1 Up & 5 Downs From AEW Battle Of The Belts VI

AEW absolutely phones it in again; "The Elite" shows up at Battle Of The Belts.

ROH Tag-Team Titles AEW
AEW

As the summary line says, AEW has become too comfortable with phoning in these Battle Of The Belts "specials". Indeed, there's rarely anything worthy of the "special" tag at all on these cards, and Friday's offering might've been the limpest one yet since BOTB debuted in January 2022.

Sure, Tony Khan has some pretty big fish to fry and has been busy cutting deals to bring All Elite to the UK for a massive Wembley Stadium show this summer, but...it isn't much to ask that Battle Of The Belts feels bigger than it does. Where-oh-where are AEW's top prizes on these things?

They're conspicuous by their absence.

The sixth BOTB featured an International Title exhibition, a lacklustre TBS Title showdown, and The Lucha Bros defending their ROH Tag-Team Titles against a thrown-together duo who haven't been properly fleshed out yet. In other words, it was as throwaway as you're likely to get.

TK better not be hoping to pop a big rating for either Rampage or Battle Of The Belts. If he's shocked by low numbers, then someone needs to have a word and suggest maybe giving fans a reason to be excited in the first place.

Let's dig in...

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.