WWE NXT/AEW Blood & Guts - 11/4/2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Wednesday was a jam-packed night of professional wrestling and sports entertainment. Thanks to last night's election coverage, "WWE NXT" ran head to head with a special Blood & Guts edition of "AEW Dynamite. You can read all about the former on the WWE NXT – 11/4/2026 Live Blog, and the latter at the AEW Blood & Guts Live Blog.

After all that wresting, the Wrestling Inc. Staff have plenty to discuss. There was a divisive main event over on "AEW Dynamite," with one writer loving the match, while another had many gripes with the ending, while "WWE NXT" was buoyed by main roster names, but also seemed to let names like The Vanity Project fall by the wayside. If you have any other thoughts to contribute, feel free to head to the ever-open comments section.

Enough from me though, let's get into the Blood, the Guts, and the NXT.

I've become more of a fan of the Vanity Project than I ever expected to be when the stable was moved to "NXT" from "WWE EVOLVE" at the beginning of the year, and I find myself really rooting for these guys. They're good in the ring, and you can tell they're only getting better, and they have a perfectly annoying heel gimmick that has yet to verge on "go away" heat for me, as some characters often do, especially in "NXT."

Tonight, NXT Tag Team Champions Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes, and North American Champion Jackson Drake, got a big opportunity when they faced off in six-man tag team action against Intercontinental Champion Chad Gable, Dragon Lee, and AAA Cruiserweight Champion Rey Fenix. The match was given a lot of time to open the show, but sadly, went up against the women's Blood & Guts match on "Dynamite," which I'm betting WWE assumed would happen. I'm sure most people chose one show to watch over the other tonight, to maybe catch up on the second show tomorrow, but WWE putting Vanity Project in this position live kind of stunk.

In addition to taking the loss here, Baylor and Smokes were just defeated by Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno to be knocked out of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic last week. The champions also haven't defended their gold since they won the titles at the end of August, and I'm worried for them when they face Moreno and Dar next week, as the pair are obviously on a hot streak.

The stable could have used a huge victory over three big main roster stars, even if they had to achieve it by nefarious means. Myka Lockwood was right there on the outside, and Lee, Gable, and Fenix losing a match on the developmental brand wouldn't hurt them at all at this point.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The Blood and Guts edition of "AEW Dynamite" is always one of, if not the most violent nights of the year for All Elite Wrestling, but I don't think anyone expected the non-wrestling segments to be filled with such venom and hate. However, Bandido had a score to settle with Swerve Strickland, and we have ourselves a Texas Death Match, ladies and gentlemen.

The story between Swerve Strickland, The New Level, Hangman Page, and Brodido has been building excellently over the past few weeks, especially since AEW WrestleDream 2026, where Page, Bandido, and Brody King regained the AEW World Trios Championships. Strickland, clearly not over the fact that Page got one over on him again, has gone rogue and tapped back into that hateful side of his to get back at his long-time rival. It's gotten to the point where Kofi and Austin Creed are realizing that teaming with Strickland isn't what they signed up for, as he might be out of his mind, but it was Bandido who lost his mind this week.

After being battered and bloodied by Strickland last week, Bandido got back at him by attacking Kofi backstage, resulting in a wild brawl between Bandido and Strickland that spilled out into the arena and almost led to Strickland having his head taken off with a steel truss (literally, Bandido dropped it after being speared by Creed and it grazed the back of Strickland's head). Bandido and King have been in the same boat as Kofi and Creed when it comes to the Strickland/Page saga in that they just want to be good lads and have good matches and have a lot of respect for one another since they all love wrestling deep down, but for Bandido, it's crossed a line now.

The New Level didn't want a Texas Death Match at AEW Full Gear 2026. Page told his partners that it wasn't a good idea, and everyone apart from Strickland seemed to be reading off the same sheet. But Strickland went too far, and out of everyone, it was Bandido who pleaded with Page to accept the challenge since he's the man with the most Texas Death experience in AEW. Page reluctantly agreed, and at Full Gear, Page, King, and Bandido will defend the AEW World Trios Championships in one of the most violent stipulations in all of wrestling against Strickland, Creed, and Kofi.

An excellently told story pushed further by a great segment involving all six guys, and it's resulted in perhaps the most anticipated trios title match in AEW history being put together. Strap yourselves in boys and girls, because the sandy desert will be painted red at Full Gear.

Written by Sam Palmer

I already wasn't a fan of the thrown-together feeling of both Blood & Guts matches, so tonight's episode of "Dynamite" focusing pretty much entirely on the stipulation bouts wasn't my favorite thing. While the matches themselves were great, and there was no doubt there, AEW has been going through a tough time, and it's been difficult for the company to build its pay-per-views fully. There was a valiant effort to still build toward Full Gear tonight around Blood & Guts, but it didn't feel like enough.

Tonight's episode should have been marketed as the three-hour special ahead of Full Gear. In checking the TNT schedule, next week's episode is officially three hours, so AEW fans can bet it will go nearly three-and-a-half. While I of course have no idea how AEW can work things with its broadcast partner, it's going to feel pretty silly next week when nothing exciting goes down on "Collision" when Blood & Guts could have gone the extra time.

AEW did its best for some builds for matches already announced for Full Gear, specifically, the brawl between New Level and Swerve Strickland and Brodido and "Hagman" Adam Page. It was a solid segment, with the Texas Death match stipulation becoming official for the AEW World Trios Championships. That was about as exciting of a build to Full Gear as we got tonight.

Kyle Fletcher and AEW World Champion Will Ospreay crushed it within the cages during the men's Blood & Guts match, but I also think they're facing one another for the title too soon to begin with. I hope Fletcher's the man to dethrone Ospreay eventually, and I want that feud to center around their history. On the women's side of things, the only competitors in Blood & Guts with a match at Full Gear are Wrathlander and the Brawling Birds. We saw Jamie Hayter and Kris Statlander get a little scrappy with one another in the ring, but that was about it.

AEW Women's World Champion Mercedes Mone and her challenger, Marina Shafir, had yet another promo segment that involved Shafir calling Mone a "p****" and Mone slapping the Death Riders member before laying her out. It felt super redundant and did nothing ahead of their title match. Most of the other segments were about other events, including this weekend's Jericho cruise, and AEW even threw in a weird hype segment for its previous events in Jacksonville.

While tonight's pay-per-view build didn't feel like enough, thankfully, there's still one week left. Hopefully no one involved in the already announced Full Gear matches got hurt during either bloody bout to change things, as there are only six matches official for the event as it is.

Written by Daisy Ruth

It has to be said before getting into the 'Hated' portion of this that both Blood & Guts matches excelled tonight, unadulterated violence delivered in some of the most entertaining and innovative ways. It was a privilege to be doing the play-by-play for each of them. But, in the moment, having chronicled each step leading up to it, the finish to the Men's match felt like it had come a little too soon.

There was a metric f*** ton going right for the match, whether it be Darby Allin doing Darby Allin things or Kazuchika Okada bringing a leafblower because he didn't deign to wrestle on a mat with tacks. But then Allin went on a tangent to try and beat up Don Callis, which he cannot by any means be blamed for. Wardlow ripped the cage door off, launched it at Allin, and that exchange continued until they ended up on top of the cage.

Meanwhile, Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta appeared at ringside and started to set up tables. This was all wonderful building to a crescendo. Wardlow powerbombed Allin onto the cage roof. He had him in position. Adam Copeland was chained to the cage wall, and Kyle Fletcher took to the microphone, asking Copeland if he was going to surrender for his team. Copeland was going to need some persuading.

In this moment, it felt as though Allin being primed to be Mick Foley'd was going to be the breaking point, especially since Copeland had an interaction with Foley earlier in the night to hark back to their hardcore match. Instead, Fletcher threatened to hit Ospreay with a screwdriver, and Davis had one of the Young Bucks in position for a piledriver.

Those are acceptable grounds for surrender at any other time. But the way the match had been built, and especially considering it did happen after the bout, it really felt as though the table spot was going to factor into the finish.

Copeland's surrender felt like it had come just a little too early. That's not going to take away from the immense fun that came before it. But the ending is so important to the match, and it felt for a moment like the air had been sucked out of the building. That might not have been the case if Allin was taking the plunge as the finish came.

Written by Sam Palmer

It has to be said before getting into the 'Hated' portion of this that both Blood & Guts matches excelled tonight, unadulterated violence delivered in some of the most entertaining and innovative ways. It was a privilege to be doing the play-by-play for each of them. But, in the moment, having chronicled each step leading up to it, the finish to the Men's match felt like it had come a little too soon.

There was a metric f*** ton going right for the match, whether it be Darby Allin doing Darby Allin things or Kazuchika Okada bringing a leafblower because he didn't deign to wrestle on a mat with tacks. But then Allin went on a tangent to try and beat up Don Callis, which he cannot by any means be blamed for. Wardlow ripped the cage door off, launched it at Allin, and that exchange continued until they ended up on top of the cage.

Meanwhile, Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta appeared at ringside and started to set up tables. This was all wonderful building to a crescendo. Wardlow powerbombed Allin onto the cage roof. He had him in position. Adam Copeland was chained to the cage wall, and Kyle Fletcher took to the microphone, asking Copeland if he was going to surrender for his team. Copeland was going to need some persuading.

In this moment, it felt as though Allin being primed to be Mick Foley'd was going to be the breaking point, especially since Copeland had an interaction with Foley earlier in the night to hark back to their hardcore match. Instead, Fletcher threatened to hit Ospreay with a screwdriver, and Davis had one of the Young Bucks in position for a piledriver.

Those are acceptable grounds for surrender at any other time. But the way the match had been built, and especially considering it did happen after the bout, it really felt as though the table spot was going to factor into the finish.

Copeland's surrender felt like it had come just a little too early. That's not going to take away from the immense fun that came before it. But the ending is so important to the match, and it felt for a moment like the air had been sucked out of the building. That might not have been the case if Allin was taking the plunge as the finish came.

Written by Max Everett

Between Intercontinental Champion Chad Gable, AAA Cruiserweight Champion Rey Fenix, Dragon Lee, Paige, Kevin Owens, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, and John Cena, this edition of "NXT" was absolutely stacked with talent from the main roster, and I thought it absolutely was the right move for tonight's double-header of "NXT" and "Dynamite".

While I would argue that there was perhaps a little too much of a presence of the main roster on this show, I'd still rather have that be the case for a show "NXT" is trying to position as being a big deal rather than something that didn't live up to the hype. The extra effort put in by WWE and the main roster talent who traveled to the Performance Center actually felt worth it as a means of making this feel like it was a big show, and it really did a lot to create the atmosphere needed to go up against a show with the Men's and Women's Blood & Guts matches headlining the entire event. It needed that extra something to make it stand out, and this did exactly that.

Written by Olivia Quinlan