubbed “AEW: Heroes & Villains” and will also feature TBS Champion Jade Cargill, Bryan Danielson and others from the company.
Punk has had successful surgery, but is yet to be cleared by doctors to return to AEW, but fans will thankfully get the chance to see the Best in the World next month at comic con.
One name fans won’t be seeing in the spotlight is Joey Ryan, who’s wrestling career virtually ended following several accusations of sexual misconduct a few years ago.
Recently, Ryan resurfaced as a photo was taken showing him working as a handle at Disneyland, but his time with the happiest place on earth has come to an end.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Ryan has since been fired from Disneyland, once the allegations against him were made known to his higher ups.
In a statement, Disney said that while they do background checks on all employees, they looked into Ryan’s real life name, Joseph Ryan Meehan, and were not aware of his stage name Joey Ryan.
Ryan had been working on the Jungle Cruise ride, which was the insp iration for the recent film by The Rock, but now the former wrestler will have to find work elsewhere after losing his job with Disney.
Now, MJF is no stranger to getting under the skin of people, and it’s not just the fans who have been left seething by the self professed Salt of the Earth.
If there’s one place MJF actually gets a positive reaction, it’s his home town of Long Island, New York, but now one AEW star has questi oned the young wrestler’s loyalty to his city.
In a recent post, John Silver, a fellow Long Islander hit out at MJF, claiming that the Salt of the Earth didn't know what a Sicilian Slice is.
On Twitter, Silver double-downed on this comment in which he questions MJF’s status as a New Yorker, saying that it “ had to be said.”
If there’s one thing the state of New York takes seriously, it’s Pizza, and while MJF hasn’t been seen in close to a month now due to comments on AEW TV, the Dynamite Diamond Ring winner will have
plenty of time to learn more about his hometown.
John Silver’s comments about MJF weren’t just about Pizza though, as he also recently discussed the latter’s absence from AEW programming.
It was at the start of June that MJF cut his now infamous promo, declaring that he would be better treated by Tony Khan if he was an ex-WWE Superstar, and begged the AEW President to fire him.
Speaking to K & S Wrestlefest, Silver was asked about when MJF will return, and joked that Khan shouldn’t be paying for the controversial wrestler, but it should be the other way around:
No. He actually should be paying the company to be on TV, I think. I’ve known him since he started. He should be paying them so he can be on TV. That’s what I think
After the June 1st show, MJF was removed from AEW programming, their website, their merchandise and promotional purposes, and it remains to be seen when, if ever, he’s back on our screens.
More from AEW next, as while Dynamite closed out with the Blood and Guts match, fans won’t have to wait long to see the structure again.
After the Dynamite went off-air to start the taping of Rampage, Tony Khan addressed the crowd regarding the upcoming match, dubbed "Royal Rampage,” which will feature the cage.
The winner of the upcoming bout on Rampage will become the no. 1 contender for Jon Moxley's interim world title, and time will tell who stands tall when the dust is settled.
This Friday’s show will also be the first match for the Young Bucks since becoming two-time AEW World Tag Team Champions, as Matt and Nick Jackson challenged the team of Hirooki Goto and
YOSHI-HASHI on this week’s Dynamite.
Clearly, this Friday’s show will be a stacked night, as AEW is keeping up their momentum following an exciting Blood and Guys special this week.
And we’re ending with even more from Dynamite, as the show didn’t just see Blood and Guts, but also a heel turn.
On last week’s Dynamite, Christian Cage explained his heel turn and attacking Jungle Boy, and while he was confronted by Luchasaurus, Cage was able to calm him down.
During last night’s show, Christian doubled down on his comments from the previous week, in which he brought up Jungle Boy’s late father Luke Perry, saying he’s sorry the entire family of Jungle Boy isn’t dead.
Luchasaurus confirmed his heel turn and alliance with Cage, coming out in a new black gear and dispatching of his opponent Serpentico with ease.
Post-match, Christian asked the former Jurassic Express member to attack Serpentico again, a request that Luchasaurus was happy to oblige.
Jungle Boy is yet to confront the two, but this week’s Dynamite confirmed the heel turn of Luchasaurus, and we’ll have to see how he fares without Jungle Boy by his side.