AEW vacates both World & Trios titles, Tournament of Champions announced

Both the AEW World and Trios titles are now vacant with one of the new champions being determined on tonight’s Dynamite with the other to be decided in a new tournament.

AEW head Tony Khan made the announcement via a taped promo at the onset of Dynamite without mentioning either CM Punk, the Young Bucks or Kenny Omega by name or why the belts were being vacated, only saying he was “forced to vacate” the titles following All Out. 

The newly-created Trios titles, first won by Omega and the Bucks at All Out, will be up for grabs in the opening match of Dynamite as Death Triangle faces Best Friends & Orange Cassidy. Both were involved in the recent tournament.

For the World title, Khan announced the Grand Slam Tournament of Champions with a six-man field that begins tonight and will end at the Grand Slam edition of Dynamite in Queens, New York, on September 21st.

The tournament is made up of former champions in AEW and WWE while not mentioning the latter by name. The biggest example of this is Bryan Danielson who was referred to as a seven-time World Champion even though he has never held AEW gold.

In the first round, Hangman Page will take Danielson tonight in their third-ever meeting while Sammy Guevara faces Darby Allin in a battle of former TNT Champions on Friday’s Rampage.

Next week’s Dynamite in Albany, New York, will see the Danielson/Page winner take on former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho while the the Guevara/Allin winner faces former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley.

Punk had reclaimed the AEW World title Sunday by defeating Moxley, only to sustain a serious injury during the match itself that will require surgery. That, of course, was prior to the fight after the pay-per-view that came as a result of Punk’s post-event press conference comments toward Omega, the Bucks and others.

Omega, the Bucks and several other AEW officials were suspended while Punk’s employment status is still unknown as the company has yet to make an official statement on any of the suspensions.