AEW Dynamite preview (July 24, 2024): There is one major problem with this year’s Blood & Guts match

Dynamite airs tonight (July 24) with a live show from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. This is the fourth episode of Dynamite during the eight week build towards All In, which takes place on August 25 at London’s Wembley Stadium.

There is one major problem with this year’s Blood & Guts match

AEW’s annual Blood & Guts match takes place tonight when The Elite (Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, Jack Perry, Hangman Page) battle Team AEW (Swerve Strickland, Darby Allin, The Acclaimed, Mark Briscoe) in two rings covered by one giant cage.

If the rules are unchanged from previous years, then one man from each team will start the match inside the cage for five minutes. Another man will enter the cage every two minutes. The match officially begins once all 10 men have entered the cage, and the winning team will be determined by submission or surrender.

I don’t believe AEW has announced which team has the advantage for the alternating entrants, so maybe that will be determined by a phantom coin flip backstage, or perhaps Matthew and Nicholas Jackson will pull some strings as EVPs to make sure their team has it.

This is AEW’s version of WarGames, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a great match that takes up half of the Dynamite broadcast. There’s one glaring problem with it though: it’s not clear why this match is happening.

The Elite already beat a different Team AEW at May’s Anarchy in the Arena match. Darby Allin fought in that match and he’s a daredevil, so maybe he’d be extra motivated for revenge in Blood & Guts. But Mark Briscoe and Swerve Strickland joined Team AEW when they only had minor conflicts with The Elite, and The Acclaimed’s feud with the Young Bucks hasn’t crossed the line into that blood war territory prior to tonight. For the most part it feels like Team AEW was put together at the last minute just because the rules say five men are needed per team in a Blood & Guts match.

This issue might not stand out if there were some kind of stakes in this match, but I don’t think AEW has announced that the winning team will receive any kind of reward. Commentary has hinted that The Elite will have more power and influence in AEW if they win this match, but they already beat a Team AEW in May and no extra power or influence came out of it.

Just a short while ago I said it’s not clear why this match is happening, but that’s not exactly true. It’s probably happening because we’re in July, and it’s the only month left in 2024 where AEW doesn’t have a pay-per-view event. This is essentially AEW’s showcase event for the month. I’m sure these ten men will put on a hell of a show. However, the hype for Blood & Guts is not at its typical level due to the problem described above, so hopefully AEW can make up for that with a compelling post-match angle when all is said and done.

That compelling angle could center around the long-term feud between Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page. Page initially turned down this match, only to later join once he found out Swerve was on Team AEW. The violence that is expected in a Blood & Guts match is very appropriate given their hatred of each other, so they are the two key guys to keep an eye on once they enter the cage.

Right now, Max Caster looks like the weak link to me on Team AEW. Due to the haphazard way Team AEW was put together, I expect The Elite will win, and one of The Acclaimed members will submit or surrender. But maybe I’m wrong, so you can chime in the comments below to let me know which team you think will win this year’s Blood & Guts match.

The rest of tonight’s lineup

FTW Champion Chris Jericho defends the belt tonight against Minoru Suzuki. The rest of Jericho’s Learning Tree group will be banned from ringside, so he’ll have to come up with his own way to cheat Murder Grandpa out of the win.

Dr. Britt Baker is back in AEW and wants a piece of TBS Champion Mercedes Mone. Former women’s world champion Hikaru Shida doesn’t appreciate Britt thinking she can just go right to the front of the line, so they’ll fight about it on tonight’s broadcast. This is Baker’s first match since last September. Shida has vowed to break her nose again, just a few days after she reportedly broke Skye Blue’s ankle.

Tonight’s episode also features the debut of “The Glamour” Mariah May. Maybe this will be a squash match showing off May’s new gimmick after she betrayed AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm.

Finally, new AEW International Champion MJF is scheduled to speak on Dynamite. He’ll be sure to shit all over the fans and former champion Will Ospreay after cheating to win their 60-minute match last week. The Bastard PAC recently became the top contender for this belt, so Ospreay might not be the only person looking to interrupt MJF’s promo.

Other stuff to keep an eye

- Bryan Danielson wasn’t a factor on last week’s show, and he isn’t advertised for anything tonight either. He is challenging AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland in the main event of All In, but doesn’t really fit into Swerve’s current Blood & Guts story.

- Dax Harwood is back from injury, and FTR is set to make their return to the ring on Collision. Will Excalibur let us know who they are wrestling, or is this one of those “in action” squash matches?

- Tony Khan says the Royal Rampage Battle Royal is returning this Friday night, and the winner gets a world title match at Grand Slam in September. Hopefully we’ll find out who is in the match during tonight’s broadcast.

- Where the f*** is Jon Moxley? He hasn’t wrestled since Forbidden Door in June.

What will you be looking for on Dynamite?