WWE’s Paul Levesque announced last month that a new world championship — the World Heavyweight Championship — would be introduced to the company via a tournament that will culminate this Saturday at the Night of Champions pay-per-view. The title was met with immediate criticism as a “consolation prize” as Levesque mentioned how nobody had been able to beat Roman Reigns after he unified the WWE and Universal Championships back at WrestleMania 38. AJ Styles, who made it to the finals of the WHC tournament, seemed to agree with that criticism in a new interview with The New York Post.
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“Is it a secondary?” Styles asked. “Well if the Raw championship is held by Roman, the SmackDown championship is held by Roman, then how can you argue that it’s not? We had to make a new championship because Roman holds them all. What happens if he decides to wrestle for the World Heavyweight Championship? It is what it is, and we got what we got. If we make the best of it, and if and when Roman does challenge [for it], we beat the brakes off of him, whomever it might be, then we’ll see what title’s secondary.”
WWE (and Styles’ Night of Champions opponent Seth Rollins) have put a heavy emphasis on the idea that the first World Heavyweight Champion will defend the title on a consistent basis as opposed to “The Tribal Chief’s” part-time schedule. Styles has previously held the WWE Championship twice for more than 500 combined days.
“This guy’s gonna be on the pay-per-views, he’s gonna be on the live events, he’s gonna do all these things that need to be done,” Styles said. “When I was [WWE] champion I was on all the live events, I was on all the pay-per-views, all the TV’s. That’s what you do. The price for being the World Heavyweight champion is, yes, you get the recognition of being the champion, but you also have to do the job of being the world champion. You got to be there and you got to do the job.”
WWE Night of Champions Full Card (As of Now)
- World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles
- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships: Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa
- WWE Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Mustafa Ali
- Raw Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair vs. Asuka
- Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar
