The Continental title is on the line in the twelfth edition of Battle of the Belts.
Kyle O’Reilly will get his shot at Kazuchika Okada for the title immediately following this week’s Collision. At WrestleDream, O’Reilly asked Okada for a title match. After Okada rejected O’Reilly, the two ended up brawling. After O’Reilly won his match on Rampage, he issued the challenge again to Okada, with AEW making it official later in the show.
Another match will see Mariah May take on Anna Jay in a title eliminator match for the AEW Women’s Championship. Jay has been wanting to prove herself after spending the summer in Japan in Stardom and confronted May on Dynamite. The two ended up getting into a pull-apart. Christopher Daniels attempted to break up the altercation but ended up getting a slap from Jay that was meant for May.
A match with the new team of Brian Cage and Lance Archer will also take place. Both are new acquisitions of Don Callis.
Join us for live coverage of Battle of the Belts at 10 pm ET.
Battle of the Belts began with the Blackpool Combat Club beat down of Top Flight that ended Collision. Castagnoli dragged one of the Martins up the ramp, but John Silver drilled Castagnoli with a chair. The Dark Order came out to fight, but the BCC got the upper hand as well.
Moxley took the microphone and told the Dark Order that he would give them a chance to fight for their lives. He offered the Dark Order a Trios Title match right now and ordered the referee to ring the bell. Tony Schiavone & Nigel McGuinness were on the call.
AEW World Trios Title Match – Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, PAC & Wheeler Yuta) (c) (w/ Jon Moxley & Marina Shafir) defeated The Dark Order (John Silver, Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno)
This was a unique and interesting way to hook the Collision viewers on for Battle of the Belts, and to make sure the BCC story is an overarching one across any and all shows. The BCC look dominant and unrepentant in their cause, and the babyface army is beginning to build against them. The story is that the man most equipped to be their leader, Orange Cassidy, isn’t interested in being a leader as he said on Collision.
It was a three-on-one beatdown on Silver to start, as his partners were destroyed on the floor. Yuta hit the rocket launcher on Silver, but Uno broke up the pin. Uno got dragged out of the ring by Castagnoli as the beat down continued on Silver until he caught PAC with a lariat. A taped-up Reynolds tagged in and fought hard, but Castagnoli caught him with a Gorilla Press into a gutbuster. Castagnoli snatched him into a Sharpshooter.
Yuta brought in a chair, and as the referee was distracted, PAC landed a double stomp to the back of the head. Reynolds tapped out, giving the champions their second successful defense in a half hour. The BCC laid out the Dark Order after the match, with Shafir drilling Silver in the arm with the briefcase that contained the AEW World Title. The babyface locker room came out to clear house, with Orange Cassidy looking on before walking away.
AEW Continental Title Match – Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Kyle O’Reilly
One of Okada’s better title defenses here, as O’Reilly worked hard and got the crowd to buy into his efforts to win the title. I’d recommend checking this one out.
Okada started slowly before O’Reilly came out of a rope break swinging. O’Reilly had an armbar blocked but transitioned into an ankle lock that forced Okada into the ropes. After a commercial break, Okada cut off a rallying O’Reilly with an uppercut to boos. Okada did a lot of crowd work as he worked over O’Reilly before O’Reilly dodged an apron tope and laid Okada out with his kick combination.
O’Reilly landed a hammerlock driver as the crowd did dueling chants. O’Reilly caught Okada with a dragon screw leg whip in the ropes, then hit a diving knee to Okada as he hung in the ropes. O’Reilly hit a diving knee to Okada’s thigh before locking on a kneebar. O’Reilly transitioned into a Figure Four style hold before Okada clawed at O’Reilly’s eyes to escape. Okada didn’t have the strength in the leg to pull O’Reilly up for a Tombstone, allowing O’Reilly to lay in kicks to the leg.
Okada caught O’Reilly on a corner charge, hitting a neckbreaker over the knee as we went to another commercial. Okada hit a shotgun dropkick to O’Reilly as we came back. As the 15-minute call came from the ring announcer, O’Reilly countered a Tombstone with a guillotine choke and a knee to the sternum. O’Reilly countered another Tombstone attempt with an ankle lock that forced Okada to the ropes.
Okada teased playing keepaway to run out the clock but caught O’Reilly on a jumping knee attempt and hit a DDT on the floor. Okada hit the elbow drop, but O’Reilly fought out of the Rainmaker. Okada caught O’Reilly with a short-arm lariat and a dropkick, but another Rainmaker attempt got fought off and countered into a guillotine choke. Okada pulled O’Reilly up into a Landslide, then hit the Rainmaker to retain the title.
Anna Jay had a pretaped promo. Mariah May had beaten her twice before, but she still felt that May had a receipt coming from all of her shady actions. She said that the Women’s Title had eluded her for four years, but she would earn her shot tonight in the eliminator match.
Rush & Dralistico were in the back. They said that they would destroy every single faction in this company. The camera panned down to see The Beast Mortos clawing at Hologram.
The Don Callis Family (Brian Cage & Lance Archer) defeated Jack Cartwheel & Jon Cruz
Cage murdered both guys, then tagged Archer in to murder them more. They had two awesome double-team moves, with Archer chokeslamming Cartwheel off of Cage’s shoulders and Archer hitting a Blackout into a Cage powerbomb.
The Undisputed Kingdom was backstage with The Beast Mortos & Lexy Nair. After offering the Beast some meat, they made it clear that they were disappointed with him joining La Faccion Ingobernable.
AEW Women’s World Title Eliminator Match – Anna Jay defeated Mariah May
Anna Jay came back from her Stardom tour, she hasn’t lost since coming back, and she beat the champion to set up a nice little TV defense for Mariah May. A solid match, and a nice bit of lower card booking.
Jay worked on May’s arm until May fought her off and hit a John Woo dropkick for a nearfall. Jay sent May into the corner and hit a spin kick but May came back by raining down fists on Jay. This isn’t as hard to follow as the time Orange Cassidy wrestled Isiah Kassidy, but it’s close. May hit the Mariah-Go-Round sidewalk slam for a nearfall.
After a commercial, Jay evaded a corner charge before getting into a strike battle with May. Jay fired up, hitting a Dangerous Jay kick and a John Woo dropkick of her own for a nearfall. Jay took May down with a side suplex for a nearfall. Jay locked on the Queen Slayer choke, but May bit her arm and hit a pair of suplexes for a nearfall.
May hit a hanging DDT for a nearfall. May took Jay off the top rope with a headscissors and hit a running knee, but Jay evaded the Storm Zero and got into a pinning predicament. Jay caught May in a flash pin to score the upset win and a future World Title match. The title match was quickly made official for the November 2nd Collision in Philadelphia.
