AEW announced last week that, starting in 2022, its weekly episodes of AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage would be moving over to TBS. But that immediately raised a question — what happens to the TNT Championship? The title has been presented as the championship of the network since it was first introduced last May, going so far as to have its logo across the front of the belt’s main plate. Reports of what AEW was planning on doing with the title had already popped up, but on Wednesday Cody Rhodes confirmed with ComicBook.com that the title would not be changing regardless of the network change.
“I don’t want to drop any spoilers, but I mean, I’ll drop a spoiler. I don’t think we’re going to change the title’s name one bit,” Rhodes said. “TNT is the place that the first alternative challenger brand in two decades appeared on. Their excitement, our partners at WarnerMedia, and the TNT title, as I’ve stated, I think it is, if not the most important title in wrestling, the second most important title in wrestling. I don’t see us changing that name, and I think that’s kind of across the board. I don’t think you’ll find anybody in management or Tony himself who wants to change that name. We’ll always roll with the punches and we’ll always pivot, but I’m 99% sure the TNT title stays the TNT title.”
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Even with the jump to TBS, AEW’s relationship with TNT won’t be completely over. Last week’s announcement also confirmed AEW will have four supercard events on TNT every year. Rhodes compared them in the interview to WCW’s classic Clash of the Champions events and WWF’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.
“Yeah, that’s a really good way [to look at it],” Rhodes said. “I mean, in wrestling, you take these things and they become these old comparables, and you use them as examples. But with All Elite Wrestling, it’s been really hard, because everything we do is perhaps rooted in a piece of history, but then it’s a spin, and then it becomes its entirely own thing, has its own identity. But yeah, I would definitely look at Clash of the Champions as something. And then Saturday Night’s Main Event as well, as what these are. They’d be super events, type events where the titles are on the line, where big stories converge. But that being said, we don’t save anything. That old kind of passe, ‘Oh, save it for the pay-per-view.’ Well, we only do four pay-per-views a year, and what people are watching and our biggest audience is on TNT and it will become TBS. It’s very hard to think of stuff to save, but we have such a roster. There’s so many matches that haven’t been touched on. Those four specials will be very special indeed, in-house and arena, and on TNT. I think it’ll be a whole new ball game for wrestling fans.
