AEW Battle of the Belts XI Review - July 27, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm def. Taya Valkyrie in an AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Match

Storm vs. Mariah May for the AEW Women's World Championship is obviously already set for All In, so there was no way Valkyrie was winning here, but they had a quality contest in the time they were allotted. Storm cut a passionate promo afterward that the crowd was really into. I like that Storm is basically the same character she was as a heel except she's embracing the audience now.

CMLL World Women's Champion Willow Nightingale def. Deonna Purrazzo in a CMLL World Women's Championship Eliminator Match

Doing one eliminator match on a Battle of the Belts show is odd enough, so did we really need a second one for a title a majority of the AEW audience probably doesn't care about? I know Nightingale is having an eliminator against Kris Statlander on Wednesday's Dynamite, but this felt rather unnecessary. On the bright side, they had a good match, even with the predictable outcome. Valkyrie attempted to help Purrazzo again (much like she did against Thunder Rosa recently on Collision), but Rosa thwarted her interference.

Dustin Rhodes and The Von Erichs def. The Undiputed Kingdom (Roderick Strong and ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) to Win the Vacant ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship

I've said this several times before, but I love the trio of Rhodes and The Von Erichs. It gives Rhodes something significant to do for the first time in a while and The Von Erichs will benefit from Rhodes' experience. I really thought Undisputed Kingdom would win here, but I'm happy to have been wrong. Undisputed Kingdom has been a flop and they have the ROH World Tag Team Championship as it is. This was an enjoyable main event and the crowd gave the babyfaces a great reaction for taking the titles.

Overall Show

These Battle of the Belts specials have been meaningless since AEW starting doing them over two years ago and that hasn't changed whatsoever. We've reached a point where we're getting eliminator matches on a show that was originally intended to just feature title matches. With all of that said, this was a decent show with three solid matches and new ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions being crowned at the end.

SEE MORE: Battle of the Belts Reviews