AEW Creates New National Title, NWA Champion Reacts

All Elite Wrestling will soon have another championship after AEW CEO Tony Khan announced the creation of the AEW National Title ahead of Wednesday night's Dynamite. The inaugural champion will be crowned in a Casino Gauntlet at the Full Gear pay-per-view, with Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and Ricochet being announced as three of the participants.

Khan established the new championship alongside Tony Schiavone on an X/Twitter stream, with Khan noting the justification for the new title was he missed seeing the National Championship on TBS.

The original National Championship was established in 1980 and was the top singles title in Georgia Championship Wrestling, with the title eventually moving to other NWA territories until the belt was unified with the NWA United States Championship in 1986.

Tony Khan revealed the AEW National Title will be defended across multiple promotions, including Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. AEW initially had a similar strategy with the All-Atlantic Championship/International Title but this ceased after the belt was unified with the AEW Continental Title to create the AEW Unified Championship.

While the belt hasn't appeared on TBS since 1986, the NWA National Championship still exists today after being revived first in 1997, before being brought back in 2018 as part of Billy Corgan's National Wrestling Alliance.

The belt is currently held by Mike Mondo - FKA Mikey of the Spirit Squad in WWE - and he expressed his unhappiness with the AEW National Title on social media, writing:

"Let me be CLEAR. There is only ONE NWA & there is only one PRESTIGIOUS National Championship that holds legit lineage & has for decades. So to Tony Khan or anyone else confused… here's the legit title, with the company it belongs to & the legit National Champion! MY NAME IS MIKE MONDO."

The AEW National Title is the fourth championship created by Tony Khan in 2025, following on from the ROH Women's Pure Championship, AEW Unified Championship, and AEW Women's Tag Team Championships.