Blood and Guts (2025) ... and Mayu vs Io

Blood and Guts was a great TV episode of AEW and while Hobbs vs the Hanger was cool, I mostly have thoughts about the two cage matches...

Women's Blood and Guts

Marina Shafir, Megan Bayne, Mercedes Mone, Julia Hart, Skye Blue & Thekla vs. Harley Cameron, Jamie Hayter, Kris Statlander, Mina Shirakawa, Toni Storm & Willow Nightingale

Of the two Blood and Guts matches, this one had the worst build and felt the most forced, but as in every time AEW Women are allowed to be hardcore, it whipped ass in actual execution.

The tone is set by Skye Blue immediately doing one of the Blade Jobs of All Time. Some wrestlers talk about a high when they juice, and you can see it on her face. She's fucking living, joy shining through her crimson mask. From here there is no cohesive narrative running through the whole match, but several little stories, in the same vein as a good royal rumble. Also Harley Cameron is there, dressed as Tifa and covered in blood. I totally didn't feel weird about that all, YOU feel weird, stop judging me.

Now, all wrestling violence is horny (the mens B&G included for sure), but the actual lewdest, most obscene thing in this match was Marina Shafir's back, who wore a top that could only be described as "A T-Back Thong for her Giant Traps". Later in the match she stomps and grinds her foot in a pile of glass, bare foot, for the pleasure of stomping said glass on another woman. Complete freak shit. I can't go over everything, but every woman brought their best traits to this match. Freak athleticism, slipping through tight spaces, puppetry... Match just had everything.

To finally congeal the match together, it ends with the heels whipping Mina to death with a belt, while pinning a howling Toni down and forcing her to watch. All these women are too prideful to surrender for their own safety, but Toni has to protect the one she loves. This too, is yuri. 4 and a half.

Men's Blood and Guts

Darby Allin, Roderick Strong & The Conglomeration (Kyle O'Reilly, Mark Briscoe & Orange Cassidy) vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, Jon Moxley, PAC & Wheeler Yuta

I didn't like this as much as the women's match, but in no ways did I NOT enjoy it. Parts of the match simply felt more lost and aimless, but enough ridiculous stuff happened to fill in the gaps. I'm going to be laughing about Darby being lawn darted between the ring and the cage for awhile.

The real strength of this match though is the ending. I don't love how the Darby/Moxley match ended. I don't think they truly sold what was happening in that moment as well as they could have, but even then, you could glimpse the story they were trying to tell. From there on, every Moxley match has done nothing but drive home that theme. The Emperor has no clothes. The final spots, ending in a pile of glass again and everything? Absolutely perfect. Hell, even Kyle giving Moxley the finger earlier. They're not weak, Mox. YOU are the weak one.

Both matches had great endings, this one just had the strength of a few months of story telling behind it. A day of reckoning is clearly coming for Mox, and I feel like the results of this match has doomed him.

IYO SKY vs Mayu Iwatani

Marigold Grand Destiny

I will never forgive Vince for that needless name change, even if its low on the list of things I won't forgive him for. I'm not calling her that again.

Great match. It was good to see Io in a Japanese ring again, vs an opponent of her caliber. It felt far from one of their best matches, but it didn't feel like a disappointment either. I don't think it's age or "WWEification"(which Io seemed to have avoideD)... Just... realistically you're not going to get better from a one-off.

Two wrestlers, who have been apart so long, getting to have a good time doing stupid bumps together. They gave the crowd what they wanted to see and while I wasn't blown away, I felt a nice warmth in my heart seeing them wrestle again.

Seeing Io again is weird. I understand I am stubborn for still calling her Io, but honestly I have so few memories of "Iyo" that calling her that feels equally forced. Even if this is below average for these two, I can't imagine she's having matches this good in WWE. Against who??? So I get to see the old Io again, but sorta a 'greatest hits' version, on tour one last time. Bittersweet.