AEW had a monster of a Thursday at SDCC. First, their “Rise Inside the Ring and Beyond” panel got crashed by Mercedes Moné as she came in to throw even more gasoline on the fire that Britt Baker started at Forbidden Door, leading Tony Khan to confirm their match at All In at Wembley Stadium on August 25th. Second, they announced a new AEW comic coming from DC Comics (which had been announced some time ago but now got cover reveals highlighted on the wrestlers’ social media pages). And third, the forbidden door was opened once more for a one-of-a-kind tournament that saw AEW stars taking on Adult Swim characters in tag team matches.
The tournament would result in the crowning of the first-ever “Battle for the Booty” championship belts.
The card included Johnny TV and Taya Valkyrie vs. Fang (Primal) and Meatwad (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) followed by Orange Cassidy and Willow Nightingale vs. Rachel (YOLO) and Mr. Frog (Smiling Friends). The winners of the first two matches would face off in a third match for the titles.
Fang and Meatwad put on a show to start off the night. The constantly kissing duo of Johnny TV and Taya arrogantly underestimated the Adult Swim creatures and nearly got their asses handed to them. Meatwad in particular won the crowd over by bumping and splashing Johnny TV all over the ring. Taya, unfortunately, came to the rescue. And while Fang had her moments, it wasn’t enough to give Team Adult Swim the win. The crowd, though, showed them a lot of love, chanting Meatwad’s name all throughout the match.
Cassidy and Nightingale also had a hard time putting their Adult Swim opponents down, where an already-halfway drunk Rachel came out with two beer bottles in hand while Mr. Frog came out with murderous energy. Cassidy and Nightingale, the crowd favorites, were visibly weirded out by Mr. Frog. The match spent quite a while outside of ring, with Frog and Rachel chasing Cassidy and Nightingale all around the barricades before finally taking the action inside. At one point, Rachel tried for a splash off the top rope only to momentarily lose consciousness and fall sideways because of how liquored up she was. That’s where Cassidy and Nightingale recovered and put Team Adult Swim down for another AEW win, securing an AEW matchup for the grand finale.
The Johnny TV and Taya vs. Cassidy and Nightingale match was quick and explosive, resulting in a victory for the Cassidy/Nightingale ticket. As the winners celebrated their Battle for the Booty championship win, Johnny TV and Taya decided to sour their moment with a vicious attack. What made it special was the interference from Frog and Rachel, who came in to join in the beatdown of the new champs alongside Johnny TV and Taya (who kissed some more).
And then, arriving in the nick of time for the rescue, Swole Rick and Swole Summer came out to a roaring crowd. They cleared the ring of sore losers and helped Cassidy and Nightingale fight back. Bad guys lost, good guys won, Rachel’s beers were shared amongst them, and AEW reigned supreme.
AEW needs to do more of this at conventions, though perhaps not always with cartoon characters as the novelty can wear off. Still, having wrestling matches in cons just feels right. It’s a space filled with fans that want to make unique convention memories they can then tell everyone about. This was certainly in ample supply for those in attendance.
The AEW stars were great sports and did their jobs selling the matchups. Fans were happy and their energy essentially let SDCC know that should this happen again next year, they’ll be there for it. Even Tony Khan made an appearance to thank the audience. It was a great night to be a fan of wrestling at a comics convention.
Here are a couple more images from the night:
Stay tuned for more SDCC ’24 coverage from The Beat.
