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WWE Women's Championship (1956–2010)

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This article is about the original women's championship in WWE. For the championship that is currently being defended in WWE, see WWE Divas Championship.
WWE Women's Championship
The WWE Women's Championship final belt design (used from June 2002 to September 2010) being raised in the air by three-time champion Melina at the Royal Rumble 2009.
Tournament information

The WWE Women's Championship was a professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion. Created in 1956, it was the oldest active professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment history until its retirement in 2010 after unification with the WWE Divas Championship.[2]

History

The WWE Women's Championship was originally known as the NWA World Women's Championship of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In 1956, The Fabulous Moolah became the inaugural champion on September 18 as recognized by World Wrestling Entertainment.[3] The WWE Women's Championship is descended from the original NWA World Women's Championship of the National Wrestling Alliance, which is still active today. In 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) disaffiliated with the NWA and recognized then-NWA World Women's Champion The Fabulous Moolah as the promotion's World Women's Champion. Additionally, the WWF also recognized Moolah's reign at the time as a continuation of her first NWA World Women's Championship reign, which occurred in 1956, resulting in the promotion not recognizing other reigns that occurred during the title's existence in the NWA. Thus, The Fabulous Moolah's reign is considered to have lasted 27 years by the promotion. The WWF soon renamed their recognition of the title as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Women's Championship.

In 1990, the Women's Championship became inactive after Rockin' Robin vacated the championship following her departure from the WWF.[4][5] Then in December 1993, the title was reactivated with Alundra Blayze winning a tournament for the vacant Women's Championship.[6] The Women's Championship, however, became inactive again when Blayze unexpectedly signed with World Championship Wrestling in 1995 while still champion, forcing her to relinquish the title.[7] The Women's Championship was reactivated again in September 1998 when Jacqueline Moore defeated Sable to win the title.[7]

After the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently referred to as the WWE Women's Championship. With the WWE Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship became the only titles allowed to be defended on both the Raw and SmackDown brands, while all other titles were exclusive to a single brand. Later, the Women's Championship became exclusive to only the Raw brand.

On June 24, 2007, Candice Michelle became the first ever former WWE Diva Search contestant to win the Women's Championship by defeating then champion Melina at Vengeance. The Women's Championship remained the sole championship contested by women, until July 4, 2008 when a counterpart to the championship, called the WWE Divas Championship, was created for the SmackDown brand.

On April 13, 2009, the Women's Championship became exclusive to the SmackDown brand when reigning champion Melina was drafted from Raw to SmackDown during the 2009 WWE Draft. On June 28 at The Bash (2009) pay-per-view, Michelle McCool became the first ever Diva to have held both the WWE Women's Championship and the WWE Divas Championship in her WWE career. Other divas that have held both the Women's and Divas Championship include Mickie James, Melina, Beth Phoenix and Layla. Michelle McCool and Melina are the only women in WWE history to record multiple reigns with both Women's and Divas Championships.

It was announced on the August 30 edition of Raw that the championship would be unified with its counterpart, the Divas Championship, at the Night of Champions event. This match was won by Michelle McCool and unified both titles creating the Unified WWE Divas Championship, thus making the Women's Championship defunct as the unified title follows the lineage of the Divas Championship.[2][8]

Reigns

Main article: List of WWE Women's Champions

The inaugural champion was The Fabulous Moolah who defeated Judy Grable on September 18, 1956 and she by far had the longest official reign by holding it for 27 years, 10 months, 5 days, or a total of 10,170 days. Trish Stratus has had more WWE-recognized reigns than anyone else, with seven. Mickie James has the shortest reign. While in Paris on April 24, 2007, James defeated then-champion Melina and Victoria in a Triple Threat Match. However, Jonathan Coachman, the Acting General Manager for Raw said that since Mickie pinned Victoria, Melina deserved an immediate rematch which she won by having her feet on the ropes. Layla is the only British born Womens Champion.

The only male Women's Champion was Harvey Wippleman. On January 30, 2000, Wippleman won the WWF Women's Championship from The Kat while he was in a disguise and used the name "Hervina" in a "Lumberjill Snow bunny" match, a match that took place in a snow filled pool surrounded by female wrestlers whose purpose was to keep the competitors from leaving the pool.

The Fabulous Moolah, Lita, Trish Stratus and Mickie James are the only women to have held the title on four or more occasions.

Rockin' Robin, Alundra Blayze, Chyna, Layla and Trish Stratus are the only undefeated Women's Champions. The women's division was deemed inactive in 1990 during Robin's reign. Alundra Blayze won the Women's Championship after it was reactivated in 1993 before finally relinquishing the title in 1995 when she left to join World Championship Wrestling. Chyna departed from the company during her reign. Trish Stratus won her record seventh reign in her final match before retiring, thus vacating the championship the next day. Michelle McCool unified the Women's and Divas Championships in Layla's place, thus leaving Layla the final undefeated champion.

Layla (officially) was the final champion after she defeated Beth Phoenix in a two-on-one handicap match, on the May 11, 2010 taping of SmackDown, which aired on May 14.[9][10] Overall, there have been a total of 29 recognized champions with 59 official WWE Women's Championship reigns combined.[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Mickie's third Reign". WWE.com. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  2. ^ a b Raymond-Santo, Katie A. (2010-09-24). "Flawless mark on history". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  3. ^ "WWE: Inside WWE > Title History > Women's > 19560918 - Fabulous Moolah". WWE.com. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  4. ^ "Women's Championship reign". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
  5. ^ Ellison, Lillian (2003). The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle. ReaganBooks. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-06-001258-8.
  6. ^ "Alundra Blayze's first reign". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  7. ^ a b Scott Fishman (October 20, 2007). "Rena enjoys home life". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2007-10-23. [dead link]
  8. ^ "History of the Unified Divas Championship". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2010-09-21. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  9. ^ Parks, Greg (2010-05-11). "WWE News: Smackdown SPOILERS - Complete results from tonight's eventful Smackdown TV taping". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  10. ^ "Hall of Women's Champions". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2010-09-26. Layla is the last-ever Women's Champion.
  11. ^ "History of the Women's Championship". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2010-02-26. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
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