Can a wrestling company have too many championship belts? The simple answer to that is yes, they definitely can, and AEW find themselves in that position right now.
The company has world champions and secondary champions for both men and women, a tag team championship, multiple championships from other promotions which are defended on the show, an FTW Championship which crops up from time to time, a rumored Trios championship coming up some time in the future, and have now introduced the All-Atlantic Championship to the mix as well.
A tournament has been set to crown the first ever AEW All-Atlantic Champion, a belt that will represent the company's fans from all over the world.
AEW Does Not Need Another Championship Right Now
There are a number of championships in AEW right now and not all of them are getting their fair share of the spotlight. The addition of another belt will only make it more difficult for that to happen anytime in the near future.
While the idea behind the All-Atlantic Championship is not bad and pretty similar in concept to the Intercontinental Championship, AEW already has a secondary belt in the form of the TNT Championship, and thus it is hard to understand the need for another one.
RELATED: AEW's TNT Title No Longer Feels All That Special
The TNT Championship Has Been Booked Poorly In Recent Times
Speaking of the TNT Championship, it would be safe to say that it has fallen in importance quite a bit recently, particularly ever since Cody Rhodes ended up leaving the company and joined WWE.
The questionable booking of the TNT Championship began after Sammy Guevara was crowned the interim champion despite the fact that Cody would go on to defend it a couple of weeks later anyway, and drop it as well.
Since then, the belt has never managed to gain any real momentum, has been hot potatoed between Guevara and Scorpio Sky for the entirety of this year, and feels like an afterthought at this point of time.
Instead of trying to rebuild the importance of the TNT Championship though, AEW have gone ahead and added another secondary belt.
If Everybody In AEW Is A Champion, Then Nobody Is A Champion
The entire concept of being a champion is that you are the best in the world in whatever category or sport that you are competing in. If there are too many champions, it just dilutes the point of it. The WWE having two world champions for the past couple of decades is a great example of that, although Roman Reigns is holding both belts right now.
While you might have two world champions, both of them will never be equal in the eyes of the fans. There is always one face of the company and the other world title starts to feel secondary as a result. More often than not, the holder makes the belt and not the other way round.
AEW already have the problem of having too many championships, which has been compounded by the fact that belts from other companies are defended on the program as well, and if everybody is holding a belt, then it merely becomes a prop instead of anything meaningful.
RELATED: 5 AEW Wrestlers Who Should Win The TNT Championship (& 5 That Shouldn't)
AEW Is Already Getting An Interim World Champion
AEW already have their worries with multiple champions at the moment after CM Punk got injured just days after being crowned the AEW World Champion by beating Adam Page at Double or Nothing.
Interestingly, AEW decided not to strip Punk though, as one would normally expect in these circumstances. Instead, they have had a tournament which will culminate at Forbidden Door to crown the Interim AEW World Champion. Jon Moxley will be facing Hiroshi Tanahashi for the belt in Chicago.
This makes the timing of the introduction of the All-Atlantic Championship absolutely terrible, as the first champion will be crowned on that same night.
AEW Will Have To Be Absolutely Perfect With Its Booking
If the All-Atlantic Championship is to ever mean something, Tony Khan will have to be absolutely perfect with its booking from the very beginning.
We have seen how little the Intercontinental Championship and the United States Championship mean in WWE today, and AEW cannot afford to make the same mistake with their two secondary belts.
The first run needs to go to a major star who can elevate the championship immediately and make it feel important, instead of a mid-carder, who despite being very talented, has not been the focus of AEW television.
Somebody like Kenny Omega would have been perfect in the role as the first All-Atlantic Champion, but he is injured right now, and it remains to be seen who the company ends up going with later this month.
