AEW Battle of the Belts
AEW Battle of the Belts is a series of professional wrestling television specials produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The specials air on select Saturday nights on TNT in the United States with a total of four planned episodes to air quarterly throughout 2022. The inaugural event took place live on January 8 while the second and most recent event was taped on April 15 and aired the following day. As its name implies, all matches on the specials are championship matches. History. In May 2021, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) renegotiated its broadcasting deal with  WarnerMedia which saw AEW's flagship television program, "Dynamite", move from TNT to TBS in January 2022, while its other core program, "Rampage", remained on TNT. Also as part of the deal, AEW agreed to produce four quarterly television specials on TNT that would take place on Saturdays. Former AEW executive and wrestler Cody Rhodes said that these specials would be similar to Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling's "Clash of the Champions" and WWE's "Saturday Night's Main Event" shows, calling them super events. Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported that the quarterly specials would be one-hour  shows, but said they were originally planned to be longer, and also that they would feature pay-per-view caliber cards. On November 24, 2021, the television special was announced to be titled "Battle of the Belts" with the inaugural event scheduled to be held live on January 8, 2022, at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The tagline was confirmed as "Saturday Fight Night". The name "Battle of the Belts" comes from a National Wrestling Alliance event held from 1985 to 1987 by the promotion's Florida territory that was operated by Eddie Graham. AEW President Tony Khan  confirmed that due to the show's one-hour length, not all of AEW's championships would be defended on the specials, but their goal was to put on great championship matches. On the day of the inaugural event, Khan revealed that matches for the January 11 episode of their YouTube show, "Dark", were scheduled to be taped before the Battle of the Belts I live broadcast, with all other AEW champions participating in these "Dark" matches. On February 15, 2022, AEW announced that Battle of the Belts II would be taped on April 15 at the Curtis Culwell Center  in Garland, Texas. It aired on tape delay the next day on April 16. A month after Tony Khan's purchase of Ring of Honor (ROH), the ROH World Championship was scheduled to be defended at Battle of the Belts II. Results. Battle of the Belts I. Battle of the Belts I took place on January 8, 2022, at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event aired live on TNT at 8pm Eastern Time (ET). In the main event of the one-hour special, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. defeated Riho to retain the AEW Women's World  Championship. On the undercard, Ricky Starks defeated Matt Sydal to retain the FTW Championship and Sammy Guevara defeated Dustin Rhodes to become the interim AEW TNT Champion; Guevara was originally scheduled to face lineal champion Cody Rhodes for the title, however, Cody was pulled due to COVID-19-related issues. Battle of the Belts II. Battle of the Belts II was taped on April 15, 2022, at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. It aired on tape delay on April 16. In the main event, Thunder Rosa retained the AEW Women's World Championship against Nyla Rose. On the undercard , Jonathan Gresham defeated Dalton Castle to retain the ROH World Championship, and in the opening bout, Sammy Guevara defeated Scorpio Sky to win the AEW TNT Championship for a record-tying third time.