AEW/ROH Battle of the Belts II - 4/16/2022

[(BP)]

I’d give Castle the Janela spot as the ace/gatekeeper of the Dark shows. 

[Craig H]

I strongly disagree with the notion that all of the titles need to be rebuilt. The world title is awesome with Hangman as champion. Hangman is probably having the best face top champion run in at least the last 10 years if not more. The only guy that I can think was better was right when Bryan won the title, but that was so short.

The TNT title isn’t being “hot potatoed.” It’s a title that gets far more defenses than any other title. You’re bound to see some more changes with that title with the long, dominant reign every now and then. I think the next dominant reign is either going to be Miro or Wardlow.

Jurassic Express have been excellent babyface champions that will die at the hands of the House of Black.

As for the show, it was pretty good. Sammy and Scorp was a fine Rampage main event.

I didn’t think Castle was that tall, but then again, Gresh is tiny. You could also tell Castle is all kinds of messed up. That poor dude’s back. There were so many moments where it looked like Castle couldn’t even stand up straight, but the two still put on a very good match.

Hey! This Satnam Singh may actually not suck. He looked much better and is surprisingly mobile.

Main event was fine. We have props for other people’s glow ups, but Nyla has dropped a lot of weight. She’s not gassing out in the ring and still looks physically imposing. She reminds me of a good friend of mine that got into weight lifting. Same body type and everything. So props to her too on her glow up. 

[DEAN]

TWIRLING! TWIRLING! TWIRLING! TOWARDS FREEDOM!

 

[HarryArchieGus]

2 hours ago, Big Z said:

It's most glaring any time he tried a move to the corner turnbuckle, so I would cut those out immediately. Also, do not try any leapfrog spots, as he could not exceute that with basically the shortest guy on the roster. I know that his back issues have been affecting him for awhile, but I didn't remember them to be near as dramatic during  the match with Rush at the AEW/NJPW supershow in 2019. Also, it did not help me that I could visibly see the back brace under the trunks/singlet hybrid he was wearing to try to mask that. Really wish that a healthy Dalton Castle could have gone to an AEW (and he could have also had a fun NXT run under Hunter before Vince saw him).

I think I know what you mean here, but there is probably a better example - that Rush match was 15 seconds.  Let's hope some work alongside Bad Ass Billy and the medical team can help this talented performer substantially raise his physical health.  Also, when you consider the average amount of ring time a regular AEW roster member spends, maybe if signed there's some hope for a Dalton rehabilitation.  A potentially healthy Dalton Castle has a lot of upward potential. 

On the other side of the ring, Gresham has good physical health, strength, and a terrific skillset, but for him to succeed, over any length of time, he'll need to find some of the missing elements to his 'personality' game.  Working alongside this set of AEW producers, I think there's a strong possibility he could get there.  And even if he fails in that regard, he's such a great hand.

[Peck]

TayJay - adorable

TayVara - abominable

Edited April 17, 2022 by Peck

[John from Cincinnati]

I hope Sammy and Tay suggest they go full Edge/Lita. Set up a bed in the middle of the ring and set the business back a couple decades. It's what people deserve for having such strong takes on the two of them. Lean in as hard as possible. 

[John from Cincinnati]

On 4/15/2022 at 9:09 PM, Jiji said:

If Hangman is really your homegrown star then he needs to be beating Punk and other top stars and feature regularly in important spots, not jammed in the middle of Dynamites. At least that's where we're headed with Hangmin thankfully.

There's also the case that Punk is their top star and the belt and the brand will benefit greatly from him being the champion. 

Could go either way. This is going to be by far the least predictable world title bout they've ever put on PPV, right? A huge step in the right direction. 

[Matt D]

34 minutes ago, Peck said:

TayJay - adorable

TayVara - abominable

I’m vaguely intrigued by the eventual Anna Jay vs Tay feud though.

[zendragon]

20 hours ago, The Man Known as Dan said:

 

Bright side, Dalton Castle got on TV and got to be Dalton Castle. Castle/Avalon feud into eventually becoming a tag team when?

Castle v. Avalon could be a main event anywhere in the United States! Fire Island! The Castro! West Hollywood! seriously Let Dalton Castle be reviled as the true leader of the wingmen!

[Justin877]

7 hours ago, GojiColin said:

I wonder if Dalton would be willing to do the Dustin/QT route, help train folk and wrestle a match every once in a while.  That would probably give him time to heal up some more while still being relevant.

This right here. ^

I loved the sauce out of that Dalton & Gresham match.  I thoroughly enjoyed the whole Battle of The Belts 2 special.  

[Peck]

Poor -1 is going to be devastated when Tay's turn is complete.

[A_K]

The belt definitely goes on to Punk. Last week saw viewership down YOY (despite the - expensive - additions). Tomfoolery of the slot moves from late-spring/early-summer aside, they'll be at a push increase viewership going forward at this point. 10%+ viewership off the peak of last summer on the debuts - and demonstratively he has been their biggest draw, who isn't getting nay younger. Its a growth game; retracing won't be seen as cool. They'll shake it up to avoid stalling.

Edited April 18, 2022 by A_K

[TheVileOne]

They are kind of hot potatoing the TNT title, but I think it's fine as the type of title you can hot potato now and again. I think the problem is though that Sammy Guevara stopped being likable and they had him and Tay Conti replace Cody and Brandi in an angle where fans were already turning on Cody and Brandi and was not drawing the reactions they wanted.

[HarryArchieGus]

On second viewing, I think some of this Dalton Castle injured back talk might be a bit overblown.  The running spots weren't that bad.  They look more like a bit of ring rust.  I also don't see him having difficulties standing.  I could be wrong, but I think it's simply selling.  I have no idea what his health status is, but he was bumping around here and at Supercard very well.  This was a tremendous TV debut.  Gresham too did some crowd interaction stuff that really stood out on second viewing.  Good debut for John as well.  The post match angle was fun too.  I love seeing Joe back and looking dominate.  I la-la-love even more Lethal and Dutt controlling this huge monster.  Their glee when Moriarty takes a try at Singh is devilishly funny.  Love it!  Between these TV bouts and the PPV, ROH is off to a solid start.     

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Yeah I think the deal with Castle is that he blew his back out pretty severely in the past. And it took a long time to heal. But I believe he's fully healthy now. He wears the brace as a precaution, not because it's still an ongoing issue. He may have switched up a bit of his work to compensate for it... but I think as of now he should be considered mostly healthy and just protecting himself from re-injury. Because it was almost career ending when it happened.

[Shartnado]

Who ever it was who said that Sammy's heel turn is what a lot of people thought Cody's heel turn would be, seems to be right on the money! They were leaning heavily into being total dicks, on this one. Almost making America's Top Team look like somewhat less of a dicks. Three times for Sammy, or is it 4 already?

Dalton's baby chickens look to be in a lot better shape than they were at Supercard of Honor. What is he feeding them? Oh, probably the other two baby chickens? First time actually seeing Gresham. He seemed very solid. Lethal, Dutt and the big man destroyed everything until Joe and the pipe arrived. Gresham's Cthulhu-inspired gear was bad ass! Is that a norm for him?

Nyla's warpaint was a little Umagaesqe, although the pattern was very different. Have these two met before? These two seem like a good match. A few rough spots, but a good fight, with Rosa getting the third rana attempt for the win. Now she has at least one successful defence. I really don't need Britt to regain the title any time soon.

Yeah, good program.

 

[Technico Support]

2 hours ago, Shartnado said:

Gresham's Cthulhu-inspired gear was bad ass! Is that a norm for him?

Yep.  His nickname is "The Octopus."  He's been wearing that mask for a while now.

Was it mentioned here that Gresham was apparently concussed on that ugly gutwrench throw where he landed on his shoulder and the side of his head?

[Wyld Samurai]

26 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Yep.  His nickname is "The Octopus."  He's been wearing that mask for a while now.

Was it mentioned here that Gresham was apparently concussed on that ugly gutwrench throw where he landed on his shoulder and the side of his head?

Does Gresham use the octopus hold? A big waste of his Davey Jones inspired mask if he doesn't. 

[Sammo~!]

10 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Does Gresham use the octopus hold? A big waste of his Davey Jones inspired mask if he doesn't. 

It is, in fact, one of his finishing maneuvers

[JLowe]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

Yep.  His nickname is "The Octopus."  He's been wearing that mask for a while now.

Was it mentioned here that Gresham was apparently concussed on that ugly gutwrench throw where he landed on his shoulder and the side of his head?

There were two or three ugly spots in that match where I was thinking Gresham landed wrong, so not surprised.

[BrianS81177]

A million likes for Nyla's Venom inspired gear.

I hope every "Battle of the Belts" isn't an excuse to put the TNT title on Sammy Guevara.

Am I wrong or wasn't Jade vs Shafir originally advertised for this?

Edited April 18, 2022 by BrianS81177

[Casey]

I'm pretty sure it was never advertised for Battle of the Belts. Jade might be improving, but I still wouldn't put those two in a title match together on a live show. This week's Rampage is a much better option, they can edit around anything that's super bad. It's why Marina was killing it on Dark - it's all pretaped.

[Dog]

3 hours ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Does Gresham use the octopus hold? A big waste of his Davey Jones inspired mask if he doesn't. 

He ... won with it?

The use of THREE repetition spots in this match drove me crazy. You can do either the gutwrench thing, the corner clothesline misses, OR the rolling cradles. NOT ALL THREE. Jesus Christ.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Dog

[Matt D]

2 minutes ago, Dog said:

He ... won with it?

The use of THREE repetition spots in this match drove me crazy. You can do either the gutwrench thing, the corner clothesline misses, OR the rolling cradles. NOT ALL THREE. Jesus Christ.

The corner thing kind of bugged me. After six times of that, just kick your opponent in the crotch already.

[HarryArchieGus]

I really like Dalton Castle, but repeatedly shooting that overly high clothesline is what killed the corner spot for me.  Seems like there's a lot of those high clotheslines happening lately?  Is there a proper term for a high clothesline - in this case meaning too high to connect even if the guy wasn't ducking?