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WWE Women's Championship (1956–2010)

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This article is about the historical championship. For the current championship, see WWE Women's Championship.
Not to be confused with WWE Divas Championship.
WWE Women's Championship
File:WWE Women's Championship 2015.jpg.png
The final belt design of the original WWE Women's Championship.
(June 2002 - September 2010)
Details
PromotionWWE
Date establishedSeptember 18, 1956
Date retiredSeptember 19, 2010
Other name(s)
  • NWA World Women's Championship
  • WWF Ladies' Championship
  • WWF Women's Championship
Statistics
First champion(s)The Fabulous Moolah
Final champion(s)Layla
Most reignsTrish Stratus (7)
Longest reignThe Fabulous Moolah (3,651 days)
Shortest reignMickie James[1]
(<1 hour)
Oldest championThe Fabulous Moolah (76 years, 106 days)
Youngest championWendi Richter (22 years, 10 Months)

The WWE Women's Championship was a women's 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] A new WWE Women's Championship was created in 2016, and although both belts share the name and the original is considered to be the predecessor, the new belt does not carry the lineage of the original.

History

On September 18, 1956, The Fabulous Moolah became the inaugural Women's Champion as recognized by World Wrestling Entertainment.[3] The 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, now WWE) disaffiliated with the NWA and recognized then-NWA World Women's Champion The Fabulous Moolah as the promotion's World Women's Champion. The Fabulous Moolah's reign is considered to have lasted 28 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] However, the Women's Championship became inactive again when Blayze was released from the WWF. Blayze, as Madusa, unexpectedly signed with World Championship Wrestling in 1995 and threw the championship belt, which was still in her possession, in a trash can on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro (in her 2015 WWE Hall of Fame induction speech, Blayze "returned" the belt).[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 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. 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.

Melina in her third reign as Women's Champion, after winning the belt at the Royal Rumble in early 2009

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 to replace the current WWE Divas Champion Maryse, who had been drafted to Raw. On June 28 at The Bash pay-per-view, Michelle McCool became the first woman to hold both the Women's Championship and the Divas Championship. Other women that have held both championships 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 the Women's and Divas championships.

The Women's Championship was unified with the Divas Championship at Night of Champions in September 2010. 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; the title eventually dropped the "Unified" moniker to be called the WWE Divas Championship.[2][8]

On April 3, 2016 at WrestleMania 32, a new WWE Women's Championship was introduced to succeed the Divas Championship, however, this new title does not carry the lineage of the original Women's Championship, but WWE acknowledges it as its predecessor.

Brand designation history

Following the WWE Brand Extension on March 25, all titles in WWE became exclusive to either the Raw brand or SmackDown brand. The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the Women's Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.

Colors

Championship moved to the Raw brand.

Championship moved to the SmackDown brand.
Date of transition Notes
September 2002 Women's Championship became exclusive to Raw.
April 13, 2009 Following the 2009 WWE Draft, the Women's Champion at the time, Melina, was drafted to SmackDown and brought the title to the brand. The title remained with SmackDown until the unification with the WWE Divas Championship in September 2010.

Reigns

Main article: List of WWE Women's Champions
Layla, who held the championship when it was deactivated in 2010.

The inaugural champion was The Fabulous Moolah, who defeated Judy Grable on September 18, 1956.[9] Moolah by far has the longest reign by holding it for 10 years. Under the WWWF banner, Moolah has the longest reign with 27 years. The Fabulous Moolah has the most reigns with 8. Under the WWE banner, Trish Stratus has the most reigns with 7. Mickie James has the shortest reign with 1 hour. 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.[10]

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; the match took place in a snow filled pool surrounded by female wrestlers whose purpose was to keep the competitors from leaving the pool.[11]

The women's division was deemed inactive in 1990 during Robin's reign.[12] Alundra Blayze won the Women's Championship after it was reactivated in 1993.[13] Chyna departed from the company during her reign. Trish Stratus won her seventh title reign in her final match at WWE Unforgiven in 2006 against Lita before retiring the same night, thus vacating the championship the next day.[14] Michelle McCool unified the Women's and Divas Championships in Layla's place, thus leaving Layla the final and undefeated champion.[15][16]

See also

References

  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. ^ "The Fabulous Moolah's first reign". WWE. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  10. ^ "Melina's second reign". WWE. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  11. ^ "Hervina's first reign". WWE. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  12. ^ "Rockin' Robin's first reign". WWE. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  13. ^ "Alundra Blayze's first reign". WWE. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  14. ^ "Trish Stratus' seventh reign". WWE. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  15. ^ Raymond-Santo, Katie A. (September 24, 2010). "Flawless mark on history". WWE. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  16. ^ "Hall of Women's Champions". WWE. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
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