How often should a championship be defended in All Elite Wrestling before its vacated?
There really is no concrete rule. Nothing you can pull up in the Library of Congress which All Elite Wrestling has to follow regardless of good conscience.
The general rule in professional wrestling has always been 30 days or else you have to vacate. AEW has had wrestlers vacate the moment they knew they were injured. They have done interim champions (something that’s unique for AEW and resembles real combat sports but is very unpopular with pro wrestling fans and Jon Moxley) and they have also completely ignored the idea of a 30 day rule and just had wrestlers stay champion with no explanation why.
That’s unfortunately a current problem in the company.
Men’s Championships
Let’s start with Kenny Omega. Kenny will be defending the AEW International Championship this Wednesday in a four way match. It will be his first defence since April 6, 2025. He almost went 60 days without a defence. Not a word about the title being vacated. No justification for him not needing to defend the championship.
Why has this been forgivable? Probably because we’re just so happy to have Kenny Omega back we don’t complain. Kenny did have one match in that timespan (not counting Anarchy in the Arena last Sunday) with an eight wrestler tag on Dynamite April 30. Even if that was an International Championship defence he would be over the 30 days. Essentially you would have had to replace that eight wrestler tag and Anarchy in The Arena for Kenny to be in the 30 day threshold.
It’s also probably because it feels like the plan is for Kazuchika Okada as AEW Continental Champion to face Kenny Omega at either Y’All In Texas or All Out in Toronto. As for Okada, he just defended against Speedball Mike Bailey at Double or Nothing. He also had an Eliminator match against Anthony Bowens.
I guess we have to ask ourselves, if a wrestler has an Eliminator, does that break the 30 days? It isn’t a defence, but it’s a potential defence that would be booked afterwards. I think I would personally be willing to be a bit flexible if a wrestler had an Eliminator in between 30 days, but they would still need to defend soon after.
Back to Okada and the Continental Championship. Okada won the championship back in March of 2024. He’s been champion for over a year. He is on his 12th defence. Prior to the Bailey defence he hadn’t defended the belt since March at Revolution and his eliminator match with Kevin Knight came two months after Revolution. Okada also went between May 15, 2024 and August 21, 2024 with no defences, with only an eliminator match against Ultimo Guerrero on June 20, 2024.
Jon Moxley has been relatively decent with defences of the AEW Men’s World Championship, having defended it October, November, and December of 2024. He defended against Hobbs on January 15, 2025 before not defending again until March 9, 2025 at Revolution. He made up for that gap with a rematch on March 19 and has been back to monthly defences.
We will hold off on the TNT Championship for now.
Tag Team and Trios Championships
The Hurt Syndicate essentially do their minimum requirement. Won the titles on January 22, first defence on February 11, next March 9, April 6, April 14, and May 25. There was also an eliminator on May 14 at the 30 day mark. As I said, I’ll relax the 30 day rule if there’s an eliminator.
One might question why I’m so hard on Hurt Syndicate if they do my requirement, and hey, I respect the fact they do. This runs into the problem with wrestling logic versus story logic. In wrestling logic? Hurt Syndicate tick all the boxes. In story logic? Hurt Syndicate have hardly wrestled the best of their tag division, are hardly facing number one contenders, give title shots to anyone, and spent between Dynasty and Double or Nothing making their entire focus being whether or not Maxwell Jacob Friedman should join the Hurt Syndicate. It wasn’t about the tag division. It was about Attitude Era jokes.
The Opps won the Trios Championship on April 16 so they are overdue to defend the championship. They have had two squash matches against Rhett Titus, Nick Comoroto, and Myles Hawkins as well as The Frat House. They were also a part of Anarchy in the Arena.
It’s frustrating because AEW has been doing a lot more Trios matches and building up a lot of teams. Everyone from LFI, Paragon, Don Callis Family, Death Riders, The Elite, and CMLL Trios. There’s also the possibility of Ricochet entering the Trios division with a team as he’s hinted at.
So while there’s plenty of contenders for both the World Tag Team and Trios Championships? It doesn’t seem like the teams winning on TV are actually getting cracks at the titles.
Women’s Championship
I will hold off on discussing the TBS Championship since it’s a television title.
Timeless Toni Storm as AEW Women’s World Champion has done a good job defending once a month. She won February 15, defended March 9, then April 6, but went a little long on the May defence for May 25.
To Toni’s credit she’s okay with working Eliminators. April 23, April 30, May 3, May 7, and May 14 were all matches Toni took part in with people getting chances to beat her and get a title shot. She essentially was doing Mercedes Moné’s job in doing the Eliminators with a presence on Dynamite and Collision. The eliminator on May 14 even worked into Double or Nothing on May 25 as she was defeated by Mina Shirakawa and handed her a title shot.
Timeless Toni Storm is arguably the best champion in the company in booking and credibility. Nobody can say she isn’t a fighting champion and nobody can say she should be stripped of it. Even if she took long to defend between April and May? She filled it up with plenty of Eliminator opportunities.
TNT and TBS Championships
The TNT and TBS Championships are a little different. They are supposed to be television championships, which are supposed to be predominantly defended on TV. Often treated as workhorse titles, the TNT and TBS Championships are open challenge titles because of this. There’s no real rankings and anyone can get a shot. The championships are best often defended.
If it was up to me? They’d have a 15 day rule. Every other week those titles should be getting defended.
Mercedes Moné as TBS Champion went two months without defending the TBS Championship, in large part because she was in the Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament. She has otherwise been good at defending it at least once per month, sometimes twice.
Adam Cole went more than a month between facing Claudio Castagnoli in April and finally defending against Kyle Fletcher last week. I’m fine with the fact he didn’t defend it at Double or Nothing. Neither did Mercedes. It is a TV title. But Daniel Garcia, the previous champion, defended it three times in January and three times in March. Where was he in December? Continental Classic. Where was he in February? No clue. He at least defended the TNT Championship on Jericho’s Cruise. He also wrestled in three trios matches in February because I guess that was more important than the TNT Championship.
It’s hard to say you want to implement a 15 day rule when AEW can’t even follow a 30 day rule with the title that should be most defended.
Going Forward
There’s going to be a few weeks before we get to Y’All In Texas so hopefully AEW spends June ensuring every title gets defended before everyone gets prepared for their matches at the pay per view. I expect most of the titles to be defended at the show save for the TV titles.
The only titles I might give a pass to would be the men’s and women’s World Championships because having Moxley or Storm defend them when there’s already a major match established would be annoying. I know AEW has done it in the past. I know AEW has done it since their inception. I’d hold off here. If anything? I’d have Mox and Storm do Eliminators in the next week or so.
Adam Cole seems to be building a match with Kyle Fletcher down the road, a rematch after the disqualification finish. Should Fletcher win? He needs to defend it every 15 days.
Mercedes should probably be healthy for Y’All In Texas but I still expect her to defend that TBS Championship at least once in the meantime.
The Hurt Syndicate will hopefully be facing the best tag team in the company right now in FTR instead of hand picking inferior opponents and hopefully they do that Y’All In Texas. Hopefully as well FTR win, as they are the best tag team in AEW right now. In the meantime, maybe Hurt Syndicate can defend against a legitimate team before that match comes up. Paragon would be a good match to do.
The Opps I could see facing whatever team Ricochet forms, but in the meantime give me The Opps versus Don Callis Family. Give me Opps versus Don Callis Family again because they got enough members to run it twice. Give me Opps versus LFI. Give me Opps versus Death Riders one more time if you want to.
Then you have the International and Continental Championships. It does feel like we’re getting a title versus title match between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada. It’s been teased since Worlds End. Even so? We need one more Kenny Omega International Championship defence (even after this four way) and one more Kazuchika Okada Continental Championship defence. My suggestion would be Omega facing Josh Alexander and Okada facing AR Fox. Make them eliminators if you have to.
AEW doesn’t really follow the 30 day rule but they should. Even if they use Eliminators to make it feel like they are following it? They should still adhere to it. The TV titles should be defended every other week, and you can criss cross them so there’s a TNT or TBS Championship every week. Gives viewers something to always look forward to.
With the upcoming residencies in Chicago and Philadelphia? Booking your titles to never go longer than 30 days without a defence shouldn’t be so difficult. Maybe it doesn’t mean the world to some folks, and maybe it feels like nitpicking, and it absolutely doesn’t take precedent over the stories being told, but it just makes everything mean a little more.
