3 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Battle Of The Belts IV

These Battle Of The Belts specials badly need that AEW World Title on them.

By Jamie Kennedy /

AEW

Announcers Excalibur, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone and even guests like Chris Jericho and Ricky Starks referred to AEW's twin Rampage/Battle Of The Belts IV presentation as must-see fare. All five men (in various ways) tried to tart up the truth that this was a glorified two-hour edition of the Friday night weekly.

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Is that a huge negative? Nah, not really, but let's not pretend that Battle Of The Belts has ever been high on Tony Khan's list of booking priorities. In fact, as shown in this fourth installment, the All Elite boss views these specials as a necessary evil he just has to get through before moving on with Dynamite.

They're not unwatchable, in fairness. However, there is something to be said for sticking the AEW World Title on at least one of these f'n things so fans tuning in start to view them as a bigger deal on the calendar. If not, then they'll be less Clash Of The Champions and more WWE's revived Saturday Night's Main Event.

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AEW put on an All-Atlantic, TBS and ROH Tag-Team Title trio for you during the second hour of Friday's back-to-back offering. Here's all the good and bad from a show that actually did more to motor some stories forward than Rampage.

First though, a question...

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