The introduction of a new WWE World Heavyweight Championship on Raw was met with criticism from some, but new champ Seth Rollins says the show needed it to get back on track.
WWE held a tournament to crown Raw’s first World Heavyweight champion back in May. The company’s top stars competed for the prize and Rollins ultimately came out the winner, following a victory over AJ Styles in the finals.
The elephant in the room, however, was Roman Reigns.
“The Tribal Chief” unified the WWE Championship with the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 38 and has still yet to lose either. Unfortunately, his dominance at the top of the card and lack of appearances on Raw left the show’s Superstars without much to fight for until recently.
“It really helps now that we have a title that’s there every Monday, where people feel like they’ve got something to aspire to” Rollins explained on the latest “Out of Character with Ryan Satin.”
“As opposed to before, where there was just one champion who’s on a part-time schedule. It was really difficult for performers before to come up with where they wanted to go next. There was no end game for them, and that can kinda create a little bit of mundaneness.”
Now, they have something to fight for in the World Heavyweight Championship, and Rollins has made a point to be a fighting champion.
The 37-year-old WWE mainstay quickly went to work defending the new World Heavyweight title in a match against Damian Priest — the first time a world title had been defended on the show in years — then travelling to NXT where he put the belt on the line against NXT powerhouse Bron Breakker.
“I’m under no illusion that this title is the same as Roman’s title,” Rollins continued. “You can’t just come in and pretend that all of a sudden this title is that important. No one is going to buy that crap. But the way I always saw champions that I looked up to, and that I aspired to be, were champions that took the titles to territories or every town and defended it. Then, over time, people believed that it was a big deal.”
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“If Roman was doing what I’m doing, there wouldn’t really be a need for a secondary championship. There wouldn’t be a need for another World Heavyweight title on Raw, because we would have someone that was doing those things.”
In the absence of a world title on Raw, an attempt was made to elevate the importance of the United States Championship.
The belt’s lineage was highlighted on TV and the shows top stars wrestled for the belt. Yet, still, that didn’t seem to be enough.
“We did our best with the United States Championship for a little bit, but it never really felt like a World Heavyweight Championship,” Rollins added. “If we were just kind of a one-star promotion, then fine. But we got stars across the board.”
“Kevin and Sami, we’ve got AJ Styles, all of the Judgement Day, really. Drew McIntyre, Sheamus and Edge. All of these people, and I’m probably leaving a ton of them off, who are capable of being World Heavyweight champion or have been champion in the past, or are ready to be in the future. And so, we need a title that they can vie for, that’s around and available.”
Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1’s “WWE Backstage” and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief. Follow him on Twitter @RyanSatin.
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