Triple H Announces World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Begins on Monday's Raw

Triple H announced during Friday morning's media conference for WWE Backlash that a tournament to crown the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion will begin this coming Monday night on Raw and continue on Friday's episode of SmackDown. The new World Heavyweight Championship was introduced last week on Raw and the title was exclusively meant for the Raw brand. Because Roman Reigns was drafted to SmackDown and would be exclusive to that brand, Triple H felt as though Raw needed its own major title and said that the winner would stay exclusively on Raw and defend the championship often. That makes the news that competitors from both Raw and SmackDown are eligible to win the title quite interesting.

Triple H said there would be two Triple Threat matches on Raw this Monday night. The winners of each match would go on to face each other later that night. The same thing would happen on Friday's SmackDown, with those two winners. From there, the winners that make it out of each show will battle each other in a match at Night of Champions, where a new World Heavyweight Champion will be named.

Why Both Brands?

Considering this title was meant to be exclusive to the Raw brand, fans are already asking why SmackDown would be included here. The answer is likely to make sure that there are enough actual contenders worthy of competing for the title. If you think about the fact this tournament starts with 12 people, one has to ask if there are legitimately 12 stars on the Raw brand now that would be high enough in the unofficial rankings to be considered.

The real question some should be asking is, if someone from SmackDown wins, does that person automatically move over to Raw? And, what dominos fall if that takes place. Is there someone from Raw going back to SmackDown in exchange?