AEW has often come under fire for its overreliance on blood and violence, especially segments involving women in the promotion. While there have been many legitimate concerns about the violence, many argue that too much blood takes away the intensity of the situation, and interestingly enough, the WrestleDream main event clash between Jon Moxley and Darby Allin was the only match with blood in the whole pay-per-view.

However, it seems like this wasn’t a creative decision from AEW, but according to Bryan Alvarez in the latest “Wrestling Observer Radio,” it was due to restrictions from the city itself. 

“The show was too long, but the difference in this show was that they ran in St. Louis, and the St. Louis commission had a bunch of restrictions and those included: no bleeding, no brawling in the crowd, and…the only bleeding was in the Darby match when they did the blood capsule at the very beginning of the match,” Alvarez pointed out.

He additionally noted how there was no blood bath with Moxley’s trademark thumbtacks, and neither was there any brawling in the crowd, which Alvarez felt led to most of the matches following same formula instead, making the show seem longer than it actually was. 

Despite the lack of blood, the Moxley-Allin match was still criticized for the drowning spot, which certain users on social media criticized and compared to the “Purveyor of Violence” choking out Bryan Danielson during last year’s AEW All Out as well.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Wrestling Observer Radio” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.