WWE Announces SmackDown Participants In World Heavyweight Title Tournament

The participants in the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament that will take place this Friday on "WWE SmackDown" have officially been announced. WWE tweeted out a graphic showing the two triple threat matches of Edge vs. AJ Styles vs. Rey Mysterio and Bobby Lashley vs. Sheamus vs. United States Champion Austin Theory. The winner of each match will then go on to battle each other in the main event of "SmackDown," with the victor of that match going on to compete for the newly introduced title at WWE's Night of Champions event later this month.

On "WWE Raw" this past Monday, Seth Rollins won his triple threat and later the main event to reach the finals. Rollins is set to go head-to-head with whomever wins the "SmackDown" side of the tournament. Triple H announced the new WWE world title, and the tournament to crown its inaugural champion, during a segment on "Raw" late last month. "This will be a champion you can be proud of," Triple H told the WWE Universe. "This will be a champion you can respect, that you can admire. This will be a champion that will defend this championship anywhere, any place, any time, all over the world."

The new title gives "Raw" a world championship on its show for the first time since Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar to unify the WWE Championship and Universal Championship at WrestleMania 38. Since Reigns unified the titles, the promotion's top champion has primarily appeared on "SmackDown" with the title belts, outside of occasional appearances on "Raw" to advance certain storylines.