Thus far, the AEW Battle of Belts specials have aired on Saturday nights. That’s about to change in early October, and for good reason.
As hinted at by AEW’s advertising for tickets for next week’s shows and confirmed by Wrestling Observer, AEW Battle of the Belts IV will air after Rampage on TNT on Friday, Oct. 7. That means it will start at 11 p.m. ET and go for an hour, which was also the length of the first three specials.
WWE is holding its Extreme Rules premium live event the next night in Philadelphia, which is likely the cause of the change in nights. AEW also aired two hours of wrestling last Friday, Sept. 23, as part of a special AEW Rampage Grand Slam special episode.
Rampage and Battle of the Belts IV will also air live, which hasn’t always been the case for either show. Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole week is that AEW is also airing Dynamite live from the same venue, the Entertainment and Sports Arena (that’s seriously its name) in Washington D.C., two days prior. It’s asking a lot for fans to attend two shows two nights apart, though AEW has done it before (often in the lead-up to a pay-per-view, like when it spent the whole week in Las Vegas culminating in Double or Nothing) and is offering combo ticket deals to those interested in going Wednesday and Friday.
No matches have been announced yet for Battle of the Belts IV, but that should change during this week’s AEW programming. All three previous specials have featured three title matches apiece, always including the AEW Women’s World Championship (meaning Toni Storm should be preparing to wrestle) but interestingly never including the AEW World Championship.