Tonight not only features the first female Blood and Guts match, but also the first time two Blood and Guts matches will happen in the same night! The Triangle of Madness and friends will take on an all-star team of morally upstanding ladyfolk, while the Death Riders will look to avoid justice against the extended Conglomeration! Rounding out the night’s action, AEW World Champion Hangman Page will face Powerhouse Hobbs in a Falls Count Anywhere Match, which might technically also be the first match on the same card as a (The Art Of) Wargames/Blood and Guts/Whatever MLW calls it Match where pinfalls are legal in either ring! Except in GCW, where they just seem to do that as part of their regular rules.
Match One: Blood and Guts: Triangle of Madness, TBS Champion (Plus Nearly a Dozen Other Championships) Mercedes Mone, Megan Bayne and Marina Shafir vs. Toni Storm, Harley Cameron, Shirakawa Mina, Willow Nightingale, Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander and Jamie Hayter
Skye Blue and Willow Nightingale Start
Skye comes out with a kendo stick, Willow comes out with a trash can lid.
They start swinging away with their respective weapons between the rings, then hockey fight, Willow with a lariat, they move to the further ring, Willow tosses Blue into two adjacent turnbuckles, punches, hair pull spin toss, kick, toss to the scaffolding around the ring, forearms, trading unsuccessful attempts to toss each other into the cage wall, Willow with a punch to the back, back in the ring, Willow with a suplex onto the ropes, running boot, slingshot Alley Oop into the cage wall, tackle into an adjacent portion of the cage wall, climbs the turnbuckle, poses, climbs back out of the ring, drags Blue into the ring, forearms, toss into the near ring, toss to the corner, lariats, lariat in the middle of the ring, sets Blue up top, punches to the back, Blue with forearms, punches to the back, Willow goes for a superplex, blocked, trading shots.
Julia Hart Enters
Hart and Blue tee off on Willow, double team powerbomb, Hart slams Willow’s head into the turnbuckle, pulls the cover off the connector (which I only recently learned is the part technically called the turnbuckle), Old School, Blue and Hart search for something hidden in the turnbuckle pads but don’t find it, Willow escapes to the far ring, Sisters of Sin chase her and beat her down.
Harley Cameron Enters
Harley comes in with a chair, tosses it at both opponents, beats down Hart, avalanches to both of them, Willow joins in, Harley dropkicks a chair into Hart’s face, Willow hits a cannonball with the garbage can lid to Blue, dual ten-punches, take turns hitting a suplex, Willow lays the trash can lid on Hart and then slams Blue onto the pile, go to toss their opponents into the corner, both opponents rebound, beatdown, double team suplex to Harley, Hart hits Harley with a trash can lid, kicks to Willow, brawl erupts, Willow hits Hart with a Pounce as Harley beats down Blue.
Thekla Enters
Thekla cleans house, grabs a belt that she had wrapped around her boot and starts whipping her opponents with it.
Jamie Hayter Enters
Hayter enters with a bag, smacks Blue with it so hard that it breaks and we can see that it has tacks in it, grabs a barbed wire kendo stick, which might be the original kendo stick and we’re just now noticing the barbed wire, she cleans house with it, Sisters of Sin go for a double team suplex, get suplexed instead, Thekla with a punch, goes for a bulldog, reversed into a slam onto the tacks face first, comes out swinging with the belt.
Megan Bayne Enters
Okay, so they are clearly kayfabing the times between entrances.
Hayter stares down Bayne, but Bayne still hits her with a Claymore and starts tossing all of her opponents around, Hayter gets to her feet and they brawl, but Bayne hits a fireman’s carry front slam, German, Harley hits Bayne with a trash can lid, Bayne isn’t phased, boots Harley, slams her onto the lid.
Kris Statlander Enters
Stat enters with a pool cue, goes up top, leaps and breaks it across Bayne’s back, cleans house, tosses Thekla out of the ring and into the cage wall, Blue Thunder Bomb and a Vader Bomb to Bayne, grabs the broken pool cue, has a moment with Willow, Bayne shoves Stat into Willow, Stat and Bayne get into a hockey fight, Bayne gets the better of it, misses an avalanche, Stat hits running strikes in the corner, in the other ring Hart is beating Hayter with the kendo stick, Bayne and Stat continue to fight back and forth, Willos attacks Hart with the trash can lid but Blue comes to her rescue, only to get a kendo stick shot from Hayter, Bayne dumps Harley to the apron and tosses her into the beam attaching the two halves of the cage, continues beating her down, powerbomb, blocked as Harley grabs the cage wall, then starts climbinb the column, Bayne gives chase, Harley tosses her head into the column until she falls, Harley then dives on several opponents.
Mercedes Mone Enters
Mone briefly cleans house until Stat goes to Tombstone her onto the Women’s World Championship belt, but it’s reversed into a DDT onto the belt, Mone dances with the belt, walks out of the cage, starts grabbing all her championships and bringing them into the ring, the baddies start beating their opponents with championship belts.
Shirakawa Mina Enters
Shirakawa has a barbed wire bat. She clubs Thekla with it, throws it to Bayne and then dropkicks her, crossbody to both Sisters of Sin, Mone grabs the bat but Stat helps Shirakawa hit her with a hurricanrana, trading forearms with Mone,
Marina Shafir Enters
The bad guy side is now complete. She enters from the other side, I didn’t know there was a door there. Shafir pulls Stat out of the cage, tosses her into the barricade, reveals a bed of nails hidden in a different part of the barricade, Stat goes to slam her onto it, Shafir blocks, roundhouse kick, Stat falls on the bed of nails, enters the cage, tees off on Hayter.
Toni Storm Enters
Storm enters with a fist full of pears and grabs Mone’s champagne bucket.
Blood and Guts Officially Begins
Storm starts hitting people with the pearls, until she gets to Shafir, who shrugs it off, starts beating down Storm, around the ring the bad guys look to be holding the night, Storm starts punching people with broken bottle in her hand, Shirakawa joins in, full brawl breaks out, Hayter ends up elbow dropping Blue through a table, Blue and Thekla hit a double team superplex to Hayter, Harley punches Mone with brass knuckles, Hart and Thekla beat down Harley, they then slide out of the cage through the gaps in the column, demand the key from the outside ref, Thekla spears him, they grab the key, open the door, Harley and Hayter get pulled out and beat down, Stat runs back into the fray, Stat and Mone start climbing the corner column, Stat pulls Mone’s leg through the column and starts wrenching it, Mone with boots, Stat hits her with a Samoan Drop through the belt table, Storm and Shirakawa DDT Shafir onto broken champagne bottle glass back in the ring, Storm lays a mirror across Shafir in the corner, goes for a running hip attack, Shafir throws the mirror at her, Shirakawa turns into an angry widow and starts beating the shit out of Bayne with a barbed wire bat, figure four with the bat, Shafir steps on the glass with her bare feet, stomps on Mina, Bayne beats down Shirakawa with the TBS Championship as the rest of the baddie team hold Toni Storm back and make her watch, Storm eventually surrenders.
Winners: Triangle of Madness, Megan Bayne, Marina Shafir and Mercedes Mone
They beat down Storm after the bell. Goddamn, that was a hell of a match.
After a commercial, cameras catch the Don Callis Family brawling with Jurassic Express. They get the better of it by virtue of superior numbers. Okada emerges from a trailer with the Young Bucks, and Don Callis reveals this was a gift for them, before inviting them to join again.
Match Two: Falls Count Anywhere: AEW Men’s World Champion Hangman Page vs. Powerhouse Hobbs (Non-Title)
Trading strikes, Hobbs goes for Snake Eyes into an exposed turnbuckle, blocked, trading forearms, Hobbs with a punch to the gut, Hangman tosses him into the space between the rings, springboard lariat, another, Hobbs into the near ring, Hangman misses a top rope clothesline, Hobbs with a lariat, tosses Page into the barricade, then apron, rolls him back into the ring, Hangman with a suicide dive, punch, toss into the barricade, Hobbs with a face wash, toss into the ring post, into the barricade, punches Hangman into a pile against the ring steps, cannonball, misses, Hangman goes to leap off the steps, Hobbs grabs him, slams him into the apron, then the announce table, climbs the steps, World’s Strongest Slam onto the steps, rolls him off the steps, Page with punches to the gut, Hobbs with a knee, backbreaker, punch to the back, rolls Page into the ring, follows, punch to the back, knee to the side, headbutt, double axe handle to the back, toss into the middle portion, Page with a boot, Hobbs tackles Hangman, sending him ping ponging between the two sets of ropes, Hobbs with a forearm, punch to the back, slam into the turnbuckle, powerslam for two, toss to the floor, clears the announce table, lays Hangman on it, gets up on it, his foot goes through the table but he recovers, goes for a powerbomb, reversed into a back body drop off the table, clotheslines Hobbs over the barricade, beats Hobbs down on the floor, Hobbs goes to toss him into the outer barricade, reversed, Hangman with a moonsault from the outer barricade, lariat from atop the barricade, Dead Eye, blocked, Hangman with a boot, hits Hobbs with a garbage can, Hobbs spinebusters Hangman through a nearby table for two, drags Hangman up the stairs into the stands, goes for a World’s Strongest Slam off the entryway, blocked with lariats, Hangman clubs Hobbs with his boot and Hobbs falls through a production table, Hangman climbs down and covers for three.
Winner: Hangman Page
The rest of the Opps attack Page after the bell, with Joe beating Page with a chair. He calls for the Blood and Guts cage to be lowered, which apparently he has the power to make happen because it starts lowering. Before it can come down, Eddie Kingston and Hook make the save. Page grabs a mic and says all Joe had to do was ask if he wanted him in a cage. He makes the challenge for Full Gear to be a cage match.
After a commercial, Tony Schiavone welcomes Ricky Steamboat to the ring. He talks about his history in the Greensboro area until FTR interrupt. Steamboat talks about his history teaming with FTR. Stokely says Steamboat made history in this building, just like FTR are going to make history at Full Gear by becoming 3-time tag team champions. Dax starts off putting Steamboat over, but then says Steamboat never gave him any good advice because he’s never said anything intelligent. Dax then says there was one thing Steamboat taught him, which was to save money, but then says Steamboat and Flair didn’t follow that advice, or else they wouldn’t have to be there tonight. They get in a brief shoving match, Dax demands Steamboat leave the ring. Steamboat says a few years ago he would have told them to kiss his ass, but discretion is the better part of valour, then goes to leave, before FTR attack. They go to hit him with a spike piledriver before Brodido make the save. Steamboat gets some shots in on Dax before Stokely pulls Dax out of the ring and to safety.
Main Event: Blood and Guts: Death Riders vs. The Conglomeration, Darby Allin and Roderick Strong
Darby Allin and Wheeler Yuta Start
Yuta exits the cage and taunts the fans, Darby with a dropkick, tosses into the barricade and cage wall, Yuta responds in kind at a much slower pace, climbs into the ring, boots the cage door into Darby’s face when he attempts to do the same, pulls him into the ring, chops on the ropes, Darby with a springboard into a Coffin Drop off the cage wall, they climb into the far ring, Darby with Code Red, reveals tacks on the bottom of his skateboard, rakes Yuta’s face with the skateboard, Yuta with a low blow, high angle slam.
Orange Cassidy Enters
Cassidy enters with a backpack, then breaks his own sunglasses and uses them to stab Yuta in the head, DDT, double team beatdown with Darby, the backpack turns out to contain chains, Cassidy beats down Yuta with the chain, Darby with a top rope double foot stomp avec tack board.
Daniel Garcia Enters
Garcia goes after Darby and quickly gets the better of the ensuing hockey fight, Cassidy runs in and Garcia gets them both in holds while Yuta adds in some punches, they both punch away at their opponents, Yuta gets a chain, chops Cassidy, double team whip, pulled chain to the gut, stomps for Darby, Darby makes them bonk heads, Cassidy with kicks to both opponents, running dropkicks for both of them, Yuta with a boot to the gut, Cassidy hits him with Stundog Millionaire while Darby and Garcia brawl in the corner, Cassidy goes for an elbow drop to Yuta, blocked with knees, double team kicks to Cassidy, Cassidy and Darby rally and hit punches, and wrap their opponents in chains.
Mark Briscoe Enters
Or does he? His music plays, but there’s no Mark Briscoe. Yuta and Garcia hit low blows, backstage Renee Paquette finds an injured Briscoe in the back, Roderick Strong volunteers to go instead.
Roderick Strong Enters Instead of Mark Briscoe
Strong hits a pair of backbreakers to Yuta, tees off on Garcia, backbreaker, slams Yuta onto Garcia, exits the cage and grabs a chair, heads back in the ring.
Claudio Castagnoli Enters
After a brief tussle with Strong, Claudio tosses him into a chair in the corner, goes for a giant swing to Darby, intercepted by Cassidy locking in a sleeper, Claudio does the swing anyway, press slams Darby into the far ring, tosses Strong face-first into the cage wall, Yuta hits Cassidy with a chair while Garcia locks Darby in a surfboard, releasing him into a Claudio European uppercut.
Kyle O’Reilly Enters
Kyle double-legs Yuta and starts teeing off on him, Garcia tries to intervene but gets a back suplex, Kyle and Claudio trade shots until Kyle hits a DDT, front chancery, Claudio to his feet, goes for a suplex, reversed into a chop block, Strong with a knee to Claudio, double team beatdown with Kyle, Garcia and Yuta beat down Cassidy with a chair, then do the same to Strong, Kyle wrenches Claudio’s knee in the rope, the match devolves into a brawl, Death Riders get the better of it, they really dig in.
Jon Moxley Enters
Kyle O’Reilly goes for a knee, but Mox catches him and stabs him with a fork, before doing the same to Strong, then Darby. He then rakes it across Darby’s back, then passes it to Garcia who does the same thing, before they toss Darby into the cage wall. He falls between the cage and the apron. Moxley then grabs a bucket full of plunder that broke during the women’s match. The counter reaches zero as there’s theoretically another member of the Conglomeration’s team. Renee announces that Mark Briscoe is out, and that he was attacked by the Don Callis Family. Jon Moxley stabs O’Reilly with a broken piece of the mirror from the women’s match, they choke Darby with the chain before Mox and Garcia hits him with a spike piledriver onto broken glass, Mox drags Darby’s back through it, Garcia puts a bucket on Darby’s head and boot it off, someone sets up a table in the corner of the far ring, Strong tries to rebound on Mox but it doesn’t go well, then Mox grabs a barbed wire bat, hits Strong in the gut, taunts Kyle O’Reully, who responds with some slaps before Mox hits him with the bat, then Claudio hits him with a chair. Mox tosses Strong into the cage wall while Claudio puts Cassidy in a Giant Swing until Yuta dropkicks Cassidy, then Claudio locks in a Sharpshooter, Mox locks Strong in a rear naked choke, O’Reilly rebounds with kicks as Darby climbs the bones of the cage and drops onto all four Death Riders.
PAC Enters
Blood and Guts Officially Begins
Death Riders continue to beat down their opponents, Mark Briscoe limps his way to the ring with a toolbox and bolt cutters, cuts the lock off the cage, tosses the door at Yuta, throws a chair at Garcia’s head, tees off on PAC and Claudio, Mox hits him in the gut with the bat, tosses him to the scaffolding on the side, Briscoe stumbles back out of the cage but then throws the tool box inside, brawls with Yuta on the floor, suplex, Cassidy tees off on Garcia with a wrench from the toolbox while Strong attacks Mox with a chain, then they trade positions, Mox hits Cassidy with a chop, sets him up top, Briscoe tosses a chair at Yuta on the floor while O’Reilly and Garcia trade offense, Briscoe grabs a table, boots Yuta a couple times, Cassidy boots Mox, Briscoe sets up the table, lays Yuta on it, Garcia chokes Briscoe with… something, but Briscoe throws him down, lays him on the table, climbs the cage, there looks to be someone else on the cage laying down, it’s Yuta, Garcia rolls off the table but O’Reilly locks him in a cross arm breaker, Yuta and Briscoe trade punches atop the cage, tosses a clip attached to a rope down to O’Reilly, who attaches them to a pile of chairs for Briscoe to pull up, Briscoe and Yuta have a chair duel, Yuta drops his first, Briscoe beats Yuta down with his chair, goes for a Jay Driller onto a pile of chairs, blocked, Yuta with a low blow, grabs a chair, chair shot to the head.
Back in the ring, Garcia squeezes O’Reilly’s earlobe with a wrench, Claudio beats down Darby with forearms, Yuta keeps punching Briscoe in the head on top of the cage, Garcia restrains Cassidy for Moxley to do what he will, Mox kicks Cassidy in the gut, then he and Garcia trade positions and Garcia punches Cassidy a couple times, O’Reilly with kicks for Garcia and Mox, eventually runs out of steam and Mox trips him, drops down on the ankle, Briscoe low blows Yuta on the top of the cage, hits the Jay Driller onto the pile of chairs, climbs down as Darby and Claudio fight over a small sledgehammer, Darby gets the better of it and jams it into Claudio’s throat, Mox tries to go at Darby with the fork, blocked, Strong comes to Darby’s aid, PAC boots Briscoe on the floor, Darby attacks him, grabs a taser, Gabe Kidd attacks and drags Darby off, PAC grabs the taser, Garcia locks Cassidy in a sleeper, Cassidy sticks his hands in his pockets, Garcia with a whip, Cassidy with a dropkick, Claudio holds Cassidy while Mox staples his hands to his pockets, Gabe and PAC try to hang Darby from the entrance tunnel, Darby rebounds with kicks and PAC and Darby fight on top of the tunnel, Gabe Kidd douses some nearby tables in lighter fluid, PAC with a gorilla press slam through the tables as Kidd sets them alight, Death Riders continue to beat down their opponents in the ring, Mox locks O’Reilly in a Bulldog Choke with a chain in his mouth, O’Reilly flips him off, Mox lets go, Yuta tosses Claudio a chair, he puts it around O’Reilly’s neck, Cassidy slides in to block, Orange Punch to Mox as Strong hits knees, Briscoe hits PAC with a fisherman suplex through a table on the floor, Strong suplexes Garcia through a table in the corner, then tosses Yuta through a different table, Cassidy goes for another Orange Punch to Mox between both rings, Claudio blocks him, boots Strong, Very European Uppercut reversed into an Orange Punch, Strong spears Claudio through another table, Orange Punch to Mox, O’Reilly locks Mox in an ankle lock, Mox reverses into a Bulldog Choke, O’Reilly reverses into a cross arm breaker, transitions to an ankle lock on the broken glass, Mox taps.
Winners: The Conglomeration, Roderick Strong and Darby Allin
Goddamn. That match was even better than the first. I think it was aided by the fact that it actually was a culmination, whereas the choice to put the women’s match in the middle of several feuds that are still set to face off at Full Gear left it a match that was still great, but was ultimately hampered by a certain level of missing stakes. Still, while it normally makes me smile when the women outshine the men, and they often do, there is something cool about the fact that the men had to damn near kill themselves to eke out the superior match.
All in all, that was a fantastic night of car crash wrestling.
