It’s funny: despite Cody Rhodes’ insistence that he doesn’t believe in mid-card titles, he sure helps run a fed that seems to be utilizing a whole lot of mid-card titles. Like most wrestling federations, AEW has a world champion, tag team champions, as well as a women’s champion.
But in addition to the trademark blets, AEW also has a TNT championship which I’m still not entirely sure of the logic behind it but is somehow more regarded to than the world championship. Despite the fact that it doesn’t really count for anything, Brian Cage is running around wearing Taz’s old FTW championship blet from ECW, and despite the fact that they keep saying it’s not recognized by AEW, everyone knows it’s only a matter of time before it’s going to trade hands and suddenly become a thing. Because Billy Corgan sucks and has basically killed the NWA, Serena Deeb is representing and defending the NWA women’s championship on AEW, and by virtue of regularly appearing and performing, has surpassed their own women’s championship, much like the TNT blet.
More recently, because AEW has interestingly enough opened the doors to collaborations with other feds, TNA Impact’s tag team champions, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows have been usurping screen time on AEW programming to promote Impact shows. And even more recently, KENTA from New Japan Pro Wrestling has shown up to advance his feud with Jon Moxley over the IWGP United States Championship, which has yet to physically show up on AEW, but has been referenced as the justification for KENTA’s run-in.
And although it’s not a blet, let’s not forget the AEW Dynamite Diamond ring that is a low-key title, twice held by MJF, and has won by virtue of a battle royale, that everyone is desperate to win.
Oh yeah, Kenny Omega is also Mexico’s AAA champion, and has brought that belt onto Dynamite, to antagonize Rey Fenix, the man he defeated to win it.
So, for those keeping count, outside of the traditional standard championships in AEW, there are six seven titles-not-midcard-titles floating around in the AEW atmosphere right now.
For those who like to criticize the WWE universe for having too many blets, at least there are some fairly defined lines and separation between the jurisdictions of them, and six different weekly shows in which they are circulating between, and not one weekly show, and one YouTube show.
But speaking of YouTube, add one more blet to the mix of AEW-related championships, because of course there had to have been a BTE World Championship blet added into existence, because nothing is more epitomizing of the importance of BTE than giving it its own championship belt.
To those who aren’t aware, BTE stands for Being the Elite, which is the YouTube show of the Young Bucks, which has certainly expanded and grown into quite a force on the internet and served to spread the popularity and exposure of the Bucks and everyone who is fortunate enough to get sucked into their stratosphere, but it really isn’t necessarily a part of AEW so much as it just so happens to be a passion project between two VPs of AEW, being the aforementioned Young Bucks.
Regardless, it’s pretty clear that in spite of their executive positions within AEW, BTE still has more importance to the Bucks than “their day jobs,” and I still maintain that there is a finite time limit within AEW when the Bucks and their hipster posse will definitively run into a deal-breaking disagreement with the much more serious, and business-loving Cody Rhodes, which will probably result in the latter getting bought out and probably going back to the WWE someday.
To the credit of BTE, I do respect that the Bucks are committed to it and have maintained producing it for as long as they have, because few things make me roll my eyes harder than when people of varying statuses start shit on the internet, be it blogs, vlogs, YouTube channels or any other idea that sounds great at first, but so few people have the commitment or dedication to continue on beyond a honeymoon period. And BTE started long ago, mostly when the Bucks and Kenny Omega formed the Elite sub-stable within Bullet Club, and the episodic web show has only grown and helped get not just members of the Elite and Bullet Club over, but just about everyone who have been lucky to get sucked into being in it at some point.
But to give themselves their own championship belt, that’s just head-shaking lame. In all fairness, I think it’s lame that Xavier Woods has a championship belt for his own Up Up Down Down YouTube series, but I will say the likelihood of that showing up on WWE television is nil, but I would bet money that the BTE Championship makes its way onto AEW television at some point.
I just hope it comes as a result of BTE starting a feud with Zack Ryder Matt Cardona over internet shows, and like Matt Jackson wrestles Cardona on an episode of Dynamite in a blet unification match, where the BTE Championship is put on the line against the Internet Championship so that brings the total of mid-card titles in AEW up to nine.
Either way, it’s really no surprise that a BTE Championship finally exists, because it’s clear to me that BTE is more important to the Bucks than AEW is, and no better way to express that, than having yet another world championship blet come into existence, to muddy up the mid-card title picture that VP partner Cody Rhodes doesn’t believe in.
