With Blood and Guts returning to AEW Dynamite, the time may have come for WWE to push the envelope within its TV-PG rating.
Introduced in 2020, the Blood and Guts match concept was born of a comment by Vince McMahon, who felt that AEW would hae to tone down its violence or risk issues with sponsors and broadcast partners.
For AEW, this is yet to happen, although some have no doubt raised an eyebrow at the excess of blood across All Elite’s offerings, with the upcoming match as no exception.
WWE have a challenge of their own, however, with nothing close to Blood and Guts in their wheelhouse and a tamer version of “extreme” on offer, yet some stipulations could make a welcome return:
Two matches, one concept
Since last year, Blood and Guts has seen separate women’s and men’s matches take place, with the 2026 incarnation coming on November 4 on AEW Dynamite.
A WarGames-style offering, Blood and Guts takes place in a steel cage containing two rings with plenty of opportunity for extreme violence and the life juice to flow.
So, WWE has Survivor Series: WarGames!
Survivor Series: WarGames returns on November 28 and also features a steel cage and two rings. While blood may flow, the nature of WWE programming and their broadcast partner relationships usually means it’s accidental, something AEW doesn’t have to consider.
With Netflix editing content to obscure blood or other sensitive content, the WarGames match is unlikely to have the same visceral approach to the extreme as Blood and Guts.
There are options for WWE when it comes to more ‘extreme’ match stipulations
Last seen in 2010, the Buried Alive stipulation is associated with The Undertaker, who competed in five such matches, including the September 1999 match that saw The Phenom team with The Big Show to become World Tag Team Champions. Unlike the Casket Match, Buried Alive involved rolling an opponent into a grave and covering them in mud. It even had a Concrete Crypt variant in 2004, that saw Paul Bearer entubed in a plexiglass structure by The Undertaker after he beat The Dudley Boyz at Great American Bash.
Bringing the match back to WWE television, overseen by The Undertaker in his creative capacity, would be quite the payoff for any bitter feud, writing the loser off screens before an eventual return.
If being buried alive is too much to handle, perhaps fire is a more your thing.
Despite being associated with Kane, and last being used in its Firefly variant for “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton, there is the possibility that WWE could bring back the Inferno match.
Fire safety when it comes to pyrotechnics would have to play its part, but it’s perhaps the most visually appealing of the extreme matches when it comes to avoiding censorship for gore.
If Inferno and Buried Alive matches are a bit too much when it comes to theatrics, there’s the Lion’s Den match, which took place in a steel cage and favored a more grounded MMA style.
One such outing saw Ken Shamrock take on Steve Blackman at SummerSlam in 1999, with weapons included to spice things up.
Arguably easier to control when it comes to blood being spilt, accidental lacerations aside, the thought of Roman Reigns vs. Royce Keys in a Lion’s Den match would be something to look forward to.
The blood rush
There is a strong contingent of fans who appreciate hardcore, extreme and deathmatch wrestling as the art form that it is.
That said, the argument that WWE isn’t “real wrestling” just because it doesn’t offer what AEW does is akin to saying that no meal is complete if it doesn’t include the finest cut of steak, with the reverse also being true when it comes to more mature content versus family-friendly output.
Wrestling is, as has been noted over the years, a buffet as opposed to a set meal, ideally offering something for everyone while also bringing new dishes and old favorites to an audience that enjoys what they enjoy and can, hopefully, accept that it may not be to the taste of everyone.
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