While the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns had been assigned to “SmackDown” during the 2023 WWE Draft, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque announced that “Raw” would become the exclusive home to the recently revived World Heavyweight Championship. In a sudden turn of events, Levesque also revealed that superstars from both “Raw” and “SmackDown” would compete in the tournament to crown the new champion. This move caused some confusion in the wrestling world, as many wondered what the implications would be if a “SmackDown” talent won the title, but as confirmed by WWE commentator Corey Graves, the solution is pretty simple.
During the latest episode of WWE’s “After The Bell” podcast, Graves and co-host Kevin Patrick provided a rundown of WWE’s next premium live event, Night of Champions, which includes the finals of the World Heavyweight Championship tournament. Tomorrow, Seth Rollins will represent “Raw” as he battles AJ Styles of “SmackDown” in the tournament finals. Should Styles win, Graves reveals that Styles will officially move over to the “Raw” roster.
While it wasn’t clear if Styles would bring along the rest of The O.C. faction (Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson & “Michin” Mia Yim), the possibility of Styles joining the red brand intrigues Graves immensely. “That in and of itself is almost reason enough for me to root against Seth just this once because we got another shiny new toy, another generational talent to populate the Monday night ‘Raw’ roster. Nobody loses in that,” Graves said.
Graves acknowledged that Rollins might be disappointed if he loses to Styles, but it would also open the door for a possible rematch between the two. In addition to Rollins vs Styles, Graves believes fans would be thoroughly entertained by seeing Styles face some other top names on the “Raw” roster, such as GUNTHER and Cody Rhodes.
