Paul “Triple H” Levesque, in his words, shook the very foundation of WWE two weeks ago when he announced plans to crown a new WWE World Champion. According to Levesque, in storyline, Reigns had been able to contractually get out of defending the title multiple times, thusly holding it hostage and not allowing it to be defended. So, it was decided, Reigns will retain his Universal Championship on whatever brand he was drafted to, eventually back to Smackdown, but a new WWE World Champion will be crowned on the other brand, which we now know to be Raw.
At today’s WWE Backlash press conference, Levesque announced that a tournament will begin this Monday on Raw to crown the new WWE World Champion. According to the WWE Chief Content Officer, two triple threat matches will be held on Monday night with the two winners advancing to a singles match at the end of the night. The same thing will happen next Friday on Smackdown, with the winner of that night’s final singles match taking on the Raw singles match winner at Night of Champions. Got that?
The way the new champion is being decided is a bit of a head-scratcher. It was not made clear whether Raw talent would be competing on Smackdown for a chance at the World title. Or, if it will be a Smackdown talent competing to take on a Raw talent at Night of Champions. If the situation is the latter, it would mean there’s a chance Smackdown could have both world titles again, leaving Raw without a top champion, and drawing even further confusion about why Reigns was stripped of it in the first place.
On the Raw side of things, The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported earlier today that Seth “Freaking” Rollins is the favorite to win the WWE World Championship. Cody Rhodes is listed as the number two most likely wrestler to hold the gold but noo Smackdown talents were mentioned as being in the discussion to be the new champion.
Stay with Haus of Wrestling for all the latest on the WWE World Championship tournament