AEW All-Atlantic Title Match Announced For Battle Of The Belts V

This Friday night, AEW is running back-to-back hour-long shows on TNT live from the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon: "Rampage," followed by the Battle of the Belts V special. This was the same formula used for Battle of the Belts IV in Washington, DC on October 7, a departure for  the usually pre-recorded specials. If the special feels like it's snuck up on you, that's thanks in part to no matches having been announced, until now. 

On Monday, the official AEW Twitter account tweeted the first match announcement: Orange Cassidy defending his AEW All-Atlantic Championship against Kip Sabian, a match that had been building for weeks. Most recently, last week, it was weaved into the setup for Cassidy's title defense against Best Friends stablemate Trent Beretta, as that bout was set up by Sabian demanding a shot for eliminating Cassidy from the previous week's battle royal, only for Cassidy to then point out that Beretta eliminated Sabian immediately thereafter. Sabian did commentary for the Cassidy-Beretta match on "Rampage," and though he didn't interfere, his wife, Penelope Ford, did distract Beretta en route to Cassidy getting the win.

The All-Atlantic Title has been Sabian's main storyline focus since returning from a year-plus injury layoff last summer. He underwent surgery for an arm injury in May 2021, and for months and months and, afterward, could be spotted at AEW shows with a cardboard box on his head. Sabian lost his first shot at the title at All Out 2022 in September, dropping the fall to then-champion PAC.