WWE Raw Bracket Winner For World Heavyweight Championship Is...

Fan favorite triumphs in triple threat, singles matches to punch ticket to Night of Champions.

by Scott Carlson
Seth Rollins WWE World Heavyweight Championship
WWE

Seth Rollins is your WWE Raw finalist for the new World Heavyweight Championship, winning the red brand's side of a 12-man tournament that will culminate at the end of the month at Night of Champions.

Rollins defeated Damian Priest and Shinsuke Nakamura in a triple threat to open Raw, then beat Finn Balor - who won his triple threat against Cody Rhodes and the Miz - in the main event.

In a nice callback to the last time WWE established a world title, that singles bout was a rematch of the finals to crown the first WWE Universal Champion. During that SummerSlam 2016 match, Rollins hit a bucklebomb on Balor into a barricade, which separated his shoulder and forced Finn to relinquish his title the next night. Monday, Balor hit Rollins with the same bucklebomb into the barricade, asking him, "How does it feel?"

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Rollins will go on to face the winner of the SmackDown side of the tournament, which includes AJ Styles, Austin Theory, Bobby Lashley, Edge, Rey Mysterio and Sheamus, at Night of Champions on 27 May in Saudi Arabia.

The new World Heavyweight Championship will be exclusive to Raw, though WWE hasn't explained why SmackDown wrestlers are able to compete for the new title or what will happen if the blue brand representative wins at NOC.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.