Are The ROH Titles Making AEW Too Crowded?
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There is a lot to love about AEW, with both weekly shows, Dynamite and Rampage, being jam-packed full of non-stop action, which never leaves the audience bored or waiting around. However, there can be too much of a good thing when it comes to quantity, and that could potentially be the case with the implementation of ROH into AEW television. Since Tony Khan’s purchase of the promotion, the Ring of Honor championships have been featured on AEW programming, and whilst it hasn’t all been bad, it hasn’t all been good either, with the inclusion of the titles running the risk of overcrowding the weekly content.
AEW Are Looking To Introduce Even More Titles, Which Could Cause Issues
When it comes to AEW’s own championships, most of them have been handled quite well overall. The AEW World Championship and Tag Team Titles in particular have been consistently strong throughout their existence, the Women’s World and TBS Titles each have ups and downs, but still retain some prestige, and whilst the TNT Championship has suffered over the last few months, it is only a matter of time before a strong champion turns things around.
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There have been rumors of AEW adding some more titles, with both Trios Titles and Women’s Tag belts being potentially on the cards, but even the creation of just one more title could feel like overkill for AEW, with there not enough hours of television to truly flesh out that many championships whilst also having a focus on non-title feuds too. AEW is already pushed for time, with the women’s division suffering from a lack of focus and opportunity, brought about by the bloated roster.
ROH Championships Have Been Frequently Appearing On AEW Television
Since Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor, several AEW talents have picked up ROH gold. FTR defeated The Briscoes to become Tag Team Champions, Wheeler Yuta won the ROH Pure Championship, Samoa Joe won the ROH Television Title, and Mercedes Martinez picked up the ROH Women’s Championship. In addition to the ROH World Title which appeared on the second Battle of the Belts event, it has meant that five new championships have begun appearing in AEW.
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With AEW also working with other promotions over the course of the last three years, several other championships have made appearances, including the AAA Mega Championship, AAA Tag Team Titles, IWGP United States Championship, Impact World Championship, and the NWA Women’s Worlds Championship. For some fans, it can be hard to care when these titles are on-screen as they are from different promotions, and whilst the commentators do their best to fill fans in, there simply isn’t enough time for everyone to keep up.
It is certainly fun to see competitors from other promotions, but only when it is sporadic, otherwise it would take too much time away from the full-time AEW roster. With the ROH Titles, due to now being under the ownership of AEW owner Tony Khan, they have appeared far more often, with those belts sometimes even taking up the main event spot on the show. This has proven to not be the most successful of experiments, with the ROH Television Title scene being underwhelming, and the ROH Women’s Title match struggling to get fans properly invested in the action.
AEW Need To Focus More On Their Own Championships
When looking at the current landscape of AEW’s Championships, there is certainly a case to be made that they aren’t getting enough time. In the lead up to the Double or Nothing PPV, Adam Page, and CM Punk weren’t given enough time to properly hype up their feud for the Men’s World Title, Thunder Rosa and Serena were given little screen time and poor content for their Women’s World Title feud, and the TNT Championship has been absent from shows here and there without much direction. The TBS Title isn’t getting defended enough, though the champion Jade Cargill is managing to ensure that it feels special. The Tag Titles had a decent feud heading into the PPV, but the Jurassic Express’ reign before that point was lacking due to minimal screen time.
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Right now, AEW is still a growing brand, so there is a need to focus on their very own titles as a priority over the ROH belts. If ROH is to start up again sometime soon, then keeping their belts relevant and active will be important in ensuring that fans follow over from AEW to ROH when the time comes, but it shouldn’t come as a detriment to AEW’s content and programming. It could be a lot worse, and AEW are juggling a lot of the variables quite well, but it is a position that they’ve put themselves in when it wasn’t entirely necessary to do so.
