WWE Championship

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(Redirected from WWF World Heavyweight Title)

The WWE Championship, also known as the World Wrestling Entertainment Championship and occasionally as the WWE Championship of the World or WWE Heavyweight Championship, is one of the two top "world championships" contested in World Wrestling Entertainment. It is the WWE's original world championship and was exclusive to the SmackDown! brand between August 26, 2002 and June 6, 2005, while the World Heavyweight Championship was exclusive to the RAW brand; however, when WWE Champion John Cena was drafted to RAW during the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, he took the belt with him to RAW. Since then, the World Heavyweight Championship has moved to SmackDown! due to the draft of then-Champion Batista on June 30, 2005.

1 History
- 1.1 Belt designs
2 Statistics
3 Current champion
4 See also
5 References
6 External link

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History

The WWE Championship was originally known as the WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) World Heavyweight Championship. In 1971, the WWWF rejoined the National Wrestling Alliance, and the title was downgraded in status to become simply the WWWF Heavyweight Championship. In 1979, the promotion dropped "Wide" from its name, thus renaming the title the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship (or WWF Heavyweight Championship). After the WWF left the NWA in 1983, the title was referred to as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Beginning in the 1990s, the title was occasionally referred to as simply the WWF Championship (also commonly lengthened to World Wrestling Federation Championship).

It was unified with another title, then called the World Championship (though more commonly known through lineage as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship), on December 9 2001 by Chris Jericho at the WWF Vengeance pay-per-view event in San Diego, California (Some argue that this unification gave the WWF title lineage to the NWA title, as the WCW title had that lineage, however, no consensus has ever been reached.). Whilst unified, both championship belts were used and they were collectively defended as the WWF Undisputed Championship until April 1 2002 when Ric Flair presented then-champion Triple H with a single belt representing both titles. During the title reign of Hollywood Hulk Hogan, legal matters forced the company to change its name to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and the championship was likewise renamed, with the WWF logo on the belt being replaced with a new WWE logo (Note: the switch from the WWF logo to the WWE logo on the title belt actually took place during The Undertaker's 2002 title reign). The belt style remained in use, and the combined title was known as the WWE Undisputed Championship until August 26 2002, when the champion at the time, Brock Lesnar, refused to defend the championship against a RAW brand wrestler following a number-one contender's match won by Triple H. Lesnar claimed he would only defend his championship against SmackDown! brand wrestlers, despite previous tradition that the Undisputed Champion would defend their championship against wrestlers from either brand.

Following Lesnar's actions, RAW's General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded the World Heavyweight Championship to Triple H on September 2 2002, to act as RAW's premier champion. This left the former Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar as simply the WWE Champion, with no "undisputed" label. Both championships have since become exclusive to both brands.

When John Cena was drafted to RAW on June 6 2005, both belts were briefly RAW-exclusive until Batista, the World Heavyweight Champion at the time, was drafted to SmackDown! on June 30 2005.

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Belt designs

WWF Championship title belt (1986-1987)	WWF Championship "Winged Eagle" title belt (1988–1998)	WWF Championship "Attitude" title belt (1998–2002)	WWF Championship "Smoking Skull" title belt (1999)
WWE Championship "Undisputed" title belt (2002-2005)	WWE Championship "John Cena" title belt (2005-Present)

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Statistics

Record:	Record holder:	Record number:	Notes:
Longest reign	Bruno Sammartino	2803 days (c. 7 years)	N/A
Longest heel reign	"Superstar" Billy Graham	296 days	N/A
Shortest reign	André the Giant	c. 45 seconds	André defeated Hulk Hogan and then immediately attempted to sell the title to Ted DiBiase, thus rendering the title vacant.
Second shortest reign	Yokozuna	c. 2 minutes, 17 seconds	Yokozuna defeated Bret Hart and then immediately defended against Hulk Hogan.
Oldest champion	Vince McMahon	54 years	N/A
Second oldest champion	Hulk Hogan	48 years	The title was at the time designated the WWE Undisputed Championship.
Youngest champion	Brock Lesnar	25 years, 44 days	The title was at the time designated the WWE Undisputed Championship.
Second youngest champion	Yokozuna	26 years, 6 months, and 2 days	N/A
Third youngest champion	The Rock	26 years, 6 months, and 13 days	N/A
Heaviest champion	Yokozuna	c. 600 lb (272 kg)	N/A
Lightest champion	Eddie Guerrero	c. 228 lb (103 kg)	N/A
Tallest champion	The Big Show	c. 7 ft 0 in (213 cm)	N/A
Shortest champion	Eddie Guerrero	c. 5 ft 8 in (173 cm)	N/A
Longest transitory title match	1992 Royal Rumble match	1 hour, 2 minutes, 2 seconds	The match took place on January 19, 1992 and was won by Ric Flair
Shortest transitory title match	Diesel vs. Bob Backlund	c. 8 seconds	The match took place on November 26, 1994 and was won by Diesel.
Most reigns as champion	The Rock	Seven	See notes below for runners up.

The record for most WWE Championships held by a single person is seven, held by The Rock. Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin have six reigns, Bret Hart and Triple H have five, The Undertaker and Kurt Angle have four, and Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, and Brock Lesnar have three. Due to some controversial matches, Bob Backlund can lay claim to two additional reigns on top of his two official ones, totaling four.
Special custom belts have been created for at least five WWE champions: Billy Graham (slightly different plate art and a red strap), the Ultimate Warrior (white, blue, and purple straps), Sgt. Slaughter (purple strap that he won from Warrior), Stone Cold Steve Austin (entirely custom "smokin' skull" belt), and John Cena (entirely custom diamond-filled "bling" belt with spinning WWE logo modeled after the culturally popular "spinner" vehicle rims and the "spinner" necklace). WWE also had a custom belt designed for The Rock featuring the brama bull logo, but decided against using it over fear that its use, combined with that of the Smoking Skull Belt, would result in the traditional belt being nearly abandoned. A belt with an exceptionally long strap was created for André the Giant before WrestleMania III, but he never wore it.
Hulk Hogan held 4 different designs during his first title reign: The Green and Gold belt that he won from The Iron Shiek, the smaller silver belt with a name plate featured on the cover of the first Wrestlemania, the "Hogan 86" belt, and the "Winged Eagle" belt that he adopted just prior to losing the title to Andre the Giant.
Four wrestlers (Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Kane, and Mankind) have had title reigns that lasted approximately 24 hours.
Between 1963 and 2006, thirty five wrestlers held the WWE Championship, an average of one new champion every 1.29 years.
Between 1963 and 2006, there were seventy nine recognised title changes, with each championship reign averaging 193.6 days.

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Current champion

Image:Cena2nd.jpg The current champion is John Cena. He won the title for the second time by forcing Edge to submit to the STF-U at the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2006.

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