Chris Jericho opens up about having such a gruesome first time ever match like Blood & Guts without having a completely packed arena and on free TV as opposed to pay-per-view.
One year ago, the original Blood & Guts was supposed to take place in New Jersey between the elite and the Inner Circle. Fast forward to May 2021, The Elite as fans knew it then no longer exists and the inner circle is now prepared to enter the double-ring, double-cage structure with a new faction headed by Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
Speaking with TV Insider, Chris Jericho opened up about why it is best to do the match now as opposed to waiting for full capacity crowds to be available in Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida.
"It’s not like we’re waiting for arenas to open to do this match because sometimes things happen where a crescendo is reached with the story you’re telling. We probably could have waited longer, but when do you do it? With the storyline that we had coming out of the gate being so strong with this literal blood feud that has been brewing since September of last year, it really is the right time. We’ve already sold more tickets for this than any post-pandemic show," said Jericho.
Furthermore, this major match is happening on television as opposed to a pay-per-view event. Chris Jericho says that is due to TV meaning more than it used to end the rating is more important making for destination television episodes being a necessity, Jericho also stated that this match will not be the blow-off of the angle between Inner Circle and Pinnacle.
"You’re seeing angles and stories leading into pay-per-views rather than having to shoehorn them in for a match. In this day and age, there is so much tied into the TV rating. I think it’s important to do these destination shows on TV leading into pay-per-view, which makes them all the more important. I’m excited about it. A lot of people may ask why we’re doing Blood & Guts already in this story as it normally would be used as a blowoff. We don’t do things by the norm. There is plenty more to go between the two factions."
In an interview with New York Post, Chris Jericho explained how this match will be different from the NXT version of WarGames, “which he called a bastardized” version.
“Our version of kind of the WarGames is why we called it Blood and Guts, it’s just not a copyright thing. There are some differences and we wanted to kind of make it our own version of this classic match, which we obviously have a direct legacy to with Dustin and Cody [Rhodes] being with the company and obviously [president] Tony Khan is a massive fan of that era of wrestling. So, I think he didn’t want to mess with those classic rules. He grew up loving that style of WarGames.
“I’ve never been in a WarGames before in my life. A matter of fact, I’ve never even seen one. I watched a couple now to just kind of look at them. The reason why I don’t need to go back and watch any is (because) I’ve been in a lot of first-ever matches that are now kind of mainstream, if you talk about Money in the Bank, if you talk about the Elimination Chamber or Stadium Stampede. We didn’t go back and watch other ones, because there weren’t any. I’m treating Blood and Guts kind of the same way. Yes, there are ideas you can pull, but this isn’t a typical WarGames or a typical cage match. Also, our angle seems to be a lot more serious than some of those teams that were kind of put together and a lot more of a blood feud. I think those rules fit what we’re doing here in that you don’t want to do a bunch of pins and eliminations. It really is submit or surrender because of the story that we’ve been telling between these two factions.”
Recently, Sammy Guevara, the man who will start the match on behalf of the Inner Circle, spoke to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp. You can check out that full interview here.