Triple H’s announcement that promised to rock WWE to its foundations instead confirmed that the company will go back to the past to escape a corner that they booked themselves into.
On the April 24 episode of WWE RAW, Triple H announced that WWE will crown a new World Heavyweight Champion at the Night of Champions premium live event. The move will ensure that, for the first time since Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar at WWE WrestleMania 38, both RAW and SmackDown will have a world champion. Reigns has been criticized for being a part-time champion, and while this approach won’t solve that issue, it will aim to establish one full-time world champion on WWE TV.
The decision comes with plenty of potential pros and cons. On paper, it will open up opportunities for some borderline main-eventers and/or upper midcarders to be featured at the top of the card, much like the old World Heavyweight Championship. In doing so, the title could build up more stars and, ideally, lessen the sizable gap between Reigns and everyone else. But that in itself is the heart of the issue; Reigns remains far and away WWE’s top guy, and the introduction of a new world title to avoid having Reigns take a questionable loss to a less established talent acknowledges that.
Before the champion has even been crowned, some fans and critics have cracked jokes about the title by calling it the “Cody Consolation Prize”, with the thinking being that “The American Nightmare” could finish a different story by winning a world title, rather than the one he has been chasing since his 2022 return. Realistically, Rhodes will remain focused on Reigns’ title because that’s the true WWE Championship. If he does, WWE will indirectly hinder the importance of the World Heavyweight Championship from the start, as it would clearly be positioned as the “other” title.
On the plus side, there’s every reason to believe that a workhorse like Seth Rollins could quickly get the new championship over and build it up by putting on great matches on a routine basis. For the better part of a year, fans have seen Gunther elevate the WWE Intercontinental Championship with that recipe for success, so the playbook is evident. But it’ll be an uphill battle to make viewers invest in the title and believe in its importance, given the way WWE’s main-event men’s championship picture has been entirely centered around Reigns for over 900 days.
The WWE Draft also looms large on the road forward. The WWE roster will likely look quite different following the May 1 episode of WWE RAW, the second night of the draft. Presumably, the landscape will be clear, and fans will know which potential contenders could challenge for the new title. As of this writing, WWE has not announced how the World Heavyweight Champion will be crowned, so it’s too early to make specific predictions. At this stage, the WWE Universe can hope that the process of crowning the champion will begin the process of establishing the World Heavyweight Championship as a genuinely meaningful prize on a strong note, and the subsequent reign will lift it up from there.
