The Elite quit Blood & Guts so Darby Allin wouldn’t set Jack Perry on fire

AEW main event-ed the July 24 Dynamite with their fourth annual Blood & Guts match. To decide whether The Elite or Swerve Strickland’s Team AEW would have the entry advantage in this War Games-style match, it was announced earlier in the day that their would be a coin flip. EVPs Matthew & Nicholas Jackson rigged that in The Elite’s favor, of course. First the group took out interim EVP Christopher Daniels, then they used a double-sided coin to win the toss.

The other thing established in that scene was a question about whether The Elite’s reluctant teammate Hangman Page would show-up for Blood & Guts. Meanwhile, Team AEW’s group interview reminded us that Swerve has lots of unfriendly history with his teammates Darby Allin & The Acclaimed. Fortunately, they had Mark Briscoe there to rally the troops.

Once the cage was lowered over the two rings set-up in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, Jack Perry and Allin started things off. They battled through the seats before the younger Young Buck arrived to give The Elite the numbers.

Briscoe arrived in time to save Darby, but was followed soon after by Nicholas Jackson’s older brother. Anthony Bowens of The Acclaimed showed up with a pair of actual scissors, and used them to bloody up the Scapegoat. Okada was next to a big pop, then Bowens’ partner Max Caster showed up with a microphone to make it four-on-four.

Things didn’t go well for The Acclaimed over the next several minutes. Bowens took a senton while pressed between two barbed wire-covered boards...

... and Okada poured thumbtacks into Caster’s mouth before The Bucks had a superkick party on his face.

Page was due to be The Elite’s final entrant, but his music hit and there was no sign of our pissed off millennial cowboy. He showed up while Strickland was entering, though. Hangman rekindled his rivalry with Swerve by blasting him with a chair and handcuffing him to the outside of the cage. He would have been content to stay out there and kick the crap out of the champ, too...

... but Matthew Jackson flexed his EVP muscle, telling Page he’d fire him if he didn’t get in the ring, then forcing referee Bryce Remsburg to start the match as a five-on-four. Okada wasn’t happy with Hanger’s insubordination, but before that could become an issue Jeff Jarrett marched down to the ring. Jarrett has issues with The Elite stemming from his loss to Page in The Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, and aimed to free Strickland to even the odds. He was cut off by The Bucks’ stooge Brandon Cutler, but Billy “Daddy Ass” Gunn showed up to help Double-J complete his mission.

With everyone else down, Page and Strickland got a moment in the ring that the Nashville crowd was ready for. The Elite were ready for the staple gun Swerve produced after that singles moment, pulling four more out of their case. The Bucks, Okada & Perry got some staples into the World champ, but he would soon turn the tables and get a few into each of them — and dodge a Hangman clothesline that would serve to increase the animosity between Page and The Rainmaker.

Chaos reigned from there (actually, it had pretty much already been in charge by that point). Strickland and Page battled to — and off — the stage (this happened during a picture-in-picture commercial, which wasn’t ideal).

Bowens went through four tables at ringside after losing a fight on the side of the cage with Nicolas Jackson.

Briscoe honored his late brother with Jay Drillers for all of The Elite members in the ring, and Darby climbed the roof to Coffin Drop off it, onto Perry and through a table.

Amidst that carnage, Caster found some more handcuffs. Matthew Jackson got cuffed to the ropes between the rings, and Perry was locked to the cage in a crucifix pose. Briscoe lit him up with kendo stick shots to the mid-section, and an unfortunate unprotected chair shot to the head, but Jack wouldn’t yield.

He wouldn’t even quit when Darby dumped gasoline on him and threatened to set him on fire. But Matthew Jackson would. In order to get Allin to not set the TNT champ on fire, the EVP gave Darby an All In title shot against Perry...

...and quit for his team.

This marks the second straight year the babyfaces have won Blood & Guts by getting the heel team to yield to save one of their teammates, which is certainly a choice. Regardless of what you think of the ending though, this was generally a brutal good time. It was certainly used to further multiple issues and set-up a bunch of future matches like Prerry/Allin, Bucks/Acclaimed, Swerve/Hangman, Jarrett/Hangman, and maybe Hangman/Okada too.

Let us know what you make of it all in the comments below, and get complete results and coverage of everything on the Blood & Guts edition of AEW Dynamite here.