AEW Blood and Guts

On July 25, 2019, professional wrestling promotion WWE conducted a conference call as a publicly traded company to announce its second-quarter fiscal year 2019 results. During the call, Eric Katz of Wolfe Research, LLC, asked WWE Chief Executive Officer Vince McMahon questions regarding naming Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman as Executive Directors to WWE and its relationship to the future of WWE content, especially with stricter Broadcast Standards and Practices at the Fox network for SmackDown's upcoming move to broadcast television. McMahon responded to Katz's question:

We're going to be a bit edgier, but still remain in the PG 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 the Attitude 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 promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW).[3] On November 13, 2019, AEW filed a trademark for "Blood and Guts," a play on McMahon's term. During Revolution on February 29, 2020, AEW announced that the March 25 episode of Dynamite would be subtitled Blood and Guts, and feature the promotion's first WarGames match, but called a "Blood and Guts match" since the WarGames trademark is owned by WWE. The WarGames match features two rings enclosed by a steel cage and was developed by wrestler Virgil Runnels, better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, the father of AEW executive vice president and in-ring talent Cody.[4][5]

The event was originally scheduled to take place on March 25, 2020 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, but was moved to an undisclosed location due to concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.[6][7] On March 20, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan announced that the event had been postponed, stating that Blood and Guts would "happen when the time is right" and that a regular episode of Dynamite would instead air on March 25.[8]

Blood and Guts will feature professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.[9] Storylines are produced on The Young Bucks' YouTube series Being The Elite and AEW's weekly shows Dynamite and Dark.

Following the announcement of Blood and Guts and the namesake match, on March 8, AEW announced The Elite, composed of Adam Page, Cody, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) would face The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz) in the match.[10] However, Nick Jackson was attacked backstage by The Inner Circle on the March 11 episode of Dynamite, injuring him indefinitely and taking him out of the match (the character was written out of the storyline, as Nick Jackson legitimately entered paternity leave, as his wife was expecting their third child).[11] On the March 18 episode of Dynamite, The Elite revealed that the debuting Matt Hardy would take Jackson's place in the match.[12] The rules for the Blood and Guts match are based on the classic WarGames format from Jim Crockett Promotions, and not the modern WWE format. The notable format differences between the classic Crockett rules and the modern WWE rules are an enclosed cage with a roof (which was removed in modern versions) and the match can only be won with a submission or surrender. Like the classic Crockett format, a pin situation is not a win condition.[11]