During the June 8th, 2022 edition of AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan announced the company added a new championship belt to the fold. However, it was not the championship everyone expected it would be in the Trios Titles. More on that another time. Instead, AEW introduced the All-Atlantic Championship. It is just another title that is being added to an already crowded roster.
Here is a better look at the brand new #AEW All-Atlantic Championship crafted by #RedLeatherBelts that was shown for the first time on TONIGHT’s LIVE #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/CbxuzufXld
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) June 9, 2022
AEW Making Titles Meaningless
Ever since the inception of AEW, Tony Khan stated the importance of championships and how he wanted to make them special. Originally it was just the AEW World Title, AEW Tag Team Titles, and the AEW Women’s Championship. The company added the TNT Championship at Double or Nothing 2020, with now-departed Cody Rhodes being the inaugural champion.
As documented here on this site and the first site to mention it, the TNT Championship was diminished with Cody winning for the third time. Not to mention, the title was constantly changing between him, Scorpio Sky and Sammy Guevara. Hopefully, AEW can get that title back to its original standing when guys like Miro, Brodie Lee (RIP), and Darby Allin held the belt.
When those guys held the title, there was nothing but open challenges. New wrestlers were appearing on the show, who have become an afterthought. With a crowded roster as it is and Tony Khan buying Ring of Honor, there seems to be already enough championship belts on AEW television. But wait, we are adding another title.
Around Full Press Coverage
AEW: CM Punk Winning AEW World Title Was The Right Decision
WWE: Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns Is The Perfect Time To Make One Champion
AEW: AEW Dynamite Top Five Moments From TNT Era
NFL: PfgVIBE’s 2021 NFL Predictions: Team and Individual Picks
NHL: 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Conference Final Preview
PODCAST: Crossbody of Work Episode 87: Mickie James
It is great to have a vision and plan for the guys in your company, but AEW is starting to lose something that made it stand out from WWE. The fact that the titles were not meaningless.
As previously mentioned it all started when Cody could not make Battle of Belts, and the company advertised a TNT Championship. I understand not letting your fans down, but when Sammy just lost the title, to only win it back and unify titles in a ladder match, there was no need for an interim champion. The same thing goes for when Mercedes Martinez won the interim ROH women’s title because Deonna Purrazzo had a conflict and could not make the show. They had a unification match a few weeks later. It may be good on paper, but not executed well.
Heck, during Hangman Adam Page’s run at AEW World Champion, that championship took a backseat at times. Again, with AEW not liking the idea of champions relinquishing their championship, AEW created the Interim AEW World Championship until CM Punk returns from injury. Personally, he should have just dropped the title and won it back when he was ready. But that is for another time.
Reason Behind The New Title
While the concept of a new title makes sense, and it does look very nice, was it necessary now? Looking at the roster, it is a loaded one for sure. The rankings matter, but a lot of those matches happen on Dark Elevation. With the new All-Atlantic Championship, which has a Japanese and Chinese Flag on it, they don’t border the Atlantic, there will be a four-way match to determine the winner at Forbidden Door at the end of June. There are four qualifying matches to set up the four-way match. Pac is already through. This title is made for Miro to win, now that he is back. But it would be interesting to see how these other guys hold the titles.
Now introducing right now may have been an audible called by the company with the injuries to Punk and Scorpio Sky. And that would make sense since right now Sky can’t defend the TNT title and they want a title on TV. But this title feels more important than the TNT championship. It feels like now the TNT title is the TV title and All-Atlantic could be equivalent to the Intercontinental title. Let’s hope that is the case.
Again this is all speculation. But the timing of this new title seems odd.
Less Is More
Again less is more when it comes to AEW. It has been a proven formula. When Dynamite does well in the ratings, there is not a lot going on. Now we have another title that has to be defended not only on TV but on a PPV. Just look at the last PPV for AEW which was Double or Nothing. The TBS Championship, which is held by Jade Cargill, a very worthy champion, was randomly just thrown on the show. It was not a good match at all. It was a TV match at best. The same thing will happen with this championship. Sometimes there is no build. And they have to get these titles on major shows now.
There is not enough time on Dynamite or Rampage to do this. And these championships in AEW won’t be relegated to AEW Dark or Dark Elevation. If anything, the All-Atlantic Championship can be defended on Dynamite, while the TNT Championship can be defended on Rampage.
Just look at the old NXT, when it was run by Triple H. Originally just three championships. They added the North American title later on. They had guaranteed four great title matches plus one other on their shows. Not to say these matches won’t be good, they will be, but in order for this title to succeed, they must have it stand out. Maybe they will, but can’t dilute the waters.
AEW had something special going with having championships mean something, they can’t turn them into jokes, especially if this company wants to be taken seriously as an alternative.
