WWE Raw Spoilers for Tonight's World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

05/08/2023 02:44 pm EDT

Tonight's Monday Night Raw will kick off the 12-man tournament to crown WWE's new World Heavyweight Champion. The 12 competitors have already been announced and PWInsider is now reporting that the two opening-round triple threat matches will be Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Damian Priest and Cody Rhodes vs. The Miz vs. Finn Balor. The winner of those two matches will compete later in the night to determine which representative from Raw will be in the tournament finals at Night of Champions on May 27. 

Per Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, the three tournament matches are expected to take up a "significant" portion of tonight/s episode. WWE has yet to announce any matches for the show as of this writing beyond them. 

Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar Rematch

And finally, insider @WRKDWrestling is reporting that the feud between Rhodes and Brock Lesnar is "far from over." This all but guarantees that Lesnar will interfere in one of Rhodes' matches tonight and cost him the opportunity to win the title, setting up their rematch for Night of Champions in Jeddah. Rhodes managed to beat Lesnar at Backlash on Saturday night by rolling him up onto his shoulders for a kick three count while still trapped in a Kimura Lock. 

While Rhodes has stated since returning to WWE last year that his goal is to finally win the WWE Championship, he didn't outright dismiss the new title while speaking with ComicBook last week — "The goal is still the same for me, but by no means am I or should anyone be looking down on the new World Championship because it's one of those things I think in time people will hopefully come to love and revere. It's being positioned as the lead title for the brand itself and it'll take a lead individual to do it and handle it, and Raw has a stacked roster, so I definitely want to throw myself in the mix."

WWE Backlash 2023 Results

• Raw Women's Championship: Bianca Belair def. Iyo Sky
• Seth Rollins def. Omos
• United States Championship: Austin Theory def. Bobby Lashley & Bronson Reed
• SmackDown Women's Championship: Rhea Ripley def. Zelina Vega
• Bad Bunny def. Damian Priest (San Juan Street Fight)
• The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) def. Matt Riddle, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
• Cody Rhodes def. Brock Lesnar

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