The World Heavyweight Championship is returning to WWE.
Amid Roman Reigns’ 967-day Undisputed WWE Universal Championship reign, WWE’s chief operating officer Triple H announced that there will be a second world title joining the mix. This time, it will be featured exclusively on Monday Night Raw.
Roman Reigns and his belts will remain on SmackDown following Friday’s WWE Draft. The new World Heavyweight Championship is going to stay on Monday nights. The first champion will be crowned at WWE Night of Champions on May 27 at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
The belt closely resembles the base design of the former WCW World Heavyweight Championship, which was later adopted by the WWE as simply the World Heavyweight Championship. It was used until the title, affectionately known as ‘the big gold belt’, was merged with the WWE Championship in 2013.
Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a winner-take-all, champion vs. champion tables, ladders and chairs match (TLC) to unify the belts for the first time. After those belts were merged into one world championship, Roman Reigns would do the same with the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship after defeating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38 to unify the belts.
New Title, New Era
The question for months surrounding Reigns and the world titles was: How do you get the belts off of him?
There were people willing to bet their houses on Cody Rhodes walking out of WrestleMania 39 as world champion. WWE could have set something up to where Reigns relinquished one belt and kept the other. Instead, we have a new world title and Reigns can surpass 1,000 days with the focus shifted elsewhere.
This also gives a whole new lease on life for some talent that otherwise would have never become world champion. Stars like Austin Theory, Gunther, Karrion Kross, LA Knight and other up-and-comers could see themselves in the world title picture. The WWE can make stars while still having already established names still in the picture as well. Depending on where everyone gets drafted, of course.
The 2023 WWE Draft is set to begin on Friday Night Smackdown later this week. It will finish up on Monday on the following week’s Raw. Everyone — other than Roman Reigns — including tag teams and factions, can be broken up and traded to whichever brand. It is the first draft held by the WWE since 2021.
