Tony Khan Says Vince McMahon Jab Inspired Blood And Guts Name

Tony Khan has a message for Vince McMahon: thanks for the assist. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, the AEW President revealed that the name behind one of Dynamite’s biggest annual specials, Blood and Guts, actually traces back to a dismissive line McMahon once used to draw a contrast between WWE and AEW.

During a WWE investor call, McMahon had said, “We’re not like those blood and guts guys,” using the phrase as a knock on AEW’s more physical, hard-hitting style compared to WWE’s product. Khan, however, heard something else entirely — a branding opportunity.

“The name actually comes from taking something and twisting it around because Vince McMahon, on an investor call, said, ‘We’re not like those blood and guts guys,’” Khan said. “At that point, I said, ‘We have to use that. They have to use that. That’s such a great quote.’ So Vince actually named it.”

AEW ran with it, turning Blood and Guts into the official name for its annual two-ring steel cage match, a concept built on the WarGames tradition popularized in WCW and NWA. Rather than distancing the company from McMahon’s jab, Khan flipped it into one of AEW’s most recognizable and anticipated television events.

The conversation came as Khan discussed AEW’s recent ratings success on TBS. He noted that the July 2024 edition of Blood and Guts had held the promotion’s modern viewership record on the network until it was topped by the Beach Break special featuring Kenny Omega against MJF.

It’s a fitting origin story for a company that has often leaned into outside criticism rather than run from it, and it underscores how Khan has used moments of friction with WWE’s old regime to shape AEW’s own identity. What started as a putdown from the man who once ran WWE has become a piece of AEW’s programming that fans circle on the calendar every year.