>>13876782WWE has a mostly adhered to brand split. 80-90% of the roster doesn't appear across the 3 WWE brands/shows, unlike in AEW/ROH where any given week, you may see Eddie Kingston on Dynamite, Rampage, Collision, ROH, or an NJPW or independent show. WWE titles feel more important because they are much more spread out. (AEW also allows outside talent like Komander, Vikingo, Zach Sabre Jr, etc, to bring their AAA/NJPW titles to the ring, further complicating matters - although to their credit, they don't allow jobbers like Vert Vixen to bring their mudshow titles to the ring)
AEW often has the mindset of an indy promotion where the poster/Instagram post/tweet/commercial advertising a match looks more impactful if one or more of the competitors has a title draped on their shoulder or across their waist. It completely undermines the idea of the wrestlers themselves being draws - not the fact they have a title or will be in a title match. You also see this with boxing, advertising the match for the IWBZ linear super junior middleweight linear championship. Cluttered nonsense. Anyway.
Ospreay is getting the exact right treatment right now - no title, no title shots, first marquee match-up against a non-titleholder on PPV. Okada got the opposite treatment, almost immediately given a title while barely having a feud. Mercedes is in the middle - feuding/interacting with the TBS champion but no title shot announced as of yet. I'm interested to see how AEW does things moving forward
