WarnerMedia confirmed earlier this year that while AEW Dynamite will be officially moving from TNT to TBS beginning in January, the young wrestling promotion will continue to have a presence on its original network via four supercard events spread throughout the year. Andrew Zarian of The Mat Men Podcast then reported on Monday that the first of those specials is being penciled in for Jan. 8, and that one of the possible names for the show will be “Battle of the Belts.” Longtime wrestling fans will likely recognize that name as a classic National Wrestling Alliance/Championship Wrestling from Florida event from 1985-87.ย
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In an interview with ComicBook earlier this year, Cody Rhodes confirmed the supercards will be viewed along the same lines as Clash of the Champions (WCW/Jim Crockett Promotions) and Saturday Night’s Main Event (WWF). AEW obviously can’t use those names because WWE owns the trademarks.ย
“I mean, in wrestling, you take these things and they become these old comparables, and you use them as examples,” Rhodes said. “But with All Elite Wrestling, it’s been really hard, because everything we do is perhaps rooted in a piece of history, but then it’s a spin, and then it becomes its entirely own thing, has its own identity. But yeah, I would definitely look at Clash of the Champions as something. And then Saturday Night’s Main Event as well, as what these are. They’d be super events, type events where the titles are on the line, where big stories converge. But that being said, we don’t save anything. That old kind of passe, ‘Oh, save it for the pay-per-view.’ Well, we only do four pay-per-views a year, and what people are watching and our biggest audience is on TNT and it will become TBS. It’s very hard to think of stuff to save, but we have such a roster. There’s so many matches that haven’t been touched on. Those four specials will be very special indeed, in-house and arena, and on TNT. I think it’ll be a whole new ball game for wrestling fans.”
News broke back in September that, despite what WarnerMedia initially announced, AEW Rampage will not be making the jump to TBS alongside Dynamite.ย
AEW returns to pay-per-view on Nov. 13 with the Full Gear event in Minneapolis. Check out the updated lineup for the show below:
- AEW World Championship: Kenny Omega vs. “Hangman” Adam Page
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Dr. Britt Baker vs. Tay Conti
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: The Lucha Brothers vs. FTR
- AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament Final: Jon Moxley/Orange Cassidy vs. Bryan Danielsonย
- Darby Allin vs. MJF
- The Inner Circle vs. Men of The Year & American Top Team (Minneapolis Street Fight)
