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WWE Championship

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This article is about the original WWWF/WWF/WWE World Heavyweight Championship' a.k.a. the WWE Championship that is currently defended on RAW/ECW. For SmackDown!'s World Heavyweight Championship see World Heavyweight Championship (WWE).
File:WWE JohnCena.jpg
John Cena's customized version of the WWE Championship, April 2005-present.

The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Championship is a professional wrestling title. The championship is WWE's original world championship and was exclusive to the SmackDown! brand from August 26, 2002 until on June 6, 2005 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 RAW's World Heavyweight Championship has moved to SmackDown! due to the draft of then-Champion Batista on June 30, 2005. The current WWE Champion, Rob Van Dam, is performing on the ECW brand of World Wrestling Entertainment.

History

The WWE Championship was originally known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) 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 (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. When the belt was changed to the "Attitude" title belt in 1998, the belt read World Wrestling Federation Champion, no longer having the words "World Heavyweight".

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 Vengeance 2001 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 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the championship was likewise renamed, with the WWF logo on the belt shortly afterwards being replaced with a new WWE logo 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.

Prior to ECW One Night Stand 2006 on June 11, 2006, Paul Heyman hinted that, if ECW-brand exclusive Rob Van Dam was to win the WWE Championship at One Night Stand, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship name might be revived as a replacement for that belt. After Van Dam did in fact defeat Cena for the title, he was referred to by Joey Styles and on WWE.com as the "WWE/ECW Champion". On the premiere episode of ECW on Sci Fi on June 13, 2006, Heyman presented Van Dam with the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. However, Van Dam then stated that he would keep both titles.

WWE is scheduled to release a three disc DVD set covering the history of the WWE Championship in September 2006.

Belt designs

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 four 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 André the Giant.

Two slightly different versions of John Cena's custom WWE Championship belt were created. One, used during the title's duration as a SmackDown! championship, featured the words SMACK and DOWN on the plate directly to the right of the main plate, with a fist in between the two words. When the title was brought to RAW, the plate was replaced with one that said MON-NITE RAW, and the fist was replaced by a new emblem.

Statistics

Record: Record holder: Record number: Notes:
Most reigns The Rock Seven See Trivia below for runners up.
Longest reign Bruno Sammartino 2803 days (c. seven years) Sammartino's second reign, at 1237 days (c. three years), was the fourth longest in history.
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, 7 seconds Yokozuna defeated Bret Hart and then immediately defended against Hulk Hogan.
Oldest champion Vince McMahon 54 years, 21 days N/A
Second oldest champion Hulk Hogan 48 years, 8 months, and 11 days 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 Shawn Michaels c. 227 lb (103 kg) N/A
Tallest champion 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.

Trivia

  • 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.
  • Four wrestlers (Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Kane, and Mankind) have had title reigns that lasted approximately 24 hours.
  • There have been disputes over whether Antonio Inoki was a WWF Champion and whether Bob Backlund's five year reign between 1978 to 1983 was continuous considering that Inoki beat Backlund in Japan for the title only to be stripped of it a day later. WWE does not recognize Inoki as a former champion, and do not acknowledge either Backlund's loss to Inoki or the incident where a dazed referee awarded the belt to Greg Valentine accidentally after a match with Backlund, leading to a vacancy and rematch that Backlund won.

Current champion

File:Rvdworldchampions.jpg
Rob Van Dam as both the WWE Champion and the ECW World Heavyweight Champion.

The current WWE Champion is Rob Van Dam, who defeated John Cena at ECW One Night Stand 2006 on June 11, 2006, in New York City, New York. This is Van Dam's first reign as champion.

The next night on RAW, both McMahon and Heyman stated that, as the match was contested under "Extreme Rules", Van Dam was the official WWE Champion, even though Heyman made the three count and Edge interfered during the match. ECW representative Paul Heyman also stated that on the debut of ECW on Sci Fi on June 13, 2006 in Trenton, New Jersey the title would be rechristened the "ECW Championship." However, at the ECW taping, Van Dam was presented with the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and stated that he would keep both titles (implying that the two titles are actually separate).

See also

References

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