AEW World Trios Championship

The AEW World Trios Championship is a men's professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It is a specialized tag team championship, being contested by teams of three wrestlers, referred to as trios. The reigning champions are The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata), who are in their first reign, both as a team and individually. They won the title by defeating previous champions Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and Jon Moxley)^[b] at Dynamite: Spring BreakThru on April 16, 2025.

AEW World Trios Championship
The standard AEW World Trios Championship belts
Details
Promotion	All Elite Wrestling
Date established	July 27, 2022
Current champions	The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata)
Date won	April 16, 2025
Other names
AEW World Trios Championship (2022–present) Unified World Trios Championship[a] (2024)
Statistics First champions The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) Most reigns As a team (2 reigns): The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) As individual (2 reigns): Kenny Omega Matt Jackson Nick Jackson Pac Longest reign The Acclaimed (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Billy Gunn) (238 days) Shortest reign The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) (1st reign, 3 days) Oldest champion Billy Gunn (59 years, 289 days) Youngest champion Nick Wayne (19 years, 10 days) Heaviest champion The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata) (760 lbs combined)

The title was established on July 27, 2022, and the inaugural champions were The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson). From April until July 2024, the AEW World Trios Championship and Ring of Honor's World Six-Man Tag Team Championship were held and defended together as the Unified World Trios Championship.

History

Record two-time and inaugural champions The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson)

On the July 27, 2022, special episode of Dynamite titled Fight for the Fallen, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced a tournament for the inaugural AEW World Trios Championship, which would culminate at the All Out pay-per-view on September 4, 2022. Unlike the AEW World Tag Team Championship, which is a standard tag team title contested by teams of two wrestlers, the Trios Championship is contested by teams of three wrestlers, referred to as trios.^[1][2] At All Out, The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) defeated "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions.^[3]

Following berating comments made by reigning AEW World Champion CM Punk at the All Out post-event media scrum on September 5, a legitimate physical altercation occurred between Punk and The Elite. As a result, AEW president Tony Khan suspended all involved.^[4] On the September 7 episode of Dynamite, Khan announced that both the World Championship and Trios Championship were vacated. Khan then announced that the episode's scheduled six-man tag team match between Death Triangle (Pac, Penta El Zero M, and Rey Fénix) and Best Friends (Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta, and Orange Cassidy) would be for the vacant Trios Championship, which was won by Death Triangle.^[5]

During Dynasty: Zero Hour on April 21, 2024, Ring of Honor World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bullet Club Gold (Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) defeated The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Billy Gunn) to win the AEW World Trios Championship in a winners take all championship unification match to unify the titles and become recognized as the Unified World Trios Champions.^[6][7] When Bullet Club Gold (who since became known as the Bang Bang Gang) were stripped of the Unified Trios Titles on July 10, 2024 (aired July 13), the AEW and ROH titles were separated, thus ending the unification.^[8]

Inaugural tournament

Quarterfinals Dynamite (August 17 and 24, 2022) Rampage (August 19 and 26, 2022)

Semifinals Dynamite (August 31, 2022) Rampage (September 2, 2022)

Finals All Out (September 4, 2022)

Death Triangle (Pac, Penta El Zero M, and Rey Fénix)

24:51[9]

United Empire (Kyle Fletcher, Mark Davis, and Will Ospreay)

Pin

United Empire

18:59[10]

The Elite

Pin

La Facción Ingobernable (Andrade El Idolo, Dragon Lee, and Rush)

20:50[11]

The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson)

Pin

The Elite

Pin

"Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver)

19:50[3]

The House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews)

9:03[12]

The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, John Silver, and Preston Vance)

Pin

"Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver)[c]

Pin

Best Friends

11:10[14]

The Trustbusters (Ari Daivari, Parker Boudreaux, and Slim J)

10:32[15]

Best Friends (Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta, and Orange Cassidy)

Pin

Belt design

The standard AEW World Trios Championship belts were made by Ron Edwardsen of Red Leather Belts. They have five gold plates on black leather straps. The circular center plate has a blue globe at the center with "TRIOS" written across the globe in black with a gold border. Above the globe is a black banner that says "WORLD" in gold while a black banner below the globe says "CHAMPION" in gold. At the top of the plate is AEW's logo while filigree fills out the rest of the plate. Sitting on either side of the center plate are two side plates each. The inner side plates show two wrestlers performing simultaneous superkicks on another wrestler.^[16] The outer side plates originally showed a wrestler performing an electric chair driver, but when the standard belts returned in 2024 after the custom "scissoring" belts had been used, the outer side plates were changed to saying "WORLD TRIOS CHAMPION" (which had first appeared on the scissoring belts).

Custom designs

The custom "scissoring" belts first used by The Acclaimed (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Billy Gunn). Bullet Club Gold/Bang Bang Gang (Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) then held these belts in tandem with the standard belts and the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship belts to represent the Unified World Trios Championship.

During House of Black's (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews) reign that began in March 2023, they introduced their own custom "black out" versions of the championship belts. The belts featured mostly the same basic design as the standard belts, but with silver plates instead of gold (the globe was also black instead of blue). The side plates were also changed to The House of Black's logos with a vertical "HOB" tooled into the leather between the outer side plates and the button snaps.^[17]

After The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Billy Gunn) won the title in August 2023, they introduced their own custom "scissoring" championship belts. They featured the same basic design as the standard belts, but with pink straps. Additionally, the ends of the belts were shaped like scissors and said "Scissor Me" on one side and "Daddy Ass" on the other side, referencing their "scissoring" gimmick. The inner side plates were the same as the standard belts, but the outer side plates were changed to saying "WORLD TRIOS CHAMPION". AEW's logo was also added to the top of each side plate.^[18]

During Dynasty: Zero Hour in April 2024, ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bullet Club Gold (Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) defeated The Acclaimed to win the AEW World Trios Championship, holding and defending both titles under the Unified World Trios Championship banner, using the standard AEW Trios belts, the ROH World Six-Man belts, and The Acclaimed's custom "scissoring" belts to represent the collective accolade. This would continue until July 2024 when Bullet Club Gold (who had since become known as the Bang Bang Gang) were stripped of the Unified World Trios Championship. This subsequently ended the unification of the AEW and ROH titles with the custom "scissoring" belts also being dropped in favor of the standard AEW World Trios Championship belts.^[19]

Reigns

Current champions The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata).

As of August 7, 2025, there have been nine reigns between eight teams composed of 23 individual champions, and two vacancies. The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) were the inaugural champions and they have the most reigns as a team at two, while individually, all three and Pac are tied, also at two. The Elite's inaugural reign is also the shortest at three days while The Acclaimed's (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Billy Gunn) sole reign is the longest at 238 days. Billy Gunn is the oldest champion, winning the title at 59, while Nick Wayne is the youngest at 19.^[3][5]

The current champions are The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata) who are in the first reign, both as a team and individually. They defeated the Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and Jon Moxley)^[b] at Dynamite: Spring BreakThru on April 16, 2025, in Boston, Massachusetts.^[20]

Name	Years
AEW World Trios Championship	September 4, 2022 – present
Unified World Trios Championship	April 21, 2024 – July 13, 2024

Key

No.	Overall reign number
Reign	Reign number for the specific team—reign numbers for the individuals are in parentheses, if different
Days	Number of days held
Days recog.	Number of days held recognized by the promotion
+	Current reign is changing daily

No.	Champion	Championship change			Reign statistics			Notes	Ref.
		Date	Event	Location	Reign	Days	Days recog.
1	The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson)	September 4, 2022	All Out	Hoffman Estates, IL	1	3	3	Defeated "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) in a tournament final to determine the inaugural champions.	[3]
—	Vacated	September 7, 2022	Dynamite	Buffalo, NY	—	—	—	The Elite were stripped of the title after being suspended by AEW president Tony Khan following a legitimate backstage physical altercation with CM Punk and Ace Steel that occurred during the All Out post-event media scrum.	[5]
2	Death Triangle (Pac, Penta El Zero M, and Rey Fénix)	September 7, 2022	Dynamite	Buffalo, NY	1	126	126	Defeated Best Friends (Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta, and Orange Cassidy) to win the vacant championship.	[5]
3	The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson)	January 11, 2023	Dynamite	Inglewood, CA	2	53	53	This was an Escalera de la Muerte that was also the seventh and final match in a Best of Seven Series for the championship.	[21]
4	House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews)	March 5, 2023	Revolution	San Francisco, CA	1	175	175		[22]
5	The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Billy Gunn)	August 27, 2023	All In	London, England	1	238	238	This was a "House Rules match"; The Acclaimed's stipulation was No Holds Barred.	[23]
6	Bullet Club Gold/Bang Bang Gang (Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn)	April 21, 2024	Dynasty Zero Hour	St. Louis, MO	1	80	83	This was a Winners Take All Title Unification match also for Bullet Club Gold's ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship. With both titles, Bullet Club Gold were referred to as the Unified World Trios Champions and during this reign, the group was renamed to Bang Bang Gang. AEW recognizes this reign as ending on July 13, 2024, when the following episode aired on tape delay.	[24]
—	Vacated	July 10, 2024	Collision	Calgary, AB, Canada	—	—	—	Bang Bang Gang were stripped of the Unified World Trios Championship by interim AEW Executive Vice President Christopher Daniels after Jay White suffered an injury, overruling Bang Bang Gang's attempt to invoke the Freebird Rule to allow Juice Robinson to defend the title in place of White. This subsequently ended the unification with the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship. This episode aired on tape delay on July 13, 2024.	[25][8]
7	The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch, and Nick Wayne)	July 20, 2024	Collision	Arlington, TX	1	36	36	Defeated Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) to win the vacant championship.	[26]
8	Blackpool Combat Club/Death Riders (Pac, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta)	August 25, 2024	All In	London, England	1 (2, 1, 1)	234	234	This was a four-way London Ladder match also involving Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) and House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews). During this reign on November 6, the group was renamed to the Death Riders.	[27]
9	The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata)	April 16, 2025	Dynamite: Spring BreakThru	Boston, MA	1	113+	113+	Jon Moxley filled in as substitute for the Death Riders in place of a legitimately injured Pac.	[20]

Combined reigns

As of August 7, 2025

†	Indicates the current champion

By team

The Acclaimed, consisting of Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Billy Gunn (with Caster and Bowens pictured with the AEW World Tag Team Championship), hold the record for longest singular reign at 238 days.

Rank	Team	No. of reigns	Combined days	Combined days recognized by AEW
1	The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Billy Gunn)	1	238
2	Blackpool Combat Club/Death Riders (Pac, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta)	1	234
3	House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews)	1	175
4	Death Triangle (Pac, Penta El Zero M, and Rey Fénix)	1	126
5	The Opps † (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata)	1	113+
6	Bullet Club Gold/Bang Bang Gang (Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn)	1	80	83
7	The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson)	2	56
8	The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch, and Nick Wayne)	1	36

By wrestler

Pac holds the record for longest combined days as champion at 360 days over two reigns; shown here with the AEW World Trios Championship (over his right shoulder) and the then-AEW All-Atlantic Championship (over his left shoulder).

Rank	Wrestler	No. of reigns	Combined days	Combined days recognized by AEW
1	Pac	2	360
2	Anthony Bowens	1	238
	Billy Gunn
	Max Caster
5	Claudio Castagnoli	1	234
	Wheeler Yuta
7	Brody King	1	175
	Buddy Matthews
	Malakai Black
10	Penta El Zero Miedo	1	126
	Rey Fénix
12	Samoa Joe †	1	113+
	Katsuyori Shibata †
	Powerhouse Hobbs †
15	Austin Gunn	1	80	83
	Colten Gunn
	Jay White
18	Kenny Omega	2	56
	Matt Jackson
	Nick Jackson
21	Christian Cage	1	36
	Killswitch
	Nick Wayne

Notes

1. In tandem with the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship.
2. Moxley was filling in for a legitimately injured Pac.
3. Page replaced Preston Vance because the latter was not medically cleared to compete.^[13]