AEW Battle of the Belts I 1/8/2022

AEW Battle of the Belts I 1/8/2022

Interim TNT Title - Sammy Guevara vs Dustin Rhodes

Cody's supposed to be in this but he's out so Dustin takes his place. Dustin  has something like one win in the last few months. Sammy lost the TNT title to Cody two matches ago then beat Ho-Ho Lun on Dark, so there's not a lot to work with storyline wise here.

There was a lot of stalling here and Sammy did a double jump 450 to the outside and mostly missed for a hard landing on his backside. Sammy did a great sell for a Dustin cross roads for 2. Dustin hit a code red but took a GTH soon after for 2. Fuego Del Sol popped up out of nowhere and set up a table. Dustin then hit a sick canadian destroyer through the table on Sammy from the apron, which of course was only worth 2. Sammy then ended up getting the win soon after after 2 more cross roads.

They maybe had something here early with the vet vs younger wrestler thing but they forgot all about it and that canadian destroyer through a table only being worth a 2 count was so stupid.

Daniel Garcia was at ringside and fought with Sammy in the ring after, teasing that possible match. Daniel Garcia has won one match since October in case you are wondering.

Sammy Guevara was interviewed. He said he didn't care about Daniel Garcia yet said he would defend the TNT Intertim Title against him on Dynamite.

FTW Title - Ricky Starks vs Matt Sydal

Sydal did some flips early and got a spinning uranage. He then hit a nice brazilian kick. Sydal hit a jumping hurricanrana on Ricky from the mat while Ricky sat on the top rope. Sydal hit a big high kick, a lightning spiral and a meteora from the top for 2. Starks hit a big spear and a roshambo soon after to win.

Sydal was getting beat up by Team Taz after but Lee Moriarty tried to make the save then Dante Martin finally made the save as Team Taz backed off.

There was no real story to this but the match flowed well.

AEW Women's Title - Britt Baker vs Riho

Riho dove on Britt's buddy Rebel from to the top to the floor then took a slingblade on the floor. Riho ran up a table that was being held outside and nailed Hayter with a dropkick. Later on in the match, Riho was up top and Rebel tried to cover Britt on the apron. Riho then double footstomped Rebel's back off the top. Britt hit a nice lockjaw reversal out of a dragon suplex and curbstomped her for 2 soon after. Jamie Hayter threw the belt in the ring and Rebel was kicked out over it and that seemed botched in some manner. Britt and Hayter argued and Riho hit Britt with some offense for 2. Britt hit a hard curbstomp on Riho where her neck jammed into the mat and won with a lockjaw.

Hayter ripped the belt from Rebel after the match and they group hugged with Britt.

Riho had some nice offense here but the story was all about the struggling relationship between Britt, Hayter and Rebel. It killed whatever interest was in the Britt can't beat Riho storyline though since Riho lost.

Overall thoughts: I'd be surprised if the original idea for this show had any of the matches yet alone even one of the matches that we ended up getting. A combination of injuries and other problems likely messed this one up. Still, I don't see why the Jurassic Express title win couldn't have been done here instead and I don't see why they couldn't have squeezed an AEW Title match here instead. This one wasn't really anything special to write about.