Tony Khan Confirms AEW Battle of the Belts Will Be a One Hour Show
All Elite Wrestling's programming will undergo a number of changes in 2022. As confirmed back in May by WarnerMedia, AEW Dynamite will be moving from TNT to TBS (though keeping its usual 8 p.m. ET Wednesday night timeslot) starting with the Jan. 5 episode. However, AEW will continue to have a presence on TNT going forward both with AEW Rampage on Friday nights and quarterly specials (which have been compared to the NWA/WCW Clash of the Champions events of the 80s and 90s). The first of those specials will be Battle of The Belts, set to take place on Saturday, Jan. 8 at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Based on the show's name and advertising, fans assumed the show would see all of AEW's championships be defended. But Tony Khan then confirmed this week on the Culture State podcast that the show will only be one-hour long. Britt Baker vs. Riho for the AEW Women's World Championship has already been confirmed.
"It's a one-hour event, so I can't put every belt on the line," Khan said (h/t Fightful). "It's a great chance on a Saturday night to expand the reach of AEW by giving the fans great championship matches on a Saturday night, which is a night people love watching wrestling, especially for a big event. There is going to be big championship matches. I'm very excited about it,"
As for what the other matches could be, AEW has plenty of options. AEW World Champion Hangman Page and Bryan Danielson are virtually guaranteed to have a rematch after their bout at Winter is Coming ended in a 60-minute time-limit draw. Sammy Guevara and Cody Rhodes will battle over the TNT Championship on Christmas Day and it makes sense for the winner to be on the show given its an event on TNT. And between The Lucha Bros, FTR and (maybe) The Briscoes, the company could have four sets of tag team championships floating around by the start of the year.
What matches do you want to see at Battle of the Belts? Should AEW try and extend these specials out to two hours in the future? Tell us your thoughts down in the comments!
