New champions are guaranteed to be crowned at Battle of the Belts XI.
A match between the Undisputed Kingdom and the team of Dustin Rhodes & The Von Erichs will determine the new ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions. The latter team defeated The Dark Order at ROH Death Before Dishonor to earn the opportunity. It is unknown which members of The Undisputed Kingdom (Wardlow, Roderick Strong, Mike Bennett, and Matt Taven) will be their opponents.
The titles were declared vacant after The Gunns & Jay White were stripped of both the AEW Trios and ROH Six-Man titles two weeks ago on Collision. Last week, The Gunns & Juice Robinson lost to Christian Cage, Nick Wayne, and Luchasaurus in a match that had been only for the AEW Trios titles.
Two title eliminator matches will also take place. Willow Nightingale, the new CMLL Women’s Champion, will take on Deonna Purrazzo. AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm will face Taya Valkyrie.
Join us for live coverage starting at 10 pm ET. The show will take place immediately after AEW Collision.
Battle of the Belts XI began with a recap of the big angles from Dynamite. We also saw an angle at Comic-Con, which saw Tony Khan make the TBS Title match between Britt Baker & Mercedes Mone official for All In: Wembley. We then got a recap of Darby Allin winning the Royal Rampage and earning an AEW World Title match at Grand Slam in September.
Toni Storm made her way to the ring for the opening match. Tony Schiavone, Nigel McGuinness, & Ian Riccaboni were on the call.
AEW Women’s World Title Eliminator Match – Toni Storm defeated Taya Valkyrie
A fine opener for Battle of the Belts.
A sit-down interview with Mariah May was promoted for Dynamite during the opening moments of this match. After some shenanigans with Taya’s glasses, mirroring her husband Johnny TV’s match on Collision, Storm took control to start with Valkyrie’s glasses on. Valkyrie came back by hitting running knees into the ring steps.
Storm made her comeback after a commercial, hitting a Perfect-Plex for a nearfall. Storm hit the hip attack and hit a DDT for a nearfall. Valkyrie came back by tying Storm in the ropes and hitting a sliding German suplex. Valkyrie hit the Road To Valhalla for a nearfall, then locked on an STF. Valkyrie hit a curb stomp, called the Shania Pain, for a nearfall. Storm snatched Valkyrie up with a Storm Zero to score the win.
After the match, Storm took the mic and said that this tramp was still the champ. Storm said that Mariah May was perfect for her and was a better Toni Storm than the actual Storm was. Storm said that May made one mistake, and that was not cutting Storm’s head off when she had the chance.
Kip Sabian was backstage with Lexy Nair. He talked about losing his father and moving forward to be the best wrestler in the company. Sabian said that while he was willing to let his run-ins with the Patriarchy pass, Nick Wayne seemed to still have an issue with him. He told Wayne that he was back and that he would be easy to find.
CMLL World Women’s Title Eliminator Match – Willow Nightingale (c) defeated Deonna Purrazzo
Purrazzo worked on the mat to start, with Nightingale shutting her down with a bodyslam. There was a scary counter to a tilt-a-whirl armbar attempt, where Nightingale dumped Purrazzo on her shoulder. Purrazzo wrung Nightingale’s arm up on the ropes as we went to a commercial break.
After the break, Nightingale made her comeback and hit a main event spinebuster for a nearfall. Nightingale couldn’t attempt the Babe With The Powerbomb due to her worked-over arm, but she did score with a suplex. Nightingale went to the top rope, but Purrazzo cut her off. Purrazzo pulled Nightingale off the ropes right onto her head, but Willow was okay and hit a Death Valley Driver for a nearfall.
Nightingale brought Purrazzo to the top rope and hit a superplex, but Purrazzo held onto Nightingale and started a strike battle. Nightingale hit a lariat to reset as Taya Valkyrie walked out with a turnbuckle behind her back. Thunder Rosa came out to fight Valkyrie off, allowing Nightingale to hit the Pounce and the Babe With The Powerbomb for the win.
ROH World Six Man Tag Team Title Match – Dustin Rhodes & The Von Erichs (Marshall & Ross von Erich) (w/ Kevin von Erich) defeated The Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven, Mike Bennett & Roderick Strong)
This was a feel-good ending to the show, with the Von Erichs and Dustin standing tall in Texas with the six-man titles. The streamers hitting the ring was a nice callback to ROH history. With the talk from Tony Khan’s post-show presser last night about WBD having “many channels,” and talk of re-branding ROH into AEW ROH in the same vein as WWE NXT, I think this Arlington residency could be a test for Ring of Honor’s future as a TV property. Having the Von Erichs as its centerpieces in Texas would be a good start.
Paul Wight joined commentary, as he is the newest member of the ROH Board of Directors. Dustin and the Von Erichs earned their spot in this match by winning a match last night on the ROH Death Before Dishonor PPV.
Strong and Ross von Erich started, although Marshall quickly caught Strong with a big dropkick for a nearfall. Strong drove Marshall into the corner and triple-teamed him, but Marshall hit several hip tosses before tagging in Dustin. Quick tags led to Taven dropping Marshall with a dropkick, but Marshall came back with dropkicks before all three Texans hit boots to the Kingdom as we went to commercial.
The Kingdom was working over Ross as we came back from the break, with the announcers noting that Rhodes took a piledriver on the ramp that turned the tide. Bennett knocked Marshall off the apron as he was set up for a tag, but Ross hit the legal man Strong with a Sling Blade. Rhodes got on the apron and got the hot tag, running wild with powerslams and the Natural bulldog. Rhodes hit a Canadian Destroyer on Taven, and the Cross Rhodes and a piledriver on Bennett for a nearfall that the Kingdom broke up. Taven cut off the Shattered Dreams, leading to the Kingdom triple teaming Rhodes. Strong hit a Sick Kick for a nearfall broken up by the Von Erichs. The Kingdom brought the title belts into the ring to distract the referee, leading to Bennett hitting Rhodes with his own cowbell for a close nearfall.
Taven and Strong pulled chairs out from under the ring, which led to Katsuyori Shibata coming out to put Taven in the Iron Claw, which Kevin von Erich taught him on the ROH show last night. Kevin put Strong in the claw as well, leading to a triple team on Bennett. Rhodes hit the Final Reckoning on Bennett to win the match and the title. Fans threw streamers into the ring as Paul Wight and the babyface locker room hit the ring to celebrate with the new champions.
