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Tony Khan Addresses Pushback Over AEW National Title, Says He Spoke With Billy Corgan

November 15, 2025 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Tony Khan AEW WrestleDream 2025, AEW Dark Image Credit: AEW

Tony Khan has addressed the pushback over AEW instituting a National Championship, noting he spoke with NWA owner Billy Corgan. As noted, AEW announced that the National Championship will see its first champion crowned at Full Gear. Khan spoke in a new Twitter video about plans for the title on Friday. He said some of the participants will be revealed in the Casino Gauntlet match at Collision. Khan went on to say that matches will take place next week to determine the top two slots in the match.

Khan then went on to address the pushback from fans and wrestlers about the new title. The NWA has their own National Championship, and the current champion Mike Mondo said there is “only one PRESTIGIOUS National Championship that holds legit lineage & has for decades.” Khan discussed the matter, and you can see highlights below:

On the Pushback Over the Title:

“There’s been a lot of talk about the National Title and the National Title match. And there’s been a lot of talk from people in and outside of AEW. It’s been really interesting. And of course, the National Championship will be decided at AEW Full Gear. But when I recently announced it, I saw a lot of talk online. And there was chatter from people from other promotions, people all over. Wrestlers are going to talk and say stuff; that’s totally cool.

On Talking To Billy Corgan:

“But I ended up having a nice conversation about it with the President of the NWA, Billy Corgan. Because of course, the NWA National Championship has a great history of its own. And when we created a National Champions, I saw NWA wrestlers saying, ‘Hey, we have a National Title.’ Well, AEW is a separate company, we have our own lineage. And I would just like to say that Billy, I have a lot of respect for him. And I have a lot of respect for what he’s doing. I really love the traditions of pro wrestling, and I had a nice talk with Billy. We haven’t talked in a long time and it was good for him to hear this.

“I respect him and the NWA, and we’re trying to do something different here. We brought pro wrestling back to TBS, but there are a lot of promotions that had a great history on TBS before AEW, and one of them is the NWA. I think it’s great that Billy is trying to keep that tradition alive and revive it. So we had a really nice talk about this. So to any wrestlers anywhere in the world, particularly you in the NWA, you might be happy to hear Billy and I had a nice talk about this. And I’m sure he would say the same.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Tony Khan with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

article topics :

AEW, NWA, Tony Khan, Jeremy Thomas