Earlier today, I pointed out why the ending spot of AEW’s first ever Blood & Guts match was disappointing to so many fans; it was an underwhelming visual to see Chris Jericho surrounded by cardboard that commentators told us was concrete. One point I should clarify is that this finish was not nearly as bad as the dud bomb at Revolution. Nonetheless, it was still a flat finish to an otherwise very exciting match.
I’ve seen some bizarre pushback to fans who have criticized this final spot. One such response that makes no sense at all comes from Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez, who suggested that anybody who is complaining about the finish should stop watching Dynamite. What a silly overreaction that is; the implication that fans shouldn’t watch a television show unless they blindly enjoy everything about it is just plain irrational.
Of course, there’s the even dumber criticism from others that fans expressing disappointment in the finish must have wanted Jericho to fall onto real concrete. I just can’t deal with the sheer stupidity on display in that argument.
Shayna Baszler knows exactly what I’m talking about here, as she demonstrated with the following tweet:
We don’t ACTUALLY want a village to be burned by a dragon in GoT. If they did that, that would be really bad. But if the special effects would have been garbage, it would have sucked also & everyone would have said so.
— Shayna Baszler (@QoSBaszler) May 6, 2021
When you see an action sequence that looks bad, it’s completely normal and reasonable to acknowledge that it looks bad. Pro wrestling doesn’t get some special pass on that very normal and common human reaction.
There’s nothing wrong with the fans who were disappointed in that final spot at Blood & Guts. There’s also nothing wrong with fans who enjoyed the spot. Like in most cases similar to this one, the folks who are so sensitive to even the slightest criticism of their favorite pro wrestling company are the ones who need to remove the blinders and broaden their perspective.