The fallout of Forbidden Door brought us mayhem in two rings and one cage with Blood and Guts taking over Dynamite this week. Meanwhile, there was more two-ring action on Rampage with the first-ever Royal Rampage match to determine the first challenger for interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley. We have the full rundown below:
—
AEW Dynamite: Blood & Guts ‘22 Recap
Match 1: Orange Cassidy def. Ethan Page
Orange made his way to a new theme that dug back into his indie wrestling roots in the form of the Jefferson Starship classic, “Jane”. Fitting, as it was only the first of a couple of callbacks to OC’s indie past.
Dan Lambert had Orange’s Best Friends, Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor, removed from ringside due to not possessing a “proper managerial license”.
A large part of this match was framed around Orange’s attempts to bodyslam Ethan Page, but to no success. This was on top of Page having OC on his toes for most of the contest with his sheer strength until it was time for a freshly-squeezed comeback.
The match’s finish came when Lambert attempted to interfere, but had his bottle of OJ stolen by OC. Orange had himself a sip of the OJ (another nod to his indie days) before he hit Page with an Orange Punch. He then gave Lambert an orange mist as he got Page with another Orange Punch and a final successful bodyslam attempt to pick up the victory.
Our opener here was a nice bit of levity with the kinda-quick-witted Orange Cassidy outsmarting the dastardly heels in his usual manner and winning the match along the way.
—
Match 2: Luchasaurus def. Serpentico
Before this match started, Christian Cage spoke about how he was not sorry for the incendiary comments he made about Jungle Boy and his family last week, wishing that they were all dead… save for Jungle Boy’s mother. He then stated that he had a match in mind tonight, though it wasn’t for him to compete in.
Cue the arrival of a more “evil” version of Luchasaurus – bedecked in all-black attire and coming out to a sinister-sounding theme song. Last week, Luchasaurus confronted Christian and was about to beat him up, but was convinced not to, which led us to this new-look version of the Jurassic Express giant showing up.
Serpentico was the unlucky victim for Luchasaurus (which should incidentally make Nyla Rose happy), being beaten by him in short order. Luchasaurus got the win with a modified variation of the Snare Trap that doubled as a nerve hold.
Post-Match
Luchasaurus chokeslammed Serpentico outside the ring, much to Christian’s delight.
While it seemed so sudden that Luchasaurus would go all dark like what we saw just after a week, I like the heel turn here. The presentation is promising and this new proto-supervillain version of Christian works well having Jungle Boy’s former friend as his heavy.
—
Match 3: Danhausen & FTR def. The Gunn Club & Max Caster
The Gunn Club issued a challenge to Danhausen prior to the show after he embarrassed Billy Gunn’s sons at Forbidden Door with his Ass Boys song. This set up a trios match with Colten and Austin, plus Max Caster of The Acclaimed versus Danhausen and mystery partners of his choosing.
Fortunately, Danhausen didn’t have to look too far for mystery partners, as made a very nice and very evil choice in the form of FTR. Seeing Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler join forces with Danhausen was something I’d never expect to see, but 2022 has been filled with surprises in the world of wrestling, hasn’t it?
The Ass Boys largely had Danhausen isolated from his partners for a bulk of the match, until it came time for the hot tag to Dax. This led to Cash joining in and wrecking shop on the Gunns as Danhausen was tagged into the match once more.
Danhausen would end up scoring the win in his hometown after capitalizing on a botched crutch shot from a miraculously-healed Anthony Bowens on Colten Gunn.
Post-Match
The Gunn Club and the Acclaimed bickered with one another after their loss, with papa Billy apparently siding with Caster and Bowens over his own sons. That would prompt the Gunn boys to leave the ring without their dad.
—
Match 4: Jade Cargill def. Leila Grey
The next opponent for TNT Champion Jade Cargill’s open challenge was Leila Grey, who hoped to snap the dominant champion’s win streak and to be the 1 in 33-and-1.
Naturally, that was easier said than done for Grey, who fell to Cargill in short order. However, what happened after the match would prove to be much more interesting…
Post-Match
Kris Statlander and Athena ran out to confront Jade and fellow Baddie Kiera Hogan for a brawl. Stokely Hathaway approached Grey, who soon helped out Jade and Kiera to beat up on Statlander and Athena. Could Leila Grey be the newest Baddie to replace the injured Red Velvet? Time will tell.
—
Match 5: Blackpool Combat Club def. The Jericho Appreciation Society (Blood & Guts)
The episode’s namesake match didn’t disappoint in delivering both parts of its name as the Jericho Appreciation Society and Blackpool Combat Club waged bloody war inside the massive cage structure and with two rings serving as their battlefield.
Sammy Guevara and new BCC member Claudio Castagnoli started things off with the latter showing off his Swiss strength at Sammy’s expense. With the heel J.A.S. having won the advantage, it meant that their numbers were bolstered as Daniel Garcia joined the fray. However, it seemed that Castagnoli was more than capable to hold his own against his foes. From there we got the rest of the entrants entering out in order.
Interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley was in his violent element when he entered. He introduced shards of glass that he’d later use on “Cool Hand” Ange Parker, bludgeoned Garcia with a fork, and a wood skewer to “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard’s head.
Santana’s time in the match was sadly shortlived as he suffered a rather serious knee injury when performing a uranage on Garcia, leaving him down and out for the remainder of the match. Early reports suggest that Santana tore several ligaments in that injury and could be out for a good while. We wish him a speedy and healthy recovery.
Eddie was the last to enter the ring, officially starting the titular Blood and Guts match in earnest. He entered with kendo stick in hand, dealing out shots to the entire JAS before cornering Chris Jericho himself and battering his hated enemy with vicious kendo strikes that shattered his weapon.
We got the match’s big signature bump when Kingston sent Sammy crashing through a table set up at ringside. The visual of Sammy’s brutal landing causing water bottles and
The action returned from the final PIP break in the evening with Jericho and Kingston continuing their brawl atop the Blood and Guts cage. Jericho locked his foe in the Walls of Jericho as Claudio Castagnoli climbed up and saved Kingston from the submission.
Claudio then grabbed Jericho for a giant swing on top of the cage, which was simultaneously an impressive and terrifying sight to behold. “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard entered the fray, but found himself trapped in the Sharpshooter. Meanwhile, Kingston finally had Jericho at his mercy with the Stretch Plum submission. Menard submitted to Claudio’s hold before Jericho could tap out to the Stretch Plum, denying Kingston ultimate vengeance against him.
The finish of having the faces get the big decisive win, while creating new tension built from Kingston’s simmering hatred of Claudio over their past in CHIKARA is a nice “kill two birds with one stone” bit of booking. It now gives Eddie another thing to add to the list of grievances he’s got with Claudio.
As a spectacle main event, Blood and Guts improved on what last year’s inaugural edition built upon to provide us with an exciting main event.
—
7/1/22 AEW Royal Rampage Results
- Brody King won the 20-man two-ring Royal Rampage battle royal by eliminating Darby Allin last with a sleeper hold that caused Darby to fall to the outside. King’s victory makes him the next opponent for Jon Moxley’s interim AEW World Title on this week’s Dynamite.
- The Young Bucks def. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI via pinfall with a BTE Trigger and Meltzer Driver on YOSHI-HASHI.
- Toni Storm def. Nyla Rose via pinfall with a DDT. Post-match, Nyla and Marina Shafir beat up on Storm until Thunder Rosa ran in for the save. Rampage went off the air with Storm and Rosa standing tall and showing respect for one another.
—
Other Odds & Ends
- On Dynamite, the Young Bucks lamented about how despite winning AEW Tag Team gold, all their Undisputed Elite friends weren’t around for them and that they had nobody with them right now. Interestingly, Matt Jackson seemed to hint that he and Nick sought the friendship of one “Hangman” Adam Page (without directly alluding to him, of course).
- Jay Lethal issued a challenge to ROH Television Champion Samoa Joe to defend his title at Ring of Honor’s upcoming return to PPV, Death Before Dishonor, on July 23rd.
- During an interview on Rampage, HOOK was interviewed and asked about what made him so successful in AEW. HOOK responded by saying, “anything essential is invisible to the eyes,” before walking off.
- Jonathan Gresham and Lee Moriarty challenged Tully Blanchard Enterprise’s Kaun and Toa Liona to a match on Dynamite this week. Gresham also called out Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli, frustrated that he’s often left out of “who’s the best wrestler in the world?” discussions.
—
Marc Quill is the editor of RingCrashers, GateCrashers’ home for all your All Elite Wrestling and indie wrestling needs. He’s also the web novelist behind Skye Emery: Bluebird, which you can read here. You can chat with him about wrestling, comics, and stuff in general on @MarcQuill on Twitter.
