WWE's Latest Disaster Is About To Get EVEN WORSE

There's always the World Heavyweight title on hand if a show needs a big match, and the weird reality is that few do.

WWE business has exploded across 2022 and 2023 with the "uWu" held in narrative "abeyance" for much of that time. If you think "WWE is just waiting to do Roman Reigns Vs. The Rock for the belt" is too cynical a take, remember: this is a promotion that attempted to persist with the Roman Reigns babyface push for about six years - six years after the fanbase believed it to be not a particularly good idea. For a man who will rip up a Raw script after skimming through the first few pages, Vince McMahon is remarkably - impossibly - patient when it comes to Roman Reigns.

If nothing else, between Clash at the Castle and WrestleMania 39, WWE effectively created a series of incredibly dramatic big main events. That era dies if Cody Rhodes wins the consolation prize because, barring another massive AEW to WWE jump or a Performance Center prospect catching fire, it will be virtually impossible to take the idea of Roman Reigns losing seriously. If Cody and Roman reign concurrently with each title (there are actually three, for f*ck's sake), a return to the never-ending days of Roman Reigns winning inevitable matches against Finn Bálor and Cesaro et al. are back again.

For the sake of balance, it should be pointed out that WWE has successfully promoted a secondary World title before, one with an equally bad origin story as the new World Heavyweight title: the old World Heavyweight title.

(At least then, on a meta level, the idea was to make Triple H as much an entitled heel onscreen as he was perceived to be off it).

CONT'D...(4 of 5)