Report: When WWE Decided To Create The New World Heavyweight Title Revealed

WWE's plans to revive/recreate a new WWE World Heavyweight Championship have been in the works for a long time. 

Triple H unveiled the WWE World Heavyweight Title on this week's episode of Monday Night Raw, revealing the new belt will be the world title on whichever brand Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns isn't drafted to. The inaugural champion will be crowned at Night of Champions on Saturday, May 27 in Saudi Arabia. 

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the decision to create a second world championship was made all the way back in 2022 when the company decided to unify the WWE and Universal titles at WrestleMania 38. Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar to form the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in the main event of the Showcase of the Immortals. 

As the title unification was one of the selling points of WrestleMania, it was decided to wait a certain amount of time before creating a new world title. By November 2022, the plan for night one of WrestleMania 39 was to crown the inaugural WWE World Heavyweight Champion in a match that would have seen Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre clash in a singles match. Cody Rhodes would have been added to the mix to make it a Triple Threat if The Rock had agreed to face Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania. 

Plans for a new world title were put on the back burner for an unknown reason and WWE instead eventually put their current plans in place. It has been speculated the decision to introduce the new WWE World Heavyweight Title on Raw this week was a fairly recent one since Night of Champions was originally scheduled to be King & Queen of the Ring. 

You can find out why WWE decided to create the new World Heavyweight Title here. A popular star is also the "leading candidate" to win the belt. Find out who here.