| AEW Blood & Guts | |
|---|---|
 AEW Blood & Guts logo | |
| Promotions | All Elite Wrestling |
| First event | 2021 |
| Signaturematches | WarGames match |
AEW Blood & Guts (also stylized asBlood and Guts) is an annualprofessional wrestlingtelevision special produced by the AmericanpromotionAll Elite Wrestling (AEW) since 2021. The event typically airs mid-year as aspecial episode of the promotion's flagship weekly television program,Wednesday Night Dynamite; it originally aired onTNT in 2021, but has aired onTBS since 2022 andsimulcast onHBO Max beginning in 2025. Theconcept of the event comes from the Blood and Guts match, which is AEW's version of the classicWarGames match in which two teams fight inside a roofed cell structure that surrounds two rings placed side-by-side. Eachmain event match of the card is contested under the Blood and Guts stipulation.
Theinaugural event was originally scheduled to occur in March 2020, but due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed and instead took place in May 2021. The2022 event moved it to June before moving to July beginning with the2023 event. The2025 event was the latest scheduled as it was held in November and also featured the first-ever women's Blood and Guts match in AEW.
From 2022 to 2024, aspecial episode ofFriday Night Rampage titledRoyal Rampage was also taped in conjunction with the Blood & Guts special, making use of the double ring.Rampage was cancelled at the end of 2024, thus ending the Royal Rampage special.
On July 25, 2019,World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), as a publicly traded company, conducted a conference call to announce its second-quarter fiscal year 2019 results. During the call, Eric Katz of Wolfe Research, LLC, asked WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)Vince McMahon questions regarding namingEric Bischoff andPaul Heyman as Executive Directors to WWE and its relationship to the future of WWE content, especially with stricterBroadcast Standards and Practices at theFox network forSmackDown's upcoming move to broadcast television. McMahon responded to Katz's question:
We're going to be a bit edgier, but still remain in thePG environment. We just haven't come anywhere close actually to going into another level. So that will be something we'll do in terms of direction of content, more controversy, better storylines, et cetera. But at the same time, we're not going to go back to theAttitude Era, and we're not going to do blood and guts and things of that nature such as being done on perhaps a new potential competitor. We're just not going to go back to that gory crap that we graduated from. And again, a more sophisticated product, again, attracting much better writers and attracting better management, and things of that nature. So again, as I said, I feel really good about it.[1][2]
The term "blood and guts" used by McMahon was perceived as a reference to rival wrestling promotionAll Elite Wrestling (AEW).[3] On November 13, 2019, AEW filed a trademark for "Blood & Guts," a play on McMahon's term. DuringRevolution on February 29, 2020, AEW announced that the March 25 episode ofWednesday Night Dynamite would be subtitled Blood & Guts, and feature the promotion's firstWarGames match, billed as a "Blood and Guts match" due to WWE owning the WarGames trademark.[4][5]
The inaugural event was originally scheduled to take place on March 25, 2020, at thePrudential Center inNewark, New Jersey,[6][7] but was postponed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[8] Over a year later, Blood & Guts was officially rescheduled to air as the May 5, 2021, episode ofDynamite onTNT and be held atDaily's Place inJacksonville, Florida due to the ongoing pandemic.[9] The event returned in June 2022 and was held at theLittle Caesars Arena inDetroit, Michigan following AEW's resumption of live touring in July 2021. Instead of airing on TNT, the2022 event aired onTBS asDynamite moved to TBS in January 2022.[10] The2023 event then moved Blood & Guts to July.[11]
On September 30, 2025, AEW announced that the fifth annual Blood & Guts would air live as the November 12, 2025, episode ofDynamite,simulcast on TBS andHBO Max, and it would be held at theFirst Horizon Coliseum inGreensboro, North Carolina. While prior events were held mid-year, the 2025 edition was the first to take place in the latter part of the year. This was also the first WarGames-type match to take place at the First Horizon Coliseum sinceWorld Championship Wrestling'sGreat American Bash house show tour on August 10, 1991. The event also featured the first-ever women's Blood and Guts match in AEW.[12]
From 2022 to 2024,Friday Night Rampage — which was usually taped at the same venue on Wednesday nights following theDynamite broadcast — featured the "Royal Rampage", a modifiedRumble rulesbattle royal specifically adapted to accommodate the two-ring setup used for Blood & Guts. The winner of the Royal Rampage received a future championship match.[13][14]Rampage was cancelled at the end of 2024, thus ending the Royal Rampage special.[15]
Theconcept of the event comes from the Blood and Guts match, and eachmain event match of the card is contested under this stipulation. It uses the classic WarGames format fromJim Crockett Promotions, which differs from the modified WWE format. The match features tworings enclosed by a steel cage, which was developed by wrestlerVirgil Runnels, better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.[4][5]
The notable format differences between the classic Crockett rules and the modified WWE rules include the cage itself—the Crockett version used an enclosed cage, while WWE uses an open top cage—and under Crockett rules, the match can only be won with a submission or surrender, where in WWE, the match can also end bypinfall. Additionally, going outside the cage is allowed in AEW's version, but in WWE's version, if a member of the team exits the cage, it results in a forfeit for that team.[16]
The main event of each card is contested as the Blood and Guts match.
| Year | Winner | Championship opportunity | Championship match result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Brody King | AEW Interim World Championship | Lost toJon Moxley on the following week'sDynamite. |
| 2023 | Darby Allin | AEW TNT Championship | Lost toLuchasaurus atAll Out. |
| 2024 | Darby Allin | AEW World Championship | Lost title shot toJon Moxley atGrand Slam. |