AEW Battle of the Belts VII 7/15/2023

AEW Battle of the Belts VII 7/15/2023

Ricky Starks runs up the ramp and literally pulls his trophy off of Jushin Liger, nearly knocking him over in a weird spot. Liger is left confused. There was no intro for Liger either, so if you hadn't seen 1990's New Japan, Google it I guess.

CM Punk hugs David Benoit outside after, though they didn't mention who it was. He's Benoit's kid and was thinking of becoming a wrestler, but apparently wasn't real serious about it and has yet to have any matches. He still kind of gets brought up often though regardless.

AEW International Title - Orange Cassidy (c) vs Lance Archer

Lance tries to choke slam him before he even gets in and chases him. OC bangs his head off the buckle but he no sells it. Lance forearms him then does a step up knee in the corner. OC gets on his back and is thrown over then Lance running shoulders him. OC goes outside and Jake tells him to go back in. Oc does his stupid slow kick and pocket routine with Jake. Jake teases punching him but doesn't.

Oc jumps off the apron and is caught and swung into the rails. Lance throws security then splashes one for some reason. OC dropkicks him against the rails. OC then slams and piles security onto Lance. Somehow, neither person was counted out during this. Lance forearms him and they delay the break. OC is then thrown into the buckles as we go to break. Lance chokes him against the ropes and hits running back elbows.

OC comes off the buckles and is caught and thrown off a suplex. Lance does a bad bodyblock. They block each others moves and Lance is chopblocked. OC hits facekicks and a superkick. Lance hits hard forearms then does a black hole slam variation. Jake grabs Lance outside, maybe for a ddt but Lance stops him. Lance is dropkicked in the knee and ddt'd on the floor as OC mocks Jake. OC punches Archer on the apron and Lance is counted out as he doesn't make the count.

Someone losing by countout on this show when the refs didn't care about that all night long was real stupid. Lance losing in this manner was stupid and the idea of OC being able to go toe to toe with Lance was also stupid. The match wasn't anything special and just garbage all around

The Acclaimed come out and rap. Tony Schiavone interviewed them in the ring. Billy says he loves Calgary and cowgirls. Max said QTV has been talking trash about him and said he accepts their challenge for Royal Rampage. He said he will whoop them and send them home. Bowens said the Acclaimed will also be getting a rematch for the AEW trios titles. Bowens says everyone loves The Acclaimed and they scissor with Tony. 

AEW Women's Title - Toni Storm (c) vs Taya Valkyrie

Taya is wearing a hat and a cowboy jacket. Toni boots her in the corner to start then Taya clubs and forearms her. Taya stomps her against the ropes then hits a meteora there. Toni throws her by the hair on the floor and Ruby laughs in Taya's face. Toni yells at Taya's friends at ringside then Taya throws her by the hair outside.

They fight outside more through PiP break and Toni hip attacks her off the apron. Toni throws her by the hair again then suplexes her. Toni full-nelson her as they go to full break. We lose the feed due to technical errors then Taya hits a blue thunder driver. Taya hip attacks her in the corner and stinkfaces her.

The feed completely cuts out as we go to rainbow bars and we never see the finish of the match.

To be honest, they probably did us a favor by cutting out the feed. I don't know if I've ever really seen this happen before except on some crappy live streams and this was a total embarrassment for AEW. Total bush league crap.

Martha Hart gave the trophies to Willow and Starks for winning the tournament, though Starks already had taken his. Why Starks didn't try to knock over Hart like he did with Liger, I don't know.

AEW TNT Title - Luchasaurus (c) vs Shawn Spears

Scorpio Sky is shown watching in the back. Spears hits shots in the corner then tries to slingshot in but is hit. We go to PiP break and return with Shawn making a comeback. Shawn hits clotheslines and finally knocks him down. Shawn kicks him from the apron then chases Christian around the ring. He pulls off Christian's jacket and throws it at him. Lucha then grabs him and chokeslams him through a table.

Shawn rolls him up then Lucha hits a chokeslam. Christian puts a chair between the buckles and Lucha runs into it. Shawn rolls him up for 2 then Lucha lariats him in the back of the head off a Christian distraction and wins it.

It was short and cut up by a bunch of breaks. My DVR actually cut off before this was over. This was nothing special and was not worthy of being a main event.

We then saw Toni Storm beating Taya with a storm zero piledriver to win and we saw Scorpio Sky still watching in the back to close the show.

Overall thoughts: A total waste of time marred by technical issues and bad finishes. Battle of the Belts has a bad rep as titles never change hands, major titles aren't defended on it and the big stars don't show up for it. This did nothing to change that, as the card was weak and no titles changed hands. It's a total waste of time show when it could be something cool.