On Tuesday it was revealed that two exclusive new championships will be debuted on the latest episode of WWE Smackdown Live.
The WWE’s Smackdown Live show will be getting two brand new exclusive championships. After Raw unveiled a new WWE Universal Championship, it seemed only a matter of time before the competing brand did something.
On Tuesday evening, Smackdown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan tweeted the big news. In an interesting side note, it appears that Commissioner Shane McMahon will be in good enough health to help unveil the new titles. McMahon suffered an F5 at the hands of Brock Lesnar this past Sunday night.
It's a #NewEra for #SDLive and a new era needs NEW Championships! Tonight @shanemcmahon & I will debut TWO new titles exclusive to #SDLive!
— Bryan Danielson (@bryandanielson) August 23, 2016
As of right now, Raw has the Women’s Championship, United States Championship, Tag Team Championship and the new Universal Championship. That leaves Smackdown with just the WWE World Heavyweight and Intercontinental championships. Dean Ambrose and The Miz are the respective owners of those two titles.
It would seem the two divisions that are most in need of an additional title would be the women’s and tag team divisions. As noted, Smackdown has neither of these types of titles held by anyone on their current roster. Whether or not the names will mirror their Raw counterparts is another question.
Fan reaction has been strongly disapproving of the new WWE Universal Championship so far. The crowd at Brooklyn made it known they didn’t like the red-themed plate on the new belt. It even brought Seth Rollins to Twitter after the SummerSlam pay-per-view to blast those vocal fans.
More important than a title's appearance is what it represents for the men fighting over it. You really let me down tonight, Brooklyn.
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) August 22, 2016
It should be interesting to see how the new Smackdown belts look on Tuesday night. It will be equally intriguing to see what format is used to determine the inaugural champions.
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However, the first ever champions to earn these titles may want to pay attention to their safety. Inaugural WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor learned that being the first to win an exclusive title includes a short reign, suffering a shoulder injury while winning it that will sideline him for at least six months.