Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian fueled the rumor mill yesterday when he indicated AEW will soon introduce a new championship belt.
He provided a new detail about this title on the latest episode of Speak Now Pro Wrestling w/ Denise Salcedo. According to Zarian, the new title will be called the TBS championship, and it is a secondary title for the AEW women’s division.
AEW NEWS REPORT: @AndrewZarian reported some news today on my show. He said their will be a secondary Women's Championship on AEW and it will be a TBS Championship belt.
— Denise Salcedo (@_denisesalcedo) September 23, 2021
Also make sure to give him a follow, he's been breaking a lot of news.
No specific timetable was provided by Zarian for the debut of the TBS championship. AEW’s two weekly television shows, Dynamite and Rampage, are both moving from the TNT network to TBS in January 2022. It’s logical to assume the debut of the TBS championship will coincide with AEW’s move from TNT to TBS in a few months.
President Tony Khan recently teased big plans for the women’s division, but it’s hard to imagine AEW is ready to introduce a secondary title for them. Despite Khan’s bogus claim otherwise, the women’s division in AEW is the weakest component of their weekly television shows. The AEW women’s roster was struggling to receive television time even before the company recently loaded up the men’s roster with huge stars like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, and Malakai Black. They also signed Andrade El Idolo.
AEW typically does not give much television time to women who are not fighting over the world championship. The booking of Hikaru Shida illustrates this point. She held on to the AEW women’s world championship for about a year. But ever since she dropped the title to Britt Baker at Double or Nothing 2021 in late May, Shida has yet to wrestle a match on Dynamite. She has been demoted to the Dark shows on YouTube, essentially.
If Zarian’s news about the TBS championship turns out to be true, then something will have to give here. The TBS championship wouldn’t make sense as a title primarily defended on YouTube, and Tony Khan has been adamant that titles in AEW will not become afterthoughts like the Intercontinental championship in WWE. Perhaps this is a sign that AEW is about to significantly change the way it books its women’s roster.
What are your thoughts on AEW creating this TBS championship, Cagesiders?