AEW Vacates Top Titles in Strange Decision During Collision Taping

AEW has stripped Bullet Club Gold of the Unified Trios Championships.

By Liam Crowley

All Elite Wrestling has been backed into a corner multiple times when it comes to injured titleholders. AEW's woes began in Summer 2022 when newly-crowned AEW World Champion CM Punk broke his foot just three days after winning the company's top prize. AEW responded to this by crowning an Interim AEW World Champion in the form of Jon Moxley. The same situation happened later that fall in the women's division, with AEW Women's Champion Thunder Rosa going down with an injury and Toni Storm being crowned in the interim. The troubles continued down the card, as titleholders like AEW TNT Champion Adam Copeland, AEW International Champion Jon Moxley, and AEW Women's Champion Jamie Hayter have all been forced to either vacate or quickly lose their gold due to injuries.

AEW Strips Jay White and The Gunns of Trios Titles

As of this Saturday, Bullet Club Gold is no longer Unified Trios Champions.

During Wednesday's taping of AEW Collision, Interim AEW Executive Vice President Christopher Daniels stripped Jay White and The Gunns of both the AEW Trios and ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championships. White is currently off of television selling injuries suffered at the hands of a Christian Cage-led attack. 

Bullet Club Gold attempted to push back on this decision, citing the "Freebird Rule" (which stipulates that any collection of a faction can step in to defend either their tag or trios titles), but Daniels would not allow Juice Robinson to slot in for White. It's worth noting that when Adam Cole and MJF were ROH Tag Team Champions, MJF was allowed to defend those titles by himself while Cole was injured.

Bullet Club Gold will get the chance to win back the Unified Trios Championships almost immediately, as the threesome of Robinson and The Gunns will face The Patriarchy for the vacant Unified Trios Titles at a later date. The Patriarchy is made up of Cage, Killswitch (Luchasaurus), and Nick Wayne.

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This is the second time that the AEW Trios Championships have been vacated. The inaugural champions, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, were stripped of the titles just three days after first winning them for their involvement in the infamous post-show brawl with CM Punk after AEW All Out 2022. Omega and the Bucks would recapture the titles five months later once their suspension had been lifted.

AEW Collision airs this Saturday at 8 PM ET on TNT.

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