Top Smarks: Grading matches, promos from controversial AEW Blood & Guts

KD Drummond

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Top Smarks: Grading matches, promos from controversial AEW Blood & Guts image

Two rings, side by side. A steel cage Let's get it on!

MJF and Will Ospreay Promo: A+

The crowd shouting "Shut the --- Up" early in the tirade against Ospreay was magnificent. "Lucky for you, your grandma died recently..." Fam, what? "Working hard is for poors like all of you," Oh he's leaning all the way in. Throwing the International belt into the trash because it's not a good enough title? Unveiling the American championship belt and then talking trash about the host city of Nashville when "USA!" chants start? Brilliant trolling. Lowering an "American" flag with his face in place of the stars? MJF is just a great heel champion.

Will Ospreay races out and MJF runs from the ring as Ospreay breaks down how MJF had to cheat by knocking him out via a diamond ring punch. "You reached into your trunks past your tiny little --" and the crowd responding with "Tiny ---!" chants. Glorious.

August 25th rematch is on at All In in London.

Chris Jericho (W) vs Minoru Suzuki for FTW Heavyweight Championship: B-

Nearly 70 years of in-ring experience starting with a chop-off for eight minutes that actually drew blood. Jericho finally broke the gimmick with a kick to the ribs to switch things up. Action moves outside the ring with chairs as Sukuzki worked on injuring Jericho's hand. One's gotta love how AEW interacts with the crowd as Suzuki walked Jericho over so fans could snap pics up close. Jericho lands a Code Breaker but Suzuki kicks out at one. Suzuki tried to lock in a sleeper but Jericho slipped out and went for a Walls of Jericho that he couldn't hold. Another sleeper, another escape, a second failed Gotch Style Piledriver. Finally Jericho lands an elbow and get the pin. Bad Apples come to jump Suzuki, Katsuyori Shibata comes to his aid.

Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D (w) vs Hikaru Shida: C+

After 10 months out of action, Baker gets an immediate shot against her multi-year rival with rival crowd chants of "Let's Go Shida" vs "D-M-D!".  An early rollup and lockjaw attempt by Baker eventually led to out-the-ring beatdown by Shida.  A running Shida knee to Baker's hanging-off-the-apron face was nice. The action continued via picture-in-picture during the commercial break (stares at WWE). Some disjointed sells before a neckbreaker and a SlingBlade by Baker. The action finally picked up, ending with a submission lockjaw. 

CEO Mercedes Mone came out to refuse Baker's desire of a championship shot at All In when "free agent" Kamille sneaks into the ring to put Baker into a Torture Rack.

Pac vs Boulder: C+

Quick filler match where Pac was able to suplex the 700-pound giant.

Mariah May vs Katelin Alexis: B+

 

May opened the match with an explosive running drop kick and a turnbuckle pummeling before climbing to the top and driving home another drop kick. An early May Day was followed by a Hip Attack and a Score Zero and just like that it was over. But then it wasn't. The real point of the match, Toni Storm's rushed into the ring in all black and the two get to throwing bolos in the middle of the ring before being broken up by 50-leven staff and refs. 

 

Team Elite vs Team AEW (w) 10-man Cage Match: A+

Darby Allin from Team AEW couldn't even get into the ring before he got hit by a chair by Jack Perry and then a power bomb outside of the cage. The two went through the crowd beating on each other. Trash can wedged into the turnbuckles and launching Allin into it headfirst was a cool move. Nicholas Jackson was next into the ring for Team Elite and entered with a 2-on-1 guillotine leg drop onto Allin's face. Mark Briscoe was next in to even he sides up and he quickly took control, including a chair launch clothesline on Perry. Ladder time. Allin and Briscoe launched Jackson as Briscoe went wild man for a couple minutes. 

Matthew Jackson joined the action to give Elite the 3-on-2 advantage and the briefcase was the weapon of choice to open up Briscoe's face. The action really ratcheted up at this point with Allin being abused by a triple team. Anthony Bowens evened the score for a while when Briscoe came through with a cutter and Allin recovered with a Scorpion Death Drop. Bowens took a pair of scissors to Perry's face and then used them to open up Parry's jaw.

Kazuchika Okada gave Elite the advantage again, beating people down with a street sign and then a drop-kick-chair-to the face of Briscoe. During the next picture-in-picture break (Hi, WWE) the Jackson brothers brought out the tables. Castor evens things up with a microphone and a chain. 

Enter a barb-wire board... make that a barb-wire board sandwich with Bowens as the meat in the middle. The Jacksons and Perry shoved Castor's mouth full of tacks and delivered a double kick to the face. Insane sequence.

Hangman Adam Page was to enter the match next, but he didn't, leaving things 4-on-4.  Dude, Castor wrappedhis leg with barb-wire to scissor Jackson.

Swerve Strickland was walking to the ring for his entrance when Page attacked hi from behind. He then hancuffed Strickland to the outside of the cage, keeping him from joining the action, berating him saying "You didn't deserve this!" about Strickland's belt. Jackson grabbed the mic to threaten Page with being fired if he didn't enter the ring.

The match finally became official as a 5-on-4 with Jeff Jarrett, Nashville's own wanting to help. Billy Gunn joined to help Strickland get unlocked, then they had to cut the cage to get him into the double ring. Strickland wen to work taking on each Elite member one by one until it was Strickland in one ring, staring down Page in the other.  

Later, Team Elite staple gunned the heck out of Strickland, leading to Strickland eating them and then stapling every member of Elite one by one, including a House Call.

During the break, Caster, Bowens and the Jackson brothers ended up outside where the brothers setup two side-by-side tables on top of two more, where Jackson sent Bowens from the top of the cage crashing down. 

 

After Darby Allin climbed the inside of the cage to drop down.

Perry was handcuffed to the side of the cage. Then the move heard around the wrestling world, Briscoe laced Perry's face with a chair.

Allin returned to the ring with a can of gasoline and doused Perry, telling him quit or get lit on fire. Perry spit at him but Jackson intervened, promising Darby Allin the title shot at All In, and finally quit to save his partner. 

 

KD Drummond

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KD Drummond is an old-school, NWA-over-WWF wrestling fan who came up watching wrestling on DC20 at 5 p.m. every weeknight, and Starrcade and the Great American Bash pay-per-views. An NFL writer and editor since 2010, turning his attention to his re-emerged fascination into the wrestling world was a no-brainer. Heel turns and storylines, beware… if they aren’t top notch, they will be mocked! Follow him on Twitter/X: KDDrummondNFL.