BRM Reviews AEW Battle of the Belts II

[Big Red Machine]

AEW Battle of the Belts II (4/16/2022)- Dallas, TX


AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Scorpio Sky(c) (w/Dan Lambert) vs. Sammy Guevara (w/Tay Conti)- 6.75/10
Ethan Page came out with Sky, then went to the back, only to come back out at a dramatic moment. Later, at another key moment, ATT decided that they needed to take out Tay Conti, so they called Paige VanZant out from the back. Why was she in the back at all? Why not just have her at ringside so she can take Tay out as soon as you need her to?
We then went to the finish, which saw Sky poke Sammy in the eye, and then pointlessly distract both himself and the referee with Tay and Paige’s brawl, allowing Sammy Guevara to hit Sky in the nuts to set up the GTH for the win. Tony Schiavone rightly excused this as “fighting fire with fire,” but Excalibur declared it to be “a classless move by Sammy Guevara.” One of these two announcers is going against whatever the creative direction here is supposed to be, and that should not be happening. Does Tony Khan not smarten the announcers up to the direction he wants the stories to go in?

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jonathan Gresham(c) vs. Dalton Castle (w/the Boys)- 6.5/10
Dalton’s promo in the video package before this match was tremendous. Peak Dalton Castle. Dalton is apparently going back to calling his minions “the Boys” instead of his “Chicks.” I guess Tony Khan didn’t like that direction.
The wrestling in this match was solid, but it was not at the level it needed to be I order to make the ROH World Title feel special to the AEW audience.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
We got a nice, post-match handshake before Sonjay Dutt ad Satham Singh came out. Singh took out the Boys and Dalton, which caused a distraction that allowed Lethal to take Gresham out from behind. Lee Moriarty come out to try to make the save but got taken out by Singh. The injured Matt Sydal tried to help his protégé but got stomped out. Finally Samoa Joe came out with a pipe to make the save. He did a VERY good job of making it feel like he wasn’t stalling for Sanjay to get out of the ring before he swung his pipe at him. Joe and Gresham posed in the ring afterwards. I thought this angle made the ROH World Title feel secondary.

AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Thunder Rosa(c) vs. Nyla Rose (w/Vickie Guerrero)- 7.5/10
Very good small babyface vs. large heel stuff.

This was a perfectly fine hour of professional wrestling, but it felt like it was just another hour of Rampage rather than some big quarterly special.

[XIV]

So far these "battle for the belts" specials have fallen flat. They've literally had Adam Cole vs Adam Page in the last week... why not book that here to give it that big match feel? (Granted that the actual match itself wasn't that great, but still).

[Big Red Machine]

So far these "battle for the belts" specials have fallen flat. They've literally had Adam Cole vs Adam Page in the last week... why not book that here to give it that big match feel? (Granted that the actual match itself wasn't that great, but still).

I thought about that, and the only answer I could come up with was that they wanted that match on a live show, which does have some merit, as it's about the only title match they have had in quite a while where people didn't think the result was a foregone conclusion (I think everyone thought they knew who would win Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa at Revolution. They just happened to be wrong).

[XIV]

So far these "battle for the belts" specials have fallen flat. They've literally had Adam Cole vs Adam Page in the last week... why not book that here to give it that big match feel? (Granted that the actual match itself wasn't that great, but still).

I thought about that, and the only answer I could come up with was that they wanted that match on a live show, which does have some merit, as it's about the only title match they have had in quite a while where people didn't think the result was a foregone conclusion (I think everyone thought they knew who would win Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa at Revolution. They just happened to be wrong).

Guess you could be right there. A match that big (on paper) would be spoiled on the internet by those in attendance.

[Thelone]

Scrap for the Straps is pretty much an extra hour of Rampage, which itself is 99% of the time filler. Once again, periodic TV supercards could still work today, but they're redundant and kinda pointless when you're loading your weekly TV show(s) with big/gimmick matches, HUGE ANNOUNCEMENTS and GAME-CHANGING DEBUTS every. single. week. That's why WCW stopped doing the Clashes in 1997.

[Big Red Machine]

Scrap for the Straps is pretty much an extra hour of Rampage, which itself is 99% of the time filler. Once again, periodic TV supercards could still work today, but they're redundant and kinda pointless when you're loading your weekly TV show(s) with big/gimmick matches, HUGE ANNOUNCEMENTS and GAME-CHANGING DEBUTS every. single. week. That's why WCW stopped doing the Clashes in 1997.

I don't think "99%" is quite fair, but your point about WCW in 1997 is quite the great comparison. If they had more than an hour for these Battles of the Belts maybe they could put on something that feels like a "if you spend the $50 for our PPVs, you'll get this AND MORE!" but with just one hour, they can't do it.

[cero2k]

This was a perfectly fine hour of professional wrestling, but it felt like it was just another hour of Rampage rather than some big quarterly special.

This is how I feel too, even from the build up, it just feels like there are bigger things happening on a random Rampage. I would much rather see "BOTB" become a Dynamite/Rampage special episode