Veteran referee Jimmy Korderas is the latest wrestling authority to weigh in on the Blood and Guts steel chair controversy.
In the match last week on AEW Dynamite, Mark Briscoe clobbered Jack Perry with a steel chair while chained to the steel chair in the Blood and Guts match. Many fans, talent and industry veterans criticized the spot for being potentially dangerous.
Corey Graves commented in a deleted post on X:
“This is not meant to sound judgmental, or incite “us vs. them” or question anybody’s passion, or talent or intentions. This is just coming from a guy whose career ended from a few too many ACCIDENTAL headshots. The ART of this business is protecting ourselves and each other. Trust me…the gaps in memory are not worth it. I promise.”
Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer claimed a “shaved chair” was used. Nicholas Jackson of The Young Bucks told Sports Illustrated: “All I know is Jack is fine, and that’s all that matters. We know the risk we’re taking in the ring and it wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t prepared for it.”
Still, the debate continues.
Jim Cornette on his podcast said: “I don’t have any sympathy because I don’t think he has a brain in his head to begin with. If he had one it wouldn’t be working today. He is an empty-headed dip s–t anyway. We have got that on the authority of Dr. CM Punk…Number One, it was a metal chair. Sawed down? It didn’t matter how tall it was or how long it was. It is the hardness of the chair and the hardness of the shot with the chair which looked pretty God damn good. It made the dull thudding sound like the sound of something hard hitting an empty object so it wasn’t a foam or rubber chair and how would you “saw” a chair down to make the impact less?…I have worked a lot of magic and seen a lot of magic worked with a lot of ordinary household items to make gimmicks but I have never heard of “sawing a chair down”.
Now, Jimmy Korderas has given his thoughts in a video on X:
Quick lesson! Thank you and good night. pic.twitter.com/PWEz2seCyh
— Jimmy Korderas (@jimmykorderas) July 28, 2024
“Guess what? It is not gimmicked. You know why? You cannot gimmick these things,” says Korderas holding a steel chair in the middle of a ring. Korderas goes on to say you can shave a wooden chair down but not a steel chair.
Some of the replies were:
I hear this one. In my time in the business, I swung plenty of them and got hit with plenty of them.
I never understood how some thought it bent as if by magic.
It bent because the human body is… slightly more solid than the chair.
— Patrick Scott Patterson (@OriginalPSP) July 29, 2024
Couldn’t you theoretically make lighter chairs? Not saying that’s what happens but wouldn’t that be the way to gimmick it ? Either way I’m ok if I never see a chair shot to the head again
— Wrestling is Fun (@ZoMarksOut) July 28, 2024
AEW Vice President of Creative and Talent QT Marshall from AEW had this to say: “You have zero clue what you’re speaking of. If you would like, you can come to AEW and we can show you what we do to protect the talent. Or you can continue to be ignorant. Take your pick.”
And then this:
“I have all the respect in the world for the veterans of the industry who have paved the way. Even if they shit on us publicly.”
For the record, I’m not mad at @jimmykorderas …. I’m not mad at anyone for having an opinion on chair shots. My argument was that he didn’t understand how we gimmick a chair.
I’ve sent him the dm. He responded. End of it. He’s earned the right to get the dm.
— QT Marshall (@QTMarshall) July 30, 2024