Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including a million weekend shows: UFC’s Saturday PPV, Sakura Genesis with multiple new champions, AEW Rampage and Battle of the Belts, Smackdown, news and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Sabu recovering from medical emergency
01:15: UFC 287 recap
32:50: More on AEW at Wembley Stadium
38:49: NJPW Sakura Genesis recap, other NJPW notes
1:04:20: AEW Rampage and AEW Battle of the Belts VI recaps
AEW has revealed the full lineup for Friday’s live Battle of the Belts VI special.
As announced during Wednesday’s Dynamite, The Lucha Bros will defend their Ring of Honor Tag Team titles against TNT Champion Powerhouse Hobbs & QT Marshall. The Lucha Bros won the vacant ROH Tag titles in the Reach for the Sky ladder match at last week’s Supercard of Honor pay-per-view.
Also announced, Jade Cargill will defend her TBS Championship against Billie Starkz. Cargill remains undefeated in her AEW career, while Starkz is 0-6 in AEW competition and 1-1 in ROH matches.
The AEW International title will also be on the line, as Orange Cassidy defends his Championship against Dralistico.
Friday’s Battle of the Belts VI will air live on TNT immediately following Rampage.
The announced card:
Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship: The Lucha Bros defend against Powerhouse Hobbs & QT Marshall
TBS Championship: Jade Cargill defends against Billie Starkz
AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy defends against Dralistico
AEW will be presenting two hours of live wrestling on January 6.
The TNT schedule lists that AEW Battle of the Belts V will air after the Friday, January 6 episode of Rampage. Rampage will air in its regular 10-11 p.m. Eastern time slot, with Battle of the Belts then airing from 11 p.m. to midnight.
That’s also the same format that Battle of the Belts IV followed when it took place this October.
The January 6 Rampage and Battle of the Belts V will be AEW’s Portland, Oregon debut. The Veterans Memorial Coliseum is hosting the show.
Battle of the Belts debuted as a quarterly special in January of this year. The specials were held in January, April, August, and October.
The most recent Battle of the Belts event featured three title matches. The AEW All-Atlantic Championship, TBS Championship, and ROH Tag Team titles were all on the line.
There haven’t been any matches announced for Battle of the Belts V yet.
AEW saw ratings drops for its live two-hour programming block on Friday night.
– Friday’s episode of Rampage averaged 404,000 viewers on TNT, down 14.4 percent from the previous week. It’s the lowest audience for the show since July 29.
Rampage had strong competition from an MLB wildcard round playoff game on ESPN as well as the usual college football on FS1.
The show finished 20th on the cable charts with a 0.13 rating in the 18-49 demo. That’s down 18.8 percent from the previous week and is Rampage’s lowest rating in that category since August 26.
Rampage’s ratings were even or down in every single demo. The biggest decline came with women 18-49, which dropped 33.3 percent to a 0.08 rating. That’s Rampage’s lowest number in that category since June 17.
As compared with the same week in 2021, Rampage was down 19.5 percent in overall viewers and down 23.5 percent in 18-49.
– Battle of the Belts IV, which immediately followed Rampage on TNT, averaged 317,000 viewers. It finished 37th on the cable charts with a 0.10 rating in 18-49. The viewership total and 18-49 rating are both the lowest numbers AEW has drawn of the four Battle of the Belts specials that have aired thus far. Two weeks ago, Rampage in the same time slot averaged 486,000 viewers and did a 0.16 in the demo for a taped show.
The charts below show the last 11 weeks of Rampage ratings and the ratings for AEW’s four Battle of the Belts specials. It’s notable the previous Battle of the Belts aired in prime time on Saturday as opposed to late night on Friday.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back to try to make heads or tails of 1000 SHOWS THIS WEEKEND — WWE Extreme Rules, Smackdown, Battle of the Belts, Rampage, Bound for Glory, Mox vs. Gage, more on Moxley re-signing, any other news we can think of and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Bray Wyatt returns at Extreme Rules, show recap
26:57: Jon Moxley loses to Nick Gage, re-signs with AEW
33:00: Impact Bound for Glory rundown
35:00: NJPW Declaration of Power card rundown
38:28: SmackDown, Rampage, Battle of the Belts thoughts
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including Nick Gage vs. Moxley this weekend and the sticky situation they found themselves in, AEW Rampage, Battle of the Belts, Smackdown, Bound for Glory, Extreme Rules, A FUCKING MAGIC SHOW, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
AEW Battle of the Belts IV will air live immediately following next Friday’s Rampage, according to Dave Meltzer.
The goal is to make both Rampage and Battle of the Belts IV feel like a major two-hour show. According to TNT’s schedule, Rampage will begin at 10 PM Eastern per usual with Battle of the Belts IV airing afterward.
The previous three Battle of the Belts shows aired on Saturdays with the first event broadcast live and the following two taped the night before.
The event will emanate from the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., and will be the first of several Rampage events in October to be filmed separately from that week’s edition of Dynamite.
The October 14 edition of Rampage will be taped on Thursday, August 13 from Toronto’s Coca-Cola Coliseum. On October 21, Rampage will air live from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Rampage on October 28 will then air live from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Saturday night’s AEW Battle of the Belts III averaged 437,000 viewers on TNT, down 17.1 percent from the previous edition of the special back in April. It’s the lowest viewership of the three Battle of the Belts events to date.
In the 18-49 demo, Battle of the Belts finished 12th in the cable rankings on Saturday with a 0.12 rating. That’s down 33.3 percent from Battle of the Belts II and is less than half the rating the first Battle of the Belts show in January did.
The previous chart rankings were 10th for the first Battle of the Belts and 11th for the second, so — relative to the competition — these numbers are relatively stable.
The audience retention from the previous night’s AEW Rampage, which aired on the same station, was 93.4 percent of total viewers and 80 percent in the key demo.
As with other Battle of the Belts shows, Saturday’s edition featured three title matches, headlined by an ROH World Championship match between Claudio Castagnoli and Konosuke Takeshita.
Listed below are the overall viewership, 18-49 demo ratings, and chart placings for all three Battle of the Belts specials on TNT to date.
Saturday night’s AEW Battle of the Belts II averaged 527,000 viewers on TNT, down 25.1 percent from the first Battle of the Belts that took place in January of this year.
The show finished 10th on the cable charts with a 0.18 rating in the 18-49 demo. The rating was down 33.3 percent from January’s Battle of the Belts. The first Battle of the Belts had finished 11th on the charts against tough competition, including the final week of the NFL regular season.
Battle of the Belts II had significant competition in the form of two NBA playoff games. A playoff game on ESPN averaged 3.6 million viewers overall and topped the cable charts with a 1.25 rating in 18-49. A separate game on ABC averaged 4.5 million viewers, also running directly opposite Battle of the Belts, and drew a 1.33 rating in the demo.
The UFC also had an event on ESPN, but only the first few minutes of the broadcast aired head-to-head with Battle of the Belts. The UFC show averaged 914,000 viewers and finished fifth on cable with a 0.31 rating in 18-49.
As a comparison point, two recent editions of Dynamite aired in the same time slot during the month of October and averaged 651,000 viewers.
Battle of the Belts finished 11th on cable in the 18-49 demo with a 0.27 rating. That’s slightly up from the 0.25 rating that Dynamite had averaged on Saturday nights in October.
Battle of the Belts had much stronger competition as, for the first time, AEW programming aired head-to-head with the NFL. The football game was broadcast on both ABC and ESPN and averaged more than 20 million viewers between the two networks.
In comparing the individual demos to the recent 10-week averages of Rampage, which airs on Friday nights and is also an hour long, Battle of the Belts did better across all categories but particularly with women. Battle of the Belts was up 61.5 percent in women 18-49 and up 55.6 percent in females 12-34. Males in those categories were only up 17.2 percent and 25 percent respectively.
Battle of the Belts was the first of AEW’s quarterly specials on TNT. It featured matches for the AEW Women’s Championship, the interim TNT title, and the FTW title.
Cody Rhodes will defend the TNT title against Sammy Guevara at Battle of the Belts this weekend.
AEW’s Twitter confirmed the match this afternoon. It will be a rematch of their bout from the Christmas episode of Rampage, where Rhodes defeated Guevara to win the championship for a third time.
During the break on last week’s Dynamite, Guevara issued a challenge to Cody using cue cards. Cody most recently defended the title on the episode of Rampage that aired this past Friday, where he defeated Ethan Page to retain the title.
Also announced for Battle of the Belts is an AEW Women’s Championship match, with Britt Baker defending against Riho. Their feud dates back to November, with Riho winning a Black Friday Deal match where if she defeated Baker, she would get a future title match.
Battle of the Belts will take place this Saturday, January 8, at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Not every AEW championship title will be defended at Battle of the Belts.
Tony Khan confirmed on Culture State that not every championship will be on the line for the special Saturday show, which will take place January 8 at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“No, it’s a one hour show,” he confirmed. “It’s a one hour event, so I can’t put every belt on the line. It’s a great chance on a Saturday night to expand the reach of AEW by giving the fans great championship matches, which is a night that we know people love watching wrestling, that you can build an audience, especially for a big event. So, there’s going to be big championship matches, I’m very excited about it.”
One championship match has already been announced for the show. Britt Baker will defend the AEW Women’s Championship against Riho, who defeated Baker on AEW Rampage last month in a Black Friday Deal match to become the number one contender.
AEW has confirmed their Battle of the Belts special event for Saturday, January 8.
The company confirmed tonight during Dynamite that the show will air live on TNT from the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tickets will go on sale this Saturday, November 27 at 10 am ET. No matches were announced for the card.
Earlier this month, Tony Khan confirmed reports that the Battle of the Belts special for January 8 was happening. It was not mentioned on Dynamite tonight how long the special would be.
The special comes as Dynamite is set to move to TBS on January 5, while Rampage will remain on TNT. The name Battle of the Belts comes from a series of supercards held by Eddie Graham’s territory in Florida from 1985 through 1987.
AEW’s next special, Winter is Coming, will be a Dynamite event held in Garland, Texas on December 15.
