BRM Reviews AEW Battle of the Belts (bad)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews AEW Battle of the Belts (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 10th, '22, 13:38

AEW Battle of the Belts (1/8/2022)- Charlotte, NC


SINGLES MATCH TO CROWN AN INTERIM AEW TNT CHAMPION: Sammy Guevara vs. Dustin Rhodes (w/Arn Anderson)- 4/10
In kayfabe, Dustin apparently got blown up two minutes in, and Sammy was nice enough to let him catch his breath. That makes Tony Khan’s already specious choice to use Dustin in this spot look even worse.
You can tell that these two have been watching their New Japan tapes because they fought on the outside forever without getting counted out, and then, after they did their big spot (Dustin gave Sammy a piledriver on the floor), Dustin got back into the ring, and the rule suddenly started to apply so that they could give us the Count-Out Tease That No One Ever Buys™.
Sammy made it back into the ring, of course. Right before the piledriver, Dustin had slammed Sammy’s knee into the ring steps… and for the rest of the match, that was the thing that Sammy was selling. Not the piledriver on the floor. Well… it’s Sammy Guevara so he only really sold his knee when he didn’t need to use it to do his fancy offense, but you see my point (and really, Sammy. If you’re f*cking knee is supposed to be injured, maybe just do a regular springboard and not a double springboard into a big flip to the outside).
Sammy managed to get back on the offensive and sent Dustin to the floor. Aubrey eventually started to count him out, but Arn kept coming over and distracting her like a total heel.
Sammy kicked out of a Crossroads, which Tony referred to as “the same move Cody beat him with.” So Cody and Tony spend all of this effort creating a new finishing Combo for Cody that winds up in a move that isn’t the CrossRhodes, and Tony Schiavone paid no attention at all. I don’t care whose friend he is, GET HIM OFF OF COMMENTARY. If you want him on TV, have him be the interviewer. You have him doing all of the interviews already, so why not avoid the silliness of him having to leave the desk to go backstage five times a show and replace him with someone competent like Taz (or hire Veda Scott or Caprice Coleman)?
Anyway, Dustin also got to kick out of one of Sammy’s finishers. Then Sammy’s friend Fuego Del Sol popped out from under the ring, where he had apparently been hiding the entire time because having him just run out from the back or be sitting in the front row like Daniel Garcia would make too much sense, I guess. How did he even know when to come out?
Sammy saw this and began to oversell his injury to distract the referee while Fuego set a table up. The referee saw him anyway, although he hadn’t actually done anything illegal yet, so she didn’t eject him from ringside. Arn Anderson did that instead… by threatening to pull out a finger-gun. Yes, really. That’s what Fuego Del Sol ran away from.
We got some teases of both guys getting put through the table before finally Dustin hit a Canadian Destroyer through the table. Like with the tag title match on Dynamite, I don’t have a problem with this because of the plausible deniability that Dustin was simply doing his move and the table just happened to be there (as opposed to running across the apron to powerbomb the opponent through it or something like that), but it’s also a little silly that a veteran like Dustin Rhodes and a talented youngster like Sammy Guevara couldn’t have a match without feeling the need to do a Canadian Destroyer through a table.
Dustin got Sammy back into the ring and went for Cody’s two CrossRhodes into a Tiger Driver 98 combo, but he was too slow to follow up after the second CrossRhodes, allowing Sammy to escape. Sammy then beat Dustin after a non-so-good series of back-and-forth roll-ups.
Bad selling, everyone acting like a heel, general sloppiness, selective enforcement of the rules, people coming out from under the ring for no reason other than to come out from under the ring instead of from the back… This was a total mess.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Daniel Garcia got in Sammy’s face and slapped him, so they started to fight. A flock of referees came out to help Aubrey separate them.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS SAMMY GUEVARA- great!
He wants revenge on Daniel Garcia for ruining his moment, so he offers to put the belt up against him on Dynamite. The only problem was him saying “this belt has always been about open challenges,” and then making a challenge to one specific person, which is the exact opposite of an open challenge.


FTW TITLE MATCH: Ricky Starks(c) (w/Powerhouse Hobbs) vs. Matt Sydal- 6.75/10
Excalibur told us that Sydal has been “on a tremendous roll as of late,” while we were shown clips from him winning match OVER SIX MONTHS AGO. Oops. (Yes, I realize that those were the wins over Dante Martin, but then you should either have Excalibur say something different, or show clips of him winning recently and have Excalibur bring up the relevant Dante Marin issue at a later time.
Starks won clean, which was good.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Team Taz start to beat on Sydal for no reason. Lee Moriarty comes out to make the save but gets beaten up. I guess he’s Sydal’s new protégé now that Dante has left him, rather than it just being a one-match thing? It would have been nice to see that play out on TV in the TWO MONTHS since they teamed together. Even I, who writes a review of all of AEW’s TV shows each week, had trouble remembering there being any association between Sydal and Moriarty at all.
Remember the previous match when there was a post-match altercation, so a whole herd of referees ran out to break it up? Well… where are they now? It’s sh*t like this that makes me roll my eyes whenever people say that Tony Khan is a “detail guy.”
Dante Martin then came out to make the save and did so successfully, taking out for Starks and then Hobbs. I really could have done without him and Hobbs just getting nose to nose and yelling at each other in the middle of a fight.

AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH VIDEO PACKAGE- fine… although I did start to worry about how much time would be left for the match.

AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Dr. Britt Baker, DMD(c) (w/Jamie Hayter & Rebel) vs. Riho- 5.75/10
We started off with the heels on the outside distracting Riho by grabbing at her boots. Excalibur noted that relying on outside assistance has been the story of Britt’s title reign… so why doesn’t Tony Khan book a f*cking cage match, or bar them from ringside? If he was willing to randomly bar people from ringside in that stupid Jericho vs. Dax match with Tyson as the guest enforcer, then surely he’d be willing to do so in order to stop someone from cheating to retain a championship, right? Apparently not.
Riho took Rebel out with a diving crossbody to the floor. She then got distracted by Hayter, allowing Britt to get the advantage with a Slingblade. Dr. Baker went to get Riho back into the ring, but Jamie Hayter instead called Britt over to help her set up a table, because apparently Jamie Hayter is the only pro wrestler incapable of setting a table up on her own. This, of course, let Riho recover and take advantage of Britt being distracted with the table to hit a Dragon Suplex on the floor and regain control of the match. Hayter just stood there with a dumb look on her face, holding the table so that Riho could run up it and kick her.
Britt eventually regained control, but Hayter got up on the apron to distract her, letting Riho get a roll-up for a nearfall. From there they went back and for a nice little while with no bullsh*t until Riho went to the top and Rebel pulled Dr. Baker on the apron and then jumped on top of her to shield her, right in front of the referee. You could argue that this should result in Britt being DQed, but that the very least Rebel should have been ejected from ringside, but nope. Not even when she recovered from Riho stomping on her.
Britt got the Lockjaw by Riho made it to the ropes. The referee clearly saw both Hayter and Rebel pull Riho’s hands off of the ropes, but this was not a DQ. Britt went for it again but Riho turned it into a pin. Britt kicked out, then hit a Curb Stomp for a nearfall.
Hayter made like she was going to give Britt the title belt, but instead she just dropped it in the ring, nowhere near Britt. Rebel picked it up and handed it to Britt, then distracted the referee while Britt… didn’t even try to hit Riho with the belt. Turner finally ejected Rebel from ringside. Britt and Hayter then started to argue. Riho knocked Britt into Hayter, then hit a Crucifix Bomb and a Northern Lights Suplex for a nearfall. They reversed some stuff, then Britt hit some moves and won with the Lockjaw.
Hayter picked the belt up after the match. It looked for a moment like she would attack Britt from behind, but she didn’t. Rebel snatched the belt away from her, but she snatched it back… then just handed it to Britt and hugged her.
There were some good nearfalls in here, but everything they did to set those nearfalls up (Britt arguing with Hayter) was set up so poorly and in such a contrived manner that it got in the way. Hayter went over to Britt because she needed help opening a table? Are you f*cking kidding me? What pro wrestler can’t open a table on her own? And the big one at the end was even worse! Thirty seconds before Hayter threw the belt down instead of handing it to Britt, she had been happily trying to help Britt cheat by pulling Riho’s hands off the ropes. What happened in those thirty seconds that made her change her mind?
And then, of course, she changes her mind at the end and decides to hug Britt. It’s the f*cking Bullet Club Civil War or Bucks turn on Moxley all over again. Hayter’s actions to either help or hinder Britt should be should happen because Britt either did something to upset her or to mollify her. What we got here was Hayter deciding to make the switch for the purpose of creating a dramatic moment in a wrestling match. These people never lean.


This was a terrible show from AEW. If it was just some episode of Rampage I would have said it was bad and moved on, but for your much-hyped TNT special to be THIS? NOT GOOD.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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Thelone
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Re: BRM Reviews AEW Battle of the Belts (bad)

Post by Thelone » Jan 12th, '22, 13:42

Like I said in another thread, those are obvious "throw them ins" that won't mean much at the end of the day. Yes, there is a place for big TV supercards, especially with only four PPVs a year, but they need to be two hours long and not feel like yet another themed Dynamite (ideally you'd stop doing those altogether to keep the specials... well, special). As it is here, those won't be any different from late Clashes that were basically an extra episode of Nitro once in a blue moon.

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