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Women's championships in WWE

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 92.235.24.73 (talk) at 18:10, 3 February 2021 (Added Alicia Fox, who won the 24/7 Championship on January 31st 2021 at the Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View from R-Truth.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

"WWE Women's Championship" redirects here. For the championship that went by this name from 2002–2010, see WWE Women's Championship (1956–2010). For the championship that went by this name in 2016, see WWE Raw Women's Championship.
The Fabulous Moolah, WWE's inaugural and longest reigning women's champion

WWE (formerly the WWF, WWWF, and its predecessor, Capitol Wrestling) has maintained several women's professional wrestling championships since acquiring The Fabulous Moolah's NWA World Women's Championship in 1984. Whenever brand division has been implemented, separate women's titles have been created or allocated for each brand.

Overview of titles

Singles

# Name Years
1 WWE Women's Championship 1956 – 2010 (became WWF property in 1984)
2 WWE Divas Championship 2008 – 2016
3 NXT Women's Championship 2013 – present
4 Raw Women's Championship 2016 – present
5 SmackDown Women's Championship 2016 – present
6 NXT UK Women's Championship 2018 – present

Tag Team

# Name Years
1 WWF Women's Tag Team Championship 1983 – 1989
2 WWE Women's Tag Team Championship 2019 – present

Others

In addition to titles specifically designated for women, women in WWE have also won four other championships. Two of these titles have been explicitly open to all challengers, while two others were traditionally considered "men's titles".

# Name Wrestler Years
1 WWE Intercontinental Championship Chyna 1979 – present
2 WWE Cruiserweight Championship Madusa and Daffney in WCW, Jacqueline in WWE 1991 – 2007 (became WWF property in 2001)
3 WWE Hardcore Championship (explicitly open to all challengers) Godfather's Ho, Mighty Molly, Trish Stratus, Terri 1998 – 2002
4 WWE 24/7 Championship (explicitly open to all challengers) Kelly Kelly, Candice Michelle, Alundra Blayze, Maria Kanellis, Carmella, Tamina, Alicia Fox 2019 – present

History

See also: Women in WWE
Mickie James is a six-time women's champion in WWE, winning the WWE Women's Championship five times and the WWE Divas Championship once; she is the only woman to have competed for five of the six primary women's championships to have existed in WWE.
Charlotte Flair is a four-time Raw Women's Champion, a five-time SmackDown Women's Champion, and a one-time Divas Champion and a two-time NXT Women's Champion; she is the only woman to have won four of the six primary women's championships to have existed in WWE; the most any other woman has held is three.

On September 18, 1956, The Fabulous Moolah became the third NWA World Women's Champion. Moolah had worked for the northeastern United States-based Capitol Wrestling Corporation, a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), since the previous year.[1] In 1963, Capitol Wrestling seceded from the NWA and established itself as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF); it quietly rejoined the NWA in 1971. Moolah bought the rights to the championship in the 1970s, and continued to defend the championship as the NWA World Women's Champion. The WWWF, renamed to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, withdrew from the NWA for good in 1983. Moolah sold the championship's rights to the WWF in 1984, and she was recognized as the WWF Women's Champion.[2] Instead of beginning her reign in 1984, the WWF claimed the lineage of her reign from when she first became champion in 1956. The preceding champions and the title changes between 1956 and when Moolah lost it in 1984 are not recognized by WWE (although they are recognized by the NWA[3]). As a result, The Fabulous Moolah's first reign is considered to have lasted 28 years by the promotion.[4]

In 1990, the Women's Championship became inactive after Rockin' Robin vacated the championship following her departure from the WWF.[5][6] Then in December 1993, the title was reactivated with Alundra Blayze winning a tournament for the vacant Women's Championship.[7] However, the Women's Championship became inactive again when Blayze was released from the WWF. Blayze, as Madusa, unexpectedly signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1995 and threw the championship belt, which was still in her possession, in a trash can on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro.[8] The Women's Championship was reactivated again in September 1998 when Jacqueline Moore defeated Sable to win the title.[8]

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 in March 2002, the Women's Championship at first was still defended on both the Raw and SmackDown brands, while most titles were exclusive to one brand. In September, the Women's Championship became exclusive to only the Raw brand, but 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. The titles switched brands after their respective title holders were drafted to the opposite brands in the 2009 WWE draft.

The Women's Championship was unified with the Divas Championship at Night of Champions in September 2010, creating the Unified WWE Divas Championship and rendering the Women's Championship defunct as the unified title followed the lineage of the Divas Championship; shortly after, the title dropped the "Unified" moniker.[9] The Divas Championship continued as the only women's championship of the main roster until 2016 when it was retired and replaced by a new WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 32. This came after the term "Diva" was scrutinized by some commentators, fans, and several past and present WWE female performers who were in favor of changing the championship to the Women's Championship. The division itself was also changed from being called the Divas division to being called the Women's division. The new championship does not share its title history with the previous championships.[10][11][12]

Following the reintroduction of the brand extension in July 2016, then-champion Charlotte Flair was drafted to the Raw brand, making the championship exclusive to Raw. In response, SmackDown created the SmackDown Women's Championship on August 23, 2016. The WWE Women's Championship was subsequently renamed to Raw Women's Championship to reflect its exclusivity to Raw. In addition, WWE's former developmental territory NXT established the NXT Women's Championship in April 2013, which became one of WWE's three main women's titles in September 2019 when NXT became WWE's third major brand. Another title, the NXT UK Women's Championship, debuted for NXT's sister brand NXT UK in 2018, but is recognized as being a step below the other three.

Longest championship reigns

Top 10 women's championship reigns

Singles championships

The following list shows the top 10 longest women's championship reigns in WWE history. A + indicates that the reign is ongoing.

No. Champion Title Reign Length
(days) 		Notes
1 The Fabulous Moolah WWE Women's Championship 1 3,651 During this reign, the title was known as the NWA World Women's Championship and was renamed to the WWF Women's Championship when the WWF bought the rights to the championship in 1984. WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 10,170 days (September 18, 1956 – July 23, 1984) as they do not recognize the title changes of the NWA World Women's Championship from 1956 to 1984.
2 Kay Lee Ray NXT UK Women's Championship 1 1,891+
3 Asuka NXT Women's Championship 1 510 WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 523 days due to tape delay.
4 Rockin' Robin WWE Women's Championship 1 502 During this reign, the title was known as the WWF Women's Championship.
5 Trish Stratus WWE Women's Championship 6 448
6 Sensational Sherri WWE Women's Championship 1 441 During this reign, the title was known as the WWF Women's Championship.
7 Shayna Baszler NXT Women's Championship 2 416
8 Bayley WWE SmackDown Women's Championship 2 380
9 The Fabulous Moolah WWE Women's Championship 3 During this reign, the title was known as the WWF Women's Championship. In reality, this was Moolah's 7th reign, but because WWE does not recognize the title changes of the NWA World Women's Championship between 1956 and 1984, they recognize this as Moolah's 3rd reign.
10 Becky Lynch WWE Raw Women's Championship 1 373 WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 398 days due to tape delay.

Tag team championships

The following list shows the top 10 longest women's tag team championship reigns in WWE history. There have been only two titles and nine title reigns. The + indicates it is the current reign.

No. Champion Title Reign Length
(days) 		Notes
1 The Glamour Girls
(Judy Martin and Leilani Kai) 		WWF Women's Tag Team Championship 1 906
2 Velvet McIntyre & Princess Victoria 1 574 McIntyre and Victoria were the reigning NWA Women's World Tag Team Champions upon the WWF's withdrawal from the National Wrestling Alliance and were recognized as the first WWF Women's Tag Team Champions, which ended the lineage of the NWA title.
3 The Glamour Girls
(Judy Martin and Leilani Kai) 		2 251
4 Velvet McIntyre & Desiree Petersen 1 237
5 The Kabuki Warriors
(Asuka and Kairi Sane) 		WWE Women's Tag Team Championship 1 171 or 172 The event that they lost the title was taped across two days, and it is currently not known which date they lost the titles. WWE recognizes The Kabuki Warrior's reign as lasting 181 days due to tape delay.
6 The Jumping Bomb Angels
(Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno) 		WWF Women's Tag Team Championship 1 136
7 The IIconics
(Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) 		WWE Women's Tag Team Championship 1 120
8 Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler 1 112
9 Bayley and Sasha Banks 2 96
10 Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross 1 62

Longest reign per championship

The following list shows the longest reigning champion for each singles and tag team women's championship.

The + indicates it is the current reign.

No. Champion Title Reign Dates held Length
(days) 		Notes
1 The Fabulous Moolah WWE Women's Championship 1 September 18, 1956 – September 17, 1966 3,651 During this reign, the title was known as the NWA World Women's Championship and was renamed to the WWF Women's Championship when the WWF bought the rights to the championship in 1984. WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 10,170 days (September 18, 1956 – July 23, 1984) as they do not recognize the title changes of the NWA World Women's Championship from 1956 to 1984.
2 The Glamour Girls
(Judy Martin and Leilani Kai) 		WWF Women's Tag Team Championship 1 August 1, 1985 - January 24, 1988 906
3 Asuka NXT Women's Championship 1 April 1, 2016 – August 24, 2017 510 WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 523 days (April 1, 2016 – September 6, 2017) due to tape delay.
4 Kay Lee Ray NXT UK Women's Championship 1 August 31, 2019 – present 1,891+
5 Bayley WWE SmackDown Women's Championship 2 October 11, 2019 – October 25, 2020 380
6 Becky Lynch WWE Raw Women's Championship 1 April 8, 2019 – April 15, 2020 373 WWE recognizes this reign as lasting 398 days (April 8, 2019 – May 10, 2020) due to tape delay.
7 Nikki Bella WWE Divas Championship 2 November 23, 2014 – September 20, 2015 301
8 The Kabuki Warriors
(Asuka and Kairi Sane) 		WWE Women's Tag Team Championship 1 October 6, 2019 – March 25 or 26, 2020 172 or 171 The event that they lost the title was taped across two days, and it is currently not known which date they lost the titles. WWE recognizes The Kabuki Warrior's reign as lasting 181 days (October 6, 2019 – April 4, 2020) due to tape delay.

Most championship reigns per title

The following list shows the wrestlers with the most reigns for each women's championship created and/or promoted by WWE.

No. Champion Title No. of
Reigns 		Notes
1 Trish Stratus WWE Women's Championship 7 Moolah first won the championship when it was called the NWA World Women's Championship and it was renamed to the WWF Women's Championship when the WWF bought the rights to the championship in 1984, which was what the title was known as for her subsequent reigns. However, WWE only recognizes that Moolah held the championship four times as they do not recognize the title changes of the NWA World Women's Championship from 1956 to 1984. As such, they recognize that Trish Stratus has the most reigns at seven.
2 Sasha Banks WWE Raw Women's Championship 5 During her first reign, the title was known as the WWE Women's Championship.
3 Charlotte Flair WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
4 AJ Lee WWE Divas Championship 3
Eve Torres
5 Shayna Baszler NXT Women's Championship 2
Charlotte Flair
6 Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross WWE Women's Tag Team Championship 2
Asuka During her first reign, she held the title with Kairi Sane as a team called The Kabuki Warriors. During her current second reign, she is holding the title with Charlotte Flair.
Bayley and Sasha Banks During their first reign, they were known as The Boss 'n' Hug Connection.
Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler
7 The Glamour Girls
(Judy Martin and Leilani Kai) 		WWF Women's Tag Team Championship 2
8 Kay Lee Ray NXT UK Women's Championship 1
There have only been three reigns between three women thus far.
Rhea Ripley
Toni Storm

Most championship reigns

The following list shows the wrestlers who have the most reigns in total for women's singles championships, combining all titles they have held as recognized by WWE. This list also shows the titles that they won to achieve this record (minimum of four reigns).

No. Champion Titles No. of Reigns Notes
1 Charlotte Flair 12 Flair was the last Divas Champion and the inaugural Raw Women's Champion, which at that time was known as the WWE Women's Championship.
She is also the only woman to have held all of these titles.
2 Sasha Banks 7 During her first reign with the Raw Women's Championship, the title was known as the WWE Women's Championship.
Trish Stratus During her first reign, the title was known as the WWF Women's Championship.
4 Mickie James 6
5 Alexa Bliss 5 Bliss was the first woman to have won both titles.
Melina
7 Bayley 4 After winning the SmackDown Women's Championship, Bayley simultaneously became WWE's first Women's Triple Crown Champion and first Women's Grand Slam Champion, as she had also held the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship prior.
Asuka
Becky Lynch Lynch was the inaugural SmackDown Women's Champion.
Beth Phoenix
Michelle McCool McCool was the inaugural Divas Champion and the first woman to have won both titles.
Lita
The Fabulous Moolah Moolah was WWE's first Women's Champion. The title was known as the NWA World Women's Championship (which still exists today) until May 19, 1984, when Moolah sold the rights to the championship to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and the title was renamed to WWF Women's Championship. Moolah's title reigns in total are actually 8, however, WWE recognizes Moolah's first reign as being uninterrupted for 28 years, as they do not recognize the title changes of the NWA World Women's Championship from 1956–1984.

See also

References

  1. ^ Chris Schramm (October 5, 1998). "Moolah: Twenty-eight years was the reign". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  2. ^ Steve Slagle. "The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame: Fabulous Moolah". The Ring Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2011-05-26. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  3. ^ "NWA World Women's Championship". Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 18, 2010. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
  4. ^ "WWE: Inside WWE > Title History > Women's > 19560918 - Fabulous Moolah". WWE.com. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  5. ^ "Women's Championship reign". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
  6. ^ Ellison, Lillian (2003). The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle. ReaganBooks. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-06-001258-8.
  7. ^ "Alundra Blayze's first reign". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  8. ^ a b Scott Fishman (October 20, 2007). "Rena enjoys home life". Miami Herald.
  9. ^ "History of the Unified Divas Championship". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2010-09-21. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  10. ^ Konuwa, Alfred (March 30, 2016). "Is WWE Planning To Rebrand Its Divas Division?". Forbes. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  11. ^ Ahmed, Tufayel. "WrestleMania 32: By Dumping the 'Divas' Branding, WWE Makes Its Biggest Step to Gender Equality". Newsweek. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  12. ^ Gass, Dorathy (2014-06-20). "Wrestlemania 32: How The Women Stole The Show". Wrestle Newz. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
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