World Heavyweight Championship Tournament
 

As the title suggests, who do you want to see as the first World Heavyweight Champion? The first champion will be crowned at "Night of Champions". Although it's exclusive to the RAW brand, the tournament includes Smackdown superstars.

https://i.imgur.com/6FfC9sJ.png

Reigns enters through nefarious means. Wins it. Throws the other two in the trash.

Rollins seems like the most obvious choice. Now that Rhodes is on RAW and Reigns is on Smackdown, it doesn't seem like he's going to get another chance at the Undisputed Universal Championship unless he wins the Rumble.

Rhodes winning the World Heavyweight Championship would feel very anticlimactic since his goal was to win the title that alluded his father.

I was thinking Lashley, but now he is on Smackdown. Maybe it is time they complete the 3 Man Band Trifecta and bring back Heath Slater to win it!

Or Xavier Woods, complete the Unicorn Stampede of all 3 of them winning.

HHH said it would be a title that will be defended all over the world, any time.

Clearly that means it's finally time for The Truth to be set free.

They're probably gonna give it to Drew McIntyre.

I don’t think it really matters. They need a top guy to help establish the belt which is why this is all backwards as you should be using the belt to cement the guy. For this reason you don’t want an Austin Theory type to win it. You don’t want Cody because it’s a shit end to his story. Rollins or Drew are probably your best bets. Maybe Brock if they can get him to do a prolonged run of appearances otherwise it’s just the same deal as Roman.

How the fuck have they managed to book SmackDown guys into this tournament immediately after doing a draft?

I kinda hope this is all part of a storyline where Reigns is going to steal it/trash it/whatever, which will lead to some kind of storyline where Triple H is trying to get him to defend it more. Or something.

I'm trying to think of someone different here. At first I was thinking it's time to give Finn another run...but then it hit me. Have Dom win it and it be the thing that leads to a power struggle between him and Finn for the leadership of Judgement Day.

Plus Dom and Rhea power couple would be tits.

Dominic Mysterio World Heavyweight Champion. Oof.

They realistically should put it on Gunther now that he is on Raw, but I am pretty sure they want him to break the longest reign as IC Champ record, which would be sometime after Summerslam.

I don't think they will want to make McIntyre the first champion unless he signs a new deal.

I think it has to be somebody that hasn't already lost to Reigns multiple times the last 3 years, or they immediately are a consolation champion.

Rollins fits that build, but he would need to become far more serious to be champion.

If Sheamus gets drafted to Raw, he would be a good option as well, and could revisit the fued with Gunther once Gunther drops the IC Title.

A dark horse would be if they have Damien Priest do something truly dastardly to Bad Bunny, like trying to actually cripple the dude, and ride him as a fully unlocked truly evil heel.

I still think Lashley would have been the best choice since he twice lost the WWE title while remaining fully protected, but they sent him to Smackdown.

Kinda personally hope Orton is involved. I really want him.to break the record.

* Seth Rollins is knocked out of the tournament by Finn Balor. The two finalists in the Universal Title crowning. Logan Paul costs Seth, setting up a Night of Champions match between the two.

* Cody defeats Drew McIntyre.

* Brock Lesnar defeats Matt Riddle in an actual Raw match.

* Gunther defeats Dominik Mysterio. He’s offered a bye because he’s IC Champ, but refuses to take it and demands to defend his title every step of the way.

* Cody is attacked by Judgment Day. His arm/pec is targeted. JD McDonagh joins Judgment Day and teaches Balor a hold to target Cody’s injury.

* Brock tells Gunther he doesn’t want his shitty IC Title.

* Night of Champions sees Balor beat Cody. Brandi throws in the towel when Balor gets Cody in his new submission. Gunther beats Brock Lesnar in a slobberknocker.

* Judgment Day try to get involved in the main event between Gunther and Balor. Imperium (+ Ilja Dragunov) hit the scene to battle them off. Cody comes in, nails Balor with a steel chair. Gunther wins the title.

If you want to expand the tournament, Seth can beat Miz, Balor can beat Woods, McIntyre can beat Sheamus, Brock can beat Kofi (who should be back soon), Gunther can beat Dominik first round and Priest second, Priest beats Apollo.

ngl that's some good sports entertainment shit Nerfect.

Rest of Night of Champions:

* Street Profits defeat lWo, Los Lotharios and Shelton Benjamin/Cedric Alexander in a Tag Team Showcase. Ziggler & Ali jump them after the match.

* Braun Strowman/Ricochet/Liv Morgan/Raquel Rodriguez defeat Alpha Academy/Alba Fyre/Isla Dawn for bragging rights. Braun presses Raquel onto everybody at some point.

* Rhea Ripley defeats Shayna Baszler w/ Ronda Rousey to retain the SmackDown Women’s Titlr. Rhea wants Ronda, who looks like she considers it, then backs down.

* Bobby Lashley defeats Austin Theory to retain the US Title. Lashley wins the US Title at Backlash, pinning Bronson Reed. Theory tries to get Reed onside by promising him a shot at the belt if he helps him beat Lashley. Reed fools Theory’s attempt to cheat at NoC and Lashley gets Theory in The Hurt Lock for the win. Theory yells at Reed after the match and gets laid out and Splashed.

* Mansoor defeats The Miz. MMM reject Miz, who takes offense to set this up.

* Logan Paul defeats Seth Rollins with help from Omos.

* Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus vs. Indi Hartwell - 2 Fall Match. 1st is NXT title, 2nd Raw. Trish hits Becky with a Chick Kick while Becky has Indi in the Dis-Arm-Her. Trish pins Becky to win NXT title. Becky pins Trish to win the Raw title, exiling Bianca from the show and making her SmackDown full-time.

* Edge/Owens/Zayn/Rey defeat The Bloodline. Edge returns and declares his intent to capture the Universal Title. This is elimination rules. Solo gets himself disqualified when it goes 20 minutes deep and there is no one gone. Zayn kicks out of whatever is done to him and tags in Owens. Stunner, Helluva Kick, Spear and Frog Splash ends Jey Uso. Owens is pinned after a Frog Splash is countered with knees and he’s cradled by Jimmy Uso. Rey is distracted by Jimmy and Reigns Spears him to eliminate him. Edge then Spears Reigns out of nowhere to hand Reigns his 1st pin in however many years. Jimmy Uso manages to find a way to eliminate Edge. Zayn gets Jimmy in the Koji Clutch for the submission.

I just realized that Belair has been the RAW Women's Champion for over a year at this point. It would be absolutely mental to have her lose the title just because she moved to a new brand.

But even more mental to have them swap the belts again.

That's gotta be an "oof" for me dawg.

Heath Slater

I wonder if Rhea will just drop her belt on the ground like Charlotte did :rofl:

How do they get out of this situation?

Another belt swap? Ergh.
Have Bianca drop to IYO and Rhea drop to Zelina? That’s a year + reign ended and someone’s momentum halted.
Rebrand the belts: WWE Women’s Champion and Women’s World Heavyweight Championship? Do women even tend to have a heavyweight division?

See if they’d not invented this new men’s belt they could have just done a unification and had a Men’s, Women’s and Tag champ(s) that go between brands.

It’s like they enjoy tripping themselves up.

Just have them defend their belt on that show until they lose them, then they go to the show they were drafted to.

Just realised IYO got drafted to SmackDowm so even if she did defeat Bianca we’d still be in the same situation.

Guess that’s a nice loop hole to have some of the top stars go between brands.

Another option is to have the lineages jump with the champs, give them new belts and change the name of the titles. Rhea’s SmackDown Women’s Championship becomes the Women’s World Title, Bianca’s Raw Women’s Title becomes the Women’s Universal Championship.

That's a sound and reasonable solution.

Oof. Looks like it’s not the first time it’s been suggested. Noid using my ideas like HHH uses the (3 x Booker of the Year) Tony Khan playbook. :lol:

That’s almost what I said. Good job.

Point of the idea isn’t to be innovative anyway. I’m pretty sure I suggest it every draft lol.

I just spat out a random 32-man tournament using the names on Raw. You can get some pretty fresh stuff going with some surprising match-ups. It does end up face-heavy, but I kind of used Drew as a spoiler for that. He knocked out Braun Strowman and Kevin Owens. Nakamura, Rollins and Miz are all big names I had going out first round. I managed to get Apollo Crews, Odyssey Jones and Riddick Moss through to the second round by winning some lower seeded matches. Gable also went out first round, unfortunately.

The big stories were Dominik going deep. He ended up making the semi-finals against Cody. Gunther and Drew was the other semi-final. It ended up being between Gunther and Cody for the big gold. I think that plays off their Rumble finish.

Kofi was back for my tournament. He and Woods both won in the first round and were then seeded against each other in a friendly match-up. Kofi won that and Woods seems conflicted. Kofi actually had a pretty good tournament.

Zayn and Riddle getting knocked out earlier than you think would be a bit of a shocker. Zany beat Jinder, but then had Gunther as a tough next opponent, who becomes the man to beat. Riddle beats JD McDonagh then Ciampa (who beat Gargano as a surprise opponent for Johnny, but I’ve got no clue if he’s ready.

It was just shot off the top of my dome, but I think it’d be nice to give some of the “extras” on Raw some time to shine, with some of the top guys having tougher matches and storyline reasons to be knocked out. I don’t think anyone looks like a real joke. I did have Reed getting counted out against Odyssey Jones in a first round battle of the big men, but he can be nursing an “injury” from his US Title match.

That being said, I can’t be completely engaged with this roster split. I find myself largely “not caring.” It diminishes everything. Ugh.

I did have the thought: If Gunther vs. Sheamus is added, they could keep the US and IC Titles situated by having Sheamus “complete his story” against Gunther and Bronson Reed win the US belt. I’m not the biggest fan of having Gunther lose, but I did just propose he win the World Title and vacate the IC belt, so I guess it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if you’re planning on moving Gunther up to main event status.

There’s a guy who apparently has insight into what’s going on. He was right on the money with the San Juan Street Fight between Priest and Bad Bunny (I would have called a tag with Rey and Dominik). He says Bray Wyatt is coming back. Fuck.

I wish they would put Bray in every segment sometimes just to see your head explode.

Haha glad I stopped watching.

I’m not paying enough attention for it to really affect me. It would destroy their product though. So go ahead. :y:

Would be "funny" if they just had Bray do another few months of cryptic messages/hints before he returned

It would be funnier if Darlene got hit by a big old fashioned British car.
But I guess I know symbolism better than the rest.

Darlene did you make any new fake Facebook accounts this week?

Watch out wrestling forum!
This guy really knows how to get edgy!

Apparently the “smackdown guys in the Raw championship tournament” was one of the commentators misspeaking. Not sure that’s enough to get you to start watching again but wanted to clarify.

You're correct. Michael Cole misspoke and Heyman essentially clarified it during his promo on RAW where he suggested that Reigns couldn't compete for the strap since he was exclusive to Smackdown.

I still think Gunther is the way to go. Unless they go with someone else completely shocking. If they do a Drew McIntyre win, they should have Paul Heyman advise him throughout the tournament so that he’s got control of both champs. But I think Apollo Crews could play that role too. But maybe he doesn’t necessarily have to win.

I watched Mania this year and I think I might just do that each year, watching the video packages was the best part although some of the matches were really enjoyable too.

Or not then.

This post is sponsored by the Double R Diner
 

I'm sorry, I've been out of the loop for 7 years. What's the fucking point of this idea?

I think Seth is going to be taken out of the tournament by Logan Paul or Omos. He’ll be the guy who loses to a heel. Probably…Finn Balor? Cody beats Balor. SmackDown will offer up a heel then. Solo Sikoa for The Bloodline? Cody wins the World Heavyweight Title and pretends to be the champion we deserve.

Roman flattens Cody at some point and MITB is cashed in by a heel. Not sure who that is going to be. Cody challenges Roman at Mania 40.

That’s not what I WANT to happen, but that’s my prediction.

Oof.

?

SmackDown
Edge
Austin Theory
Rey Mysterio
Bobby Lashley
AJ Styles
Sheamus

Raw
Finn Balor
Cody Rhodes
Damien Priest
Seth Rollins
Shinsuke Nakamura
The Miz

All announced. That’s 12 which obviously doesn’t lead to a 1-on-1 final. Guessing they add more?

lol I swear no one pays attention.

Next week there are 2 triple threat matches on each show with the winners facing each other in the main event of that night to determine who goes on to fight for the title at Night of Champions. It'll be someone from the RAW list v someone from the SD list in the final as such.

Also if someone from SD wins they become a RAW talent. I noticed you guys going off the rails about that like it's a difficult concept so I figure I needed to spell that one out for you guys too.

"Weird" that the US champ gets to be a part of this but that the IC champ doesn't.

It definitely is but I think it's because he's already lined up to be one of the earlier challengers for it, maybe even the first. I'm hoping so anyways. Main event Gunther ftw.

If the talk of this being a workhorse title isn't just lip service, and it's meant to be consisently defended in high quality matches, you could do a lot worse than Shinsuke Nakamura for that role.

He would have to step up his game again, as opposed to the complacency he's been in the last few years, but if given something like this to really sink his teeth into, I think he'd do just that.

I would love Shinsuke to win it but knowing how they have treated him and title runs I'm worried they'd blow it again. It would def make up for booking him like once every 4 months when he was IC champ he got to be the workhorse champ though.

Seems to me like even having Smackdown guys in it is because one of them will win it and change brands.

Edge as a part timer is out, since that is the whole purpose of this title.
Theory isn't going to be a double champ.
Not Rey since LWO is just getting started, seems unlikely they would mix the WHC with that.
AJ Styles would be a great choice for the workhorse part of it, but he just came back, are they REALLY gonna send him to Raw and split him from the OC again lol

That leaves Sheamus, who would be a great choice, get him to Raw and set up Walter taking the World Title from him.
Lashley, who lost the WWE Title twice with neither being a clean loss, would certainly be instantly believable.

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Lots of faces from SmackDown. They could do face vs. face, but it could suggest that Austin Theory gets into the Night of Champions match, maybe even wins the whole thing. After all, the US Title is basically what the World Title is — the belt that Roman doesn’t have.

Or it would imply that a heel is going to make it from the Raw side. Finn Balor seems like the best choice there. A final between Balor and Edge?

Man, I’m really not feeling this haha.

Rollins is the most sensible pick out of the bunch.

Captain Sensible

He's been the most consistent performer of the lot. If it wasn't for Reigns' historic reign, I'd reckon him or McIntyre would've had been world champion over the last couple of years.

I'm expecting Brock Lesnar to interfere in Rhodes' match so he gets removed from the tournament. It'd be very anti-climactic if he ends up winning the new strap. With all the chatter about "finishing the story" and not being able to beat the Tribal Chief...it'd immediately peg the new belt as second rate. It's all about perception, isn't it?

I think we're already in second rate territory

There's no doubt in my mind. It's just about perception. Come to think of it...the Universal Championship has been pegged as the top prize since its inception. Even during those champion vs champion bouts at Survivor Series, the Universal Champion always bested the WWE Champion.

I am genuinely curious to see how they consolidate Reigns' titles.

I skimmed through the video that’s posted above.

Have they said that explicitly? They may have, as above, I don’t pay all that much attention.

It’d be the likely outcome but still doesn’t make sense of why SmackDown guys would even be involved in a tournament designed to crown a new champ for Raw.

In kayfabe I mean.

From the moment HHH announced it it came off as Romans had the title forever so heres a new one. Hes going to be going back to SD only and will be champion there and this title will be for RAW. Everyone is eligible to compete for it except for Roman Reigns, the SD champion because if he wins it then RAW still doesn't have a title. That was my takeaway from watching it live and I have no idea why everyone has been so confused about this.

I also don't get the complaint about SD guys getting a shot at the new title. Making it open like they have means you get the best out of everyone competing for it which is what a title should have if its to be taken seriously. Your inaugural champion is shown to be top quality across the board, not just RAW. It's not much but it makes the title a bit more serious. If a SD guy gets it it functionally becomes an extra draft pick for RAW, big whoop. Can immediately bring someone over the can shine at the top but otherwise wouldn't have the chance to given it seems like Roman is going to hold the title he has for at least another year.

I mean really, looking at some other pieces in play, I honestly expect Lashley is walking out with this. All the rumors of The Hurt Business reforming a few months ago, possibly as a feud with Bray and whatever faction he was planned to build, fell apart because of brays injury. Then you have Omos, Cedrix Alexander, Omos and MVP all becoming free agents, while Bobby goes to SD. I feel like they are angling towards making Bobby champion, moving him back, and then having the rest of them follow him wherever. Maybe the have them as free agents in case they change plans they don't have to come up with an excuse to suddenly jump those guys to SD with Bobby.

I dunno, it's a lot of moving pieces, but I really feel like Lashley is gonna get a run here. Also considering Wyatt is returning soon and they are looking to refine his gimmick a bit, and RAW being a bit soft on main event heels right now, I could see them throwing Bray back at him again as an initial challenger for the new title as a catalyst to get The Hurt Business reunion back in motion. Also possibly the rest of them turning on Omos and him being a heel challenger to Lashley. Could also turn them heel to make up for the lack at the top, I just don't know if they'll want to go straight to another heel champ for RAW considering thats all we've had for 3 years for both shows pretty much.

tl;dr there are a lot of conveniently placed pieces that suddenly make a lot more sense if Lashley becoming champ is the plan.

To be the man, you don't actually have to beat the man. Woo.

Lashley wouldn’t be shocking. I can see them wanting him as champion from a representation standpoint too. He’s the only black guy in the tournament.

I’m with XL though — have their explicitly stated that the belt is a Raw belt? Or is it just the “whenever Roman isn’t here you can main event” belt? Because I can see whoever is champion showing up on SmackDown too. They basically did this with the World Heavyweight Title for a year and a bit until they unified it, didn’t they?

This will also be the one that the Money in the Bank winner can steal.

If Lashley doesn’t win the World Heavyweight Title, I think he’s on a shortlist of guys to maybe even take Roman’s off him.

Ya... The new title is a Raw title. Its not hard to figure out if a SD person wins then they will go to Raw. Same way that all the titles have worked when they had separate titles for each show.

It has only been done for a decade.....

There’s a big difference between fans reading into that and then actually explicitly stating it. If whoever wins the belt shows up on SmackDown before SummerSlam, y’all owe XL and me a Coke.

There’s also what they say and what they actually do. It doesn’t make sense to have a SmackDown side to a tournament to crown a Raw champion after those wrestlers were specifically drafted to be assets to SmackDown.

Seth’s probably winning, so we might not find out, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him showing up on SmackDown with his new toy either.

they literally said it's the raw title on commentary

Hear me out...

Seth wins the new belt....

LOGAN PAUL WINS MITB

Logan Paul wins the belt using the MITB.

Bad Bunny wins the Royal Rumble.

Bad Bunny fights Logan Paul at WM for the belt.

Whoa! Wasn't expecting Rollins to pin Shinsuke Nakamura. That was a decent triple threat match.

Cody Rhodes is a bit too OP for this triple threat match.

Yeah! Cody Rhodes is fucking pummeling through Miz and Balor. Jesus, he's too OP. And as predicted, Lesnar takes out Rhodes from the equation.

Damb! Lesnar is not happy about his face.

ngl...Lesnar looks scary AF.

Lesnar gonna kill youuuuu

Continuing Cody/Lesnar is the right move.

Seth winning that title is the right move as well.

Don't know why Graves hates Dana Brooke so much :nono:

I might have permanent hearing damage from the pop Natalya received.

WWE is begging for drama with Ricochet, Samantha Irvin, and Katana Chance on the same brand.

Wish Imperium beat KO/Sami

The Way reunion :love:

It's sad to see how they've neutered Nikki.

Zoey Stark because in 2021 Vince saw the first Iron Man movie, and liked Tony Stark. Zoey, Tony, close enough pal!

will we get eric young