AEW’s decision to change the name of the All-Atlantic Championship has been a long time in the making.
During this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan announced that the All-Atlantic title will be renamed the AEW International Championship next week.
On next week’s Dynamite, Orange Cassidy, the current AEW All-Atlantic Champion, will face Jeff Jarrett to determine the AEW International Champion.
The Decision
The decision to rebrand the AEW All-Atlantic Championship was made months ago, according to Fightful Select.
In their report, it is noted that Warner Bros asked for something big in order to cross-promote Shazam: Fury of the Gods, which releases March 17.
Tony Khan was the one who had the idea of doing a “level up” of the championship to the International Championship.
A new championship title was created months ago to prepare specifically for this week and next week in order to promote the new film.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods is the sequel to 2019’s Shazam, which tells the story of Billy Batson and his adoptive siblings, who an ancient wizard gives god-like superpowers.
Cross-Promotion
Next week’s reveal of the AEW International Championship to promote Shazam: Fury of the Gods is hardly the first time AEW has dabbled in cross-promotion.
AEW hosted a dragon-themed edition of AEW Dynamite in August last year, to cross-promote the Game of Thrones spinoff series House of the Dragon.
Fightful reports that AEW “is always excited to do the cross-promotional work” and attempts to have newsworthy items in association with them.
AEW also wanted to put something newsworthy on the Winnipeg show and increase the prestige of a title they put on television often in prime positions.