Date established: May 25th, 2019
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History:
On January 1st, 2019, the professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) was founded and its inaugural event and pay-per-view, AEW Double or Nothing 2019, was scheduled for May 25th, 2019. The unveiling of the promotion's men's world championship was first teased on AEW's YouTube channel on May 22nd, where actor and comedian Jack Whitehall humorously attempted to reveal the title belt but struggled to get the championship out of its bag. During that same video, Whitehall revealed that the winner of Double or Nothing's Buy In pre-show battle royal, called the Casino Battle Royale, would face the winner of the PPV's main event at a future date to determine the inaugural AEW World Champion. AEW president Tony Khan confirmed that since the promotion would not have weight divisions, the AEW World Championship was not a "heavyweight championship".
At AEW Double or Nothing 2019, the pre-show Casino Battle Royale was won by "Hangman" Adam Page, while Chris Jericho defeated Kenny Omega in the PPV's main event, setting up the inaugural championship match. During the event, pro-wrestling legend Bret "Hitman" Hart unveiled the AEW World Championship belt. Shortly after Double or Nothing, the inaugural championship match was scheduled for AEW's second pay-per-view event, AEW ALL OUT 2019, on August 31st. At AEW ALL OUT 2019, Jericho defeated Page in the main event to become the inaugural champion. The following day, it was reported by Tallahassee Police that the physical championship belt was stolen from Jericho's limousine while he was traveling; it was recovered on September 4th.
The second champion was Jon Moxley, who had made his AEW debut back in May by attacking Kenny Omega. Following the feud with Omega, Moxley set his sights on Jericho and the AEW World Championship, main eventing the first annual AEW Revolution pay-per-view in 2020. At AEW Revolution 2020 on February 29th, 2020, Moxley would defeat Jericho and become the second champion. Moxley would go on to hold the title for almost the entire rest of 2020.
Moxley would end up losing the title to his first AEW rival, none other than Kenny Omega, who by this time had moved back up the card after his short tag team run with "Hangman" Adam Page ended. Omega would win the 2020 AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament which guaranteed him a shot at Moxley's AEW World Championship. On December 2nd, 2020 at AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming, Omega would defeat Moxley for the title with the help of Don Callis.
Omega's reign on top was lengthy and he would hold the title for 346 days. During this time, Omega feuded with the likes of Jon Moxley, defeating him in a controversial Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch at AEW Revolution 2021 on March 7th, 2021. The match was controversial due to the fact that the "big explosion" at the end of the match was a huge dud that ended up looking closer to a sparkler show. Despite that happening, Omega would still have a great reign as champion, putting in banger after banger against opponents such as Orange Cassidy and PAC (who he faced in a 3-Way Match at AEW Double or Nothing 2021 on May 30th, 2021). At AEW ALL OUT 2021 on September 5th, 2021, Omega defended the title successfully against Christian Cage. This entire run was leading him up to the big match against his former tag team partner in "Hangman" Adam Page.
At AEW Full Gear 2021 on November 13th, 2021, "Hangman" Adam Page would go on to defeat Omega and win the title in grand fashion securing his name in the history books forever. Shortly after the match, Omega took an extended break from wrestling to heal some injuries he had been working through and Page would defend the title against the likes of Lance Archer, Adam Cole and Dante Martin. He would face Bryan Danielson twice during this reign, once ending in a 60-minute time limit draw on December 15th, 2021 at AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming. Then in their rematch on January 5th, 2022 on AEW Dynamite, Page would defeat Danielson in a almost half-hour match. Page would lose the title at AEW Double or Nothing 2022 on May 29th, 2022 to CM Punk.
Punk's reigns with the championship are controversial due to the fact that during his first reign he immediately gotten himself injured and was out of action for several months while Jon Moxley became interim AEW World Champion. This led to Punk's return and the two men having a unification match on the August 24th, 2022 episode of AEW Dynamite, which ended in just 3 minutes and 10 seconds, with Moxley defeating him and becoming undisputed champion. His reign would only last days as he would go on to drop the title back to Punk at AEW ALL OUT 2022. Punk's second reign would be his last because after the show was over an altercation occurred that was one of two nails that finally sealed his coffin when it comes to his career in AEW (the second of which would come in August 2023).
At AEW ALL OUT 2022, MJF made his return to AEW programming under a mask, winning the Casino Ladder Match as the joker entrant and securing himself a future shot at the AEW World Champion. At the end of the event, he was revealed as the man behind the mask. He was originally scheduled to face CM Punk for the title but after the aforementioned media scrum, Punk was suspended and a new champion was crowned. On November 19th, 2022 at AEW Full Gear 2022, MJF would defeat Moxley after using William Regal's brass knuckles. Regal slid them in to MJF, helping to make him the youngest AEW World Champion in history. On the November 30th, 2022 edition of Dynamite, MJF would discard the AEW World Championship belt, calling it trash and unveiled his own custom version of the belt, which he dubbed the Triple-B, the "Big Burberry Belt". It features the exact same design as the standard title belt, however, the leather strap is brown and fashioned in Burberry's trademark check pattern to match MJF's signature Burberry scarf.
On December 14th, 2022 at the Winter is Coming special edition of Dynamite, MJF successfully defended the title against Ricky Starks and won the Dynamite Diamond Ring for the fourth year in a row. On March 5th, 2023, at AEW Revolution 2023, MJF defeated Bryan Danielson in the overtime of their 60-minute Iron Man match, which had ended in a tie. The match was met with critical acclaim, and received a 5.75 star rating from Dave Meltzer, making it the first five star match in MJF's career. On May 28th, 2023 at AEW Double or Nothing 2023, MJF defended the title against Sammy Guevara, Jungle Boy and Darby Allin, who MJF pinned in a four-way four pillars match. In June, MJF started to feud with Adam Cole, who he faced on the June 14th, 2023 episode of Dynamite. The match ended in a 30-minute time limit draw. At AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023, MJF successfully defended the title against New Japan Pro Wrestling star Hiroshi Tanahashi. On the July 1st, 2023 episode of AEW Collision, MJF successfully defended the title against Ethan Page.
Following his 30-minute draw with Adam Cole, the two began a friendship that started when they were forced to tag together during the Blind Tag Team Eliminator Tournament. This led to the two having a friendly match against each other for the title again, this time at AEW ALL IN: London 2023 on August 27th, 2023 in front of AEW's largest audience ever. MJF would again be the better man and defeated Cole once again. MJF would defend the title next against Samoa Joe, defeating him on the Grand Slam edition of AEW Dynamite. His next defense came against previous champion Kenny Omega after MJF was approaching Omega's all-time record of 346 days as champion. Omega attempted to end MJF's reign and keep his record in tact but MJF would walk out the winner as they faced off on the October 28th, 2023 edition of AEW Collision.
MJF's title reign would come to an end at the appropriately named AEW Worlds End 2023 pay-per-view event on December 30th, 2023 at the hands of Samoa Joe, who soundly defeated an injured MJF to win his first AEW World Championship. The title reign of Samoa Joe would last 113 days, where he would successfully defend the title against the likes of HOOK and Wardlow, and also defeating both Swerve Strickland and "Hangman" Adam Page at March 2024's AEW Revolution 2024 PPV event.
Samoa Joe's title reign would come to an end in April 2024 at the AEW Dynasty 2024 pay-per-view event, when Swerve Strickland, who had lost at March's Revolution PPV in the 3-Way match, defeated Joe in an one-on-one encounter. Swerve Strickland's first title defense was on Collision following Dynasty where he successfully defended the title against Blackpool Combat Club's Claudio Castagnoli. Shortly following his championship win, Swerve Strickland was turned on by his stable Mogul Embassy, who broke away from Swerve and his manager Prince Nana. Swerve would successfully defend the title at Double or Nothing 2024 in what was AEW's 5th anniversary of it's inaugural event in 2019, when he defeated Christian Cage. Cage had worked along with Mogul Embassy members Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona) to double cross Swerve and leave him layed out in the lead-up to Double or Nothing. His next title defense is set for the June 5th episode of AEW Dynamite, where Swerve will defend the AEW World Championship against Undisputed Kingdom's Roderick Strong.
Title History:
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | |||||
| 1 |  | August 31, 2019 | AEW All Out | Hoffman Estates, IL | 1 | 182 | Defeated "Hangman" Adam Page to become the inaugural champion. | ||
| 2 |  | February 29, 2020 | AEW Revolution | Chicago, IL | 1 | 277 | |||
| 3 |  | December 2, 2020 | AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming | Jacksonville, FL | 1 | 346 | |||
| 4 |  | November 13, 2021 | AEW Full Gear | Minneapolis, MN | 1 | 197 | |||
| 5 |  | May 29, 2022 | AEW Double or Nothing | Paradise, NV | 1 | 87 | |||
| — |  | June 26, 2022 | AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door | Chicago, IL | — | 59 | Lineal champion CM Punk was originally scheduled to defend the title against Hiroshi Tanahashi at this event, but was pulled due to suffering an injury that required surgery. Moxley defeated Tanahashi in a tournament final to become the interim champion. | ||
| 6 |  | August 24, 2022 | AEW Dynamite | Cleveland, OH | 2 | 11 | Defeated lineal champion CM Punk to determine the undisputed champion. AEW officially recognizes this as the start of Moxley's second reign. | ||
| 7 |  | September 4, 2022 | AEW All Out | Hoffman Estates, IL | 2 | 3 | |||
| — |  | September 7, 2022 | AEW Dynamite | Buffalo, NY | — | — | CM Punk was stripped of the title after being suspended by AEW president Tony Khan following a legitimate backstage physical altercation that occurred during the All Out post-event media scrum. | ||
| 8 |  | September 21, 2022 | AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam | Flushing, NY | 3 | 59 | Defeated Bryan Danielson in a tournament final for the vacant title. | ||
| 9 |  | November 19, 2022 | AEW Full Gear | Newark, NJ | 1 |
| This was MJF's Casino Poker Chip cash-in match. | ||
| 10 | .png) | December 30, 2023 | AEW Worlds End 2023 | Uniondale, NY | 1 | 113 |
|---|
| 11 |  | April 21st, 2024 | AEW Dynasty 2024 | St. Louis, MI | 1 | 127 |
|---|
12 - Bryan Danielson - Won on: August 25th, 2024 @ AEW ALL IN: LONDON 2024 @ Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom - Reign: 1 (This was a Career vs. Title match with Bryan Danielson putting his over 20-year wrestling career on the line, as well. Had he lost he would have been forced to retire.)
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