u/tvcneverdie

This bit simply doesn't work without the years of character equity PAC built up as The Bastard, and the weeks he'd spent staring daggers at Ospreay.

Plus looking back now, knowing he was right that Ospreay would never truly be one of them, adds so much depth to the overall story in the contrast of how giddy Mox was to bring Will into the group.

IMO, the last time every official belt in the company felt properly important and got attention was when they only had 4 titles, in summer 2021.

At that point the titles were:

- Men's World Championship: Kenny Omega

- Women's World Championship: Britt Baker

- Tag Team Championship: Young Bucks

- TNT Championship: Miro

Even before adding more titles, AEW sometimes struggled with keeping one of them relevant. A belt might end up on someone underwhelming, or it might just get lost in the shuffle of the booking. And that became, at times, exacerbated when they added more titles over the years.

But now with double the belts the lineup is damn near pristine.

- Men's World Championship: Will Ospreay

- International Championship: Kazuchika Okada

- Continental Championship: Jon Moxley

- TNT Championship: Darby Allin

- National Championship: Andrade

- Men's Tag Team Championship: Cope & Cage

- World Trios Championship: Swerve & New Level

- Women's World Championship: Mercedes Moné

- TBS Championship: Persephone

- Women's Tag Team Championship: Brawling Birds

Aside from having all the titles carried by stars and elite wrestlers, they each get attention and the champions are part of focused programs.

The only two belts without direct implications on All Out still have creatively satisfying presence on the PPV.

Darby & Steven Borden have been at war with the DCF for two months now, so of course they're gonna try to stop ProtoJet from becoming tag title contenders. And that war has had the TNT title as its centerpiece, going from Kevin Knight to Darby. But despite all this, Darby is still defending the belt nearly every week, having had killer matches against Mark Davis and Myron Reed this month. And this comes only 3 months removed from Darby having perhaps the best World Championship reign in company history, so it's very prestigious being around his waist.

The Continental belt isn't being defended only because Ospreay preemptively went to Tony Khan and asked for the Moxley match after Wembley, so it took that off the table for the PPV. Despite that, Mox has been working eliminators every show to see if someone is up for a title shot. Not to mention Mox is the ace, so it's always gonna be important when he holds a belt.

Persephone and Maya World was obviously the plan as the TBS title match for Saturday, but understandably had to be postponed due to Maya rushing into emergency surgery last week. Instead of just killing the program, they kept Maya in our minds through Hyan and Persephone's promos. And now Perse will have an open challenge Saturday that's probably going to see a buzzy debut.

Mercedes isn't cleared with the busted nose, but they've made sure her world championship still has a major presence on the PPV with a #1 contenders match between two red hot stars and the last champions before Mercedes.

But what's most noticeable is how hot the tag titles and the trios titles feel now.

The tag title match doesn't even need much said about it... It's a dream stipulation match between 3 legendary, generation-defininig teams. This is a high profile match harkening back to early 2020 when it felt like the tag belts were the most important championships defended on the show.

Then you get to the trios and... this is honestly the first time the trios belts have been treated very seriously since ~2023. It began with a franchise cornerstone in Hangman jumping fully into the division. He partners with one of the best make-shift tag teams of this decade in Brodido, a beloved act on their own. But then follows the greatest villain/lover of his life in Swerve Strickland, who partners with one of the greatest tag teams in history, The New Level. And around them annoying both groups, we've had The Demand who absolutely crush it every week on TV.

Even the theoretically lowest and newest belt in AEW, the National Championship, is held by Andrade, who's likely to be world champion at some point in the next year, and is being defended in a faction war against a long-time rival. And there's a case to be made that Andrade is the best in-ring worker in the world right now.

tl;dr - all the titles matter and are held by strong champions right now

It won't last forever because nothing in wrestling ever does, but I'll enjoy it as long as I can.

And there's always room for improvement. Personally, I would like them to drop 2 mens belts, and make everything beneath the world title have a unique identity with rules for defenses. As it stands, only the Continental belt does, and I don't even think that should be a belt... would rather a trophy.

But going into the PPV tonight, AEW is in a really good spot with the world championships feeling like "the grandest prize in the sport" while all the other titles still feel significant.

via @MLB

h/t @garrettharer on TikTok

h/t @AhmedAlKitbi on the bird app

After coming through the dojo, I took the wrong advice for 5 years. My career was going nowhere and I had nobody in my corner.

Will changed that.

He gave me a chance within his new vision. He gave me a spot in United Empire without having anything to gain from me.

He saved my career, and gave me a tribe.

When people ask me why I almost died for him, and why I will continue to do so - that is why.

This is MANA.

👑 👑 👑