A new report from Fightful Select has indicated some clarity on the situation with the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, and how it appears to have led to the creation of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship unveiled recently on RAW.
According to the report, there were no plans prior to the 2022 WWE Day 1 event for the unification of the two championships; however, with then-Universal Champion Roman Reigns being pulled from the show due to contracting COVID-19, the decision was made late to add Brock Lesnar to the WWE Championship bout featuring Big E, Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, and Kevin Owens.
This, of course, set the path for Brock to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 38 in the unification match.
According to the same report, there were internal documents in 2022 that indicated a plan to split the championships up again, with either Rollins or Drew McIntyre facing Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship. It’s unclear how the titles would be split up, but at the time “TBA” was listed as the opponent of Reigns.
This comes off the back of other previous plans being changed over the past couple months, including the decision to change the King and Queen of the Ring show set to take place on May 27 into Night of Champions, a show now being touted as the crowning of a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. This championship will be exclusive to RAW, with Roman Reigns being drafted to SmackDown.