Seth Rollins has a new challenger for his WWE World Heavyweight Championship, as “The Visionary” officially granted Shinsuke Nakamura a title match on this week’s Monday Night Raw. Last week’s Raw saw Nakamura nail Rollins with a surprise Kinshasa and Nakamura was asked to explain his actions in an interview with Michael Cole. Nakamura cut the promo mostly in Japanese but indicated he wanted Rollins’ title. Rollins came out and made the match official.
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Nakamura then whispered something in Rollins’ ear, which managed to distract the champ long enough for Nakamura to hit him with another Kinshasa before leaving the ring. It wasn’t confirmed when the match will be, but WWE has its next pay-per-view coming up on Sept. 2 with Payback in Pittsburgh.
Seth Rollins on His World Heavyweight Championship
Rollins has been fighting back against the perception surrounding his world title since it was first introduced, as many fans believe it was presented as secondary to Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Championship when Paul Levesque first unveiled it. To combat that idea, Rollins has defended the title a whopping 20 times since winning it in May.
“I’m under no illusion that this title is the same as Roman’s title,” Rollins said on Out of Character last month. “That title has been around and so much equity has been put into it over the past few years. It means a lot. You saw how evident it was, even at Money in the Bank when [Roman] got pinned for the first time in three and a half years. You can’t just come in and pretend that all of a sudden this title is that important. No one is going to buy that crap.ย
“The way that I always saw champions that I looked up to and that I aspire to be were the champions that took the title to every territory and every town and defended it, and then, over time, people believed that it was a big deal,” he continued. “I came in when Cena and CM Punk were the world champions. I grew up watching Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, Triple H. These were the people that did that for the world title they were wearing. I’m trying, as I might, to fill those shoes and make this World Heavyweight Championship as big as it possibly can be for myself and the rest of the roster.”
WWE’s Premium Live Event Schedule for The Rest of 2023
WWE has four pay-per-views left for the remainder of 2023. That list includesย Paybackย at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh (Sept. 2),ย Fastlaneย at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (Oct. 7), a yet-to-be-named Saudi Arabia show on Nov. 4 and the annualย Survivor Seriesย show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois on Nov. 25.
