AEW has to change Battle of the Belts card due to ‘medical protocol’

AEW’s first ever Battle of the Belts event is scheduled to take place tomorrow night (Sat., Jan. 8). The one hour show airs on TNT at 8 pm ET from the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, and there are two advertised matches on the card. Britt Baker is supposed to defend the AEW women’s world championship against Riho, and Cody Rhodes is supposed to defend the TNT title against former champ Sammy Guevara.

The reason I’m using the phrase “supposed to” is because AEW has announced via Twitter that the card has to be changed due to “medical protocol.” The specific change will be revealed on tonight’s episode of Rampage.

It seems very likely that the Battle of the Belts change is related to the highly infectious nature of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the extreme increase in positive cases in the United States that is expected to continue throughout January, at a minimum.

For what it’s worth, Riho and Baker wrestled in a tag team match at Wednesday’s (Jan. 5) taping this week, and that match will air on Rampage tonight. Cody Rhodes and Sammy Guevara did not wrestle on AEW’s Jan. 5 taping. They received the video package treatment on Dynamite as the final hype for their scheduled bout at Battle of the Belts.