Creative member Seth Mates





The story behind splitting the WWE Championship into separate Raw, SmackDown titles







By the time I joined the creative team in July 2002, they already kinda knew that having one world title that went back and forth between the two shows wasn't working. There had been some hesitation to splitting the titles, more out of tradition than anything else I think. But as we developed the Stephanie/Bischoff general manager thing and really started giving each show its own identity and feel, we debated it and finally resolved that for the longterm success of the brand extension, it was probably the best thing.



So we sought to come up with a plan as to how to create a whole new title that had the instant feel and legitimacy of a world championship.





We threw a bunch of ideas out there for how to crown this new champion, and eventually came up with a plan playing off the fact that the Intercontinental Championship has been seen as the No. 2 title in the promotion, so perhaps we could crown someone a No. 1 contender for the current world title, and then have them face the IC Champion for this new title. Seemed that like that would give it some weight.



We knew we had 16-time World Champion Ric Flair in our back pocket as an early win for whoever this new champion would be to give the title even more pop. I also suggested we use the big gold belt for the new title (it hadn't been seen since around the time that Triple H won the unified title at WrestleMania in Toronto that year), since that belt has so much history and instant recognition.



Brock Lesnar was slated to win the Undisputed Title from The Rock at SummerSlam (at Nassau Coliseum!) soon after, with Raw emanating from Madison Square Garden the following night. We figured the MSG hook could only add to the prestige and get the ball rolling, and I think it was either Vince or Paul Heyman's idea for Brock to leave MSG with the title, defecting to SmackDown at the World's Most Famous Arena, really making an impact.



Chris Benoit was Intercontinental Champion when we came up with the plan, and he had just left Raw for SmackDown, which was a problem, since the IC title needed to be on Raw for this plan to work. So we came up with some back story about Raw having a contract for an IC Title match, so the title could be moved over to Rob Van Dam at SummerSlam.



The MSG Raw also called for a No. 1 contenders match, which would see Triple H beat the Undertaker to claim a future title shot, just moments before Brock was to jump to SmackDown only.



Then, with Brock gone and defected, our plan called for Bischoff to announce the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, with the No. 1 contender (Triple H) facing the IC Champion (Rob Van Dam) to crown the first champion at Unforgiven.



Van Dam would then win the World Title, and our plan called for both he and Brock to hold onto their championships until the following WrestleMania -- there had been so much turmoil and craziness with the Invasion storyline and the brand extension that we resolved it would be a good thing to get one guy driving each show for the better part of the year. Having Brock and Van Dam be the guys felt new and fresh, especially after a year when you had Austin, Hogan, Rock, Triple H and Undertaker on top -- all huge stars obviously, but the fans (and most of us on creative) were screaming for something new.



We figure it was a no-lose situation -- either we would have branded a new World Championship, or, if things didn't work out, we could just get a payday out of re-uniting the titles if need be. And the early talk was to do Brock vs. RVD at WrestleMania XIX.



Of course, things didn't quite work out this way ...