AEW World Trios Championship explained

Championshipname:AEW World Trios Championship
Currentholder:The Patriarchy
Won:July 20, 2024
Promotion:All Elite Wrestling
Created:July 27, 2022
Mostreigns:The Elite

(2 reigns)
Firstchamp:The Elite
Longestreign:The Acclaimed

(238 days)
Shortestreign:The Elite

(1st reign, 3 days)
Oldest:Billy Gunn
Youngest:Nick Wayne
Heaviest:House of Black

(725 lbs combined)
Pastnames:
  • AEW World Trios Championship
    (2022–present)
  • Unified World Trios Championship
    (2024)

The AEW World Trios Championship is a men's professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It is a specialized tag team championship, being contested by teams of three wrestlers, referred to as trios. The current champions are The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch, and Nick Wayne), who are in their first reign, both as a team and individually. They won the vacant title by defeating the Bang Bang Gang (consisting of Juice Robinson, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) on the July 20, 2024, episode of Collision after the Bang Bang Gang (consisting of Jay White and The Gunns) were stripped of the title due to White's injury.

The title was established on July 27, 2022, and the inaugural champions were The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson). From April until July 2024, the AEW World Trios Championship and Ring of Honor's World Six-Man Tag Team Championship were held and defended together as the Unified World Trios Championship.

History

On the July 27, 2022, special episode of Dynamite titled Fight for the Fallen, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced a tournament for the inaugural AEW World Trios Championship, which would culminate at the All Out pay-per-view on September 4, 2022. Unlike the AEW World Tag Team Championship, which is a standard tag team title contested by teams of two wrestlers, the Trios Championship is contested by teams of three wrestlers, referred to as trios.[1] [2] At All Out, The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) defeated "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions.

Following berating comments made by reigning AEW World Champion CM Punk at the All Out post-event media scrum on September 5, a legitimate physical altercation occurred between Punk and The Elite. As a result, AEW president Tony Khan suspended all involved.[3] On the September 7 episode of Dynamite, Khan announced that both the World Championship and Trios Championship were vacated. Khan then announced that the episode's scheduled six-man tag team match between Death Triangle (Pac, Penta El Zero M, and Rey Fénix) and Best Friends (Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta, and Orange Cassidy) would be for the vacant Trios Championship, which was won by Death Triangle.

During Dynasty: Zero Hour on April 21, 2024, Ring of Honor World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bullet Club Gold (Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) defeated The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Billy Gunn) to win the AEW World Trios Championship in a winners take all championship unification match to unify the titles and become recognized as the Unified World Trios Champions.[4] [5]

When Bullet Club Gold (who since became known as the Bang Bang Gang) were stripped of the Unified Trios Titles on July 10, 2024 (aired July 13), the AEW and ROH titles were separated, thus ending the unification.

Inaugural tournament

Belt design

The standard AEW World Trios Championship belts were made by Ron Edwardsen of Red Leather Belts. They have five gold plates on black leather straps. The circular center plate has a blue globe at the center with "TRIOS" written across the globe in black with a gold border. Above the globe is a black banner that says "WORLD" in gold while a black banner below the globe says "CHAMPION" in gold. At the top of the plate is AEW's logo while filigree fills out the rest of the plate. Sitting on either side of the center plate are two side plates each. The inner side plates show two wrestlers performing simultaneous superkickson another wrestler.[6] The outer side plates originally showed a wrestler performing an electric chair driver, but when the standard belts returned in 2024 after the custom "scissoring" belts had been used, the outer side plates were changed to saying "WORLD TRIOS CHAMPION" (which had first appeared on the scissoring belts).

Custom designs

During House of Black's (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews) reign that began in March 2023, they introduced their own custom "black out" versions of the championship belts. The belts featured mostly the same basic design as the standard belts, but with silver plates instead of gold (the globe was also black instead of blue). The side plates were also changed to The House of Black's logos with a vertical "HOB" tooled into the leather between the outer side plates and the button snaps.[7]

After The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Billy Gunn) won the title in August 2023, they introduced their own custom "scissoring" championship belts. They featured the same basic design as the standard belts, but with pink straps. Additionally, the ends of the belts were shaped like scissors and said "Scissor Me" on one side and "Daddy Ass" on the other side, referencing their "scissoring" gimmick. The inner side plates were the same as the standard belts, but the outer side plates were changed to saying "WORLD TRIOS CHAMPION". AEW's logo was also added to the top of each side plate.[8]

During Dynasty: Zero Hour in April 2024, ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bullet Club Gold (Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) defeated The Acclaimed to win the AEW World Trios Championship, holding and defending both titles under the Unified World Trios Championship banner, using the standard AEW Trios belts, the ROH World Six-Man belts, and The Acclaimed's custom "scissoring" belts to represent the collective accolade. This would continue until July 2024 when Bullet Club Gold (who had since become known as the Bang Bang Gang) were stripped of the Unified World Trios Championship. This subsequently ended the unification of the AEW and ROH titles with the custom "scissoring" belts also being dropped in favor of the standard design of the AEW World Trios Championship.[9]

Title history

As of,, there have been seven reigns between six teams composed of 18 individual champions, and two vacancies. The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) were the inaugural champions and they have the most reigns at two. Their inaugural reign is also the shortest at 3 days while The Acclaimed's (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Billy Gunn) sole reign is the longest at 238 days. Billy Gunn is the oldest champion, winning the title at 59, while Nick Wayne is the youngest at 19.

The current champions are The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch, and Nick Wayne), who are in their first reign, both as a team and individually. They became champions after defeating the Bang Bang Gang (consisting of Juice Robinson, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) on the July 20, 2024, episode of Collision in Arlington, Texas to win the vacant titles, after Bang Bang Gang (consisting of Jay White and The Gunns) were stripped of the title due to White's injury.[10]

Names

NameYears
AEW World Trios ChampionshipSeptember 4, 2022 – present
Unified World Trios ChampionshipApril 21, 2024 – July 13, 2024

Reigns

Combined reigns

As of,

Indicates the current champion

By team

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 7/27 AEW Dynamite results: Barnett's live review of Jon Moxley vs. Rush for the Interim AEW World Championship, Thunder Rosa vs. Miyu Yamashita for the AEW Women's Championship, Ricky Starks vs. Danhausen for the FTW Title, Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia, Sammy Guevara vs. Dante Martin. Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Jake. Barnett. July 27, 2022. July 28, 2022.
  2. Web site: Lambert. Jeremy. AEW Officially Announces Trios Championships, First Champions Will Be Crowned At AEW All Out. Fightful. July 27, 2022. July 28, 2022.
  3. Web site: Report: AEW Members Suspended After 'All Out' Altercation . Sports Illustrated . 8 September 2022.
  4. Web site: Bullet Club Gold Are The Unified World Trios Champions . April 22, 2024 . AEW.
  5. Web site: Miller . Haley . April 21, 2024 . Bullet Club Gold Become the Inaugural Unified World Trios Champions at AEW Dynasty . April 22, 2024 . ComicBook .
  6. All Elite Wrestling. AEW. 1552464819768500224. Here is a better look at the #AEW TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP belts, designed & crafted by #RedLeatherBelts. The first champions will be crowned at #AEWAllOut, Sunday, September 4 LIVE on PPV from the @NOW_Arena, get your tickets now @ AEWTIX.com. July 27, 2022. August 31, 2023.
  7. Brody King. Brodyxking. 1657146706394226690. B L A C K O U T. May 12, 2023. August 31, 2023.
  8. Web site: New AEW Trios Titles Unveiled On AEW Dynamite. August 30, 2023. Thomas. Jeremy. 411Mania. August 31, 2023.
  9. Web site: The Patriarchy Win Trios Titles On Tonight’s AEW Collision. 411Mania. Lee. Joseph. July 20, 2024. July 21, 2024.
  10. Web site: AEW Collision results, live blog (July 20, 2024): World Trios Championship. Cageside Seats. Geno Mrosko. July 20, 2024. July 20, 2024.