Now that Backlash is over, let's move on to the WHC tournament.

There will be two Triple Threats on Raw and the winners will face each other in the main event of that show. And they'll repeat the process on Smackdown! The winners of those two matches will face each other at Night of Champions for the title.

Who we got for the 12 men?

Here are my Triple Threats

Cody Rhodes
Seth Rollins
Finn Balor

Drew McIntyre
Matt Riddle
Dominik Mysterio

Seth Rollins v Dominik Mysterio

AJ Styles
LA Knight
Rey Mysterio

Solo Sikoa
Sheamus
Bobby Lashley

AJ Styles v Solo Sikoa

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS
Seth Rollins v Solo Sikoa

Having Solo go deep would really drive the whole Bloodline story and Roman's distrust of him.

I don't get this, it doesn't really make senses to me.

1. The new draft officially goes into effect this week, so why would a Raw have a tournament with Smackdown guys competing in it?

2. Especially since the whole point of the title, was so whichever brand didn't draft Roman, would have it's own top title. So what happens if a Smackdown guy were to win it? Would Triple H just keep introducing new title after new title, until someone on Raw actually won it?

To answer your questions with my guess:

They wanted to make sure the new title had legitimacy as the best wrestler (not named Roman Reigns) competed for it. If it was only Raw superstars, then they were only drawing from half of the top stars of the company (hypothetically).

And as to what will happen if a Smackdown superstar wins? My guess is that they just punched their ticket to Monday Night Raw. Despite being drafted to Smackdown, they will now represent Raw. And they’ll probably be glad for it because the Tribal Chief ain’t dropping those belts for a spell.

If you’re asking me (and I acknowledge that you’re not), they are setting us up for a Seth Rollins loss at Night of Champions. He will face a heel from Smackdown and everyone will expect to do a sing along into the night while he holds the belt high. And why not? Surely they wouldn’t draft someone to Smackdown just to have them win and move right back, right?

Can you imagine someone like Austin Theory winning the belt against a white hot and primed Seth? Mega heat.

So that brings up another question, if you're representing Smackdown, you go through all the trouble of making draft picks, etc., why would you let them compete in this tournament? Knowing you'll be losing one of your top stars, if they win the title. I dunno, that sounds like a bad business decision on Smackdown's part and doesn't make the brand look good from the get-go.

Edit: It just seems like as far as the brand goes, there is little to no upside for having talent in this tournament. If a Smackdown star wins, the brand potentially loses a top star, if no one on the blue brand wins, they look inferior to Raw from the get-go. It just seems like a lose/lose situation for the brand as a whole.

What if Smackdown only puts jobbers in the tournament?

Competitors announced

Raw - Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Damien Priest, Shinsuke Nakamura, The Miz

SD - Austin Theory, AJ Styles, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Bobby Lashley, Sheamus.

The Miz in there to eat a pin. Seth will be the first champion I reckon, although I would love to see them give it to Finn.

Forget all this triple threat nonsense, take all the guys put em in the ring and give us the return of the SCRAMBLE MATCH!

May 7, 2023 21:52:04 GMT @ness said:

Forget all this triple threat nonsense, take all the guys put em in the ring and give us the return of the SCRAMBLE MATCH!

YES!!! It is by and far my favorite match. Some people are into War Games or Hell in a Cell. I’m a Championship Scramble kind of guy.

Should have done this best of the best style.

Triple threats with the guy who is pinned being knocked out, then the two remaining guys fight later one on one.

I assume Cody is getting taken out by Brock. Brock not gonna be happy with his cheap pin.

Frankly, I would pull a swerve in this all and go Finn as champion. Seth is too obvious and he is a guy who never needs a belt to sell himself.  Finn could use a belt to remind people he is a top guy and to solidify Judgment Day as a real threat that can win gold outside of Rhea.  

And we do a lot of great matches with a Finn title run.

No Sami?

Similarly to Cody/Brock, an Uso distraction, while obvious, would be fun. Then the heel picks up the win and advances with the heat.

Better yet, let Dom pin Cody or Sami. Oh-My-God imagine the clean up after the crowd fills that ring full of trash.

Sami and KO likely busy with the tag division.

And damn, Dom taking the title, being propped up by Finn and Priest, would have been fucking amazing. Fans would revolt. And the following title matches would be so hot as people literally will pay to see him get his ass beat.

Dom winning would have been amazing. Just an overbooked, cheating win every time. Imagine the heat he would get going forward by constantly telling us he was the first ever champion

They posted the 12 stars on socials yesterday.

Raw
The Miz
Shinsuke Nakamura
Finn Balor
Cody Rhodes
Seth Rollins
Damien Priest

Smackdown
Bobby Lashley
Edge
AJ Styles
Rey Mysterio
Austin Theory
Sheamus

Cody & AJ are given prominent spots in the graphic front and center if that matters to anyone.

Lots of ways for this to go, and most of the list could make great champs. See Edge or AJ from smackdown and Finn or Cody from Raw.

Though a dark horse would be AJ vs Nak for the finals, putting on a WK style match to shine up that belt.

You know. Edge isn’t so bad a choice. One last run before retirement.

I also reckon the Saudi’s would pay mega bucks to see Edge win it.

A Dom/Seth finals would be a fun watch to for me.

Seth v Shinsuke v Priest

Cody v Finn v Miz

Seth gets the win in his, don't which way they go with the other. Either Cody wins, or Brock takes out Cody and Finn gets the win.

May 8, 2023 10:59:20 GMT c said:

Lots of ways for this to go, and most of the list could make great champs. See Edge or AJ from smackdown and Finn or Cody from Raw.

Though a dark horse would be AJ vs Nak for the finals, putting on a WK style match to shine up that belt.

If perfer to see Styles v Balor.

You've got some easy booking between The OC and Judgement Day to build the match and the obvious Bullet Club connection/tension to add fuel to the fire.

Lony The Smackdown superstars are in this tournament to get away from The Bloodline.

Edge has announced that if he wins the WHC, he will retire when he loses it.

Colour me intrigued. That would make for one hell of a final title reign.

How can you do anything else now?

May 11, 2023 19:32:41 GMT RT said:

Edge has announced that if he wins the WHC, he will retire when he loses it.

Colour me intrigued. That would make for one hell of a final title reign.

Which prolly means he isn’t winning it.

A shame because that would be a really intriguing storyline if they could figure it out.

Saw an excited Vince meme for Roman winning MITB and then claiming this belt too LOL.

It's looking more like an elaborate way to give Seth the title now. He's been working hard the last few years - regardless of how cringe-inducing his character is.