Champion Lists So Far

[Mozenrath]

I was thinking, it's been about 5 years since the beginning of AEW, so, even if the titles all came later, what are your thoughts on the people who have held the title belts so far?

This isn't to say "how good was their reign", though if you want to, you can. I am just kind of taking it as an assessment of the wrestler in general, since otherwise, there'd really be nothing to say about Samoa Joe, for instance.

Additionally, let's keep this to AEW titles specifically, so not ROH, TNA, NJPW, or NWA titles that have been defended in AEW, etc, and the title needs to have had at least 3 champions, which I think just eliminates the Continental belt, women's tag tournament medals, and the Owens, if you want to call those latter ones titles, as well. I guess this also applies to the diamond ring, for that matter.

Anyway, I feel comfortable saying that the AEW title has been protected pretty well, if we're just talking about who has held it. I cannot point to anyone and say, "What is THAT guy doing on the list?", even for ones like Punk that I do not care for.

In addition, the tag titles have people who for sure should have won it by now, but I am actually pretty okay with everyone who has won it. Sure, the Gunns were kind of green for it when they got it, but they wear "former champion" well, and have grown a lot since then, so I don't feel like they drag it down. Still really bullshit Uno/Stu, PnP, and Best Friends haven't had it, and in the case of PnP, never will. Uno and Stu may make up yet, but I doubt Santana and Ortiz will do the same anytime soon.

The women, too. Saraya is maybe the weakest name, but even for her, I don't mind. It felt like a bit of a celebration of her having beaten retirement, and even if she's not what she once was, I do think she stepped it up a bit in her brief time as champion. Again, like the tag belts, there are absolutely names I want to see win the title, or feel like could have already. Looking extra at you, Emi, but Willow and Yuka definitely need it, too, sometime.

As for the TBS, of the three we've had, they're a solid list. Maki Itoh would be a great choice to add on to that, I feel, and I could see Skye Blue doing the honors if they're trying to play the long game with her and Julia Hart right now.

TNT is... chaos, but I don't mind that, generally. It's a bit like the NEVER title from NJPW in that regard, not known for long reigns, though exceptions exist.

The 6-Men titles feel underutilized, honestly, much as like the Acclaimed. I'd like to see some more names on the list.

Lastly, the International title. It's been OC's success story, but Moxley, Pac, and Rey Fenix are solid names. Please, though, move it to someone else soon. I feel like Cassidy's already done everything in his first reign, so this feels like a bit of a filler reign by comparison.

[Cry Me a Wiggle]

I was thinking with the end of MJF’s reign how the only real blemish on the title so far is the chaos that surrounded both of Punk’s reigns. The only interim period, the only absurdly short reigns, the only vacancy. Aside from Punk, it’s been mostly flawless and a well-protected World title.

[Chiral]

Men's World
Highs: Omega's title reign, parts of MJF's reign, Hangman's win and some of his defenses, Moxley's win I really liked
Lows: CM Punk, parts of MJF's reign

TNT
Highs: I liked Darby's second reign where he defended it against a bunch of different competitors, and right now Christian has done absurd work rehabbing this one, it feels like it's one of the most important belts going rn (though that may be my E&C stan-ness giving me rose colored glasses here), Brodie squashing Cody and destroying his belt
Lows: A bunch of the title reigns are stinkers

World Tag
Highs: Bucks reign dragged but it felt so huge, especially the Lucha Bros. match
Lows: FTR's longass reign this year was not fun, as were times when they just forget about it

International
Highs: Orange's first reign is one of my fav title reigns
Lows: Nobody's fault really but the Mox and Fenix injury runs damaged the belt a bit I think. It feels kind of unimportant rn

6 Man Tag
Highs: Death Triangle vs. Elite series, Acclaimed's win
Lows: Kind of gets forgotten, I feel like the ROH 6 man gets more screentime the last few months

Women's World
Highs: I remember liking Riho's reign a lot, Shida's had some good reigns, Nyla ❤️
Lows: Britt's reign went on FOREVERRRRRRRRR, the belt gets forgotten a fair bit it feels like

TBS
Highs: Current Julia run, Statlander run
Lows: Jade


Overall it seems like the belts, for me at least, veer between feeling like the most important thing in wrestling to lukewarm and back fairly regularly.

[kingoftheindies]

Following what Chiral did.

World

High-The story for Hangman winning the belt and his reign
Low-Punk's injuries/suspensions and AEW just kind of stalling creatively with the belt

TNT
High-Christian being around the title has done insane rehab.
Low-Can I just say 2022? Honestly Everything from Sammy's feud with ATT, to Scorpio winning the belt, to them not knowing what to do with Wadlow the belt took a LONG time be rehabbed.

Tag Titles
High-I'll say Jurassic Express's reign. Legit so many bangers. Shout out to the Acclaimed Rising too.
Low-FTR's title run in 2023. Legit some of the best tag matches you'll see, but with AEW at the time doing the "Wrestler's Champion" angle with the International, TNT, and TBS titles and with so many teams not working Collision it just felt like a boring reign that was really only interesting when they funny enough were feuding with the Ass Boys.

International
High-OC's first reign.
Low-Everything since, Injuries to Fenix and Mox played a part as the whole idea was supposed to be OC getting the big win vs Mox to regain the belt. Since then title has been a bit in limbo

Trios
High-Elite vs HoB for the title. Just a fun trios match.
Low-Title has been forgotten a bit, not sure what was going on there, but the Acclaimed being back should help on tv.

Womens
High-Jayme Hayter's rise to the title. Unfortunate that the injury was more serious than anticipated
Low- Thunder Rosa's title reign. Loved her title win, but she was banged up even when she won, which led to her just being absent for long stretches and just a very boring title reign.

TBS
High-Statlander Reign/rise of Julia Hart. Like what both have done for the title.
Low-Jade. I still maintain that when people look back, they're gonna find that Jade had more good matches than given credit, but truth be told, the title went LONG stretches with being forgotten, and seems much more important since she dropped the belt.

[Bo Rida]

I think only Ricky and Billy were bad choices. On paper everyone else is fine, just circumstances or execution made them poor champions.

SCU were a bad choice for inaugural champions though.
I'm also not sure why you'd pick Scorpio as tnt champion with such a stacked roster but even he's not bad, just underwhelming.

The Gunns will seem better on paper as time goes on, they already do.

Finally it's probably an unpopular opinion but I don't think Statlander should have been near the tnt title on her return. She should have been slowly building for a shot at the world title. I think it set her and the belt back. Julia feels more like what a tbs champion should be. Willow or maybe Skye Blue should have beat Jade months before.

[Some Guy]

Jan 8, 2024 4:48:38 GMT -5 Bo Rida said:

I think only Ricky and Billy were bad choices. On paper everyone else is fine, just circumstances or execution made them poor champions.

SCU were a bad choice for inaugural champions though.
I'm also not sure why you'd pick Scorpio as tnt champion with such a stacked roster but even he's not bad, just underwhelming.

The Gunns will seem better on paper as time goes on, they already do.

Finally it's probably an unpopular opinion but I don't think Statlander should have been near the tnt title on her return. She should have been slowly building for a shot at the world title. I think it set her and the belt back. Julia feels more like what a tbs champion should be. Willow or maybe Skye Blue should have beat Jade months before.

I don't know if it has ever been mentioned or anything but it really feels like the initial champs were meant to be Luchasaurus/Jungle Boy until Luchasaurus (I think it was?) got hurt. SCU really seemed like a backup plan and their reign was...not great. For highs though...

Men's world
Highs: Mox's weekly matches during his reign, Punk and Hangman's initial wins along with Hangman's feud with Danielson, most of Kenny's reign
Lows: MJF's reign besides the brief Ricky feud and the Danielson match/some of the Cole stuff I genuinely despised and soured me hard on MJF, the utter disaster around Punk's reigns I suppose also

TNT:
Highs: Christian's reign, Darby/Joe feud, Cody/Brodie stuff
Lows: Most of 2022 but the Sammy/Scorpio feud was unbelievably dire and it went on SO long

World Tag:
Highs: As good as the Hangman/Kenny vs Bucks match was, I'd still go for the scene around the time Swerve In Our Glory was involved. They were so good as a team and man I miss the fire they brought to the division
Lows: The Gunns title win just completely zapped the tag title division's momentum and it's almost a year later/it's still not back

International:
Highs: OC's initial reign capping off with the incredible Mox/OC match at All Out
Lows: OC's reign right now as it just feels kind of aimless, and OC should be shooting for more rather than just back to where he was

Trios:
Highs: Probably the initial push for it and the House of Black initial win
Lows: the endless House of Black/Acclaimed feud as they had NO chemistry yet kept doing crappy matches repeatedly, and the current reign where Acclaimed matches are booked like mediocre midcard house show matches

Women's World:
Highs: Jamie Hayter's reign match quality in general and the idea behind Rosa's reign (defending it in Japan/on every show, making it a big deal)
Lows: Britt's reign booking and more or less everything they've done to the title since Hayter lost it as I don't feel like there's been much of a push for match quality anymore and they rushed the title onto Toni SO fast in this gimmick (nothing against the gimmick, but I don't think Toni should be champion right now)

TBS:
Highs: Statlander's win/her initial defenses and the match quality out of it
Lows: the booking of Jade during her reign where she faced very few people of consequence due to Tony refusing to take off training wheels

[Dub H]

Jan 8, 2024 0:56:38 GMT -5 kingoftheindies said:

Following what Chiral did.

World

High-The story for Hangman winning the belt and his reign
Low-Punk's injuries/suspensions and AEW just kind of stalling creatively with the belt

TNT
High-Christian being around the title has done insane rehab.
Low-Can I just say 2022? Honestly Everything from Sammy's feud with ATT, to Scorpio winning the belt, to them not knowing what to do with Wadlow the belt took a LONG time be rehabbed.

Tag Titles
High-I'll say Jurassic Express's reign. Legit so many bangers. Shout out to the Acclaimed Rising too.
Low-FTR's title run in 2023. Legit some of the best tag matches you'll see, but with AEW at the time doing the "Wrestler's Champion" angle with the International, TNT, and TBS titles and with so many teams not working Collision it just felt like a boring reign that was really only interesting when they funny enough were feuding with the Ass Boys.

International
High-OC's first reign.
Low-Everything since, Injuries to Fenix and Mox played a part as the whole idea was supposed to be OC getting the big win vs Mox to regain the belt. Since then title has been a bit in limbo

Trios
High-Elite vs HoB for the title. Just a fun trios match.
Low-Title has been forgotten a bit, not sure what was going on there, but the Acclaimed being back should help on tv.

Womens
High-Jayme Hayter's rise to the title. Unfortunate that the injury was more serious than anticipated
Low- Thunder Rosa's title reign. Loved her title win, but she was banged up even when she won, which led to her just being absent for long stretches and just a very boring title reign.

TBS
High-Statlander Reign/rise of Julia Hart. Like what both have done for the title.
Low-Jade. I still maintain that when people look back, they're gonna find that Jade had more good matches than given credit, but truth be told, the title went LONG stretches with being forgotten, and seems much more important since she dropped the belt.

Generally I agree with pretty much everything but I would switch the trios title the high being the Best Of 7.