Many years ago (crazy to think that I’m now able to say that when referring to the mid-2010s), both Jason Felix and former Shake Them Ropes co-host Rob McCarron published articles on Voices of Wrestling detailing the history of the linear WWE Championship. The idea of linear championships in wrestling have always been fascinating to me (it’s something that I’ve just found to be super fun to keep track of), and since the last update on McCarron’s article in 2015, so much has changed in the world of professional wrestling.
The biggest change was easily the formation of All Elite Wrestling back in 2019, and with 2025 marking the seventh year of the company’s existence, it got me thinking….what exactly is the history of the AEW Linear World Championship?
Before I dive into all of that history, I should probably talk about how a linear championship in pro wrestling works, and the specific rules/guidelines surrounding them (and all of these are taken right from Rob McCarron’s article on the WWE Linear Championship).
To boil it down to basics, the main rules you need to know are that a linear championship can only change hands in one-on-one matches (any stipulations, such as a Ladder Match, a Steel Cage Match, so on and so forth do not matter as long as it’s a one-on-one bout) and that the linear championship is on the line every time the champion wrestles in a one-on-one match, regardless of what promotion the match takes place in (this obviously opens the door for linear championships to end up going down some really wacky paths). Another important rule is that the linear championship must be defended by the champion at least once every 365 Days (this will actually be VERY important as I get deeper into this article). If someone goes a full year without the defending title (whether that be due to injury, retirement, etc.), then the linear championship simply resets to whoever the actual champion is at that given time. When the title is being defended in a normal, one-on-one match (with no other stipulations), then standard wrestling rules apply. The title can change hands via pinfall, submission, or by referee stoppage, while DQ’s or Count Outs do not count as a title change.
McCarron’s original article never specifically mentioned the possibility of time limit draws, but since the champion typically retains in those cases, that rule will also apply here.
With all of that out of the way, let’s dive into the story of the AEW Linear World Championship!
The First Three Years
The inaugural AEW World Champion was crowned on August 31st, 2019 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois at AEW’s second ever PPV event, All Out (almost a year after the famous All In show that was one of the key factors that led to AEW’s formation). In the main event, Chris Jericho defeated “Hangman” Adam Page to become the first AEW World Champion. Thus, Chris Jericho was the first AEW World Champion. During this inaugural reign, Jericho would defend the linear title four times in AEW (including a ten minute time limit draw against Jungle Boy) and one time in New Japan (against Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 14). He would then lose the AEW Linear World Title to Jon Moxley on February 29th, 2020 at the first-ever AEW Revolution PPV in Chicago proper.
Much like Jericho’s title run, Moxley’s reign as the AEW Linear World Champion pretty much mirrored his actual AEW World Title reign. He would defend the title throughout the heart of the COVID-19 Pandemic, on AEW PPV, AEW Dynamite, and even once or twice on AEW Dark. He even had one defense in GCW, as he defeated Chris Dickinson at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 3. Moxley’s long run with the AEW Linear World Title would come to an end at the hands of Kenny Omega on the Winter Is Coming Dynamite on December 2nd, 2020.
Kenny Omega’s reign as the AEW Linear World Champion continued the trend of the previous two reigns, in that it pretty much mirrored Omega’s actual AEW World Title run. Omega would defend the title numerous times on AEW programming from the end of 2020 all the way through the Summer of 2021. He would be the first person to defend the AEW Linear World Title in multiple promotions during the same reign, as he had one title defense against Laredo Kid (his first title defense since beating Moxley) in AAA and in Impact against the likes of Rich Swann, Moose, and Sami Callihan. August of 2021 would see the very first time that the lineage of the Linear World Championship deviated from the actual history of the AEW World Title. Christian Cage would defeat Kenny Omega on the debut episode of AEW Rampage on August 13th, 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to become the new champion. While Christian would have one title defense against Brian Myers in Impact, his run as the AEW Linear World Champion would be a very short one, as he dropped the title back to Kenny Omega on September 5th, 2021 at AEW All Out.
While Omega did become the first person to be a multiple time AEW Linear World Champion, this second reign was much shorter than his first. His only title defenses were a time limit draw with Bryan Danielson and a win over Alan Angels before he lost the title to “Hangman” Adam Page on November 13th, 2021 at Full Gear. Page’s title reign (like the others that came before it, aside from Christian Cage) continued the trend of the actual AEW World Title being pretty much in lock step with the linear version of the title. He would defend it seven times (against the likes of Bryan Danielson, Lance Archer, and Adam Cole, among others) between the Fall of 2021 and the Spring of 2022.
The Second Chapter (aka CM Punk Ruins Everything)
Adam Page’s run as the AEW Linear World Champion would come to an end at the hands of CM Punk on May 29th, 2022 at the Double Or Nothing PPV in Las Vegas. Of course, we all know what happened here. Punk suffered a foot injury on the post-Double Or Nothing Dynamite in Los Angeles, and that led to the creation of the Interim AEW World Champion, which Jon Moxley would end up winning. However, that whole interim title mess had no bearing on the Linear AEW World Title lineage, since Punk (per the rules stated above) still had a full year to defend the title at least once. Well, as we all know, Punk would make his return several weeks later to kick off his (brief) feud with Jon Moxley. On the August 24th, 2022 edition of Dynamite, Moxley would (in very definitive fashion) win the Linear AEW World Title from Punk in addition to unifying the Interim World Title with the actual World Title. Unfortunately for Moxley, this second reign would end similarly to Christian Cage’s reign, as the person he beat for the linear title would win it back just a few weeks later.
CM Punk winning back the Linear AEW World Championship at All Out 2022 would prove to be one of the biggest moments in the entire history of this linear title, as it would set the course for what was to come in the years that followed. Punk would spend the next several months on the shelf due to the combination of the triceps injury he suffered in the All Out match with Moxley, and the suspension that came following the infamous Brawl Out incident that occurred following the event which involved Punk, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and others. Even though AEW would go on to crown a new AEW World Champion (Moxley won the vacant title in September, and then dropped it to MJF a few months later), the linear AEW World Title remained with CM Punk. Fortunately, the fact that Punk had at least one year to defend the title worked in his favor. Punk finally returned to AEW on the debut episode of Collision, and a few weeks later (over nine-and-a-half months after winning back the linear AEW World Title), finally made a title defense when he wrestled Satoshi Kojima at Forbidden Door 2023, as part of the second annual Owen Hart Foundation Tournament.
In the tournament’s second round, Punk would score another defense against his old ROH rival Samoa Joe, before dropping the title to Ricky Starks in the finals of the tournament on the July 15th Collision in Calgary. Starks wouldn’t even make a single successful defense during his title reign, as Punk would win in right back on the August 5th Collision (with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat as the special outside official). This would make CM Punk the first three-time Linear AEW World Champion. During this chaotic time in the early history of Collision, Punk was still feuding with Samoa Joe, and it was also during this time that Punk actually introduced his “real” AEW World Title, as he claimed to still be the true World Champion (that whole period of Collision’s early history was truly a mess now that I’m recalling all of the things that went down). In a weird way, it’s funny that we got an actual physical representation of the Linear AEW World Title.
Everything came to a head on the big All In PPV at Wembley Stadium on August 27th, 2023, as CM Punk would put both the linear AEW World Championship and his physical “real” AEW World Championship on the line against Samoa Joe. The two put on a great match, and in the end, Punk emerged victorious. We didn’t know it at the time, but this bout between Punk and Joe (on the biggest show AEW has ever put on) would be the final time the Linear AEW World Title would be defended in an AEW ring. As we all found out not long after the show, Punk had gotten into a backstage altercation with Jack Perry, and the ensuing investigation led to Tony Khan making the decision to fire CM Punk from the company. With Punk’s departure, the linear AEW World Title was no longer part of All Elite Wrestling, and a bizarre new chapter in this lineage would kick off just a few months later.
The Darkest Timeline
On November 25th, 2023, just two-and-a-half months after Tony Khan fired him from AEW, CM Punk made his shocking return to WWE at the end of their Survivor Series PPV, which just so happened to be in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. While Punk wouldn’t wrestle in his first televised match since his return until January 2024, he would wrestle Dominik Mysterio in a pair of singles matches at the end of December 2023 as part of WWE’s annual year-end Holiday House Show Tour. As fate would have it, these linear title defenses (both of which Punk won) would be pivotal. At the 2024 Royal Rumble event, Punk would take part in that year’s Royal Rumble Match. While the Linear AEW World Championship wasn’t on the line in that match, Punk did suffer yet another injury. This time, Punk tore his other triceps, and was on the shelf once again. Thanks to those matches with Dominik Mysterio in December, Punk’s one-year title defense clock had effectively been reset, so he had plenty of time to recover from his injury and defend the title once again.
Throughout the bulk of 2024, Punk would be embroiled in a feud with Drew McIntyre, with Punk constantly antagonizing him during the period that he was recovering from the triceps injury. After months of back and forth between the two, Punk would finally wrestle in his first one-on-one match since returning to WWE, as he would face Drew McIntyre at SummerSlam on August 3rd, 2024. Seth Rollins would serve as the special guest referee in this match, which was very ironic considering that Punk’s third reign as the linear AEW World Champion started with a win in a match that involved someone in a special guest enforcer/referee role. Well, the match itself was….pretty fucking horrific (with loads of WWE “storytelling”), but the big story was that Drew McIntyre managed to secure the victory, meaning that he was now the Linear AEW World Champion.
Now, when I was originally putting all of this together, I thought that Drew McIntyre had just dropped the Linear AEW World Title back to CM Punk in a Strap Match at the Bash At Berlin event a few weeks later on August 31st. HOWEVER….I was corrected after doing further research. In an incredible twist that I didn’t see coming at all, McIntyre had actually lost a match in between SummerSlam and Bash At Berlin. What was that match, you may ask? On August 23rd, 2024 at a SmackDown taping in Washington, D.C. (ironically in the same area that hosted the first edition of AEW Dynamite), McIntyre lost a dark match to….Jey Uso.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Jey Uso aka the Right Hand Man aka Main Event Jey aka Yeet Man had become the Linear AEW World Champion. What’s even crazier is that we actually have some footage of that match out there on YouTube! Linear Championships changing hands in dark matches isn’t an uncommon occurrence, but the fact that we have video of this title change is pretty incredible (though I guess not that surprising considering that everybody has a smartphone these days).
Given the nature of how he won the title, you’d think Jey Uso would’ve lost the Linear AEW World Championship rather quickly. Well, that’s not exactly how things played out, because the timing of Jey Uso’s title win over Drew McIntyre coincided with his actual push for the WWE Intercontinental Title. He went on a bit of a winning streak, and on the September 23rd, 2024 edition of RAW, Jey defeated Bron Breakker to win the aforementioned Intercontinental Title, making him a double champion. Jey would enjoy a nice little run with both titles, but that would all come to an end on the October 21st, 2024 edition of RAW, as Bron Breakker would win both the WWE Intercontinental Championship and (more importantly) the Linear AEW World Championship from the Yeet Man.
Since winning the Linear AEW World Championship, Bron Breakker has picked up a number of successful title defenses and, as I type this, he’s about five-and-a-half months into his reign. He has lost a few singles matches here and there by DQ, but of course, the title doesn’t change hands in those cases. That means we’re currently in a super fascinating situation where, unless it moves to someone who either leaves the company or suffers a long term injury, the Linear AEW World Championship will likely remain in WWE for the foreseeable future. It’s also unlikely that we’ll see a title change very soon, as Bron Breakker has been VERY protected by the booking since moving up to the main roster. The title was not on the line at WrestleMania last weekend, as Breakker was in a four-way match for his WWE Intercontinental Title. A match he lost, but again, the Linear AEW World Championship can only change hands in a singles match.
That is where everything stands as of April 21th, 2025. Brok Breakker is your Linear AEW World Champion.
I hope you all enjoyed this wacky and wild journey through the history of the Linear AEW World Championship. I know that Rob McCarron used to make updates to his Linear WWE Championship article periodically, so perhaps I’ll look at doing that every few months or so, if any significant developments arise. For now though, Bron Breakker is the man to watch.
Can he break CM Punk’s record-setting third reign, which lasted nearly a year?
Can anyone unseat Breakker in the next few months?
Will the title ever end up back in AEW again?
I can’t wait to find out.
List Of Linear AEW World Champion Reigns
- Chris Jericho – 8/31/2019 – AEW All Out 2019 – 182 Days – Defeated “Hangman” Adam Page to become the inaugural champion.
- Jon Moxley – 2/29/2020 – AEW Revolution 2020 – 277 Days
- Kenny Omega – 12/2/2020 – AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming 2020 – 254 Days
- Christian Cage – 8/13/2021 – AEW Rampage – 23 Days
- Kenny Omega (2) – 9/5/2021 – AEW All Out 2021 – 69 Days
- “Hangman” Adam Page – 11/13/2021 – AEW Full Gear 2021 – 197 Days
- CM Punk – 5/29/2022 – AEW Double Or Nothing 2022 – 87 Days
- Jon Moxley (2) – 8/24/2022 – AEW Dynamite – 11 Days
- CM Punk (2) – 9/4/2022 – AEW All Out 2022 – 314 Days
- Ricky Starks – 7/15/2023 – AEW Collision – 21 Days
- CM Punk (3) – 8/5/2023 – AEW Collision – 364 Days – Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat was the Special Outside Official.
- Drew McIntyre – 8/3/2024 – WWE SummerSlam 2024 – 20 Days – Seth Rollins was the Special Guest Referee.
- Jey Uso – 8/23/2024 – WWE – WWE Friday Night SmackDown (Dark Match) – 59 Days
- Bron Breakker – 10/21/2024 – WWE Monday Night RAW – 176 Days +
