CW: Blood. Lots of blood. And thumbtacks. And puppet violence
Last week on AEW Dynamite, twelve women walked into a steel cage and made history in the very first women’s Blood and Guts match. The faces were lovable oddballs AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander, Willow Nightingale, “Timeless” Toni Storm, Mina Shirakawa, Jamie Hayter, and Harley Cameron. The heels were certified bad girls TBS Champion Mercedes Moné, Marina Shafir, Megan Bayne, and the Triangle of Madness (Thekla, Skye Blue and Julia Hart). Real blood flowed in abundance, and metaphorical guts were on display as each woman risked it all to put their opponents through hell. Fans have been calling for a women’s Blood and Guts match since the first B&G took place in 2021. After four long years, the women’s division has now gotten the chance to show they can be just as brutal as the men. But did they pull it off?
Spoilers: yes. Yes they did.
Blood and Guts For The Sickos
Not only did both teams deliver, they in fact surpassed the men. Skye Blue, the clear MVP of Blood and Guts, both dished out and received a gauntlet of pain; five minutes into the match, she was already covered in blood, yet she made it to the end looking tougher than the bed of nails Shafir threw Statlander into. Blue has been chomping at the bit to do a Blood and Guts match for years. She’s built up a reputation as a certified sicko. Last year, she spoke about her youthful wrestling aspirations to do crazy stunts that horrified her mother, and tonight her dreams were realized. After being put through a table, covered in tacks, whacked with kendo sticks, and much else, Blue’s unhinged, dazed smile at the end said it all. Other standouts were Jamie Hayter and Kris Statlander, who took an impressive array of punishments, and Marina Shafir purely for making me wince by intentionally stepping on broken glass barefoot.
This parade of carnage concluded with an act of love. Mina Shirakawa, who was previously in a throuple with Toni Storm and Mariah May, has recently become Storm’s work wife. Shafir had Shirakawa pinned down while Megan Bayne delivered a brutal beating with the TBS Championship belt. Storm, horrified, made the decision to submit and lose the match rather than see her beloved wife suffer. This opens up some intriguing new storyline possibilities– could Storm realize that love is getting in the way of her career and turn heel?– but more importantly, it felt like the correct emotional beat to hit and was a satisfying ending to the Blood and Guts match. The heels may be triumphant for now, but in a promo filmed after the match, Storm and Shirakawa are already plotting their next move, to be made once the latter recovers from her beating. Their future feud with Bayne and Shafir will be one to watch.
A Case for Bloodshed
For too long, women’s wrestling in general has been considered lesser. The single women’s match on the card is typically derided as the “bathroom break,” and talented, physically imposing women have been forced to participate in humiliation rituals like bra and panties matches. Men in power like to pretend that even our anger is a lesser thing, our bitter rivalries with each other demeaned and called catfights. Hardcore matches are just a violently artistic expression of the pain and rage many of us already feel every day.
While the popular consensus is still that women don’t like blood in wrestling and that the sport must be sanitized to attract us, the reality is just the opposite. Hangman and Swerve gained legions of female fans because of, not despite, their Texas Death Match. Kris and Willow’s hardcore matches are similarly beloved, as are street fights such as the one depicted above between The Bunny and Anna Jay. The women in Blood and Guts felt like an assembly of horror final girls, each one strong in a different way, their skills and accomplishments never in doubt. At a time when WWE has two-minute women’s title matches, AEW setting themselves apart by giving their women’s division a showcase like this and cements them as a true alternative.
The Aftermath
And what’s next for that women’s division? Full Gear is just weeks away, on November 22nd, and so far, only one women’s match has been announced. Kris Statlander is putting her world championship on the line against Mercedes Moné, who’s looking to add to her impressive collection of 12 belts. Kris and Mercedes have fought before at Full Gear, and their match at World’s End last year was the longest women’s match in AEW history, clocking in at 24 minutes long. With Moné’s eyes set on her white whale, the AEW Women’s World Championship, perhaps Statlander and Moné will set another record and continue, as they did on Wednesday, to make history.
Images via All Elite Wrestling
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