We wrestling fans spend a lot of time yapping about titles. Don’t get me wrong: I love yapping. The number of titles in All Elite Wrestling is especially a big topic. Usually, it seems like people think AEW has too many titles. Now, I’m not sure that I agree entirely, but it’s definitely worth thinking about. So let’s pick one and see if we can justify its existence.
How about the AEW Continental Championship? After all, it’s Continental Classic season and this fairly new belt is up for grabs. Does the Continental title really deserve its spot?
First let’s talk about another question: what’s the #2 men’s singles title in the company? Obviously, #1 is the AEW World Championship. Each of the other AEW men’s singles belts has some claim at being #2.
- TNT Championship: The TNT title is the Cody title, and for a long time, it was the default #2.
- International Championship: The International title was elevated in almost every way, being started as the All-Atlantic Championship until the reign of Orange Cassidy when it got a new name and a new design. PAC was the initial champ and is a star wrestler, so when I say that Cassidy elevated the belt, I don’t mean that he was a higher caliber of star. What I mean is that whatever you think of Cassidy’s reign, the makeover of the title seems to show it took a step up in importance.
- Continental Championship: The Continental title is associated with the Continental Classic, which is presumed to be AEW’s version of the G1 Climax tournament (though I’ll talk about this later). Plus, it is currently held by wrestling megastar Kazuchika Okada and is probably most associated with him at this point.
If you were to go by the names of the titles, I would say that the International title is the #2 title. I won’t bore you with my little rankings of title names but “International” seems to imply a larger population than “Continental”, so it seems more important.
The best way to determine which belt is more important is, in my opinion, to look at who these titles are being defended against. If a title is being defended against bigger stars, it’s a more important title. So let’s go over the challengers (and champions) that each title has had since the end of last year’s Continental Classic:
- TNT Championship: Christian Cage (champion after World’s End 2023) – Dustin Rhodes, Daniel Garcia, Adam Copeland (wins); Matt Cardona, Penta El Zero Miedo, Buddy Matthews, Brody King, Kyle O’Reilly, Malakai Black, Dante Martin, El Phantasmo, Konosuke Takeshita, Lio Rush, Mark Briscoe, Jack Perry (wins); Marko Stunt, Darby Allin, Lio Rush, Christopher Daniels, Minoru Suzuki, Katsuyori Shibata, Action Andretti, Daniel Garcia (wins)
- International Championship: Orange Cassidy (champ after World’s End 2023) – Dante Martin, Preston Vance, Komander, Tomohiro Ishii, RevPro scramble match (Khai, Webster, Holliday, Samuels, Irie, Trivet), Nick Wayne, Roderick Strong (wins); Kyle O’Reilly, Will Ospreay (wins); Kyle O’Reilly, Rey Fenix, Brian Cage, Daniel Garcia, MJF (wins); Templario, Michael Oku, Will Ospreay (wins); PAC, Ricochet, Konosuke Takeshita (wins); Josh Alexander, TJP, Ricochet
- Continental Championship: Eddie Kingston (champ after World’s End 2023) – Trent Beretta, Wheeler Yuta, Gabe Kidd, Bryan Danielson, Kazuchika Okada (wins); PAC, Dax Harwood, Claudio Castagnoli, Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, Bryan Danielson (wins, title retained), Kyle O’Reilly
- World Championship: Samoa Joe (champ after World’s End 2023) – Hook, Adam Page, Swerve Strickland, Wardlow, Swerve Strickland (wins); Claudio Castagnoli, Christian Cage, Roderick Strong, Will Ospreay, Bryan Danielson (wins); Jack Perry, Kazuchika Okada, Jon Moxley (wins); Orange Cassidy
I think that if we look at this history, the TNT title is clearly slotted below the other belts as most of its challengers are not the top wrestlers in the company (as far as card position). The World title challengers show us who is at the top of the card (with a few outliers). The Continental and International titles have similar challenger bases but the International title seems to reach further down the card. Now, that might be a consequence of Orange Cassidy’s International title reign where he had an I’ll-fight-anyone mentality, whereas Okada is and was a heel who could be limiting defenses (in kayfabe).
Regardless, the challengers do give us a picture of how the card is set up. What I think we’re looking at here is three titles for two different challenger groups. The AEW World Championship is obviously for the main eventers. Then the three other belts are competing for challengers from semi-main eventers (aka upper midcarders) and midcarders.
So we still have to make a decision, don’t we? Which is the second-most important title?
Well, maybe the rules around the belts can give us an idea. There’s nothing special about the International and TNT titles in this respect: they use typical AEW rules. The Continental Championship has two differences, though. #1, it is associated with the Continental Classic, and the winner of the tournament presumably will always become the Continental Champion in its current incarnation. #2, it is always competed for under Continental Classic rules: 20 minute time limit and no one else is allowed at ringside (i.e. no managers, seconds, etc.).
Similar titles with alternate rules have existed for a long time. In recent memory, we can compare this to TNA’s X-Division Championship and ROH’s Pure Championship in that way. However, for most of the time each was in their companies, these titles were also default #2 titles. So can we say that differing rules historically make a title more important? I don’t think so, not conclusively. Still, the rules do make the Continental title stand out to some degree from the other belts, which is worth noting.
When I first started thinking about this question, I felt like I would conclude that the International title was the #2 belt in AEW, beating out the Continental title for longevity. For the reasons I’ve laid out, though, I have to rank them like this: World, Continental, International, TNT. That said, I don’t think this is the most effective possible lineup, primarily because there are in fact too many: this is four titles for three challenger bases. Despite being the #2 title, I don’t think the Continental title is different enough to justify it intruding on the order like it is. Without this title, there would be one belt for each of the groups. For another important reason as well, I’m not sure that keeping the Continental belt is the best path forward.
Before that, though, I want to explore how we could make space for the Continental Championship if it were to stick around.
I think two paths would get the most out of it.
The first is the most obvious: “open up” a lower rung of competitors to a title. As it is now, the heavy cross-over of challengers shows that two groups (semi-mains and midcarders) are well-represented, and no one is really being left out. The only place to get challengers who are currently not in any title pictures is to go further down. Obviously, this has its own problems – namely, who cares who the champion of the jobbers is – but it would technically make sense to do, if you see what I’m saying.
The second possibility is to elevate the Continental Championship. As I said, I think the challengers for a title really show how high a title’s level is, so elevating the title would mean giving it higher-profile matches. Now, this creates a different sort of clutter as the main event would then have two championships to fight over. I think in the main event, though, this could be a productive tension. It could create a rivalry that could be built off of, a way to continue top programs without necessarily running the opponents against one another every month. It would certainly be tricky to maintain this kind of balance but I think there is a potential to drive interest rather than simply creating confusion.
Neither of these is a very clean solution, I realize that. I’m laying them out to be complete more than anything. I think the obvious solution is to get rid of one of the titles. And I feel strongly that, both to “clean up” the division and for other reasons, the Continental Championship should be the one to go.
I hope I’ve already explained why removing a title would reduce confusion about the pecking order in the men’s singles division. I have two other justifications. Firstly, look: AEW is in a wrestling war. It is directly competing with WWE and directly being compared to them. And it is just a bit of a bad look to be promoting a Continental Championship when your opposition has been promoting an Intercontinental Championship for longer than your company has existed. “International” feels more prestigious than “Intercontinental” just as a name, whereas “Continental” feels less prestigious than both.
Maybe that’s a dumb reason.
A better reason is that I think the Continental Championship really hamstrings the Continental Classic, especially as the title is now. For its first two years, despite its branding, the Continental Classic has been a tournament for semi-main eventers. It is not a main event tournament. In the first year, yes, it had Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson, but those were the only top line stars (at the time). MJF has not taken part in either year. Neither has Hangman Page, neither has Kenny Omega (I know he’s hurt). Swerve Strickland is not in this year, after breaking out as a major star. Obviously, these guys are wanted to have non-tournament matches, but that’s exactly the point: the top of the card is not in the Continental Classic.
Compare that to the G1 Climax in New Japan which the world champion enters almost every year; off the top of my head, I cannot recall a time when they didn’t, certainly not in the last 15 or so years. All the biggest stars are in the tournament. The promotion completely revolves around the tournament while it’s going on.
All of that is a big part of why the G1 Climax is the fucking G1 Climax. And right now, the Continental Classic is not that. The Continental Classic is a nice TV gimmick. It is not a top line tournament. And as long as the Continental Championship is attached to it, it will never become a top line tournament, for this reason: the World champion cannot be expected to enter and win a tournament like that.
Could you have the World champion enter and become the Continental champion as well? Obviously yes, you can do anything. But is it likely? I don’t think so. Right now, I think the existence of the Continental Championship is going to encourage booking the tournament as a launchpad for future stars rather than as a showcase of current stars. If that’s what it is, it is by definition not a best-of-the-best tournament.
If the idea for the Continental Classic is to actually be AEW’s answer to the G1 Climax, then the World champion has to enter the tournament, along with all the top challengers. That means that the prize cannot be just a secondary championship to be defended. There are only three prizes that will work: a shot at the world title, the world title itself, or just the tournament victory. Maybe you can make a tournament belt work if you successfully run two main event titles at once. The tournament can’t be for a lower title, though, or you don’t have the American counterpart of the G1, you just have a G1 knockoff.
The Continental Championship isn’t a bad title and I think we got at least one great moment out of it with the Eddie Kingston win and “American Triple Crown” run. However, I don’t think there’s any particularly good reason for the title to exist, and there are reasons for it not to exist. Even if you were dead set on having four men’s singles titles under the AEW banner, I think it’d be better to scrap the Continental Championship and establish something new which is not locked to a yearly event so closely.
And if you absolutely must keep the belt, at least, as a personal favor to me, spend money on a redesign. It’s pretty embarrassing to have what looks like a clipart crown from page 1 of Google Image Search as the centerpiece of what you’re telling people is a big deal title.
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