CM Punk always the biggest story in wrestling.

It's one watermark away from being a resurrection of GTV. Honestly, this looks kinda creepy. Almost like somebody was filming the chick without her knowledge, and then CM Punk just showed up, so that became the story which provided the perfect alibi for the potential stalking.

I understand that "armchair booking" always seems better in your head, but I personally feel like my idea of having a triple threat with Roman, Sami, and Cody where then end up in a perdicament where both Sami and Cody pinned Roman at the same time in a heap would have solved this months ago. You have two guys who beat Roman when they were both white hot, then have "deliberation" and then use whatever current version of Jack Tunney they want to use (Pierce, Hunter, Regal... wait, he can't appear on TV for awhile, not him) to give the obvious decision to resplit the unified titles just in time for the draft that they'll eventually start ignoring again after Survivor Series.

To the larger issue of the brand split and multiple champions, though: I've always been of the mind that if WWE is going to do this, they need to do it. What I mean is, I know that I'm in the minority who actually likes what this is supposed to be doing on paper, it'll only work if WWE stays consistent with it... and they never do.

It was supposed to be helping more guys get over, but constantly devolves into "top half of the card guys on both shows" until they decide to "shake things up" by temporarily making people "exclusive". It's a variation of the Smackdown Six era problem where the supposed flagship show RAW got boring and predictable and Heyman was making guys over on Smackdown... just for RAW to answer by plucking the over talent instead of trying harder or doing something different.

So, if you're going to put both belts on one guy, combine them. If you insist on having two champions, quit going back to unification matches with no idea how to get out if it again.

Hell, it could be as simple as making a rule that one guy can't hold the championship for both shows. Boom, done. Eliminates the unifications, and if they insist on having one guy win both belts for a "moment", he has to relinquish the other like the result of Hogan/Warrior, but with two world titles.

They should just have Roman win this new title.

LOL that would be amazing.

KInda feels like having a new world title takes away a little from the huge moment that would be Reigns' eventual dethroning.

I kind of get it. There is a story there where there is no Undisputed Champ. It kind of makes Reigns’ dethroning seem *more* important in a backwards kind of way. Like there’s not so much pressure on it. It’s now part of this system that seems to be producing stars people are relevatively interested in without the belt. I feel like a Jey Uso or a Gunther or Bron Breakker could do it now.

It isn’t classic wrestling. It feels like they’re lowering themselves to that in some ways. I get the rejection of the idea. But it does feel kind of…liberating in this modern wrestling way. I dunno. They feel more “in control” of their bullshit than they often do. And as I said earlier—this can kind of be used for stories when it comes to having guys crossover to go for the other belt and eventually unify them.

It probably ties into their global expansion plans too. The new “TV” deals could see expansion to streaming and the like that could justify, hypothetically, having bigger and more unique sandboxes.

I’m curious but overall disempassioned by the idea. But it’s certainly a new “flow” to whatever it is they’re doing.

The nerd in me is curious about whether this is a new title history or an old one, but then I realize that it doesn’t really matter. A new history might encourage me to think that they might go with an unexpected champion from a different cultural background for PR reasons. Like a Bobby Lashley or a Rey Mysterio to tout that.

It seems like it could be all about ticking up guys career accolades. I think the US and IC Titles could be used for that, but there is the modern realization that audiences just don’t care about those belts in the same way and you’re kicking water uphill trying to make them. They’re kind of albatrosses. Not that I think they should bail on Gunther getting the record.

My general prediction would be Cody gets it, LA Knight gets it from him, Cody goes to the other show via Royal Rumble and we get something like Roman/Cody and LA/Sami at Mania. I could also see them getting Sami into Saudi and having him win it in a “big” moment. But I’m not unconvinced it won’t be used as a belt to show off people of color or whatever.

I hope it comes from inspiration and their acknowledgment to see potential stars that they just can’t jam through the “Roman door” at the same time…but we’ll see.

The silly way Triple H turned on Roman made me think there is story in mind. But maybe it’s a forced hand or just Trips trying to imbue the new belt with cred that otherwise doesn’t make sense.

Something about the way he said it could be defended anywhere in the world sounded weird. Almost like they’d worked out international deals or something.

I’ll mark out if Nakamura gets it.

Oh, I can also see Edge winning it. He then drops it to Cena in his retirement later this year for Cena’s 17th.

Looks like we've solved that problem!

But for real: I think the new title looks really good, but I do not love that we will be back to two champions. Especially since the current champion has had a run like we haven't seen.

Lol They seriously unified Reigns’ titles just to create another new world title? Holy shit, that is dumb.

It completely shits on him holding both titles this whole time and being the “final boss” for anyone who wants to call themselves champion. And it retroactively shits on the importance of every challenger. Now suddenly Cody, Sami and these guys who fell short and were devastated by it? No big deal. Just go win the other one.

Cody will probably win it and they’ll expect people to be gullible enough to buy it as his big “finish the story” moment as if it’s not just a consolation prize because they didn’t wanna go so far as to give him the REAL title.

The belt itself looks to be the child of Big Goldie and the Cruiserweight Championship and has been designed on WWE 2K23. This feels like a misstep to me. I’d prefer a hard brand split with 1 World/Tag/Women’s champion that are allowed to move between shows at will. There’s stories you can tell with that. For example, when Rey walked away from Raw to get away from Dom, you could have Dom trying to win the Tag belts as his “passport” to SmackDown to further antagonise his father. You can have the champ dodge a challenger by not appearing on their show. Have that challenger try to win MITB as their passport to move between brands.

And yeah, if Cody wins this to “finish his story” then fuck.

Feel like they added the tie so Reigns can be the champ but take a y month vacation. He comeback and goes for the new title.

If he does win it, then it will be part of his own story. It’ll leave the Universal Title (which Dusty also never challenged for) for later.

They should have figured out a way to split the title's off Roman. Why not do a triple threat ladder match where both belts are hanging separately? Have Roman grab the first one and somehow not the second.

The problem with that is that there’s no reason to put the belts up separately. And then it’s kind of bullshit to have someone win won and someone win the other. Splitting the titles was always going to be way too cute.

I could have seen them announcing that each brands title is to be treated as such at that Roman will no longer just be able to hangout on SD as long as he is RAW champ as well. Reigns comes out and complains about how he's too big, too important to be pushed around and forced to work all the shows. Management then tells him if he wants to stay on SD, thats fine, they have a solution to that and they immediately strip him of the other title and then do the tourny on RAW for a new champ there.

No one gets hurt in that scenario. The only issue is that it sets Roman up to have beef with the authority which is typically face turn territory.

That’s basically what they did. Except instead of stripping him of one title randomly (Why the WWE Title? Why not the Universal?) and diluting that, they’ve just created a new one. Whoever wins the WWE/Universal Title in that scenario still doesn’t beat Roman Reigns for anything.

They should have never Unified them. Yes Roman could have both, but then he can lose one and still keep the other. He could have lost the WWE Championship to Vody, and then still get the 1000/days with the Universal. He has only had the WWE title for like 375 days at this point, and that is the one Cody wants anyways.

Losing one and not the other still diminishes the impact of someone FINALLY beating Roman anyway.

I’m not making fun of anyone’s ideas, but they all have the same problems. You either don’t unify the belts (then you’ve got the two belt problem) or you unify them for good. Going back is always going to be challenging. The best idea I could come up with Reigns being offended by a Raw bid for him in the draft and denying them World Title shots in the future, necessitating a title change or the creation of a new belt. Or both with the drama being the management doesn’t believe there is a challenger that can beat Roman.

I’m not saying it’s “better,” but it doesn’t involve Reigns losing anything.

That is exactly how they did it in 2002, where Triple H won a number 1 contender match or tournament, then Stephanie named Undertaker #1 contender, and Brock and the title being Smackdown exclusive.

That is why Bischoff awarded HHH the revived World Championship. It is certainly better than "whoever doesnt get drafted to Roman's show, gets to fight for this jnstead."

In 2001 when the WWF and WCW titles were unified we had the “first undisputed world champion in WWE history”.

Since then we’ve had a second world title created, which was then taken out of the company, necessitating a third world title, which was unified with the second world title a month later when it returned to the company, which was then unified with the first world title to make one world title again before another new world title was created which was eventually merged with the other title again before the creation of another new world title.

This creative clusterfuck they keep doubling down on that revolves around what’s supposed to be the ultimate goal for everyone on the show is a perfect example of why nothing in wrestling feels important anymore.

I wasn’t bothered by Triple H being handed the belt in a heel move by Bischoff. I was annoyed by his actual reign.

I kind of like the drama that Roman can laud over them being the “real champion.” There’s a journey a Triple H/Paul Heyman creative team can tell. Will they? That definitely remains to be seen.

They won't tell it. Even if they start to tell it, they won't finish it.

That would be the predictable pattern.