World championships in WWE

WWE (formerly the WWF and WWWF) has maintained several world championships since Capitol Wrestling Corporation seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance in 1963 to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). Whenever brand division has been implemented, separate world titles have been created or allocated for each brand.

Overview of titles
# Name Years
1 WWE Championship 1963 – present
2 WCW Championship 1991 – 2001 (became WWF property in 2001)
3 World Heavyweight Championship 2002 – 2013
4 ECW Championship 1992 – 2001, 2006 – 2010 (became WWE property in 2003)
5 WWE Universal Championship 2016 – present

History
Bruno Sammartino defeated inaugural champion Buddy Rogers and was the longest reigning champion; pictured here in his second reign with the then-WWWF Heavyweight Championship (now WWE Championship)

In the 1950s, Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and by 1963, its executives held a controlling stake over NWA operations. During this time, Buddy Rogers held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship until January 24, when Lou Thesz defeated Rogers for the championship in a one fall match. Claiming the title can only be contested in a traditional two out of three falls match, the promotion disputed the title change, and thus seceded from the NWA and became the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). The WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was then established and awarded to Buddy Rogers with the explanation that he won a fictional tournament in Rio de Janeiro, supposedly defeating Antonino Rocca in the finals.[1] After several years, the WWWF became affiliated with the NWA once again, and "World" was dropped from the championship's name. In 1979, the WWWF was renamed World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and then after conclusively ending its affiliation with the NWA in 1983, the championship became known as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Although the full name appeared on the championship belts until 1998, the name was often abbreviated to WWF Championship, which became its official name in 1998.

In 1991, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), a member of the NWA, established the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to replace the NWA's world title. That same year, reigning and inaugural WCW Champion Ric Flair left WCW with the Big Gold Belt, which had represented the championship, and joined the WWF. Flair then began appearing on WWF television with the Big Gold Belt, calling himself "The Real World Champion".[2] This, however, was never officially recognized as a world championship in WWF. In 1993, WCW seceded from the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to the WWF. Both organizations grew into mainstream prominence and were eventually involved in a television ratings war, dubbed the Monday Night Wars. Near the end of the ratings war, WCW began a financial decline, which culminated in WWF purchasing WCW in March 2001.[3] As a result of the purchase, the WWF acquired, among other assets, WCW's championships. Thus, there were two world titles in the WWF: the original WWF Championship and the WCW Championship, which was eventually renamed the "World Championship".[4][5]

Triple H after winning the Undisputed WWF Championship (now WWE Championship) at WrestleMania X8; the former WCW Championship and WWF Championship belts represented the unified title until a single belt was presented to Triple H in April 2002

In December 2001, the two championships were unified at Vengeance. At the event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Kurt Angle to retain the WWF Championship, while Chris Jericho defeated The Rock for the World Championship. After this, Jericho then defeated Austin, unifying the WWF and World Championships, and becoming the first Undisputed WWF Champion; the Undisputed championship retained the lineage of the WWF Championship and the World Championship was retired.[6] The Undisputed Championship continued up through the beginning of the first brand extension, which saw wrestlers being drafted to the company's main television programs, Raw and SmackDown, each show representing the brand of the same name, with championships assigned to and authority figures appointed for each brand.[7] The holder of the Undisputed Championship was the only male wrestler allowed to appear on both shows.

In May 2002, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the championships were renamed accordingly. At first, the Undisputed Championship remained unaffiliated with either brand as wrestlers from both brands could challenge the champion. Following the appointment of Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon as General Managers of Raw and SmackDown, respectively, Stephanie McMahon convinced then-Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar to become exclusive to the SmackDown brand, leaving the Raw brand without a world title.[8][9] In response, on September 2, Bischoff disputed Lesnar's status as champion, stating Lesnar was refusing to defend his title against the designated No. 1 contender, Triple H, and awarded the latter with the newly created World Heavyweight Championship. Immediately afterwards, Lesnar's championship dropped the epithet "Undisputed" and became known as the WWE Championship.[10]

In 1994, Eastern Championship Wrestling seceded from the NWA and became Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and established the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. In 2001, the ECW promotion folded due to bankruptcy and WWE bought the assets of ECW in 2003. In June 2006, WWE established a third brand dubbed ECW on which stars from the former promotion and newer talent competed. When ECW's Rob Van Dam won the WWE Championship at ECW One Night Stand, the ECW Championship was subsequently reactivated as the world championship of the ECW brand (and the third concurrently active world championship in WWE) and was awarded to Van Dam, who held both titles until he lost the WWE Championship to Raw's Edge the following month. The three world championships at one point or another switched brands over the course of the brand extension, usually as a result of the annual draft. The ECW brand was disbanded in 2010, subsequently deactivating the ECW Championship. The first brand extension ended in August 2011.

Randy Orton unified the World Heavyweight Championship with the WWE Championship in December 2013, retiring the former and renaming the latter to WWE World Heavyweight Championship (which was reverted to WWE Championship in 2016); the two belts represented the unified title until a single belt was presented to Brock Lesnar in August 2014

Following the end of the first brand extension, both the WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion could appear on both Raw and SmackDown. In November 2013, the night after Survivor Series, then-World Heavyweight Champion John Cena made a challenge to then-WWE Champion Randy Orton to determine an undisputed WWE world champion. Orton defeated Cena in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the unified championship was renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship and retained the lineage of the WWE Championship; the World Heavyweight Championship was retired.[11]

After Dean Ambrose became champion in June 2016, the title's name was reverted to WWE Championship.[12][13][14] In light of the return of the WWE brand extension the following month, Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown and retained his title at Battleground on July 24 against Raw draftees Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, making the title exclusive to SmackDown.[15] On the July 25 episode of Raw, to address the lack of a world title for the brand, the WWE Universal Championship was created; Finn Bálor became the inaugural champion at SummerSlam.[16] After the unveiling of the Universal title, the WWE Championship was renamed WWE World Championship,[17][18] but reverted to WWE Championship in December 2016 during AJ Styles' first reign.[19]

Longest championship reigns

Top 10 world championship reigns

The following list shows the top 10 world championship reigns in WWE history.

# Champion Title Reign Length
(days)		 Notes
1 Bruno Sammartino WWE Championship 1 2,803 During this reign, the title was known as the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship.
2 Hulk Hogan WWE Championship 1 1,474 During this reign, the title was known as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
3 Bruno Sammartino WWE Championship 2 1,237 During this reign, the title was known as the WWWF Heavyweight Championship.
4 Pedro Morales WWE Championship 1 1,027 During this reign, the title was known as the WWWF Heavyweight Championship.
5 Bob Backlund WWE Championship 1 684 Won the title as the WWWF Heavyweight Championship, but during this reign, it was renamed to WWF Heavyweight Championship when the WWWF was renamed to WWF.
WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 2,135 days as they do not recognize Antonio Inoki's reign or the subsequent vacations of the title that followed, and thus recognize this period as one continuous reign for Backlund.
6 Brock Lesnar WWE Universal Championship 1 504 WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 503 days, although they had initially recognized 504 days.
7 Hulk Hogan WCW World Heavyweight Championship 1 469
8 CM Punk WWE Championship 2 434
9 Shane Douglas ECW World Heavyweight Championship 4 406
10 Shane Douglas ECW World Heavyweight Championship 2 385 WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 230 days

Longest reign per championship

The following list shows the longest reigning champion for each world championship created and/or promoted by WWE.

# Champion Title Reign Dates held Length
(days)		 Notes
1 Bruno Sammartino WWE Championship 1 May 17, 1963 – January 18, 1971 2,803 During this reign, the title was known as the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship.
2 Brock Lesnar WWE Universal Championship 1 April 2, 2017 – August 19, 2018 504 WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 503 days, although they had initially recognized 504 days.
3 Hulk Hogan WCW World Heavyweight Championship 1 July 17, 1994 – October 29, 1995 469
4 Shane Douglas ECW World Heavyweight Championship 4 November 30, 1997 – January 10, 1999 406
5 Batista World Heavyweight Championship 1 April 3, 2005 – January 10, 2006 282

Most championship reigns

The following list shows the wrestlers with the most reigns for each world championship created and/or promoted by WWE. The WWE also recognizes Ric Flair and John Cena for being tied with the most world championships reigns in history at 16 reigns. In reality, Flair has held more than 16 world championships,[20][21] but the WWE and several others only recognize eight of his NWA World Heavyweight Championship reigns, six of his WCW World Heavyweight Championship reigns, and his two WWE Championship reigns (at the time, WWF World Heavyweight Championship).[22] Cena held the WWE Championship for a record 13 times and the World Heavyweight Championship three times.

# Champion Title # of Reigns Notes
1 John Cena WWE Championship 13 During Cena's 12th reign, the title was known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
2 Ric Flair WCW World Heavyweight Championship 8 In WCW, Flair was recognized as having held the title eight times, but the WWE only recognizes six of these reigns for his overall 16 world championships. WWE recognizes Flair's inaugural reign as being one of his eight NWA championships reigns, while the title vacancy that occurred between his second and third reigns in 1994 is not recognized, and thus considered one continuous reign.
3 Edge World Heavyweight Championship 7
4 The Sandman ECW World Heavyweight Championship 5
5 Brock Lesnar WWE Universal Championship 3

See also

References
  1. "Rogers' 1st reign". WWE. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
  2. Westcott, Brian. "Ric Flair". Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. Archived from the original on September 23, 2017. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  3. "WWE Entertainment, Inc. acquires WCW from Turner Broadcasting". WWE Corporate. March 23, 2001. Archived from the original on April 8, 2005. Retrieved May 24, 2008.
  4. "WWE Raw Results". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  5. "Monday Night Raw – November 19, 2001: That's One Heck Of A Reset". KB's Wrestling Reviews. July 29, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  6. "WCW World Champion – Chris Jericho". WWE.com. Archived from the original on February 15, 2008.
  7. "WWE Entertainment To Make RAW and SMACKDOWN Distinct Television Brands".
  8. "Brock Lesnar Biography at SLAM! Sports". SLAM! Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved December 21, 2008. After the July 22nd episode of Raw, Lesnar defected to Stephanie McMahon's SmackDown. Lesnar decided to remain exclusively on SmackDown, forcing Eric Bischoff's Raw brand to create its own World Championship.
  9. "Vince Mcmahon Biography at SLAM! Sports". SLAM! Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved December 21, 2008. The entire WWE roster was broken up into two separate camps, yahoo, with some rivalry (especially between future General Managers Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon) occurring.
  10. Nemer, Paul (September 2, 2002). "Full WWE RAW Results – 9/2/02". WrestleView. Retrieved December 20, 2008.
  11. "CALDWELL'S WWE TLC PPV RESULTS 12/15: Live, in-person coverage of Cena vs. Orton unification match from Houston".
  12. Johnson, Mike. "Future of top WWE championship already hinted at". PWInsider.com. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  13. Benigno, Anthony. "Seth Rollins addressed 'The Roman Reigns Scandal'". WWE. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  14. "WWE Championship". WWE. Archived from the original on June 29, 2016. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  15. Caldwell, James. "7/24 WWE Battleground Results – Caldwell's Complete Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  16. Hamlin, Jeff. "WWE Raw live results: title match set for SummerSlam & a new champion is crowned". Wrestling Observer. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  17. "WWE SmackDown Live results, July 26, 2016". WWE. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  18. "WWE World Championship". WWE. Archived from the original on July 27, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  19. "WWE Championship". WWE. Archived from the original on December 14, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  20. Buck Woodward (April 2, 2008). "Ric Flair: The 16-time... 18-time... 21-time... Exactly how many times has he been World Champion?". PWInsider.com. Retrieved April 6, 2014.
  21. Ric Flair Return. Hulkamania: Let The Battle Begin. YouTube. November 1, 2009. Event occurs at 31 seconds. Retrieved February 4, 2010. Fact be known, it's 21 times. 16, I'll take credit for.
  22. "Ric Flair's title history". WWE.com. Archived from the original on January 12, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
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