Since the advent of AEW Blood and Guts match stipulation, fans have clamored for women to share the double-sided cage. After all, it’s been done before. WWE has done it both on the main roster and NXT in their version of the classic WarGames match. Often, the women would even steal the show within its steely confines.
Fortunately, the stars may be aligned in 2025. Without outright conveying this to viewers, AEW has slid all the pieces into proximity on the board. And there will undoubtedly be a very vocal minority who might speak against this.
As they always do. Yet, when placed in violent matches, AEW’s women wrestlers almost always deliver. Right now, the division is on fire, and with the intersected storylines going on, there’s one that’s very possible.
This mixture has spilled out into chaos, with months of build-up. It’s only natural to contain that madness and force it to be settled once and for all. Why must this happen now? What could make this exciting?
Background and Its Importance
During 2019’s second fiscal year, Vince McMahon’s conference call saw the first coinage of the term “blood and guts” in a loose reference to AEW. This prompted All Elite Wrestling CEO Tony Khan to book their first match under the “Blood & Guts” gimmick.
Since WWE’s copyright prevented AEW from mentioning the WarGames match that inspired it, this nod to McMahon’s barb was the poke-back that began AEW’s tradition.
With the Blood & Guts under AEW’s copyright in 2019, the company was first set to hold this match in 2020. However, the COVID-19 lockdown put these plans on ice. In 2021, it finally happened. Pitting MJF’s Pinnacle against Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle, the inaugural match received a mixed reception.
2022 saw The Blackpool Combat Club, Eddie Kingston, and Santana & Ortiz against the Jericho Appreciation Society. Blackpool Combat Club once again entered the cage against The Golden Elite in 2023, while the following year contained a new variation of The Elite against Team AEW, led by Swerve Strickland.
To date, the women haven’t been given a chance in this. Surely, whether by gangs led by either Britt Baker or Saraya, a Blood & Guts match could’ve been possible. Or an inter-promotional war. That was when the women’s division was stuck in an uphill battle. Now, things are different.
Throughout the company’s history, women have crawled through debris and glass to deliver spectacle upon spectacle. Blood & Guts itself has had a mixed reception. It’s time to take a risk, as the women’s roster has more than proven itself.
Surprises
To make a woman’s Blood & Guts match work, it must be memorable. So far, the men’s versions haven’t quite had that. Aside from Kota Ibushi coming to the aid of the Golden Elite in 2023 or Claudio Castagnoli spinning Chris Jericho at the top of the cage, I struggle to remember much.
The women’s division has been on fire, however. AEW, while there’s room for improvement, has platformed the roster in far better visibility. Still, the biggest stars, being Athena, Toni Storm, and Mercedes Mone, can leave some in the dirt. Give them something to do.
That’s why the women’s division needs this. Fortunately, it seems the company is already headed in that direction. The Triangle of Madness, consisting of Thekla, Julia Hart, and Skye Blue, has rained torment down on Willow Nightingale and especially Queen Aminata.
Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford, elsewhere, have been bullying Anna Jay and Tay Melo after taking out Harley Cameron for a few months. Ideally, now seems the best time for women to fight in the confines of a Blood & Guts match.
What could happen? I could see an elevation to Queen Aminata and Thekla’s rivalry driving the match. They could have memorable spots. Willow Nightingale and Megan Bayne can drive a hoss spot. Anna Jay, Tay Melo, Skye Blue, and Julia Hart are gutsy enough to leave enough red and viscera slathered amongst themselves in gnarlier moments. They know how to tell the story. But there could be shocking moments.
Maybe Kris Statlander interferes? What if Harley Cameron joins the babyface team in her wrathful, masked return? I’m unsure of her injury status, but what if Jamie Hayter was cleared to give Thekla her comeuppance?
Only the wrestlers, bookers, and producers would know how to drive this story, and I’m excited to find out, should this Blood & Guts match happen.
The New Standard
There’ve been countless matches that have featured the women of AEW fighting madly to prove their spot on television and pay-per-view. Lights Out Matches, street fights, and Hollywood Endings.
Marina Shafir and Willow Nightingale even take on the men, as seen by the go-home show and event of 2025’s Double or Nothing. Some may preach that it’s unwatchable, while the larger majority clamors for this carnage.
If nothing else, allowing a Blood & Guts would open doors. It’d be a statement that the women who reinvented or grew in AEW are hungry for more.
They want top spots, title shots, and a chance to shine. AEW is currently behind WWE in this milestone of putting women in the cage. They can catch up, possibly even outdoing their WarGames matches. The fire under them is lit. They’re ready, and so are the fans.
Give women the spots they fight for. Allow them Blood & Guts, dog collar matches, Anarchy in the Arena, and special matches like the Hollywood Ending. Women have been painted as pretty, delicate things for so long, when they’ve been resilient, tenacious, and stronger than the world lets on. And they’ll keep on fighting.
Even if they shed blood and guts to do it.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
Header photo – AEW – Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on AEW Blood and Guts and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. As well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TBS. AEW Collision airs Saturday at 8 pm Eastern on TNT. More AEW content available on their YouTube
