AEW International Championship

AEW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
(formerly AEW All-Atlantic Championship (2022-2023) | AEW American Championship (2024, during the reign of MJF))

Date established: June 8th, 2022

Current champion(s): Will Ospreay 

Date won: August 25th, 2024

First champion(s): PAC

Most reigns: Orange Cassidy and Willow Ospreay (2 reigns each)

Longest reign: Orange Cassidy (326 days; 1st reign)

Shortest reign: Jon Moxley (17 days)

Oldest champion: Roderick Strong (40 years, 221 days)

Youngest champion: MJF (28 years, 52 days)

Heaviest champion: Will Ospreay (231 lb (105 kg))

Lightest champion: Orange Cassidy (161 lb (73 kg))

History:

On the June 8th, 2022 episode of AEW Dynamite, the American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) unveiled the AEW All-Atlantic Championship to be a secondary championship for the men's division. Despite its name seemingly centering on countries around the Atlantic Ocean, the company announced that the championship "represents the AEW Fans watching around the world in over 130 countries". The inaugural champion was crowned in a 4-Way match which was held at the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2022 pay-per-view event on June 26th, 2022, which was co-produced with the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). To determine the competitors in the 4-Way, six qualifying matches were held. Three of these featured wrestlers from AEW with the three winners advancing to the 4-Way match. The other three qualifying matches were held between four wrestlers from NJPW in a single-elimination tournament fashion. The winners of NJPW's preliminary qualifiers faced off and the winner of that match advanced to the 4-Way match at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2022. On the AEW side, PAC, Miro and Malakai Black won their qualifiers; on the NJPW side, Tomohiro Ishii qualified but suffered a left knee injury and had to be replaced with the runner-up, Clark Connors. At AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2022, PAC became the inaugural champion by submitting Connors.

In an interview with Robbie Fox on the My Mom's Basement podcast, AEW president Tony Khan confirmed that the championship would be defended differently than the company's other titles. Khan said that holders of the All-Atlantic Championship would defend the title around the world in other promotions, in addition to AEW. This interview came shortly after PAC defended the title at a Revolution Pro Wrestling event, which was later shown on AEW's YouTube show, AEW DARK on July 12th. PAC also defended the title at an Over the Top Wrestling event on July 22nd.

On the March 8th, 2023 episode of AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan announced that Orange Cassidy's defense of the title that night was the final as the AEW All-Atlantic Championship, as the following week, in celebration of the release of the Warner Bros. film Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the title would be rebranded as the AEW International Championship due to AEW's broadcast partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery. 

During the March 15th, 2023 episode of AEW Dynamite, Orange Cassidy successfully defended the newly rebranded title. During his entrance, Orange Cassidy swapped the old title with a newly rechristened championship belt which looks somewhat different than the old All-Atlantic Championship belt design. 

During Orange Cassidy's first reign as AEW All-Atlantic/International Champion, which lasted from October 2022 until September 2023, holding the title for a record-setting 326 days. During this reign, Orange Cassidy defended the title 31 times successfully, including once during a New Japan Pro Wrestling event in the United States (NJPW Collision in Philadelphia 2023) on April 16th, 2023. At Double or Nothing 2023, he defended the title successfully in a 21-Man Blackjack Battle Royale. At AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023, Cassidy successfully defended the title against Daniel Garcia, Katsuyori Shibata and Zack Sabre, Jr. in a 4-Way match. His title reign would come to an end at AEW ALL OUT 2023 on September 3rd, 2023, losing the title to Jon Moxley in the main event of the pay-per-view, the first time the AEW International Championship had been defended in the main event of a pay-per-view. 

Cassidy would win the title back after Moxley lost the title to Rey Fenix, holding the title for 145 days in his second reign, which saw him defend the title successfully against Jon Moxley in a rematch at AEW Full Gear 2023 on November 18th, 2023. During this title reign, Cassidy defended the title at a Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro) event in London, England at RevPro High Stakes 2024, successfully defending the title in a 7-Way Scramble match. His second reign ended at AEW Revolution 2024, when he was defeated by Roderick Strong.  

Photo of the new design for the AEW International Championship as revealed on the March 15th episode of AEW Dynamite (Better photo will be available soon!)

Inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Championship Tournament (2022):

Preliminary Qualifiers NJPW New Japan Road (June 20, 2022)

Qualifiers AEW Dynamite (June 8, 15, and 22, 2022) NJPW New Japan Road (June 21, 2022)

Final AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2022 (June 26, 2022)

Buddy Matthews

10:32

PAC

Pin

Ethan Page

9:25

PAC

Sub

Miro

Sub

Miro

15:05

Malakai Black

15:05

Penta El Zero Miedo

9:49

Clark Connors*

15:05

Malakai Black

Pin

Tomoaki Honma

11:29

Clark Connors

Pin

Clark Connors

13:21

Tomohiro Ishii

Pin

Tomohiro Ishii

Pin

Yoshinobu Kanemaru

19:01

*Connors replaced Ishii who was not medically cleared to wrestle.

Title History:

No.	Champion	Championship change			Reign statistics		Notes
		Date	Event	Location	Reign	Days
1	PAC	June 26, 2022	AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door 2022	Chicago, IL	1	108	Defeated Malakai Black, Miro, and Clark Connors in a four-way tournament final to become the inaugural champion.
2	Orange Cassidy	October 12, 2022	AEW Dynamite	Toronto, ON, Canada	1	326	The title was renamed AEW International Championship on March 8, 2023.

3. Jon Moxley - September 3rd, 2023 - AEW ALL OUT 2023 in Chicago, Illinois - Reign: 1, Days Held: 17 days (defeated Orange Cassidy to end his 326 days reign at AEW ALL OUT 2023)

4. Rey Fenix - September 20th, 2023 - AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam 2023 in Flushing, Queens, New York - Reign: 1, Days Held: 20 (defeated Jon Moxley to end his reign at only 17 days making Moxley's reign the shortest in the title's history)

5. Orange Cassidy - October 10th, 2023 - AEW Dynamite: Title Tuesday in Independence, Missouri - Reign: 2, Days Held: 145 (defeated Rey Fenix to end his reign at 20 days. With Cassidy's win, he sets the record for the most title reigns with the belt at 2. Cassidy replaced Jon Moxley who wasn't medically cleared to wrestle at the show)

6. Roderick Strong - March 3rd, 2024 - AEW Revolution 2024 in Greensboro, North Carolina - Reign: 1, Days Held: 84 (defeated Orange Cassidy to end his title reign at 145 days. Roderick now holds the record as the oldest AEW International Champion in history)

7. Will Ospreay - May 26th, 2024 - AEW Double or Nothing 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada - Reign: 1, Days Held: 52 (defeated Roderick Strong to end his reign at 84 days.)

8. MJF - July 17th, 2024 - AEW Dynamite: 250th Episode in Little Rock, Arkansas - Reign: 1, Days Held: 39 (defeated Will Ospreay in a nearly hour long match to win the title and ending Ospreay's reign at 52 days. MJF rechristened the title as the AEW American Championship during his reign.)

9. Will Ospreay - August 25th, 2024 - AEW ALL IN: LONDON 2024 in London, England, United Kingdom - Reign: 2 (Upon winning the championship, Ospreay restored it as the AEW International Championship. Ospreay ended MJF's reign at 39 days)

Previous Title Design & Name:

(AEW All-Atlantic Championship)

The original version of the belt used from 2022-2023, when it was still called the AEW "All-Atlantic" Championship.

Ron Edwardsen of Red Leather Belts designed the championship belt's design. At the top of the center plate is AEW's logo, while at the center of the plate is a globe with flags representing six countries: Mexico, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Japan. Originally, the banner above the globe read "All-Atlantic," but this was changed to "International" with the championship's rebranding on March 15th, 2023. Another banner below the globe reads "Champion". Sitting on each side of the center plate are two side plates. The inner side plates include AEW's logo over a globe, while the outer side plates feature two wrestlers grappling. Filigree fills in the rest of each plate.

Previous Title Design & Name:

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(AEW American Championship)

**PHOTO COMING SOON**

During MJF's reign with the title, he would refer to the title as the "AEW American Championship", introducing his own custom Red, White and Blue version of the championship which was retired upon Ospreay winning the title for the 2nd time at AEW ALL IN: LONDON 2024 at Wembley Stadium in London, England in the United Kingdom. 

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