Column: It will be nice to (we hope) see the AEW World title again

Image: AEW

The following is opinion-based and reflects that of the author and not the website.

It has been 274 long days, but today, we finally get to see an old friend again after AEW All In: the AEW World title belt.

Trapped in an enhanced briefcase since last October’s WrestleDream, the symbol of everything that those in the company strive and compete for will see sunlight once again. It’s been basically four seasons worth of hiding for our old friend and we are now hours away from seeing it in all its glory.

That is definitely going to happen, right? There’s no way Hangman Page doesn’t come out of Arlington as your AEW World Champion for the second time and have the big moment with fireworks and the AEW good guys including Bryan Danielson and Darby Allin surrounding him, right?

(You nodding in approval.) Ok, good.

Because the opposite – Jon Moxley retaining the title – would be a really bad decision. No offense, Jon, but it’s time.

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I’m sure they are out there, but I don’t feel like there’s a big or vocal fan base for the Death Riders which perhaps was the idea to begin with. Being a heel in 2025 seems to be extremely hard for reasons I’ll write about another day, but Moxley and his crew have pulled off one aspect: no one seems to like them or like seeing them on TV.

At times, this fourth Moxley run has felt like, well, a lot. There was a little intrigue at first when he mentioned this whole movement was about something bigger which some took to wishcast Shane McMahon as the end all, be all behind it. That obviously didn’t happen and the group had a focus on, uh, something which has been disrupting matches and causing chaos just because. There seemed to be a focus on one point of them winning all the AEW titles, but that stopped and ended with the Trios titles. Why? Who knows. (Also, if Moxley hid the World title as a symbolic move, why didn’t they do the same when they won the Trios belts?) 

The remnants of the Blackpool Combat Club weren’t exactly elevated along the way. Claudio Castagnoli feels he’s always going to be Claudio Castagnoli while Wheeler Yuta does have a great opportunity to cash the hated heel checks for a long time. I keep forgetting PAC is part of the group but getting hurt a lot will do that. Gabe Kidd is a convenient fly-in part of the gang when they need him to be.

And then, there is Marina Shafir who has played the Chyna role in beating up men with relative ease but for some reason, has had no storyline interest in wrestling for any titles and also for some reason, only one woman has seemed to have an issue with her in Willow Nightingale. This feels like a situation where Tony Khan isn’t quite sure what to do with her. She has wrestled just three times in AEW and another three times in ROH since Moxley won the title which feels like a missed opportunity if you wanted to make the group really dominant.

The Death Riders as we know them are coming to a long-awaited end. What comes next (a heel Daniel Garcia sending Moxley packing on a vacation?) could be fun, but it can’t be this anymore. It just can’t.

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That brings us to that hidden title belt – the idea of which I have despised since I realized it was going to be a thing after Moxley won it. One thing I am a firm believer in is that the World title is the most important thing to a combat sports promotion — the North Star for anyone competing because why wouldn’t it be? If you’re not ultimately gunning for the top title, what’s the point?

AEW has had past issues with their World title not feeling like the most important angle/match on their pay-per-views, something Tony Khan has wisely course corrected in the last six months or so. Regardless of what happens today (outside a combo of a Moxley win and Swerve Strickland & Will Ospreay losing), there’s a sensible mix of top contenders and stories to be told that can result in true World title PPV headlining matches. 

But the only way that happens is with Page winning the title today and removing it from that god damn briefcase. As a wise man once said, cowboy up.