History:
The FTW World Championship was designed, created and conceived by Taz who also owns the rights to the design of the belt. The title was used to compensate for storylines that had to be dropped due to injuries. ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas had a serious sinus infection and an elbow injury. Taz and Al Snow also missed their matches at ECW WrestlePalooza 1998 due to health problems. ECW Owner Paul Heyman said the title suited Taz's "bad-ass, no-nonsense" attitude.
Taz announced the creation of the FTW Heavyweight Championship (also referred to as the Brooklyn World Championship) on May 14th, 1998 at ECW It Ain't Seinfeld. In the storyline, he was frustrated by his inability to challenge for ECW's World Heavyweight Championship due to champion Shane Douglas' injury and refusal to face him. Taz created and defended his own World title, billing himself as the "real" World champion. He states that fans appreciated the message conveyed by the belt, which represented contempt for bosses and society, and says that he believes it was more appreciated than the company's top title. The belt was billed as "unrecognized" by ECW.
In October 1998 a new FTW Championship belt was unveiled, when Bill Alfonso gifted Taz an actual FTW Championship belt when Alfonso was trying to recruit Taz to join Rob Van dam and Sabu in their rivalry with The Triple Threat (Shane Douglas, Chris Candido and Bam Bam Bigelow). The three-man pairing of Taz/Sabu/Van Dam would call themselves The New Triple Threat and ended up facing Douglas/Candido/Bigelow at the 1998 edition of ECw November to Remember.
Taz lost the title only once, in a singles match against Sabu. This was an intentional loss, when he pulled the unconscious Sabu over himself of December 19th, 1998 (he was confident in his ability to defeat Douglas in an upcoming title bout and thus no longer needed the FTW Championship). Taz regained the title at ECW Living Dangerously 1999 on March 21st, 1999, where he unified the FTW and ECW Heavyweight Championships. Taz then began using only the ECW World Championship, being the sole World Heavyweight Champion in the promotion.
Fast forward to the year 2020 and on Night 2 of AEW Fyter Fest, Taz, who owns the rights to the title, reinstated the title and awarded the FTW Championship to Brian Cage. Jon Moxley was unable to defend the AEW World Championship in their scheduled title match the week before at Fyter Fest Night 1 as he was self-quarantining after his wife Renee Paquette had tested positive for COVID-19, mirroring the circumstances behind the title's inception.
The title would eventually change hands from Brian Cage to fellow Team Taz member Ricky Starks at AEW Fyter Fest 2021. Starks would hold the title for over a year before he dropped it to Taz's son HOOK, who won the title at AEW Fight for the Fallen in July 2022.
HOOK would hold the belt for a few days shy of a year when he would lose the title to Jack Perry on July 19th, 2023 at AEW's Blood and Guts themed edition of AEW Dynamite. Perry would go on to hold the title for 39 days, defending it against only one person the whole time he held the title with his one defense being against former ECW star Rob Van Dam whom was brought in by AEW producer and coach and fellow ex-ECW star Jerry Lynn after Perry disrespected the title and ECW on an episode of Dynamite. His next title defense came at AEW's ALL IN: London at Wembley Stadium. He would go on to lose the title back to HOOK at AEW's largest show in history with over 80 thousand fans in attendance. HOOK is now tied with his father Taz as the record holders for most reigns with the title belt with two reigns each.
Title History:
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||||
| Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) | ||||||||||
| 1 |  | May 14, 1998 | ECW It Ain't Seinfeld | Queens, New York | 1 | 219 | Taz introduced the championship during a storyline | |||
| 2 |  | December 19, 1998 | ECW Hardcore TV | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1 | 92 | This was a triple threat match, also involving Justin Credible. Title change aired on December 23, 1998, on tape delay | |||
| 3 | Taz | March 21, 1999 | ECW Living Dangerously | Asbury Park, New Jersey | 2 | <1 | This was an Extreme Death match which was also for Taz's ECW World Heavyweight Championship. | |||
| — | Unified | March 21, 1999 | ECW Living Dangerously | Asbury Park, New Jersey | — | — | Taz unified the title with the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. | |||
| All Elite Wrestling (AEW) | ||||||||||
| 4 |  | July 2, 2020 | AEW Fyter Fest Night 2 | Jacksonville, Florida | 1 | 377 | Taz reintroduced the title, and awarded it to Cage, of whom he was the manager. Aired on tape delay on July 8, 2020 | |||
| 5 |  | July 14, 2021 | AEW Fyter Fest Night 1 | Cedar Park, Texas | 1 | 378 | ||||
| 6 |  | July 27, 2022 | AEW Fight for the Fallen | Worcester, Massachusetts | 1 | 357 | HOOK is the real-life son of the original creator of the title and the first holder of the belt, Taz. | |||
10. HOOK - August 25th, 2024 - AEW ALL IN: LONDON 2024 - London, England, United Kingdom - Reign: 3, Days Held: 31 days (defeated Jericho in an FTW Rules 'Last Chance' match, meaning if HOOK had failed to defeat Jericho, he wouldn't have been eligible to compete for the title again as long as Jericho was champion. HOOK announced the title would be retired after his final defense against Roderick Strong at AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam 2024 on September 25th, 2024)
Original Title Design (1998-1999):
 |
| The first version of the championship, as unveiled by Taz, was introduced to the world at ECW "It Ain't Seinfeld" on May 14th, 1998. |
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