.@StephMcMahon and @RealMickFoley unveil the new @WWE Universal Championship at #SummerSlam! https://t.co/30uRrirZgg
— WWE (@WWE) August 22, 2016
Regarding the main roster pay-per-view debut of Finn Balor, who won the WWE Universal Championship in his match with Seth Rollins at SummerSlam, but relinquished it 24 hours later on RAW due to an injury, he wasn’t initially booked to work with “The Architect.”
According to Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE originally had Chris Jericho lined up as Balor’s first main roster PPV opponent, however things got thrown for a loop and the promotion ended up going to Balor-Rollins for “The Demon King’s” first PPV match.
Additionally, the WWE Universal Title, which is currently vacant due to the Balor injury situation, was intended to be the main world title for the blue brand, while the traditional WWE Title was lined up for the red brand on RAW. WWE had AJ Styles in mind as the guy who would be the first to wear the new SmackDown Live World Title, as Styles was penciled in to win the Universal belt in the first match with the new championship on-the-line.