The trios division is taking over All Elite Wrestling

After a slow start, the AEW trios division is picking up steam and becoming a major highlight for the promotion.

Since the AEW Trios Championships were introduced in August of last year, they have become a focal point of AEW television; however, AEW’s trios division has been heating up long before that.

A tournament was set up throughout August and September to crown the inaugural Trios Champions. The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) faced off against “Hangman” Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) in the finals at the All Out PPV on September 4th. The Elite won and were crowned the inaugural AEW Trios Champions.

Following backstage conflict involving The Elite and then AEW World Champion, CM Punk, at All Out, the Trios and World titles would be vacated on the September 7th episode of AEW Dynamite as both parties were suspended. The same night, Death Triangle (PAC, Penta El Zero Miedo, and Rey Fenix) would defeat the Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, and Brent Beretta) to win the vacant championships.

At the Full Gear PPV in November, The Elite would return from suspension to unsuccessfully challenge Death Triangle. Due to Death Triangle using a hammer to win, a best-of-seven series was made official on the following episode of Dynamite. Death Triangle went into the series 1-0 and came out of the second match 2-0. The Elite scored their first win on the November 30th episode of Dynamite to make it 2-1. On the special Winter Is Coming Dynamite on December 14th, Death Triangle gained another victory, going up 3-1. The Elite would bounce back, winning the next three matches, which included a no-disqualification match, a Falls Count Anywhere match, and the final match, an Escalara De La Muerte ladder match. The Elite won the series and were crowned 2-time AEW Trios Champions.

The trios division is taking over AEW in 2023

The Elite had their first PPV championship defense at the Revolution PPV on March 5th, where they were challenged by the House Of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews). House of Black won the championships and is the current Trios Champions.

On the March 15th episode of Dynamite, House of Black successfully defended their Championships against The Elite and The Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho, Daniel Garcia, and Sammy Guevara) in the main event three-way trios match.

This was not the only trios match on the recent Dynamite. The Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta) defeated “Hangman” Adam Page, Evil Uno, and Stu Grayson. Due to the animosity between the two teams, they continued to brawl backstage after the match. After the conclusion of the main event, the brawl made its way to the ring arena. We then saw Page in a 3-1 scenario against the BCC until his former friends-turned-rivals, The Elite, backed him up.

AEW has put much of its focus on the trio’s division, which comes at the cost of its tag team division, which has taken a back seat in recent months. Since the beginning of AEW in 2019, tag team wrestling has been a focal point. It has produced some of the company’s greatest matches; however, in recent months, the quality has somewhat declined, which may result from the trios division as several tag teams transferred from tag teams to trios. Not all is lost in the tag team division, as the recent return of FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) is bound to restore some of its greatness.

Trios and factions are taking over right now and are the most exciting part of AEW, and how could they not be with the amount of talent they have. Five trios teams were highlighted on the most recent Dynamite, and feuds are already heating up with the tease of BCC vs. The Elite.

House of Black’s reign is off to a great start and will only get better as many trios are available to challenge them, especially with the Double or Nothing PPV coming up in May. Here are a few potential next challengers for House of Black:

• Best Friends and Orange Cassidy
• Death Triangle
• Lucha Bros and Mark Briscoe
• Dark Order
• AR Fox and Top Flight (Darius Martin and Dante Martin)

While FTR is currently involved in the tag team division and has targeted the Tag Team Champions, The Gunns (Colten Gunn and Austin Gunn), if CM Punk ever returns from his suspension/injury, adding the CMFTR (CM Punk and FTR) trio will only add to the already great division. Fans have already begun to book their fantasy matches, with many wanting to see CMFTR vs. The Elite, a feud that would involve some of the biggest matches in AEW history.

The future of AEW’s trio division is something to be anticipated, and we are bound to get more classic matches from the world-class talents it has.