AEW’s new National Championship Title announced on Dynamite on Wednesday quickly caught attention, not just because it will be roughly the twelfth title belt for the promotion, but because the title shares a name with a championship in a prior incarnation of the National Wrestling Alliance in the 1980s, as well as the current version of the NWA under Billy Corgan’s leadership.
AEW’s introduction of the title, whose first champion is to be decided at the company’s Full Gear pay-per-view on November 22, also coincides with a separate ongoing dispute between AEW and the NWA over a different name: Shockwave.
At least one NWA wrestler claimed on social media that the introduction of the new title by AEW was retaliation over the “Shockwave” trademark litigation. The NWA has used that name for some of its wrestling events as early as 2020. AEW tried to trademark the name last year, possibly for a new television program which has not launched.
AEW and the NWA did not respond to our requests for comment for this report. Our questions to AEW included asking whether the company has any response to the claims that the new title’s name was chosen as a retaliatory move. We also asked whether AEW still has any intent to use the “Shockwave” name.
In its announcement, AEW referenced the title’s origin in the territorial era of wrestling, when the belt was prominent in then-NWA member promotions like Georgia Championship Wrestling, when the belt was seen in the 1980s on TBS, the network Dynamite airs on today.
The NWA National Title has been revived at various times since it last appeared on TBS and is being used today by the NWA. The championship is currently held by Mike Mondo, who complained on social media about AEW’s announcement on Wednesday night.
Notably, we could not find any trademark registrations or applications by AEW, the NWA, or any other entity to protect simply “National Championship” or any variation that may be tied to a championship title belt. That isn’t surprising since the phrase may be considered descriptive and has been used across decades by different entities, before Corgan’s underlying Lightning One, Inc. entity took on the NWA name. That may make it especially difficult to register and enforce as a trademark if either company wanted to.
So the trademark dispute between AEW and the NWA is over the “Shockwave” name only. NWA wrestler Bryan Idol claimed in posts online that the introduction of the new title by AEW is a response to the “Shockwave” dispute.
On September 6, 2024, according to public filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reviewed by Wrestlenomics, AEW attempted to register “AEW: Shockwave” under what’s called a “1(b)” or “intent to use” basis, meaning AEW was not yet using the name publicly, but wanted to secure rights to it in advance. Soon after, since the filing disclosed the trademark was intended to be used for a television program, wrestling media took notice. Video even emerged of Swerve Strickland talking about the possibility of a new show coming to Fox. Given that was more than a year ago, if any significant talks between AEW and Fox were happening, it seems unlikely at this point that anything like a new show on the broadcast network is going to materialize soon.
But as media and fans took notice of AEW’s trademark application, the NWA did too. A few weeks after AEW’s application, on September 23, 2024, the NWA filed its own application to register “NWA Shockwave.” Unlike AEW’s filing, the NWA filed the application under a “1(a)” or “use in commerce” basis. That means they claimed they were already using the name in business, specifically since December 1, 2020, when they debuted a series of events that were streamed on YouTube that used that branding.
While the NWA’s application was pending, after seemingly not using the name for a few years, the NWA branded another series of shows “Shockwave” in January of this year.
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.”
A search of Cagematch.net shows several events using the “Shockwave” name from 2005 to 2012 in pre-Corgan NWA. The use of the name under the Smashing Pumpkins band leader’s version of the NWA (which he bought in 2017), though, appears to be limited to the two series of events in 2020 and 2025.
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.
On June 24, the NWA obtained registration of their “NWA Shockwave” application, likely thanks to the fact the company was able to show it had already used the name in commerce, as the NWA’s attorneys provided screen grabs of the “Shockwave” brand appearing in video and text on the NWA’s YouTube channel. That didn’t quite mean the NWA “won”, though. Even with their registration approved, AEW’s “AEW Shockwave” application remained active.
AEW filed its formal answer to the NWA’s opposition the next month, on July 15, denying the NWA’s claims and arguing that AEW’s application should still proceed. AEW’s attorneys argued that the NWA hadn’t used “Shockwave” continuously since 2020. They also claimed the trademarks aren’t confusingly similar, despite both using the “Shockwave” term and both possibly being applied to wrestling programming. AEW also denied that the NWA would be damaged by AEW’s use of the name.
Like many legal disputes, this one could be a long drawn out process. According to the latest filings with the USPTO, the NWA’s opposition is now the subject of an ongoing proceeding before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, where the dispute is still in its early stages and may not be resolved until well into 2026.
AEW could choose to continue to fight the opposition or withdraw its application, but for now, Tony Khan’s company appears to see enough value in the “Shockwave” branding, even if it’s unclear at this point how the promotion might use the name.
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.