Report: WWE's Original Plans To Split The WWE & Universal Titles Revealed
WWE almost just went the simple route and split the WWE and Universal titles
May 3, 2023
While WWE have established the newly-created WWE World Heavyweight Championship as the company's second world title, the original plan was just to split the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship back into the WWE and Universal titles.
The WWE and Universal championships have been unified since Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 38. Roman Reigns will remain the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, although the belts are now exclusive to SmackDown following the WWE Draft, while the WWE World Heavyweight Title is exclusive to Raw. The inaugural champion will be crowned at Night of Champions on May 27.
According to Fightful Select, WWE did originally plan to just split the WWE and Universal titles to ensure the company had two world championships again. Internal documents at one point in 2022 revealed the plan was for either Drew McIntyre or Seth Rollins to face Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship but that ultimately didn't end up happening. Within a few weeks, the plan had been scrapped and the notion of splitting the world titles was abandoned. At the time, Reigns' opponent for the Universal Title was "TBA."
The plan to unify the WWE and Universal championships in the first place was also just thrown together at the last minute. Roman Reigns was originally scheduled to defend the Universal Title against Brock Lesnar at Day 1 on January 1, 2022 and there were no plans at that time to combine the two world titles. Reigns tested positive for COVID-19 before the show, however, and was pulled from the pay-per-view. As a result, WWE decided to book Brock Lesnar in the WWE Championship match and have him win the gold before a unification match with Reigns at WrestleMania 38.
That is ultimately what happened and Brock won a Fatal 5-Way to win the WWE Championship at Day 1. He would lose the belt to Bobby Lashley at Royal Rumble following Paul Heyman's betrayal before he regained the WWE Title at Elimination Chamber to set up the unification match with Reigns at WrestleMania 38.
