To build new talent, AEW needs a midcard championship

What is missing from AEW television? Sam Gladen argues for the establishment of a mid-card title and how it will help those who seem to need it most.

AEW burst onto the scene last year with a lot of hype surrounding the product and what a wrestling company could look like with a new philosophy at the head of the company.

The book and all decisions would be made by those who put their bodies on the line in the ring. The money men would stay money men and leave those with a lifetime worth of experience to book the product. The inmates would run the asylum.

The problem with the inmates running the asylum is there is arguably no one with an objective eye backstage sitting these guys and girls down and saying, “this right here is where you belong, where you excel and where you do the most good for the company. You are a TV title guy or girl. You are a mid-carder.”

There’s nothing wrong with being a mid-card performer either. Some of my favorite wrestlers of all time are career mid-card guys. Tully Blanchard, The Miz, Sami Zayn, and MVP just to name a few. They know or knew their role. Executed it masterfully and lent themselves to the product.

However, in a company run by wrestlers and staffed by their friends. Everyone is a main eventer and when everyone is a main eventer, more often than not. No one is.

This seems to be the problem faced by most of the people working with AEW at the moment. With a few notable exceptions, most of them are finding it difficult to get their feet on solid ground beneath them and build interesting, lasting storylines that will propel them farther faster than the occasional, albeit almost always impressive match.

There are already many factions in the company. So many, in fact, that some seem to fold just as quickly as they are formed and while they may model their product loosely after them, AEW is not New Japan where audiences have been so long indoctrinated with the idea of factions and their fairly stagnant rosters that it seems second nature to be able to connect everyone on the roster with one.

So how do you fix it? How do you draw a clear distinction between those who have been given the keys to the kingdom and those still trying to find their way in the world? My solution is twofold. First, you let those undercard guys win big and meaningful matches against people who cannot be hurt by the loss. AEW has been, to be fair, thus far phenomenal in this regard.

From Cody and Darby going to a time limit draw to the fairly unknown Private Party putting away the then thought to be defacto winners of the AEW Tag Team titles and co-founders of the company, The Young Bucks. The founders and clear draws of the company seem to have no issue eating pins for their younger talent. In some cases, they even seem keen too.

But how does that help the guys that were previously established? How does beating Cody, Kenny Omega, or the Young Bucks help guys like Shawn Spears, PAC, or Moxley?

The short answer? It doesn’t, these guys have a history with the fans. They all had varying levels of success in the WWE and all made very public and highly anticipated exits.

For Moxley and PAC, this included a trip to Japan and two highly sought after titles. For Spears? So far, his time has been met with much of the same that he faced in WWE.

How do you help these guys? How do you build storylines around them that will survive long after the hype has died?

It’s simple really: You give them something to strive for.

Something to chase after. There is only one world champion and as good as Chris Jericho is at building heat with those around him no one can maintain five or six storylines without at least some of them feeling stale, and the AEW tag team division is stacked so that’s a no go as well.

They need something uniquely all their own. With the prestige of the upper card titles but small enough that it makes sense why the upper card guys don’t just go and take it for themselves.

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My suggestion would be to take a page out of the recently revived National Wrestling Alliance’s playbook and set up a TV title. This gives the guys not immediately in the Heavyweight title picture something to strive for without feeling as if they are being wasted. You could even go so far as to make the TV title defended each week, like in the NWA, with the promise of a guaranteed title shot coming at the end of the seventh defense.

Or, if you want to set yourself apart from the memories of older fans who remember when Ted Turner bought the original NWA programming and redubbed it WCW back in the 90’s you could establish something entirely new.

Call it the Openweight Title and make it something that can be challenged for by everyone on the roster male or female. It could be argued that this would benefit their struggling women’s division most of all. Allowing for a clear distinction in a division where there is only the one title to chase at this time.

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Without giving certain wrestlers the opportunity to build a groundswell of support around them, interest will wane and the company will find its place on a long list of those who have tried and failed to challenge Vince McMahon.

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