AEW revealed their newest championship, the TBS title, on Dynamite this past Wednesday. It was clear the secondary women’s belt would be linked to the company’s flagship show moving from TNT to WarnerMedia’s other big cable channel next January. There was confusion about how the tournament to crown the first TBS champ would be scheduled to coincide with Dynamite’s debut on its new network, however.
Details about the tournament were sparse on the Oct. 6 broadcast, and a report that night said it wouldn’t start until the first Dynamite on TBS - Jan. 5, 2022. But in the comments of an Instagram post about the new belt, AEW official Aubrey Edwards said the finals will be on the that show.
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“The finals for the tournament are on January 5th, so the tournament is happening over the next two months”
It’s good to know we won’t have to wait, but this still leaves a bunch of questions. So far four women have said they’ll be in the tournament (Thunder Rosa, Skye Blue, Ruby Soho & Jade Cargill), and the announce team gave the impression Hikaru Shida & Serena Deeb would join them. They’ll need at least two more unless they’re giving out first round byes, and they may need more than that to spread it out over two months.
And where will the matches take place? It would be pretty awkward if rounds happened on the YouTube shows (as was the case with last year’s “Deadly Draw” women’s tag tournament), given the belt is named after a television channel. So hopefully they’ll all air on Dynamite or Rampage.
We’ll wait for more details. But thankfully it doesn’t look like we’ll be waiting until next year.