WRESTLING REVIEW: AEW Battle Of The Belts IV

The fourth annual Battle of The Belts was held in the cold capital of the U.S. Jade Cargill was looking to defend her 38-0 streak as well as the TBS championship against proven talent Willow Nightingale, who has seen success in the indie circuit through notable names like BCP and CCW. The oddest aesthetic to this match was the lack of support for the champion. Jade only had Kiera Hogan in tow, when she is usually supported by Gray, Red Velvet, or another one of the Baddies. And no matter what stunt Cargill pulled, the chocolate city of D.C. refused to give Jamaican Jade that push.

The lack of support didn’t have any effect on Jade’s performance though; the entire match still carried on like a squash even with Willow’s lithe movements providing an unpredictable element in a few spots. The lock up start with the exchanges of both both opponents pushing the other into the nearest turnbuckle proved the point that this win was not going to be an easy task for Cargill. Willow pulled out all the stops performing back to back cannonballs and clotheslines, while wriggling out of submission attempts and countering neckbreaker’s with suplexes, but no matter how many dives outside the ring or baseball slides she pulled off, she couldn’t slide in to a win over the undisputed champion.

Cargill played the entire match just measuring Willow. Testing the former NYWC champion. If Willow took to big a dive, Cargill made sure her opponent paid for it by smashing her face on the steps. If Willow got to close in a face off, Cargill checked her with a big boot to the midsection. And given Willow’s slow recovery time, it was only right that Cargill got a few push ups in as the twenty minute clock time ticked, because the audience came to see active athletes, not wrestlers writhing in pain from pedestrian maneuvers … Which is all what Cargill gave Willow at this years’ Battle of The Belts: Cargill didn’t really have to do much but misdirect Willow’s attacks and meet her fire with water. Willow pulled out everything in her arsenal and came up short, while all Cargill had to do offensively to end her night in victory was really just the classics that led into the plant + Jaded = another notch on the undisputed record.

It’s understandable why the D.C. crowd may have wanted more from Cargill, but to her credit, she did venture out and attempt a new submission maneuver and got a neckbreaker off. But these ventures off script were not going to get Jade her win. They may in the future, but the beauty of the potential behind Cargill is that given her athleticism, Cargill has the time to try new things in the ring, misstep, and still control the match at her own pace. So for those in DC’s Entertainment And Sports Arena who didn’t like witnessing the dominance of the champion at Battle of The Belts, well they better get used to it, because Cargill’s successes even with her lengthy record seem to only be just beginning.

Cargill deserves her push, and even though her battles still nowhere fill the allotted match time, they are noticeably lapsing as Jade’s accolades keep stretching, which is a detail that shows that Cargill recognizes that the people that pay to see her want to see her for more than the few seconds she could easily end a match in. And even though the post match shenanigans with Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero are more than below Cargill’s pay grade, Cargill stayed professional through the act of what looks to be her next opponent just begging for the axe, as Cargill is bound to add yet another head to her wall. But from gauging the crowd to entertaining the foolishness of her would be competition, the message gleaned from Battle of The Belts for wrestling heads worldwide is that as stoic and apathetic as she may seem – Cargill cares.

Score : 4/5

EW All-Atlantic Championship: PAC (c) vs. Trent Barreta; AEW TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Willow Nightingale; ROH World Tag Team Championship: FTR (c) vs. Gates Of Agony (Kaun & Toa Liona). From Washington, D.C.