What Should Count as a 'World Title'?

[LiamMcDuggle]

A bit of a dialogue going on about the definition of this on the AEW board.

For me, I think the company needs to have a national TV deal and being a top 5-10 TV cable show on TV on a regular basis.


Average viewers is a tough metric, as a million viewers 20 years ago means a lot less than a million viewers now. TNA actually did better on TV than AEW, but their attendance and PPV buys show they were not really that popular. They just happened to exist in a time where cable was still kinda prominent. I don't even think Spike TV offered a online way to watch Impact, whereas AEW offers many mediums where you can watch Dynamite online. So you can't really compare their TV numbers.

I would still put TNA ahead of ROH, but it would technically be at the same level as ECW on TNN. ROH only really existed in syndication and would get better TV slots in certain markets. In Seattle, it would come on at either 1am on Friday or like 2pm on a Saturday. 

More than willing to hear everyone else's definition of this. 

[J. Hova]

If Matt Cardona has held it, it isn't a world title.

[GodzillaIsMyMonster]

Sept 13, 2022 19:19:05 GMT -5 J. Hova said:

If Matt Cardona has held it, it isn't a world title.

Couldn't disagree more.

[Hit Girl]

If it's won in a bingo hall, it's not a world title.

[tafkaga]

If it has a globe on it or the word 'World'.

[chazraps]

1) Has it been defended against opponents from around the world?
2) Has it been defended on another country's soil?
3) Has matches where it's been defended been viewable by a media platform in another country?

If the answer to all three is yes, it's a world title.

[Mozenrath]

Controversial, maybe, but you don't lose world title status, really, at least, not exactly. The NWA title is still a world title, for instance.

That said, the controlling body can demote one, like the NXT title was treated as a world title for a time, and just does not seem to be one anymore. Not me devaluing it, but they do not appear to treat it as one.

[CMWaters]

Sept 14, 2022 10:32:07 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

If it's won in a bingo hall, it's not a world title.

So even if it was defended in Japan at one point in its life, you don't consider the ECW Championship ever being a World Title?

For the record of when, first one I found by quick search was the ECW/FMW Supershow in December of 1998 when "The Franchise" Shane Douglas defended against Gedo.

[Chuck Conry]

The ECW title was defended in Japan, had highly credible challengers for the most part, and ECW was on national television with TNN and had a toy deal. I think it counts.

[GodzillaIsMyMonster]

Honestly, and I don't mean this as an insult or anything, but who cares?

Like, if some Indy in backwoods Virginia,that draws the same 15 people every week wants to call thier title a World Title and claim its the most pretigious belt in Wrestling? Ok. Good.

Like people get hung up on this. And I don't know why?

[Bo Rida]

Sept 21, 2022 0:12:34 GMT -5 chazraps said:

1) Has it been defended against opponents from around the world?
2) Has it been defended on another country's soil?
3) Has matches where it's been defended been viewable by a media platform in another country?

If the answer to all three is yes, it's a world title.

An interesting thing with that type of criteria is that some companies now have international championships designed to be defended abroad while their top title stays at home. I believe the aew world title wouldn't qualify but the all Atlantic would but that's not how they're presented.

I don't think there's an easy answer these days. It's more what are the most prestigious titles at any given time. At the moment I'd say the two in WWE, aew and njpw are top tier and it gets complicated after that. Also gets complicated at what point they change, plenty of titles would have been in the top tier at some point, NWA, ajpw, ghc, wcw titles etc. Or where NXT fits into things.

[Mozenrath]

Honestly, even if the title has not yet been defended internationally, I think it counts if you have international challengers, like Hiroshi Tanahashi competing to become the interim champion. Kinda accomplishes the same thing.

[Macho Pichu]

By the definition that it must be defended in multiple countries, the AEW world title isn't a world title. It has yet to be defended outside the US.

[67 more]

I think it's purely on how important you feel it was. World titles are purely subjective and only you can decide, however they must be "sanctioned" so shit like the FTW title obviously doesn't count. I also don't accept that world titles can lose their status

My own personal list:

In the U.S.
WWE title
Universal title
WHC
NXT title (but still not sure on this one)
WCW title
WCW International title (it was literally being called the World Heavyweight title at its inception)
ECW title (WWE and ECW)
AWA title
NWA title
Impact title (but not the 2021 TNA title that Moose held, it was only made a sanctioned title to be unified)
ROH title
AEW title

In Japan:
IWGP title (not the IGF version)
AJPW Triple Crown title
GHC title

In Mexico:
AAA Mega title
CMLL title

[Slingshot Suplay]

In my opinion, it should be a belt that's defended against all comers in and outside of their respective companies. That's why the nwa and awa belts were considered more of a world title in the 80s than the Vince McMahon era wwf title.

Currently we've seen aew, nwa, aaa, new Japan, even impact defend their title in different countries and companies, so I'd consider them world champions. Wwe, while they travel globally, doesn't defend against any other company, so I'd consider them more of a company champion than a world champion.

[GodzillaIsMyMonster]

Sept 22, 2022 11:43:10 GMT -5 Slingshot Suplay said:

In my opinion, it should be a belt that's defended against all comers in and outside of their respective companies. That's why the nwa and awa belts were considered more of a world title in the 80s than the Vince McMahon era wwf title.

Currently we've seen aew, nwa, aaa, new Japan, even impact defend their title in different countries and companies, so I'd consider them world champions. Wwe, while they travel globally, doesn't defend against any other company, so I'd consider them more of a company champion than a world champion.

I respect your opinion, but I'd argue that the WWE World title is the most prestigious title in all of pro wrestling. 

[Mozenrath]

Yeah, I'd say that, worldwide, the WWE title is the biggest deal. Even places where WWE has less market saturation, like Japan, the name still carries weight. When he was in NJPW, for example, Cody was paid better than the Young Bucks, despite them having been there longer and heavily featured. I think he may have even made as much or more than Kenny. Jericho was paid about 100 thousand dollars per match, though that was also on the strength of his pumping their subscription numbers.

In the US, AEW's world title is unquestionably the second title. (The WWE and Universal titles have been unified for a while now, so, that's not really a factor worth considering for the time being.)