4 months ago
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AEW/Lee South
Wednesday's "AEW Dynamite" brought viewers the 2024 edition of Blood & Guts, featuring Team AEW vs. Team Elite fighting across two rings in a massive steel cell. The match ended with Matt Jackson giving up as Darby Allin threatened to light a handcuffed Jack Perry on fire. Speaking to Sports Illustrated in the days after the match, Jackson reflected on what they were able to deliver.
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"Team AEW was a group of various styles, so I think it made the match more interesting," Matt Jackson said. "And with the addition this year to our team of the best big match wrestler in history — Kazuchika Okada — and the unpredictable Scapegoat Jack Perry, The Elite was much more versatile. Because of multiple moving parts, intangibles, and injuries, the build wasn't what we had planned, but I think we still made this one work."
Fightful Select reported earlier this week that AEW star Eddie Kingston had originally been slated to take part in the match. However, Kingston suffered an injury in May that is set to keep him out for an extended length of time.
According to Jackson, numerous people behind the curtain called Wednesday's match the best iteration of Blood & Guts so far. Despite the inherent brutality, the AEW EVP shared that he has great respect for his opponents in Wednesday's bout. As far as a future Blood & Guts appearance, Jackson isn't sure if he has another in him.
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"This is certainly the marquee match in AEW, and it's quite the daunting task to perform in a match like this," Jackson continued. "We've done two of them now, and I shared this with a couple of people and I know I can't tell the future, but I think that might've been my last one. Who knows? I think I'd like it to be."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Sports Illustrated with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

