Since SmackDown Superstar Roman Reigns holds both the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship, together known as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, Triple H introduced the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW roster.
The new World Heavyweight Champion will be crowned this Saturday at the Night Of Champions 2023 premium live event in Saudi Arabia, in the tournament finals between Seth Rollins and AJ Styles.
According to insider source BoozerRasslin, the World Heavyweight Championship will maintain its 2002 to 2013 lineage, and won’t be considered a brand new title, despite a slightly different design (the added WWE logo in the middle).
In 2002, Eric Bischoff brought back the Big Gold Belt (which used to be the WCW World Heavyweight Championship) and awarded it to Triple H, who became the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion in WWE.
At the TLC 2013 PPV, a title unification match took place between then WWE Champion Randy Orton and then World Heavyweight Champion John Cena. Orton won this Tables, Ladders & Chairs match to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
The last man to physically hold the World Heavyweight Championship (while it was merged with the WWE Championship) was Brock Lesnar, who won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Cena at SummerSlam 2014.
Soon after that, Lesnar was given a single unified title, which was a new design for the WWE Title (which is the one that is still being used), and the Big Gold Belt was retired.
