AEW has announced who will be taking part in their first-ever Blood & Guts match in a few weeks, and unsurprisingly, it’s The Inner Circle vs The Elite.AEW announced last week that they would be introducing their own version of the iconic WarGames match created by Cody Rhodes’ father, Dusty Rhodes, called Blood & Guts.The rules for a Blood & Guts match will be revealed on this week’s episode of Dynamite.On their Twitter account today, AEW has already announced who will be competing in the first-ever Blood & Guts match on March 25’s episode of Dynamite at the Prudential Center in Newark.AEW revealed that The Inner Circle’s Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz will take on The Elite’s Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, plus AEW Tag Team Champions Hangman Page and Kenny Omega in the first-ever Blood & Guts match.
The reason why AEW is using the name ‘Blood & Guts’ and not WarGames is because WWE owns the WarGames name.
However, we have heard the term ‘Blood & Guts’ in reference to AEW recently, by none other than Vince McMahon himself.
‘Blood & Guts’ was a term used by Vince during the WWE second quarter 2019 earnings call when he was asked about WWE loosening their grip on family-friendly content to compete with the rise of AEW, which has captured the 18-49 demographic since their first episode.
He said at the time: “There will be something we do in terms of a direction of content — more controversy, better storylines, etcetera.
“But at the same time, we’re not gonna go back to the quote ‘Attitude Era,’ and we’re not gonna do blood and guts and things of that nature, such as being done on perhaps a new potential competitor.”
AEW filed for the ‘Blood & Guts’ trademark on November 13, 2019, and now they’re on the verge of cashing in.
A Blood & Guts match between The Inner Circle and The Elite will definitely draw the attention of many wrestling fans, and will likely allow AEW to stay ahead of WWE’s NXT in the ratings for another week.