(formerly AEW All-Atlantic Championship (2022-2023) | AEW American Championship (2024, during the reign of MJF))
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.
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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) | |||||||||||
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*Connors replaced Ishii who was not medically cleared to wrestle.
Title History:
No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | ||||
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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. |
Previous Title Design & Name:
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The original version of the belt used from 2022-2023, when it was still called the AEW "All-Atlantic" Championship. |
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