Bully Ray Addresses Finish To AEW Dynamite Blood & Guts Match

AEW/Lee South

The fourth annual AEW Blood & Guts match took place earlier this week, with Team AEW winning in controversial fashion after Matthew Jackson of the Young Bucks surrendered on behalf of his partners. It was immediately clear that things went awry with the finish, as Darby Allin handcuffed Jack Perry to the steel cage and doused him in gasoline but was unable to get his hands on the teased flamethrower. Instead, he was forced to threaten Perry with a lighter, and the match ended in lackluster fashion.

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Speaking on "Busted Open Radio," WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray spent a considerable amount of time covering the match. The wrestler/radio host thought the 49-minute contest was "extremely entertaining," but unsurprisingly had more complicated thoughts about the conclusion, and it seems the audience in the building did as well.

"I understood the psychology behind the finish," Bully said. "I had a lot of first-time callers call into 'After Dark' last night that were at the arena ... who said that the live crowd was not happy with the actual finish. ... He said there were definitely rumblings and groans in the crowd."

AEW/Lee South

While Bully didn't have a problem with the match ending in a conversation, he did think that the performers could have added more tension to the situation by getting the lighter closer to Perry. If Jackson had waited until Allin had the flame close to Perry, the finish would have felt more satisfying.

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"There was not enough drama, there was not enough suspense," Bully continued. "There was no 'Holy s**t, he might actually set him on fire' factor, because he was a whole ring's length away. You gotta bring people right to the edge and then you take it away from them."

Rather than making the segment shorter, Bully suggested drawing the conversation out. On the surface, this might seem to slow down momentum even further, but Bully made the argument that it would add much-needed tension to the finish. Still, the former WWE star viewed Wednesday as a win for AEW.

"I didn't think the finish was flat enough to take away from the great hour of action," Bully said. "I also enjoyed the fact that they incorporated some psychology into the match with Hangman not coming down during his entrance, and then jumping Swerve in the aisleway and handcuffing him."

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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.