AEW Battle of the Belts II: Gresham vs. Castle, Rose vs. Rosa

AEW Battle of the Belts II featured match for the ROH World Championship as Jonathan Gresham faced Dalton Castle, the TNT Championship, as Scorpio Sky faced Sammy Guevara, and Thunder Rosa making her first defence of the AEW Women’s World Championship against Nyla Rose.

Sammy Guevara entered to a chorus of boos from the audience in his home state, so I would say that the putting him with Tay Conti on TV has not helped him get over as a babyface.

Scorpio Sky (c) w/ Dan Lambert vs. Sammy Guevara w/ Tay Conti for the TNT Championship

Everything Guevara did in the early portion of this match was booed while Sky was cheered. Somehow, Dan Lambert has become the babyface in this feud. Guevara floated out of a TKO and both men exchanged chops in the middle of the ring. Sky sent Guevara into the guardrail and then slammed Guevara on the floor.

Guevara blocked an Irish whip into the stairs and hit a moonsault off them onto Sky. Sky hit a TKO on Guevara on the apron, and Sammy’s feet got caught on the ropes a little bit; that made Guevara faceplant onto the apron. That looked brutal and likely could have been far worse. Sky hit a backbreaker.

The audience chanted “one more time” asking for a third backbreaker, and Sky delivered to cheers from the crowd. Guevara did a leaping kick off the middle rope. Ethan Page came to ringside and pulled Sky to the floor to avoid a 630 from Guevara. Guevara pivoted on the rope and hit a shooting star press to the floor on both men as they argued with Tay Conti.

Guevara went for a springboard cutter, but lost his footing a little bit on the top rope so he fell short, but still crashed into Sky. Dan Lambert and Ethan Page called out Paige Van Zant and she immediately started brawling with Conti on the floor. As the referee was distracted from this, Guevara low-blowed Scorpio Sky and hit the GTH for the pinfall.

Result: Sammy Guevara

Rating: ***1/2

Solid match from Sky and Guevara, though the crowd reaction to Guevara and Conti basically turned them heel and Sky babyface. It seems, with the ending of the match, they were leaning into it a bit more here, as that had to be a heel turn. Tony Schiavone said he was fighting fire with fire, but how arrogant and cocky he and Tay Conti were after sure seemed to indicate a turn of sorts. If they are babyface the next time we see them, then I’ll be baffled.

The Boys have made their return to Dalton Castle’s side, which brings the full Dalton Castle experience to AEW.

Jonathan Gresham (c) vs. Dalton Castle w/ The Boys for the ROH World Championship

The Code of Honor was kept before the match, as both men shook hands. Castle did a bunch of gutwrenches on Gresham before hitting a gutwrench suplex, which got a nice reaction from the audience. Castle missed a corner charge and then exchanged some attempts to hit each other as they hit the ropes, ending with Gresham hitting a springboard hurricanrana.

Gresham faked out Castle with a dropkick attempt and then kicked him in the shin. Gresham worked over Castle with technical wrestling, including grinding his fist into Castle’s ribs when he took him down. Gresham went for a dive to the floor, but Castle moved. Gresham tried to throw Castle in the ring, but he floated around into a hurricanrana on the floor.

Castle and Gresham went for chops but kept ducking until Castle hit two back suplexes on Gresham. Castle caught Gresham as he went off the middle rope and went for the Bangarang, but Gresham rolled into a pin, and they started to exchange nearfalls. Castle nailed Gresham with a lariat, but missed a corner charge, which Gresham took as a chance to get the Octopus hold on Castle, starting standing and pulling him to the mat to finally tap him out.

Result: Jonathan Gresham

Rating: ****

Excellent pro wrestling match between two world-class level wrestlers. Castle and Gresham had a chance to show a bit of what ROH was all about to the AEW audience, and I’m really glad they’re being highlighted on AEW TV until the future of ROH is made clearer.

Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, and Satnam Singh came to ringside and Singh chokeslammed both of the Boys on the floor and took out Castle. As Singh entered the ring, Lethal came in from behind and hit the Lethal Injection on Gresham. Singh grabbed Gresham by the throat and slammed him back down to the mat repeatedly like he was a child.

Lee Moriarty ran down to make the save but got taken out. Matt Sydal came in and hit Singh with his crutch, which Singh no sold, grabbed and broke over his knee. Samoa Joe’s music hit and Joe came down with his title in one hand and steel pipe in the other and chased Singh, Lethal, and Dutt off. Singh wanted to get in and fight Joe, but Dutt and Lethal managed to talk him down. Joe and Gresham posed with the ROH Television and ROH World Championships in the middle of the ring to a great cheer from the crowd.

Thunder Rosa (C) vs. Nyla Rose for the AEW Women’s World Championship

Rose immediately attacked Thunder Rosa, hitting strikes against the guardrail on the floor. Rosa sent Rose into the ring post before hitting a bulldog on the floor. Rosa returned the favour of strikes against the guardrail before bringing Rose back into the ring. Rosa hit a big missile dropkick from the top rope, but Rose kicked out at 1.

Rosa hit a series of kicks to the back and hit a sliding d lariat on Rose. Rose overpowered Rosa with stomps and strikes. Rosa low bridged Nyla and went for a hurricanrana on the floor, but Rose was not caught with it. Rose caught Rosa and hit a powerbomb on the apron. Rose suplexed Rosa on the floor.

Rosa slowly fired up with strikes and blows to stagger Rose before hitting a stunner and double knees in the corner. Rosa hit a dropkick in the corner and another against the bottom rope that sent Rose to the floor. Rosa hit another dropkick that sent Rose crashing to the floor. Rosa went for a corkscrew splash to the floor on Rose and nailed it. Rose came back in the ring and went for the top rope guillotine legdrop as Rosa was draped across the top rope, but Rosa dodged.

Rosa countered a powerbomb into a code red for a 2-count. Rose popped right up with a clothesline and a chokeslam. Rose went for a splash, but Rosa got the feet up, though slightly late, so it was a slight botch. Rose hit a lariat and a jackhammer for a 2-count. Rose went for a senton on the apron, but Rosa moved out of the way. Rose nailed Thunder Rosa with a World’s Strongest Slam. After an exchange of pinfall attempts, Rosa managed to hit a hurricanrana on Rose for the pinfall.

Result: Thunder Rosa

Rating: ***3/4

Really good match between Thunder Rosa and Nyla Rose here. The crowd really got into the near falls and Rosa was very over as a babyface. Nyla Rose proved to be a convincing foil, and the match only got better as it went on.

Show Rating: ***

This was a very fun hour of wrestling, but outside of the news of Guevara winning the TNT Championship and the developing of more of the Dutt, Lethal, and Singh feud with Gresham, Samoa Joe, and now Lee Moriarty, it was largely missable.

We shall see if this was a heel turn for Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti, but it should have been. All the heat Cody and Brandi had seems to have been transferred to Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti, so it would be a good thing if AEW rolled with it and turned them heel to try and capitalize on the heat they get.