AEW is moving forward with plans to merge two of its top championships—and no, it has nothing to do with WWE’s famous Intercontinental title.
According to Sean Ross Sapp on the June 16, 2025 episode of the Fightful Report podcast, AEW is preparing to unify the International and Continental Championships into one top-tier belt.
Sapp explained that this direction has been in the works for some time, with AEW looking to solidify the status of its secondary championship.
“Also something that has been a plan since then is the unification—the combination—of the International and the Continental Championship. At no point ever have I heard that Intercontinental Championship was considered. I don’t even think it could be considered—WWE filed a trademark on it in July of 2020. So even if they wanted to—which I have never heard that they did—it isn’t something they could really dig into.”
AEW fans hoping for a belt with the “Intercontinental” label can forget it. WWE locked down that name legally years ago, and Sapp confirmed AEW had no plans to infringe. He also pointed out that AEW has been treating these titles as more than just midcard props.
“I know this has been something that AEW has long viewed as a second top title and something that they want to make a second top title. They had it level up from the All-Atlantic Championship to the International Championship, and now it’s a unification of these two belts.”
However, Sapp did raise concerns about AEW’s approach to physical championship belts. He mentioned past scenarios—like ROH’s Triple Crown—where champions were burdened with multiple belts at once, calling it an unnecessary complication.
“Now, I sure hope they’re not carrying around all three belts because that would just make the situation worse. And what we’ve seen based on the Triple Crown and combining the Six-Man titles is that eventually, they’ll be split again. I have not heard that this is the case. I know they want to make this a highly promoted top title, not a mid or upper card title.”
So while AEW isn’t entering WWE’s trademark territory, they are committed to building a legitimate second top championship. What form the unified title takes—and whether fans will be stuck seeing another belt overload—remains to be seen.
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Is AEW doing the right thing by unifying these championships? Or should they have trimmed down the titles long ago? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.