WWE Chief Content Officer and Head of Creative Triple H made a massive announcement a number of weeks ago on an episode of WWE RAW that the company will be crowning a brand-new World Heavyweight Champion at the 2023 WWE Night of Champions Premium Live Event in Jeddah immediately after introducing the new WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Triple H also mentioned that the WWE World Heavyweight Title will exclusively be a part of the brand Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will not be drafted to and since The Tribal Chief was drafted to the blue brand, the WWE World Heavyweight Title will now be exclusive to the red brand.
It was then announced that a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament will take place, where the winner of the RAW side will face the winner of the SmackDown side at WWE Night of Champions in Jeddah to crown a brand-new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Dave Meltzer reported on F4WOnline.com that even though WWE Head of Creative Triple H made it clear the WWE World Heavyweight Championship will exclusively be a part of Monday Night RAW, they are using the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament to try and increase television ratings since they are going up against strong competition with the NBA Playoffs series between the Warriors and the Lakers. Bryan Alvarez then added that WWE RAW last Monday was designed to prevent viewers from switching to the NBA Playoffs.
Dave Meltzer said:
“I will tell you Monday, Friday, and Wednesday, all three of those shows were booked 100% to hail mary. ‘We got to try to save as much as we can.’ AEW is basically booking a pay-per-view on Wednesday night. They’re coming back and putting the Raw World Title…if people are wondering why the Raw World Title is in a tournament on SmackDown, this is the reason – because they know a normal show right now will do a poor number, so they cannot do a normal show this week. AEW knows the same thing. We know what these numbers will end up doing…..wrestling fans are definitely getting benefited greatly by the fact that both of these promotions know that this is a bad week with that Warriors/Lakers series.”
Bryan Alvarez added:
“This whole show was designed to try to save viewers from switching over."
Seth "Freakin" Rollins won the RAW’s side of the tournament to advance to the finals on Saturday, May 27th at WWE Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia to face the winner of the SmackDown's side, which will be determined tomorrow night.
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
