AEW TV - 7/24 - 7/30/2024 - Under A Blood Red Skye

[Dolfan in NYC]

… All is quiet on New Year's Day.  A world in white gets underway....

So, it's new champ time in AEW as we have a new International Champion in Max Jake Friedman. He defeated Will Ospreay in what portends to be a new long feud that could go on for years! 

I want to be with you, be with you night and day. Nothing changes on New Year's Day...

We did have the unfortunate news also of Skye Blue suffering a legitimate ankle break, which sucks.  What does NOT suck in the women's division is Mariah May channeling Anne Baxter (to Toni Storm's Joan Crawford) in their feud.  (Even if it unfortunately went over the entire arena's heads... yes, those were "what?" chants.)

… Under a blood red sky, a crowd has gathered in black and white.  Arms entwined, the chosen few... The newspapers says, says, says it's true!

But as for THIS week... it's Blood And Guts time! 

Teams of five strive to survive!   Will YOUR favorite team live, or DIE!  Let's find out!

(I really forgot how young Bono and the boys are in this... good lord.)   Enjoy the week! 

[The Natural]

To me, Blood & Guts 2024 is the least interesting out of all four Blood & Guts matches. The Acclaimed stick out like a sore thumb and I really don't like The Young Bucks/Jack Perry. I'm naively hoping it'll be the first not to go on top of the cage but I know that's not happening. See Darby Allin falling off it.

Edited July 24, 2024 by The Natural

[The Natural]

I'm more looking forward to Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida.

[DreamBroken]

Tony announced the Royal Rampage returns on Friday as well.  Last year was for a TNT shot at All Out, this year is for a World Title shot at Grand Slam

[NikoBaltimore]

Not sure if I agree with this B&G not being interesting because this one is all about the follow through.  Hangman wants Swerve so badly that he almost reluctantly joined The Elite.  So while this will further things with him and Swerve there's also a good chance that he'll get sick of the Elite bullshit and this will put a rift between them.  Then there's Acclaimed going for the tag belts and while FTR might want them I see Acclaimed beating Bucks either at All In or Grand Slam.   Plus Darby wants Jack's TNT title so that will set things up but Jack needs to do something especially sinister tonight.  So that's good enough reason for me to give a damn about the match.

If anything the odd men out are Okada and Briscoe.  Maybe it'll set up a match between them but I'm not sure how Okada will be with this type of match.  I'm sure Mark will bring the violence but he has less of a reason to join than even The Acclaimed.

[The Natural]

7 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

Not sure if I agree with this B&G not being interesting because this one is all about the follow through.  Hangman wants Swerve so badly that he almost reluctantly joined The Elite.  So while this will further things with him and Swerve there's also a good chance that he'll get sick of the Elite bullshit and this will put a rift between them.  Then there's Acclaimed going for the tag belts and while FTR might want them I see Acclaimed beating Bucks either at All In or Grand Slam.   Plus Darby wants Jack's TNT title so that will set things up but Jack needs to do something especially sinister tonight.  So that's good enough reason for me to give a damn about the match.

If anything the odd men out are Okada and Briscoe.  Maybe it'll set up a match between them but I'm not sure how Okada will be with this type of match.  I'm sure Mark will bring the violence but he has less of a reason to join than even The Acclaimed.

Should have said least into. Big Kazuchika Okada fan, like Swerve Strickland, Hangman Adam Page, Mark Briscoe and Darby All in but Jack Perry and the Young Bucks do fuck all for me. Acclaimed very little for me. Might just catch the replay instead.

[NikoBaltimore]

My bad, I didn't mean to imply it was in response to what you were saying.  I have heard that from some friends and others saying similar things.  I do agree that compared to the faction wars in the past matches on the surface it isn't as interesting.  But I have a good feeling about this one and hope the replay works out for ya.

[The Natural]

12 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

My bad, I didn't mean to imply it was in response to what you were saying.  I have heard that from some friends and others saying similar things.  I do agree that compared to the faction wars in the past matches on the surface it isn't as interesting.  But I have a good feeling about this one and hope the replay works out for ya.

No worries, mate. Could never fall out with you.

[The Natural]

I'd say the second Blood & Guts match is still the best one, The Jericho Appreciation Society vs. Blackpool Combat Club/Eddie Kingston/Santana/Ortiz from 2022 then Pinnacle vs. The Inner Circle from 2021 and last year's last, The Golden Elite vs. Blackpool Combat Club/Konosuke Takeshita/PAC with Kota Ibushi looking terrible.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

10 hours ago, The Natural said:

I'm more looking forward to Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida.

Also psyched for this one. I'm dying to see Britt get a little redemption from a performance aspect after having slowed down a bit toward the end of her last run (for completely obvious/understandable medical reasons) and their DoN match in '20 or '21 was f'n great from what I remember.

10 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

(I really forgot how young Bono and the boys are in this... good lord.)   Enjoy the week

Off topic: I'm not huge on U2, but I saw a doc on Showtime years ago featuring The Edge kinda talking shop and jamming a little with Jimmy Page and Jack White, called "It Might Get Loud" that kind of gave me a newfound appreciation for his playing - if you're a fan I'd definitely recommend, I really enjoyed his segments even as more of a casual, "hits only" guy.

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Off topic: I'm not huge on U2, but I saw a doc on Showtime years ago featuring The Edge kinda talking shop and jamming a little with Jimmy Page and Jack White, called "It Might Get Loud" that kind of gave me a newfound appreciation for his playing - if you're a fan I'd definitely recommend, I really enjoyed his segments even as more of a casual, "hits only" guy.

I too recommend the doc. It was one I saw back when I worked at Movie Gallery and could watch releases that came in a few days prior to us placing them on shelves. 

[odessasteps]

I just saw that there are debates online about whether they should juggle the order of the show to avoid the speech tonight. Which I guess means certain quarters are probably fearful of a(nother) ratings drop this week “due to outside forces.” 

[Kevin Wilson]

4 hours ago, NikoBaltimore said:

Not sure if I agree with this B&G not being interesting because this one is all about the follow through.  Hangman wants Swerve so badly that he almost reluctantly joined The Elite.  So while this will further things with him and Swerve there's also a good chance that he'll get sick of the Elite bullshit and this will put a rift between them.  Then there's Acclaimed going for the tag belts and while FTR might want them I see Acclaimed beating Bucks either at All In or Grand Slam.   Plus Darby wants Jack's TNT title so that will set things up but Jack needs to do something especially sinister tonight.  So that's good enough reason for me to give a damn about the match.

If anything the odd men out are Okada and Briscoe.  Maybe it'll set up a match between them but I'm not sure how Okada will be with this type of match.  I'm sure Mark will bring the violence but he has less of a reason to join than even The Acclaimed.

I think for me, and its probably the wrong way to go about it, is B&G should be a feud-ender or at least have high stakes while this B&G is just a feud continuer with no stakes. Like no matter what happens, the matches for All In/All Out/Grand Slam are already still happening, none of the feuds are ending, and everyone will be back next week.

That being said, I think the match itself will be good and I'm looking forward to it, it just isn't the "exciting climax" or even a five friends vs. five friends blood feud I'd prefer it be, that's all.

[The Natural]

I hardly listen to music so I initially thought Dolfan was referencing Slayer's Raining Blood:

"Raining blood
From a lacerated sky"

[Zimbra]

Yeah, I wish B&G wasn't an annual thing and instead was a sort of ultimate sanction called on as needed.  "This feud has become so hateful and violent that there's only one way to settle it" kind of deal instead of an "It's July, gotta put on a match" situation.  

[NikoBaltimore]

6 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

I think for me, and its probably the wrong way to go about it, is B&G should be a feud-ender or at least have high stakes while this B&G is just a feud continuer with no stakes. Like no matter what happens, the matches for All In/All Out/Grand Slam are already still happening, none of the feuds are ending, and everyone will be back next week.

That being said, I think the match itself will be good and I'm looking forward to it, it just isn't the "exciting climax" or even a five friends vs. five friends blood feud I'd prefer it be, that's all.

This is true for wrestling in general but I personally gave up on the idea of matches like these being meant to be feud enders.  Both big companies have been guilty of having match types just because it was a certain month with WWE doing HITC until recently and B&G always in July.  I would love if this wasn't the case and this actually ended a feud.  But for my sake I could either get up in arms about it or just focus on the match itself and its direction.

[odessasteps]

Definitely their “unnecessary Hell in a Cell” equivalent 

[The Natural]

18 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

I think for me, and its probably the wrong way to go about it, is B&G should be a feud-ender or at least have high stakes while this B&G is just a feud continuer with no stakes. Like no matter what happens, the matches for All In/All Out/Grand Slam are already still happening, none of the feuds are ending, and everyone will be back next week.

That being said, I think the match itself will be good and I'm looking forward to it, it just isn't the "exciting climax" or even a five friends vs. five friends blood feud I'd prefer it be, that's all.

 

9 minutes ago, Zimbra said:

Yeah, I wish B&G wasn't an annual thing and instead was a sort of ultimate sanction called on as needed.  "This feud has become so hateful and violent that there's only one way to settle it" kind of deal instead of an "It's July, gotta put on a match" situation.  

Hell in a Cell from 1997-2007 was saved for the hottest feuds as the feud ender. It's why I hated the Hell in a Cell PPV from 2009-2022 and how you'd get one, two and sometimes three HIAC matches. Glad Triple H got rid of said show.

Edited July 24, 2024 by The Natural

[The Natural]

5 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

This is true for wrestling in general but I personally gave up on the idea of matches like these being meant to be feud enders.  Both big companies have been guilty of having match types just because it was a certain month with WWE doing HITC until recently and B&G always in July.  I would love if this wasn't the case and this actually ended a feud.  But for my sake I could either get up in arms about it or just focus on the match itself and its direction.

Money in the Bank, Fall Brawl, Blood & Guts. The Hell in a Cell annoyed me the most. To me that was the gimmick match alongside the Royal Rumble match growing up as a wrestling fan.

[The Natural]

Unless I can't sleep, I think I'll catch the replay of AEW Dynamite instead. So tired today.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

While I didn't LOVE the build, credit where it's due, I will at least say that I think they made some strides this year in using the mystery of who the participants would be as a story beat, particularly Hangman and Darby's participation.

[The Natural]

I'm apprehensive over what Darby Allin will do going by his track record.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

20 minutes ago, The Natural said:

I'm apprehensive over what Darby Allin will do going by his track record.

Same but I am choosing to believe he is now fully shielded from death by the Harry Potter scar he got from the glass in the Sting match

[Zimbra]

I think he's definitely going to bump off the top of the cage, the only question is how stupid the landing will be.

[Greggulator]

1) Remember when they had the Blood and Guts match with the Inner Circle and The Pinnacle like three weeks after their feud started? Dax on his podcast dished why — the network was pressuring them to pop a big rating and that was what resulted. Me thinks they want to pop another big rating since they are negotiating and this is what they came up with.

2) I’m excited for this — can’t wait to see Page and Swerve go literal vampire on each other, Darby to further eradicate his future quality of life, The Bucks cowardly avoiding getting their faces raked against the cage before it finally happens, whatever Okada does and Briscoe doing something insane that is impossible to even predict. All In, as they say!