AEW Blood and Guts: Who will join The Elite and Blackpool Combat Club?
AEW Blood and Guts takes place on July 19 from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, and will see The Elite take on the Blackpool Combat Club.
It will be the third time AEW has presented its iteration of the iconic War Games match, which features two rings surrounded by a cage.
AEW's first Blood and Guts match took place in 2021 and saw The Inner Circle take on The Pinnacle. A year later it was the Jericho Appreciation Society taking on the BCC with Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz.
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This year the line-up sees Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), and Hangman Adam Page representing The Elite, with Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, and Konosuke Takeshita on the BCC's side, leaving both teams with a vacant spot.
So who will fill the vacant spots on each team?
The Blackpool Combat Club are unfortunately suffering the loss of Bryan Danielson, who was injured during his match against Kazuchika Okada at Forbidden Door.
When it comes to filling the vacant spot, Don Callis seemed to be on the case on last week's AEW Dynamite (July 5), making an offer to Chris Jericho to join his 'family.'
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While Jericho hasn't been part of the BCC vs Elite feud, he was in the past two Blood and Guts matches so he at least has ample experience.
A name less familiar to AEW fans is Homicide, who did appear on Grand Slam in 2021, aiding Moxley and Eddie Kingston after their match with Lance Archer and Minoru Suzuki.
Homicide and Moxley have plenty of history and teamed together earlier this month on NJPW Strong. Another name fans have speculated on is Chris Hero, who WWE fans will remember as Kassius Ohno.
Hero previously teamed with Claudio as the Kings of Wrestling and has been working backstage at AEW recently. A fan on Twitter recently told AEW CEO Tony Khan to: "Get Chris Hero in that cage," to which he responded: "I'm chipping away on him."
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Another potential recruit for the BCC is Will Ospreay who recently had an epic match with Omega at Forbidden Door. However Ospreay wouldn't have much time to make it to Boston as he's scheduled to face Yoshi-Hashi in NJPW's G1 tournament the day before.
One person who did reportedly throw their hat in the ring for the BCC is CM Punk. According to Fightful Select, Punk offered to be the BCC's fifth man but was, unsurprisingly, turned down.
Over on The Elite's side there's one name who fans really, really want to be the team's fifth member — Kota Ibushi.
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Omega's former Golden Lovers' teammate is the most obvious choice to join The Elite's side and the one who would create the biggest buzz. Earlier this month FightFul Select reported that there have been conversations between Ibushi and AEW, so things do look promising.
Speaking after last week's Rampage taping Omega teased who the mystery man would be, telling the crowd: "There was a week when my whereabouts were unknown. I didn’t stay home. I didn’t go to Canada. I went to recruit an old friend, somebody who’s very near and dear to my heart.
"I’ve got no doubt in my mind that as much as he cares about me, he cares about the men in this ring, he cares about this promotion, he cares about changing the face of professional wrestling. At Blood and Guts in two weeks, there is no way we lose."
AEW Blood and Guts takes place on Dynamite, July 19. Catch AEW Dynamite live every Thursday at 1am in the UK and Rampage every Saturday at 3am on FITE with an AEW Plus subscription. US customers can also watch Dynamite on TBS and Rampage on TNT, and in the UK, Dynamite repeats air on ITV4.
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