WWE Set To Announce Competitors For World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

The long-awaited return of the World Heavyweight Championship is upon us, with the tournament to determine the first champion of this era beginning this week. However, we won't have to wait much longer to know who is in contention for the new title, as the participants in the World Heavyweight Championship tournament are set to be announced sometime today.

WWE's official Twitter account broke the news that an announcement is imminent, asking for last-minute predictions before the tournament field is revealed later today. While the official announcement could feature some wildcard entrants into the tournament, many fans are expecting the big winners from last night's WWE Backlash 2023 event in Puerto Rico to be involved, namely fierce rivals Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes, who have both spoken about pursuing the World Heavyweight Championship in recent weeks. Of these two, the odds-on favorite to win the championship is currently Seth Rollins, who overcame the "Nigerian Giant" Omos at yesterday's Premium Live Event.

The tournament format will see four triple threat matches take place across "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown" this week, with the winners facing off at the end of each show to determine the brand representative heading into Night of Champions. This means there will be 12 competitors announced for this week's tournament, but only two will remain when "SmackDown" goes off the air on Friday night. 

The World Heavyweight Championship will be the third world championship on the company's main roster, but only the second in individual circulation. The other two world titles are currently unified, with "WWE SmackDown" star Roman Reigns defending them as one championship since WrestleMania 38. Despite the cross-brand nature of the tournament, the World Heavyweight Championship is set to be held and defended on "Raw" moving forward.