Not since the days of Ric Flair appearing in the WWF with the NWA World Heavyweight championship and confronting the WWF champion Hulk Hogan; or even the days of WCW champion The Rock and WWF champion Stone Cold Steve Austin has the question been asked, “Who is the true World champion?”
The age old question has again resurfaced in the present day going into WWE’s pay-per-view event TLC. With both John Cena and Randy Orton winning the WWE World Heavyweight title and WWE championship (respectively) at Hell in a Cell, and successfully retaining their titles at Survivor Series, John Cena has thrown down the challenge, and WWE’s C.O.O. Triple H has booked the match: John Cena vs Randy Orton in a TLC match for both the WWE and WHC championships.
Has it ever been done before? We’ve seen a unification ladder match before when the WWE Intercontinental champion Rob Van Dam defeated the WWE European champion Jeff Hardy; thus abandoning the Euro title. But it is the first time that both WWE sanctioned World titles will be up for grabs in a single contest.
No disrespect towards “The Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla”; while Chris Jericho did become the first-ever Undisputed WWE champion by defeated both The Rock and Steve Austin on the same night, WWE management didn’t consider Y2J as the “face of the company”.
This unification match at TLC is meant to determine a true World champion, but most importantly to Triple H, it’s meant to distinguish who is the true face of the WWE.
While a large majority of the WWE fans have already pegged John Cena to come in possession of both titles; there’s also a possibility that a) Randy Orton will win both championships, or b) the World titles will get swapped.
On Monday Night RAW we saw what Randy Orton would look like if he possessed both the WWE and World Heavyweight championships, but a popular prediction is since a unification match is too “epic” of a concept to be wasted on WWE’s year-end pay-per-view event and should be held off until WrestleMania, the titles will instead be swapped with John Cena once again becoming WWE champion and Randy Orton going back to the World Heavyweight title.
Personally, whether Cena or Orton becomes Undisputed champion is not a concern because, honestly, the lack of definition in the brand extensions with the continued existence of two World titles is absurd. There should only be one World champion, one secondary champion, one tag team champions, and one women’s champion.
With the elimination of the WHC, WWE can focus on one true face of the WWE. The next Bruno Sammartino, the next Hulk Hogan, the next Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold, The Rock, is just around the corner. Will it be John Cena or Randy Orton? Or perhaps it will either be CM Punk or Daniel Bryan? [Read: WWE Champion vs World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania XXX?]
Answer the Question: Will the “epic” TLC match result in an Undisputed WWE champion; or will the championships be swapped?
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[Watch “Triple H wants one Undisputed champion in WWE” courtesy of WWE’s Official YouTube channel]