AEW’s Battle of the Belts has been something of a laugh since its inception, or at least a skippable show that doesn’t usually feature significant matches or title changes.
Tonight (July 15th) the Battle of the Seven Belts in Calgary started the same way. AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy vs. Lance Archer opened the show with a finish so bad that AEW commentators already tried to shine it as a historic achievement for being the first count in Battle of the Belts history.
AEW World Women’s Champion Toni Storm vs. Taya Valkyrie was next up, and that’s when technical difficulties hit the event on both TNT and FITE. Suddenly the broadcast went dark in the middle of a fight, with the AEW logo appearing in the corner of the black screen.
The show was cut into a commercial, before eventually returning on TNT with footage that appeared to be from last week’s Collision match of Julia Hart vs. Bambi Hall.
Then the live broadcast of the battle for the belts returned, with the commentators apologizing for the satellite problems caused by the bad weather in the region. The end of the women’s match was not mentioned, and the broadcast continued until Martha Hart showed Owen Hart awards to Willow Nightingale and Ricky Starks.
Battle of the Belts VII ended with Shawn Spears in a main title match for the TNT title losing to Luchasaurus. This culminated in another Battle of the Belts event without any title changes.
To AEW’s credit, they made sure to end the broadcast by showing footage of the final seconds of the women’s match, with Storm retaining the title over Valkyrie.
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