In this WrestleTalk News, Dark Order star confirms that they are finished with AEW,
the TNT championship has gone to s word says Miro, news on a new WWE signing and Oli is
going to be here reviewing AEW Dynamite.
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So yesterday we told you that some suspicious Twitter activity had sparked speculation that
yet another member of the Dark Order was preparing to leave AEW after Stu Grayson’s contract
expired and he left.
Alan Angels, aka 5 from the Dark Order, changed his Twitter profile to a black circle which
had folks speculating that he was signaling a big change.
Fightful got in touch and managed to confirm that was indeed what he was doing, Angels
told SRS: “I was told about a month and a half ago that they are not going to re-sign
me.
They did offer me a per-appearance, which I decided not to take, just solely based off
what I thought was best for me.
I feel there is more room to grow outside of AEW, right now, at this point in my career.”
He also noted that he thought he was being presented as the “bottom guy in Dark Order”
and wanted to try his hand on the independent circuit, but things have ended on good terms
between 5 and AEW.
Evil Uno, the leader of the swiftly dwindling faction, tweeted out “Dark Order is not
dead”.
If you strike it down, it will come back smaller than you could possibly imagine.
Angels’ news though does through new speculation the way of Chuck Taylor who also blacked out
his profile and deleted his tweets.
The image has come back on now, but the tweets are still gone.
While Dark Order goes quietly into the night, someone else has come loudly into the dynamite
– phrasing.
Miro returned to AEW from injury with a bang, narrowly missing out on a win in the All Atlantic
Championship match and generally being one of the most watchable promos in wrestling
right now.
He spoke to Whatculture about his old title though, the TNT Championship and said that
it’s not as prestigious as it once was.
ever since I lost the title, that title has gone to sh*ts, and it’s nothing but to blame
Sammy Guevara for that, So he’s got to bear the cross for that.”
While the interview was definitely heavily kayfabe, the TNT title did lose some of its
luster under Guevara - first of all being lost and won again to Cody Rhodes and then
passed back and forth with Scorpio Sky and featuring in some bedroom antics between Guevara
and Tay Conti.
Let’s quickly pop over to WWE and see what the what is.
And what is that they’ve snapped up a top MMA prospect for a multi-year deal.
Marc Raimondi of ESPN is reporting that the E have penned a deal with 23 year old Valerie
Loureda after she tried out with the company in the spring.
Interestingly though Loureda will also remain under contract with Bellator according to
their President Scott Coker who said: “She will remain an active and under contract
fighter with Bellator, and we look forward to welcoming her back into the cage in the
near future.
We take great pride in allowing our athletes to test themselves in additional arenas such
as boxing and pro wrestling.”
Hot tag to Oli now.
Now it’s time for my review of AEW Dynamite War Gam-Blood and Guts… in about 5 minutes.
We’re back, baby!
I think I’ve figured out why I haven’t loved AEW as much recently: Japan.
It’s Japan’s fault!
All these Japanese wrestlers coming over and taking my fellow Americans’ jobs.
This was a return of AEW focusing on AEW-specific storylines again, which, watching unfold week
to week, I find far more rewarding.
Especially when the booking and character work is so good.
This Blood and Guts special felt almost as big as Sunday’s Forbidden Door at times,
with AEW doing their first show in Detroit, Michigan with a super hot 13,000 strong.
The best part of the new market being how close they were to Canada.
I’m with you Christian, please date my mum.
This was a show of two halves, both excellent in their own way.
The first half was AEW’s midcard getting to breathe for the first time in a month,
which kicked off with Orange Cassidy vs Ethan Page.
This saw the debut of Cassidy’s new music, Jane by Jefferson Starship - the song he used
on the indies.
Presumably because a young Cassidy was on that album’s cover.
I prefer Where Is My Mind?
Dan Lambert got the Best Friends ejected from ringside, which allowed Cassidy and Page to
effectively tell a simple story.
Ethan is super strong, Cassidy isn’t - teasing hitting a body slam for the entire match.
That, and Lambert’s continued interference, built perfectly to the same end point: Cassidy
spraying Lambert’s orange juice in his face, getting rid of the manager, then hitting a
body slam to win.
Christian’s promo was so good last week, all AEW had to announce to draw viewers for
this show was: ‘Christian Cage speaks again’.
But how do you top saying you’re glad a guy’s dad is dead?
By saying you wish his whole family was dead of course!
But maybe not your mum, because Christian Cage wants to sex her.
Christian said yes, he had requested a match, but it’s not for him.
It’s for his new student: Luchasaurus Rex!
Everyone’s favourite childhood dinosaur friend then came out in evil form, with pulsating
fire pyro, twisted new music and a much darker look.
He then squashed Serpentico (sorry about that winning streak), making him tap in a nerve
hold variation of Jungle Boy’s Snare Trap.
This was excellent, and keeps this story one of the best in the company.
Either Luchasaurus is AEW’s new heel monster, which is a fantastic way to push him as a
singles star, or he sides with Jungle Boy when he returns, which will be an awesome
moment.
Scorpio Sky challenged Wardlow to a TNT title street fight next week.
Expect all of American Top Team to interfere.
Danhausen revealed his partners to be FTR against Max Caster and the Ass Boys, with
Dax walking past him like ‘I’m just going to pretend this dude isn’t dressed like
a clown’.
They was super fun, which saw Anthony Bowens reveal he isn’t wheelchair bound anymore
to a huge pop, but his interference cost his team the match.
Afterwards, Daddy Ass sided with The Acclaimed when the Ass Boys showed frustration.
And Jade Cargill squashed local wrestler Leila Grey, taking her winning streak to 34.
Athena and Kris Statlander ran down for a brawl afterwards, but Grey helped Cargill,
trying to join the Baddies.
This feud feels like it’s stuck on a treadmill.
And someone accidentally left the Forbidden Door open and forgot to take Hiroki Goto and
Yoshi-Hashi home.
They’ll take on the Young Bucks this Friday.
The Bucks pointed out how all their friends are injured right now… maybe finally setting
up a path to Hangman Page.
And then came the second hour of the show, one entirely devoted to the violence of Blood
and Guts.
Jim Ross came out for the main event.
After enjoying Excalibur, Taz and Kevin Kelly so much on Sunday, I like this slow transitioning
of JR out of the regular team - saving him for the big matches.
The production tricks continued, with AEW playing an awesome hype package for the main
event, not just putting over the dastardly Blood and Guts Don’t Call It War Games stipulation,
but also the characters and story involved.
Showing Ruby Soho describing her friend Eddie Kingston directly improved a spot in the match
later on.
AEW should do video packages like this so much more.
The JAS somehow managed to look both stupid and cool, dressed like A Clockwork Orange
themed night at a fetish club.
They cut a coherent presence compared to the disparate entrances of their opponents, which
is definitely thematically intended given the low key tension between a lot of the babyface
frenemies.
The Blood and Guts match itself was terrific, so much better than last year’s first installment.
The rowdy crowd helped significantly, but this also felt like a better lay out - bravely
not really using the man disadvantage babyface in peril spot too much.
There were so many awesome moments.
Former Real American partners Jake Hager and Claudio Castignoli coming face to face.
Angelo Parker darting around the ring to avoid the Blackpool Combat Club.
Angelo Parker somehow being draped upside down outside the cage all of a sudden!
Broken glass and thumbtacks everywhere.
Kingston and Jericho being the final two entrants to have a fiery standoff.
The only unfortunate part was Santana seemingly getting injured almost as soon as he came
in, putting him out for the whole match really.
The final chapter of the match heightened all that drama even more, literally, with
Kingston chasing Jericho to the top of the cage - which included that foreshadowing payoff
when Ruby Soho took out Tay Conti at ringside for helping Jericho escape.
Kingston grinned manically after throwing Sammy Guevarra off the top of the cage through
some tables below, without a crash pad in sight.
And then it came down to Eddie vs Kingston - the blood feud that started this all.
Until it didn’t.
Claudio had climbed up to help Eddie, as Jericho had him locked in the Walls.
In possibly the match’s scariest spot, Claudio then did the Swing on Jericho on the top of
the cage.
Eddie locked in the Stretch Plum on Jericho, ready to win the match and have ultimate revenge,
but Claudio had put Daddy Magic in the Sharpshooter at the same time.
And Daddy Magic tapped first.
Jericho didn’t submit.
Eddie didn’t get revenge.
The months long blood feud was won by the lowest tiered JAS member tapping out to a
guy who only showed up on Sunday.
If you felt this finish was underwhelming, I totally understand.
That’s the point of it.
But please let me explain why this is one of the best anticlimactic endings I’ve ever
seen.
Blackpool Combat Club won the match.
Claudio was the late-in-the-day saviour that helped them do it.
But for Eddie, it was never about Blackpool Combat Club beating the JAS - which is what
Claudio did.
It was about Eddie murdering Chris Jericho.
Eddie needed this revenge.
It was the poison he could drink to put quell this part of his emotional fury, for a bit.
But Claudio, this guy who just showed up, this guy he has a very complicated distrustful
history with, took that moment from him.
Which is why Kingston looked so upset while he teammates celebrated around him on top
of the cage.
Going into this match, I thought we could see the babyfaces implode because of Kingston’s
madness.
I thought we might even see Claudio turn on them.
What AEW delivered was far beyond either of those options in terms of character complexity.
They’ve somehow made Eddie a different kind of bitter.
A self-destructive, hateful kind of bitter.
And it’s going to be let out on Claudio very soon.
What did you think of AEW Blood and Guts?
Let me know in the comments.
A fantastic crowd, a very fun first half, and an excellent Blood and Guts match, with
a perfectly executed character beat from my favourite wrestler.
This was a flawless show, and, for me, the joint best episode of the year at 97%.
Now watch on to find out about the Sasha Banks WWE cover up…