Backstage Details On Contentious Chair Shot In Blood & Guts Match On AEW Dynamite

AEW's off-brand answer to WarGames, Blood & Guts, has been one of the promotion's signature matches since it was first performed in 2021, and appropriately, it's a match that's expected to involve a higher-than-usual amount of pro wrestling violence. This year's match, however, which main-evented Wednesday's episode of "AEW Dynamite," has drawn criticism for a devastating chair shot delivered to TNT Champion Jack Perry while both Perry's wrists were handcuffed to the surrounding cage, rendering him unable to protect himself with his hands. Since then, details about the spot have begun trickling out, and while AEW's executive leadership have assured its fanbase that Perry is fine, they're also refusing to fully explain the situation.

"All I know is Jack is fine, and that's all that matters," AEW EVP Nick Jackson said in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso on Friday. "We know the risk we're taking in the ring and it wouldn't have happened if he wasn't prepared for it." Barrasso also reported that "multiple contacts in AEW confirmed that it was a gimmicked chair," meaning the chair had been manipulated in advance to maximize Perry's safety.

The day before Barrasso's interview was published, AEW CEO Tony Khan was asked about the unprotected chair shot during the media call for ROH's upcoming Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view.

"I do like to leave some of the art of this and some of the kayfabe of this in the wrestling, and I think that's the best way to do it," Khan said. "I don't think all these spots are created equal. There's different spots, different ways to do things ... There's definitely some mystery to be left to how things are done, and how things might be done now might not be the same way they would be done 25 years ago."

Despite these assurances from Khan and Jackson, members of the wresting industry have criticized the decision, most notably WWE commentator Corey Graves, who referenced the fact that he was forced to retire from in-ring competition due to concussion issues in a since-deleted social media post. Another critic of the move was wrestling historian and journalist Dave Meltzer, who addressed the incident in Friday's edition of The Wrestling Observer.

"I hate all-out chair shots to the head like the one Mark Briscoe hit Jack Perry with," Meltzer wrote. "You can talk about gimmicking the chair all you want, but I heard from one person after another in the business, including in AEW, really upset about it, noting they had taken those kind of chair shots when they were younger and either paid the price or leaned enough that they would never take one again. Like I've said, you can replace a knee or a shoulder, but you can't replace a brain, and just the normal being a pro wrestler is risky enough on your head without these spots that nobody talks about 48 hours later, that the major companies in the U.S. had largely done away with."

Meltzer also didn't seem to think the idea of a gimmicked chair made much of a difference.

"While the chair may have been gimmicked, that stuff was too heavy and the shot was way too hard and shouldn't be allowed, especially with all we've learned in the last 17 years," he wrote.

Barrasso's reporting is likely not the first time AEW fans have read the phrase "gimmicked chair." It was infamously invoked after an incident that occurred on AEW's second-ever PPV, Fyter Fest 2019, when Cody Rhodes bled profusely after an unprotected chair shot to the head from a debuting Shawn Spears. Afterward, Rhodes said the chair had been gimmicked as part of his plans to "take chair shots to the head back for the boys," but admitted he gave Spears bad advice on how to swing the gimmicked chair. The first Blood & Guts match in 2021 also included an unprotected chair shot to the head and was criticized for it at the time by WWE Hall of Famer Sean Waltman, who had predicted that the 2019 incident with Rhodes and Spears would be AEW's last experiment with unprotected chair strikes.

Waltman isn't the only wrestling notable to speak out on the issue; after Fyter Fest, AEW commentator Jim Ross said chairs as a wrestling weapon in general had "run their course," while former ECW star The Blue Meanie said those kinds of spots should probably no longer happen, though he also acknowledged that any wrestling bump can lead to injury. In 2023, a supposedly official document leaked that claimed the company had banned unprotected chair shots to the head — however, the document also said AEW had banned things like selling with a seizure response, using weapons in the crowd, and physically interacting with audience members, all of which have been seen on AEW programming in the time since.