WrestlingNews.co first reported months ago that there were plans for two major championship matches at WWE WrestleMania 39, with plans to split the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship eventually.
At WrestleMania 38, Universal Champion Roman Reigns beat WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to unify the titles.
WrestlingNews.co’s report noted the original plan was for the first night of WrestleMania 39 to feature Cody Rhodes or Drew McIntyre to wrestle against Seth Rollins for the WWE Championship while Reigns would wrestle The Rock. Once WWE got word that Rock wouldn’t do the match, plans had to be changed.
This past Monday on Raw, Triple H announced a new World Heavyweight Champion would be crowned on May 27 at WWE Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia. Although not confirmed, based on teases done on Raw, Rollins looks to be the leading candidate to become the inaugural champion.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that the origins of the decision to do a second top title belt go back to WrestleMania 38.
Meltzer wrote, “The idea of bringing back the second title dates back literally to when the titles were unified at the April 3, 2022, WrestleMania show in Dallas when Roman Reigns beat Brock Lesnar. We had been told before the match that the company felt it needed two titles, but also based on the Mania stipulation, it had to wait a certain length of time before creating the second one.”
