WWE had no choice but to add World Heavyweight championship
The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.
Triple H unveiled a reboot of the World Heavyweight championship on “Monday Night Raw,” giving WWE a third world title and a consolation prize of sorts to a roster that has seen Roman Reigns dominate it for nearly 1,000 days.
Reigns will bring his Undisputed WWE Universal championship — which is really two belts and not one unless the company decides to change that — to whatever brand he is drafted to starting on Friday. And unless WWE drops the word “undisputed” — along with Reigns’ dominance — the new title will always feel less than because you will be a champ, but you won’t be the champ.
Even when Reigns does eventually lose, that person beating him will likely feel like a bigger deal than the World Heavyweight champion. Reigns could have a field day just fileting the need for a new belt because no one can beat him.
Even so, the decision to create another world title was one that had to be made and felt desperately needed – only because WWE booked itself into this unfortunate situation in the first place and decided to take an easy way out.
It’s hard to believe this decision being made after the announced sale to Endeavor on April 3 and WWE’s media rights being up is a coincidence. WWE has tried hard to raise the profile of the Intercontinental and United States titles, but if I’m a network shelling out a billion dollars in TV rights, I’d want my own champion, too.
The new champion will be crowned May 27 at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia, which was supposed to be King and Queen of the Ring, until the name was changed on April 13.
But let’s not forget how we got here and why this was necessary in the first place, even as Triple H likes to go on TV and blame Reigns’ more cushy part-time contract for it in storyline — a deal he deserves and WWE agreed to.
We can trace this back to the Day 1 pay-per-view in January 2022 when Vince McMahon decided to cut Big E’s very popular WWE championship run short at 110 days with what felt like a gut-punch loss to Brock Lesnar. The Beast then lost the belt to Bobby Lashley just 28 days later at the Royal Rumble. Then instead of leaving the belt alone with a fine champion in Lashley, McMahon had Lesnar win it back 21 days later at the Elimination Chamber to set up an unneeded champion vs. champion match at WrestleMania 38 where Reigns ended up unifying the titles.
Roman Reigns holds both the Universal and WWE championship. WWE
It felt like the forward-thinking ended there as you now had an unbeatable champion who wasn’t going to work enough dates to defend both titles separately and not lose in any shape or form, handcuffing WWE to not come up with a more ingenious way to split the titles. Maybe a ladder match where one man grabs one belt and the other grabs the other or Reigns has to put one up in the Royal Rumble match.
The belt itself, while less generic than the other ones, looks like a cross between the new Intercontinental championship and the classic big gold belt, which the company retired in 2011.
Triple H unveiled the new World Heavyweight championship on Raw on Monday. WWE
WWE needs to keep Cody Rhodes far away from it.
Rhodes has made it clear he’s back for the WWE championship, which no Rhodes has ever held. Dusty Rhodes was a World Heavyweight champion, so his son should have no interest in a secondary title that does not “finish the story.” It is, however, perfect for Seth Rollins as he is the only man Reigns has faced and lost to — by DQ — in a title match during this run and he is super over right now.
Yes, this new belt could create “world title” opportunities for other deserving stars as Reigns racks up as many days as he and WWE choose at this point. But it’s hard to imagine how much prestige will come with it for a while.
Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38 WWE
It didn’t have to come to this, but WWE left itself no choice.
Mix and Matched
Once the shock of the randomness of it wore off, I came to appreciate the segment in which Chris Jericho used The Outcasts to get to Adam Cole and Britt Baker a little more. (A remix of an old Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and Randy Orton storyline.)
One, no one saw it coming. Two, why can’t factions with aligned interests work together? Three, it really cast Baker and Cole in the babyface light they need to be for what AEW wants to accomplish in conjunction with “All Access” and the doctor’s hometown of Pittsburgh was the perfect place to do it.
Baker yelling “Austin” to her handcuffed boyfriend and not Adam as Saraya was smashing her with a kendo stick was a nice touch.
It also puts some heat on Jericho — not as much if he was the one to strike Baker — to kick off a feud with Cole that would have had very superficial reasons otherwise and gave the women’s side a much-needed jolt after weeks of paint-by-numbers booking.
A few things must follow this now for it to not just be a random one-off. The Jericho Appreciation Society and The Outcasts just can’t stop working together. The more links the better.
Maybe we get Jericho and Saraya vs. Cole and Baker at some point, too. I can see this leading to the return of Kyle O’Reilly, who is trying to come back from injury, because Cole needs a friend or he just teams with Keith Lee.
Lastly, I’m not sure how much longer we can wait for all the women the Outcasts have wronged to really stand with Baker and Jamie Hayter, who the group took out earlier in the night. It was kind of surprising that not one of them came to Baker’s aid on Wednesday. More needs to come from this.
The 10 Count
It’s great that Will Hobbs (Sacramento) and Wardlow (Pittsburgh) both won the TNT championship in towns that were happy to see them do so, it but that feud really didn’t help either one of them in the long run. Hobbs was champion for a little more than a month, had some forgettable matches and got caught up in the weird QTV stuff. Wardlow has now won the title three times in the last nine months and his momentum has cooled. Maybe, teaming him with Arn Anderson — who I’m happy is finally back on TV and still using “the glock” — changes things, but Wardlow really needs a long title run this time. Orange Cassidy and the AEW International championship has surpassed the TNT title in importance.
Arn Anderson congratulates Wardlow on his TNT championship win. AEW
I must say, I’m enjoying The Bloodline mind games that are going on, especially Jimmy Uso searching out Sami Zayn to plant the seed that he should be worried about his “brother” Kevin Owens dumping him should they lose the tag titles on SmackDown. Follow that up with Owens being rightfully annoyed with Zayn still being sympathetic to Jey Uso. With Zayn not being able to go to Saudi Arabia and Jey dedicating the match to Reigns, does WWE split the titles with a double pin?
Heel Bron Breakker is already off to a great start. He should just keep showing up and attacking random people. Good job by NXT to make the change at the absolute right time and it feels very natural for him.
As a big wrestling fan, Bad Bunny had to get a kick out of getting a limo arrival to the building and then getting to close out Raw with a promo and a kendo stick beatdown of Damian Priest. While I had Bunny pegged for a tag match at Backlash, getting him versus real-life friend Priest in a street fight should be a treat. Now that he is not hosting, is The Miz available?
Liv Morgan pouring water on Chelsea Green was a fun receipt and good storytelling. Raquel Rodriguez helping Morgan on the pin was not for babyfaces. This feud doesn’t feel over, but the latter is not the reason you want it continuing.
It may not be perfect, but at least this MJF story is different than what we have gotten in the past when we pretty much knew who his opponent would be but he just had to get through some random tasks to get there. With the Pillars Tournament, we don’t know who will face the world champ at Double or Nothing, we don’t know what Sammy Guevara’s price was and if he or MJF will keep their end of the deal or if there pact makes Tony Khan force MJF into a four-way match anyway.
Sammy Guevara and MJF celebrate after his win on Dynamite. AEW
There was some revisionist history as far as Karrion Kross’ exploits, but his promo and the jiu-jitsu video package for Shinsuke Nakamura felt like old school WWE to raise the relevance of a new feud. Thought it worked and hopefully this all unlocks the career boost both men need.
That Grayson Waller Effect segment was a reminder that if you thought booking two babyfaces in a title match was hard, try booking two heels. There just isn’t a compelling story there.
We are finally getting Jade Cargill vs. Taya Valkyrie for the TBS championship on Dynamite this week with the challenger getting disqualified if she uses her finisher. My guess is that is what we get out of spite and to prove Valkyrie can beat her with it before Double or Nothing. I have liked how Cargill has played the overconfident and pre-occupied champion lately.
Seth Rollins vs. Omos at Backlash is as random a PPV match as it gets. Does Vince get to book one match per PPV now? Playing it off as MVP requested it was a decent cover.
Wrestler of the Week
Wardlow, All Elite Wrestling
If Wardlow is ever going to get the push he deserves, it’s now or never. The big man won the TNT championship back by beating Will Hobbs on Dynamite and has a Hall of Famer for a manager in Arn Anderson. The setup is there for him to deliver now.
Match to watch
Indi Hartwell (c.).vs. Roxanne Perez vs. Tiffany Straton, NXT women’s championship, Tuesday (8 p.m., USA Networks)
This is the most fascinating match of NXT Spring Breakin’ because it will be a referendum on Hartwell — a surprise winner at Stand and Deliver. If she wins, we just might see an extended title reign. A loss could mean her original title win was a farewell present before a call-up to the main roster in the draft. If that’s the case, let Straton win so Perez’s chase to regain her title continues
Honorable mention: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vs. The Usos (Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships)
Source: New York Post
