During Money in the Bank last night, WWE announced that Mick Foley will appear on Raw to announce “WWE’s newest title.” There’s an argument to be made that the last thing WWE needs is another title, when they rarely manage to fit all the ones they already have onto a PPV these days. Still, it was an intriguing announcement because nobody knows what the title will be. Even those of us who follow the rumor mill and dirt sheets closely had heard nothing about a new championship, which is odd because usually the time it takes to build a new title enables rumors to leak out.
Naturally, because it’s Mick Foley announcing it, most people’s first guess has been that it’s a new Hardcore Championship. While that would seem like the best fit for Foley, the introduction of a Hardcore belt in the PG Era could be a challenge, especially when you consider that just last night, according to PWInsider, WWE ended the United States Championship match much earlier than planned because Samoa Joe was bleeding. Still, the 24/7 stipulation could lead to some interesting shenanigans in the social media era, so I wouldn’t rule it out.
But on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer brings up a different idea. While he’s careful to say that he doesn’t know for sure what belt is being introduced tonight, and that WWE is working extra-hard to keep it under wraps, he’s heard the idea of a Legends Championship. He doesn’t explain what that means, but with the Super Showdown coming up, featuring Undertaker versus Goldberg, it’s pretty easy to guess. A Legends Championship could give the mostly retired older wrestlers something to fight over at the Saudi shows, and maybe SummerSlam and WrestleMania, without taking belts off the younger, full-time workers. Mick Foley probably can’t fight over such a belt, but he wouldn’t be a bad guy to introduce it. As Legends go, he’s one of the most popular and least divisive, and if that is the nature of the belt, it would make sense to have it introduced by a Hall-of-Famer who’s not about to compete for it.
We won’t really know until we know, but those are the two strongest rumors. A TV Title is also possible, and could address ratings concerns, but it’s hard to imagine WWE making that belt feel like it matters in 2019. There have also been some rumors about a midcard women’s title, but as supportive of women’s wrestling as Mick Foley is, you have to think they’d give that announcement to Beth Phoenix or Stephanie McMahon over him. Not to mention that they need to prove they’re going to tag the Women’s Tag Team Championship seriously before they add another women’s title. Whatever’s really going on, we’ll know by tonight.
