AEW Blood & Guts 2023 was broadcast on July 19th, 2023 and took place in the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
This was the third annual edition of the event, following previous Blood & Guts shows in 2022 & 2021 (although the 2020 edition was cancelled due to COVID).
The show features some huge matches, including the main event of the titular Blood & Guts match (which is AEW’s version of WWE’s War Games).
The double-cage match pits the Blackpool Combat Club (with PAC and Konsouke Takeshita) against The Golden Elite, which is comprised of the following five wrestlers:
- Kenny Omega
- Adam Page
- Nick Jackson
- Matt Jackson
- Kota Ibushi (making his AEW debut)
The show also has a tournament final match, as well as a bout for the FTW Championship.
This page will detail Dave Meltzer’s Star Ratings for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 , looking at every match on the card. We will also detail the Cagematch rating for the event.
Cagematch is a website which aggregates fans opinions on wrestling match. Fans can log on and rank the matches on a scale of zero to ten, which then calculates an average score for the matches.
Great matches can expect a 9+ rating while the worst matches may not even be worth giving a rating to at all.
Only matches over 5 minutes may be rated on the website. This means fantastic, yet shorter matches like KENTA vs Ricky Marvin will not be given a rating but that does not mean they are bad bouts.
In something that seemed impossible just two years earlier, AEW met NJPW in a joint show that pitted AEW stars against the NJPW wrestlers in a battle between the two companies.
The highest rated match on the site is the Kazuchika Okada vs Kitsuyori Shibata match was NJPW Sakura Genesis 2017.
AEW Blood & Guts 2023 Star Ratings
Here are the star ratings for every match at AEW Blood & Guts 2023.
These will be taken from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer, the users at Cagematch.net and our own rating at Atletifo.
Atletifo ratings are out of 5 (generally), and are based on an entirely subjective scale, similar to Dave Meltzer.
If you disagree with any of the star ratings for Blood & Guts 2023, let us know in the comments and tell us why we did so wong.
Jungle Boy vs HOOK (FTW Championship)
Since Forbidden Door, Jungle Boy vs Hook has been one of the matches fans have been anxious to see take place.
Jack Perry turned heel on Hook, after losing to IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA at the event.
This lead to weeks of Hook trying to attack his former tag team partner, finally leading to an FTW Championship match at Blood & Guts 2023.
Jungle Boy appeared as simply “Jack Perry”, forgoing his usual entrance music for Beethoven’s Fifth, while dressed all in black.
This new change proved a good thing for Jack Perry, who handed Hook his first ever singles loss in AEW.
With the referee down, Jack Perry hit Hook with the FTW Championship belt, before pinning him for the victory.
Jack Perry became the sixth man to hold the FTW Championship, and the first one to have no association to Taz in AEW.
- Dave Meltzer Star Rating – N/A
- Cagematch Rating – 6.57
- Atletifo Rating – 2 Stars
Britt Baker vs Kayla Sparks
An unannounced match filled the airtime between the first two announced matches, as Britt Baker easily picked up the win.
The former AEW Women’s Champion defeated Kayla Sparks, making quick work of the enhancement talent.
Baker ducked a lariat attempt from Sparks and drove Sparks down with a sling blade.
Britt Baker then suplexed Sparks and followed up with a neck breaker. Baker applied the Lock Jaw and made Sparks tap out, winning a short, yet unnecessary match.
- Dave Meltzer Star Rating – N/A
- Cagematch Rating – N/A
- Atletifo Rating – 1 Star
MJF & Adam Cole vs Sammy Guevara & Daniel Garcia (AEW Blind Eliminator Tournament Final)
The slightly bizarre Blind Eliminator tournament came to an end at Blood & Guts, with Adam Cole and MJF finally hitting the much teased Double Clothesline move, to the delight of the fan.
MJF teased the move multiple times in their previous matches, as he tried to convince Adam Cole to be his friend.
This involved them hanging out at bars together and picking up women, before heading back to their hotel room to play AEW: Fight Forever.
They made it all the way to the final of the tag team tournament, with the mix-and-match duo taking on the Jericho Appreciation Society’s Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara.
The match was a fun one, and never took itself too seriously. It featured a dance-off, MJF hitting a dive for the first time, and many other comedy spots that popped the crowd.
MJF & Adam Cole picked up the win by finally hitting the double-clothesline, and were confronted by FTR following the match.
- Dave Meltzer Star Rating – N/A
- Cagematch Rating – 7.94
- Atletifo Rating – 3 Stars
Blackpool Combat Club vs The Golden Elite (Blood & Guts)
The long-winded feud between The Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club finally came to an explosive end, inside the demonic structure that is Blood & Guts.
The match also saw the debut of Kota Ibushi in AEW. He teamed with Golden Lovers partner Kenny Omega, as well as Adam Page and The Young Bucks to form The Golden Elite.
They took on three of the Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta), as well as Konosuke Takeshita and PAC in one of the biggest ten-man matches in history.
After the Blackpool Combat Club defeated The Elite in the Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing 2023, only one more match could up the ante and put this rivalry to an end, and that is Blood & Guts.
The match was incredibly brutal, and saw some massive bumps (involving tables, thumbtacks and even a bed of nails) that fans had never seen before.
The match ended when Konosuke Takeshita and PAC walked out on the Blackpool Combat Club, and Jon Moxley was forced to surrender to save the life of Wheeler Yuta.
The match was fraught by camera issues, with AEW missing a lot of action and key parts of the match.
Kota Ibushi made his debut for AEW in this match, but looked every bit of a man who had wrestled only twice in the past two years.
- Dave Meltzer Star Rating – 4.75 Stars
- Cagematch Rating – 8.45
- Atletifo Rating – 3