Monday’s episode of WWE Raw began the road to determining the World Heavyweight Championship. Two triple-threat matches took place with the winners of both battling in the main event of the show to decline who will compete for the title at Night of Champions.
Seth Rollins defeated Shinsuke Nakamura and Damian Priest to advance, as did Finn Balor over The Miz and Cody Rhodes (with aid from “Cowboy” Brock Lesnar), to recreate the first WWE Universal Championship match in Raw’s main event.
In a fun final match of the night, Rollins pinned Balor to advance to Night of Champions on May 27. Injured arm and all, he will have the chance to have world title glory at the end of the month.
Who will @WWERollins face at #WWENOC in the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Finals? pic.twitter.com/Z3iGJY9hnf
— WWE (@WWE) May 9, 2023
With the Raw matches over, the second part of the tournament will take place on Friday’s episode of SmackDown, with two more intriguing triple threats and one more finals matchup to determine who goes to Night of Champions.
AJ Styles vs. Edge vs. Rey Mysterio is a dream match of two WWE Hall of Famers and another inevitably bound for induction. It’s a blockbuster match that could headline any weekly show or premium live event and should deliver all the goods on Friday.
Austin Theory vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Sheamus is potentially another hard-hitting match. Theory and Edge could have a rematch of their United States Championship bout from the day after WrestleMania 39, but any pairing makes for a solid main event to determine who will face Rollins at Night of Champions.