When AEW announced it was revealing a new title during the June 8 episode of Dynamite, most fans expected it was going to be a trios championship, as the promotion has put more of an emphasis on three-person teams than most. Instead, it introduced the AEW All-Atlantic Championship, a new title for its men’s division.
In the finest pro wrestling tradition, the inaugural winner is being decided via a tournament — and the first match already took place Wednesday night, with Pac defeating Buddy Matthews. There are still three other qualifying matches yet to take place:
- Ethan Page vs. Miro – Page hasn’t had much to do as of late except for being part of the mixed trios match at Double or Nothing, while Miro has just returned from injury and already looks like his usual, dominant self. This match will take place on Wednesday, June 15 at Road Rager (a themed episode of Dynamite).
- Penta Oscuro vs. Malakai Black – This is an offshoot of the continuing issues between Death Triangle and the House of Black, and could also be on the Road Rager card. Now that Matthews is out, the likelihood of Black advancing figures to be even higher.
- Two yet-to-be-named NJPW wrestlers will meet in the other quarterfinal. New Japan has so far only announced that its entrants will be announced soon. It does have a big event, Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall, coming up this weekend, and could put the qualifier on that show.
What’s interesting about the All-Atlantic Championship tournament is that instead of having semifinals and a final, all four first-round winners will meet in one four-way match at Forbidden Door. That spices things up a tad and also makes the tourney easier to pull off from a logistical standpoint given the NJPW involvement.
Speaking of which, could a NJPW star be the inaugural winner? Though several AEW championships are expected to be on the line at Forbidden Door when the card is finalized, the thought of someone who could only make sporadic appearances on AEW shows holding one of them feels far-fetched. But a new title is a whole different ballgame, and fans might be a bit more accepting of someone outside the promotion holding it to start.
We’ll find out which way AEW is leaning when the inaugural All-Atlantic Champion is crowned at Forbidden Door on Sunday, June 26 in Chicago.