WWE will crown a new world heavyweight champion later this month at the Night of Champions premium live event in Saudi Arabia.
And now, we know the short list of contenders for the newly created belt, as WWE on Sunday revealed the 12 superstars who will participate in a tournament to determine the champ.
Here are the competitors, sorted by their current brand affiliation:
RAW
Cody Rhodes
Damian Priest
Finn Bálor
Seth Rollins
Shinsuke Nakamura
The Miz
SmackDown
AJ Styles
Austin Theory
Bobby Lashley
Edge
Rey Mysterio
Sheamus
This is an accomplished collection of names, many of whom already held various WWE titles. It should make for an interesting — and perhaps unpredictable — tourney, which chief content officer Paul Levesque (aka Triple H) recently outlined plans for at WWE’s Backlash press conference.
Two triple threat matches will take place Monday night on “RAW,” with the winners squaring off later in the night. The process then will be repeated on “SmackDown.” The “RAW” winner will face the “SmackDown” winner for the gold at Night of Champions on May 27.
Of course, it’s important to note the world heavyweight championship — introduced in response to Roman Reigns being the undisputed WWE universal champion and only sparingly defending the unified belts — will be exclusive to the “RAW” brand, with Reigns drafted to “SmackDown.” But clearly, WWE wanted some of its biggest names to be involved in the tournament, inherently adding even more prestige to the new title, and thus decided to include both brands in the action.
