Technical difficulties ruin the end of women’s title match at AEW Battle of the Belts VII

AEW’s Battle of the Belts has become something of a laughingstock since its inception, or at the very least a skippable show that doesn’t typically feature important matches or title changes.

Tonight’s (July 15) Battle of the Belts VII in Calgary started out much in the same manner. AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy vs. Lance Archer opened the show with a very bad count out finish that AEW commentators actually tried to shine as a historical achievement for being the first count out in the history of Battle of the Belts.

AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm vs. Taya Valkyrie was up next, and that’s when technical difficulties plagued the event on both TNT and FITE. The broadcast suddenly went dark in the middle of the fight, with the AEW logo visible in the corner of the black screen.

The show cut to commercial, before eventually returning on TNT with footage that appeared to be from last week’s Collision match of Julia Hart vs. Bambi Hall.

The Battle of the Belts live broadcast then returned, with the commentators apologizing for satellite issues that were caused by severe weather in the area. The finish of the women’s match wasn’t mentioned, and the broadcast continued on to Martha Hart’s presentation of the Owen Hart trophies to Willow Nightingale and Ricky Starks.

Battle of the Belts VII then finished up with Shawn Spears in a main event TNT title match and losing against Luchasaurus. That capped off yet another Battle of the Belts event with zero title changes.

To AEW’s credit, they did make sure to end the broadcast by showing footage of the closing seconds of the women’s match, with Storm retaining the title over Valkyrie.