Seth Rollins Beats AJ Styles to Win WWE World Heavyweight Title at Night of Champions

Seth Rollins defeated AJ Styles in the opening match of Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia on Saturday to become the inaugural WWE world heavyweight champion.

Rollins hurt his knee in the match, but he fought through the pain and hit Styles with a Pedigree followed by a Stomp to secure the title.

WWE head of creative Triple H introduced the new World Heavyweight Championship in April, noting that it would serve as the world title on Raw with Roman Reigns holding the WWE and universal belts on SmackDown.

A modified tournament was held on Raw and SmackDown to determine who would vie for the title at Night of Champions.

On Raw, Rollins and Finn Bálor won Triple Threat matches, and the former went on to beat the latter in a singles bout to punch his ticket to the final.

Styles and Bobby Lashley won their Triple Threat matches on SmackDown, and The Phenomenal One took down The All Mighty to establish himself as Rollins' opponent.

Both Rollins and Styles are multi-time world champions, and they are recognized as two of the best in-ring workers not only in WWE but also in the entire wrestling business.

While The Visionary has long been a key figure on WWE programming, he has become especially popular over the past year due to his over-the-top character. Because of that, fans had been clamoring for him to return to the main event scene.

As for Styles, he missed several months of action due to an ankle injury but recently returned to WWE programming after The O.C. moved to SmackDown as part of the draft.

Prior to Night of Champions, it had been several years since either Rollins or Styles held a world title, and most fans seemed to think it was long overdue for them to return to that level.

Given his status as a Raw Superstar, Rollins was a fairly substantial favorite to win championship gold at the pay-per-view.

The Visionary did precisely that, and he is now in line to be the face of the red brand for the foreseeable future.

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