AEW Battle of the Belts II Review - April 16, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sammy Guevara def. Scorpio Sky to Win the AEW TNT Championship

I haven't been able to get into this feud at all as of late, largely because Guevara and Tay Conti have been super unlikable as characters and Dan Lambert's alliance with Men of the Year ran its course a while ago. This was a pretty good match, but I can't say I'm thrilled that Guevara is now a three-time champion. That said, Guevara hitting Sky with a low blow made it clear that the couple is turning heel and that is absolutely for the best.

ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham def. Dalton Castle

The last Battle of the Belts special had an FTW Championship defense on it, so an ROH World Championship defense is a definite upgrade. It made perfect sense with AEW now owning Ring of Honor and it was really cool to see Castle and Gresham get the exposure they have long deserved. They had a really nice, well-wrestled match that the crowd was into for the most part. Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh showed up afterward to lay everyone out (including Lee Moriarty and Matt Sydal) before Samoa Joe made the save to a big pop. Joe and Gresham posing with their titles was a cool visual.

AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa def. Nyla Rose

For as little as I cared about this match going in, they delivered a solid main event. Rosa is obviously very over with the audience and Rose has improved over the years. I never doubted that they'd work well together, but the predictable outcome did hinder it for me. I fear that we haven't seen the last of these two against each other since Rosa didn't win decisively. On a side note, props to Rose on the badass face paint.

Overall Show

Personally, the ROH title match and the angle afterward were the best parts of this special to me, but all in all, it was an enjoyable special. It didn't help that it was taped on Friday and that we already had an AEW World Championship match on Rampage, but from an in-ring standpoint, I can't complain. Plus, the TNT title changing hands for the umpteenth time was newsworthy, I suppose. Nothing you need to go out of your way to see here, but it was a fun way to kill an hour.

SEE MORE: Battle of the Belts Reviews