The
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
Championship is a
professional wrestling world
heavyweight championship in
World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE). It is the world title of the
Raw brand and one of three in WWE, complementing the
World Heavyweight
Championship and
ECW
Championship. It was established under the then WWWF in 1963.
After Raw,
SmackDown, and
ECW became distinct
brands under WWE, the championship has
moved between the brands on different occasions, mainly as a result
of the
WWE Draft. WWE Championship reigns
are determined by
professional wrestling
matches, in which competitors are involved in
scripted rivalries. These narratives create
feud between the
various competitors, which cast them as
villains and
heroes.
History
Origin
The WWE Championship was introduced in 1963 with
Buddy Rogers becoming the inaugural
champion on April 29. However, its origin is attributed to events
that began in the
National
Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a
promotion with various
subsidiaries. In the 1950s,
Capitol Wrestling Corporation
(CWC) was a subsidiary to the NWA and by 1963, CWC executives held
majority control over the NWA while in NWA
board of directors. During this time,
Buddy Rogers held the
NWA World Heavyweight
Championship, the
world
title of the NWA and its subsidiaries, until January 24, when
Lou Thesz defeated Rogers for the
championship. CWC subsequently seceded from the NWA and became
World Wide Wrestling
Federation (WWWF). The
WWWF World Heavyweight
Championship was thus established as having
spun-off from the NWA title.
The recognition was
awarded to Buddy Rogers on April 29 following an apocryphal tournament in Rio de Janeiro
, defeating Antonino
Rocca in the finals. Affiliated with the NWA once again,
the WWWF was renamed to
World Wrestling Federation
(WWF) in 1979, and after conclusively ending its affiliation with
the NWA in 1983, the championship became known as the
WWF
World Heavyweight Championship and later simply as the
WWF Championship by the 1990s.
Prominence
In 1991,
World Championship
Wrestling (WCW), another subsidiary to the NWA, established the
WCW World Heavyweight
Championship to complement the NWA's world title. WCW then
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 March 2001 with the WWF's
purchase of WCW. As a result of the purchase, the WWF acquired
the
video
library of WCW, select
talent
contracts, and
championships
among other assets. The slew of former WCW talent joining the
WWF
roster began "
The Invasion" which
effectively
phased
out the WCW name. Following this, the WCW Championship was
unified with the WWF
Championship, at
Vengeance 2001 in
December. At the event,
Chris Jericho
defeated
The Rock and
Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the
WCW Championship and WWF Championship respectively. Consequently,
Chris Jericho was named the final WCW Champion and the subsequent
Undisputed Champion as the WWF Championship became the
Undisputed Championship in
professional wrestling with no other prominent world title to
dispute the recognition.
By 2002, the WWF roster had doubled in size due to the
overabundance of contracted workers. As a result of the increase,
the WWF divided the roster through its two
main television
programs,
Raw and
SmackDown!, assigning championships and
appointing
figureheads to each brand.
This expansion became known as the
Brand Extension. In May 2002, the WWF
was renamed to
World
Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the championship became known
as the
WWE Undisputed Championship. Following
these changes, the WWE Undisputed Championship remained
unaffiliated with either brand as competitors from both brands
could challenge the WWE Undisputed Champion. Following the
appointment of
Eric Bischoff and
Stephanie McMahon as
General Managers of
the Raw and SmackDown brands respectively, Stephanie McMahon
contracted then-WWE Undisputed Champion,
Brock Lesnar, to the SmackDown brand, leaving
the Raw brand without a world title. On September 2, after
disputing the status of the Undisputed Championship, Eric Bischoff
announced the creation of the
World Heavyweight
Championship, having spun-off from the Undisputed title.
Immediately afterward, the WWE Undisputed Championship returned to
being the
WWE Championship.
Brand designation
Following the events of the
WWE
Brand Extension, an annual
WWE Draft
was established, in which select members of the WWE Roster were
reassigned to a different brand. After three years on the SmackDown
brand, the WWE Championship switched brands during the
2005 WWE Draft Lottery, in which the
WWE Champion
John Cena was drafted to Raw
while the World Heavyweight Champion
Batista was drafted to SmackDown. On June 11,
2006,
Rob Van Dam used his
Money in the Bank contract at
ECW One Night Stand for a
WWE Championship match against the WWE Champion
John Cena. The holder of the contract is
guaranteed a WWE, World Heavyweight, or
ECW Championship match at anytime of their
choosing. Rob Van Dam defeated John Cena to win the WWE
Championship, moving the title to the
ECW
brand, a
WWE brand
established from purchased assets of the
Extreme Championship
Wrestling promotion. On July 3,
Edge defeated John Cena and Rob Van Dam in a
Triple Threat Match to win the WWE Championship. However, with
Edge being a member of the Raw brand at the time, the title
returned to Raw due to the circumstances. After the
2008 WWE Draft the WWE Champion Triple H was
drafted to SmackDown, moving the WWE Championship to the SmackDown
brand. The following year, the title returned to Raw after Triple H
was drafted back to the brand during the
2009 WWE Draft.
Custom belt designs
Special custom belts have been created to match the gimmicks of
some champions:
A belt with an exceptionally long strap was created for
André the Giant before
WrestleMania III, although he never wore it
as champion. A custom championship belt was design and constructed
for The Rock which featured his trademark Brahma Bull logo in the
center, but was lost in the mail and never appeared on television.
Similarly, Edge had originally designed an entirely different
custom belt than the "Rated R Spinner" design he used for his
second reign; however, the plans were scrapped due to time
constraints. The "Spinner" belt's design has become the WWE
Championship's primary design since April 11, 2005, although the
centerpiece no longer spins. The Championship used to have a
"SmackDown" side plate, but was replaced with a "Raw" plate when
John Cena was drafted to Raw. The title once again became
SmackDown's primary championship after Triple H was drafted to the
brand in 2008 and the "Raw" plate has been replaced with a plate
that says "WWE Champion."
Reigns
The WWE Championship was the first World Championship introduced
into WWE in 1963. The inaugural champion was
Buddy Rogers. There have been 38
different champions, with
Triple H having
the most reigns at eight. The longest reigning champion was
Bruno Sammartino who held the title
for 2,803 days from May 17, 1963 to January 18, 1971. The shortest
reigning champion was
André the
Giant who held the title for only 45 seconds.
The current champion
is John Cena, who is in his fifth reign
after defeating Randy Orton in a
60-minute Anything Goes Iron Man match at Bragging Rights on October 25, 2009 in
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
.
References
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