Call them the “King/Queen of Prospects” (the K/QoP). Basically, a belt reserved for wrestlers 25-or-under. Here’s a list of men and women who would qualify:
Men: Daniel Garcia, Dante Martin, Darius Martin, Action Andretti, Hook, Komander, Kyle Fletcher, Lee Johnson, Nick Wayne, Parker Boudreaux, Cole Karter.
Women: Anna Jay, Julia Hart, Billie Starkz, Skye Blue, Leyla Hirsch.
(That info comes from https://www.thesmackdownhotel.com/roster/aew/ and is likely incomplete).
PROS:
- Acts as a great way to start long-term rivalries between top prospects.
- Shines a spotlight on young talent. Could be good for the demo?
- Gives insight into who Tony likes and wants to push down the road.
- Offers new story-telling devices. Example: A 24-year old has 3 months before they turn 25 to make good on their promise of one-day becoming the K/QoP.
- Could make Forbidden Door matches between AEW / NJPW’s top prospects more interesting.
- Could act as a recruiting tool for top prospects. “Come to AEW and we’ll let you have a run as K/QoP.”
CONS:
- There are too many belts. Enough with the belts.
- Without Dark/Elevation, there isn’t enough time to feature green wrestlers.
- There aren’t enough prospects under-25 to make it interesting. Especially on the women’s side.
What do you think?
I’m going to say no. I think there’s enough belts in AEW right now.
I think it could be worth trying but they’d need to sign a lot more women to make it work. And without Dark/Elevation, I think a chunk of the stories/matches might have to take place in RoH…or maybe even the indies? That could be fun.
I don’t know about a championship, because like you said, too many belts. But a tournament, like the Chikara Young Lions’ Cup, would be fun.
I do love tournaments!
I wouldn’t mind it, but with the lower amount of talent to contend for it, and the quantity of titles, it feels like it would be a ‘they hold the title for long periods of time and defend it only occasionally’ type set up. That’s not a bad thing per se, but I’d wanna see it replace something (like the FTW title [which I love, but it’s the odd tittle out]) than add to the others.
To be honest, another idea I’d like is to get that title, but only if we also changed the world title picture. I’d like to see the ‘rEaL wOrLd TiTlE’ shit end, now and just treat the Intl title as the ‘other’ main belt (as I feel OC has raised that fuckers prestige so much, and ‘International Championship’ and ‘World Championship’ are pretty much synonyms here. One dumb idea goes, one belt officially gets the prestige its earned, and there’s more time on the card to support everything else, plus the occasional Young-AEW Title™ match.
I like the idea of swapping out a title. I think you nailed it with FTW and the MTV championship (can’t hear “real world” without thinking of that damn MTV show lol) too.
Fuck I am committing 1 of my last 6 brain cells to saving that one for future use lol.
I’d like to see the ‘rEaL wOrLd TiTlE’ shit end, now
Infinite agreement here. It makes the actual World Championship belt look even worse, considering how under-utilized it already is. The International Championship is THE AEW Championship in my eyes, and the World Championship belt is just some form of PPV token they can walk out for interviews.
They should bring back the roh top prospect tournament.
I don’t care for the Under 25 rule, but they should turn the TNT title into the lower card title, similar to the WCW TV title. I’d also like to see them make it a hot potato title, I don’t want it to change hands constantly, but they as well as WWE, could benefit from a belt that actually changes hands more often than not, at least I would like that. I’m not saying hot potato it like WCW did the world title in the 90s but you could do some shock changes on Dynamite and then have it pass back on Rampage or Collision and it would be okay, if I actually thought a title could change hands on Rampage I might watch it more.
I totally agree about belts changing hands more often. And I wouldn’t mind more upsets in general. In “real” sports, the best teams sometimes lose to the worst. Outside of Jericho/Andretti, it’s incredibly rare to see that happen in wrestling.
There are already 8 belts (9 if you rummage through CM Punk’s luggage) and I don’t think more belts is the solution.
I feel like there should be a reason for each belt, and as such:
- I feel the TNT/TBS Championships are basically what your proposed K/QoP belts should be, but they end up just leaving them idle or with no real booking ideas for long stretches of time. We didn’t need 500+ days of Jade Cargill just to put her on ice, and Luchasaurus/Christian doesn’t need to hold a strap just to show us he’s a turd, either.
- I also think that a champion should always be defending their belt. If it can be on the line, it should be on the line. You get pinned in a four-way or tag match and that opponent just earned a title shot. Keeping the belt on the line makes it matter. Look at the International Championship.
- Speaking of, I kinda have to admit I don’t really understand the International Championship. It’s booked like it’s the World Championship belt, but for the workhorse talent that are actually willing to have matches. As much as I love that, it’s just how the World Championship belt should actually be treated on a week-to-week basis. If it was me, I’d have a requirement where it has to be defended against other nationalities. Use it for cross-promotional feuds and surprise opponents… make it INTERNATIONAL!
- The World Championship feels like it’s just a PPV token rather than a belt. The belt that sees more interview time than ring-time. If you claim to be King, you should be willing to defend your throne, even if it’s just randomly to a jobber before a promo-segment.
- I’d love some sort of Hardcore championship with an any-time any-place kinda rule, and I’d probably have it replace the FTW Championship. Random backstage brawls and stadium stampede situations whenever you need to fill 20 minutes! hurray!
I think If they’re adding any belts, it should be a Women’s Tag Championship, even though that would require an announcement stating that they’re doubling the women’s roster and backing a dump-truck of cash up towards some big names.
TLDR: They could just use the belts they already have a bit better, maybe?
Dear God no! There’s already too many belts for tv time. And Tony seems completely incapable of booking the women’s division as it is.
