AEW’s introduction of the National Championship seems to have caught the NWA by surprise, with several performers in Billy Corgan’s promotion viewing it as a retaliatory move by Tony Khan over a trademark dispute.
This past Wednesday’s edition of AEW Dynamite saw Tony Schiavone announce a Casino Gauntlet match at Full Gear to determine the inaugural National Champion. Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and Ricochet have been announced as participants at the time of this writing.
NWA National Heavyweight Champion Mike Mondo recently called out AEW for introducing the new title, emphasizing that there is “only one prestigious National Championship that holds legitimate lineage and has for decades.”
Fellow NWA wrestler Bryan Idol claimed Wednesday’s announcement stemmed from an ongoing trademark dispute involving the “Shockwave” branding between his promotion and All Elite Wrestling. Wrestlenomics reported that while both companies had filed to trademark Shockwave, AEW’s filing implied they wanted to secure the rights in advance, as opposed to the NWA, who claimed they have been using the branding since late 2020.
Details of trademark dispute between AEW and NWA
“On June 5, Corgan’s company filed a formal opposition to the AEW application. In it, the NWA claimed it has been using the ‘NWA Shockwave’ name ‘continuously… since at least as early as December 1, 2020.’ The filing also stated that the NWA’s predecessors ‘used the NWA SHOCKWAVE mark for many years prior to [Lightning One’s] acquisition of the NWA wrestling business and associated intellectual property rights,'” per the report.
“Attorneys for the NWA wrote in the opposition filing that the company sent AEW a legal letter on September 26, 2024, demanding that AEW abandon its ‘AEW Shockwave’ application and agree in writing that AEW will not use the name or any variations that could cause confusion in the marketplace. As of the June 5 date of the filing, the NWA said AEW had not responded to the letter.”
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the AEW–NWA trademark dispute is pending review by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and isn’t expected to be resolved until 2026.
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