Smark Out Moment

The WWE World Heavyweight Championship has changed hands as Seth Rollins defeated AJ Styles to win the title at Night of Champions on May 27, 2023.

My immediate reaction: I still maintain that they should have just taken the WWE Championship away from Roman Reigns and been done with the double-belt thing, more than anything else. Creating a third world title just to be the backup prize because you can't figure out a way to have Roman defend it regularly and you just want to drag out his title reign for another year or so is lazy and this is all going to just merge in the future at some point anyway. I can't say Rollins would have been my first choice for this, but he's an established star, on the Monday Night Raw roster (which avoids having ANOTHER post-draft problem like the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships being on opposite brands) and eventually, someone (hopefully Gunther) will beat Rollins and it will mean more than if they had beaten someone lesser. If a midcarder had won this first belt, it would further the narrative that this is the B-level world title. It's a shame WWE didn't find a way to build Rollins vs. Styles as a better setup.

Since this happened, be sure to check out the updated full list of title changes for this year and the list of current champions and my predictions for who will take the belts away from them.