AEW at one point discussed creating a championship tied to Max, Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service, before the Continental Championship came about, according to Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp.
Sapp revealed the detail during a Fightful Select Q&A session, saying the idea surfaced in 2023 while AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery were negotiating a potential expansion of their partnership to bring the promotion’s pay-per-views to the streaming platform.
“I once upon a time heard a story that the Continental Championship was considered to be like, the MAX Championship,” Sapp said.
Sapp made clear, however, that the Continental Championship was not simply a rebranded version of the Max concept. He said he raised the subject directly with Tony Khan and was told otherwise.
“Now, when I asked Tony Khan about this, he was like, no, not really,” Sapp said.
Khan confirmed in August 2023 that he had been in conversations with Max executives about the possibility of bringing AEW’s major events to the streaming service.
According to Sapp, sources within both AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery indicated the Max Championship idea lost traction once the Continental Championship began taking shape.
“And people I talked to in AEW and WBD said that that was eventually just kind of replaced with the idea of the Continental Championship,” Sapp said.
The Continental Championship was officially introduced in November 2023 as part of the inaugural Continental Classic. Eddie Kingston became the first champion after defeating Jon Moxley in the tournament final at that year’s Worlds End.