With AEW Full Gear 2025 right around the corner, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan has taken to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce that a brand new champion will be crowned on November 22.
Khan confirmed that at Full Gear, a Casino Gauntlet match will take place to determine the first-ever AEW National Champion. The title is an homage to the NWA National Championship that was introduced back in 1980 and was held by the likes of Jack Brisco, Dusty Rhodes, and Tully Blanchard, but the title was eventually unified with the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship in 1986. It would eventually be reactivated in 1997 and has remained in the NWA ever since, but Khan made sure to note that a National Championship hasn't been featured on TBS for almost 40 years.
The AEW National Championship will also be a traveling title as Khan stated that the champion will defend it against any and all comers from around the world, with promotions like New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor being just some of the locations where the title will be defended (as well as AEW). During the November 5 episode of "AEW Dynamite," it was also confirmed that Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin were the first two men to sign up for the match, with Ricochet announcing himself as the third participant.
With the match official for Full Gear, the total of titles on the line at the pay-per-view now stands at five at the time of writing. Hangman Page will defend the AEW Men's World Championship against Samoa Joe, Kris Statlander defends her AEW Women's World Championship against Mercedes Mone, and FTR will attempt to take the AEW World Tag Team Championships away from Brodido. During "Dynamite," it was also confirmed that Kyle Fletcher will once again defend the AEW TNT Championship against Mark Briscoe, this time in a No Disqualification match where Briscoe will be forced to join the Don Callis Family if he loses.
