AEW Battle of the Belts X Review - April 13, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

FTW Champion Hook def. Shane Taylor

Hook has had a few matches as of late against Shane Taylor Promotions alongside Chris Jerico, so it was logical to give Taylor a shot at his (pointless) title shot. I appreciated that it wasn't a squash like a majority of Hook's matches are and that Taylor was able to score plenty of offense before eating defeat. This was good stuff to start the special. Chris Jericho was nowhere to be seen and I'm not complaining.

AEW International Champion Roderick Strong def. Rocky Romero

Romero is obviously very talented, but considering he isn't a full-time member of the AEW roster, it's difficult to take him seriously as a threat to any of the titles. The AEW International Championship was no exception, but to their credit, they had a quality contest. Kyle O'Reilly attempted to stop The Undisputed Kingdom from attacking Romero afterward only to get attacked himself, so Strong vs. O'Reilly for the International title is official for Dynasty.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Red Velvet

Velvet has done so little (specifically in AEW, I'm not counting Ring of Honor) since returning from her latest injury that she didn't feel like a credible challenger to the championship, but it didn't matter who the opponent was because I'm just glad we got a rare Athena appearance on AEW programming. Hopefully this isn't the last we see of her on AEW TV for the next year. This was a very enjoyable main event and one of the better bouts I've seen Velvet have.

Overall Show

I always forget that Battle of the Belts is a thing until it's announced, and as meaningless as these quarterly specials are, this installment was actually entertaining. No, none of the championships changed hands (when do they ever on Battle of the Belts?), but all three matches delivered, the hour flew by and we got a significant storyline development with Undisputed Kingdom turning on O'Reilly. That's a thumbs-up show in my book.

SEE MORE: Battle of the Belts Reviews