World Heavyweight

Championship
(WWE)

The World Heavyweight Championship is

a men's professional wrestling world
heavyweight championship created and
promoted by the American promotion
WWE, defended on the Raw brand division.
It is one of three world titles on WWE's
main roster, along with the WWE
Championship and WWE Universal
Championship, which are jointly held and
defended as the Undisputed WWE
Universal Championship on SmackDown.
The current champion is Seth "Freakin"
Rollins, who defeated AJ Styles in a
tournament final at Night of Champions on
May 27, 2023, to become the inaugural
champion.

The title's creation came as a result of

Roman Reigns and the Undisputed WWE
Universal Championship. After Reigns
became undisputed champion in April
2022, he defended the tandem title across
both brands, but these defenses were
infrequent due to
World Heavyweight
the terms of his Championship
contract. With the
announcement of
the 2023 WWE Draft,
The World
the World
Heavyweight
Heavyweight
Championship belt
Championship was with default side
unveiled on the April plates
24, 2023, episode of
Details
Raw and
Promotion WWE
subsequently
Brand Raw
became exclusive to
Raw after Reigns Date established Apr
24,
and the Undisputed
202
WWE Universal
Championship Current champion(s)
became exclusive to
SmackDown. Date won May 27,
2023
The title is distinct
from WWE's Statistics

previous World First champion(s) Set

Heavyweight "Fr
Championship that Ro

was contested from

2002 until 2013
when it was unified into the WWE
Championship. The two titles share the
same name, but do not share the same
lineage.[1]
History

Inaugural champion Seth "Freakin"

Rollins, shown here with the WWE
Championship

On the April 24, 2023, episode of WWE's

flagship professional wrestling television
program, Monday Night Raw, WWE Chief
Content Officer Triple H announced the
2023 WWE Draft, a process used by the
promotion in which wrestlers are
exclusively assigned to compete on a
brand. He then addressed Roman Reigns
and the Undisputed WWE Universal
Championship. Since WrestleMania 38 in
April 2022, Reigns had held and defended
the promotion's two world championships,
the WWE Championship and WWE
Universal Championship, as the
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
across both the Raw and SmackDown
brands. However, due to his contract,
Reigns made infrequent title defenses.
Thus, Triple H announced that whichever
brand drafted Reigns in the upcoming
draft, he and his undisputed championship
would become exclusive to that brand,
while unveiling a new World Heavyweight
Championship that would be defended on
the opposite brand. It was also revealed
that the inaugural champion would be
crowned at Night of Champions on May
27, 2023.[2][3] During Night 1 of the draft on
the April 28 episode of Friday Night
SmackDown, Reigns was drafted to
SmackDown, subsequently making the
World Heavyweight Championship
exclusive to Raw.[4]

During the Backlash press conference on

May 5, 2023, Triple H announced a
tournament for the title including wrestlers
from both brands with a bracket for each
brand. The first round and semifinals for
each bracket were scheduled for the May
8 and May 12 episodes of Raw and
SmackDown, respectively. The first-round
matches for each episode consisted of
two triple threat matches with the
respective winners advancing to the
semifinals in a singles match the same
night, with those respective winners
advancing to the championship match at
Night of Champions.[5] According to
wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, the
reason that SmackDown wrestlers were
included in the tournament was due to
WWE's attempt to retain viewership for the
May 12 episode of SmackDown, as it and
other wrestling programs that week were
going head-to-head with the 2023 NBA
playoffs.[6]

The participants for the World

Heavyweight Championship Tournament
were revealed on May 7 on WWE's
YouTube channel: Cody Rhodes, Damian
Priest, Finn Bálor, Seth "Freakin" Rollins,
Shinsuke Nakamura, and The Miz from
Raw, and AJ Styles, Austin Theory, Bobby
Lashley, Edge, Rey Mysterio, and Sheamus
from SmackDown.[7] On the May 8 episode
of Raw, Rollins defeated Nakamura and
Priest in the first triple threat while Bálor
defeated Miz and Rhodes in the second.
Rollins subsequently defeated Bálor in the
semifinals to win Raw's bracket.[8] On the
May 12 episode of SmackDown, Styles
defeated Edge and Mysterio in the first
triple threat while Lashley defeated
Sheamus and Theory in the second. Styles
subsequently defeated Lashley in the
semifinals to win SmackDown's bracket,
thus setting up the tournament final
between Rollins and Styles.[9] At Night of
Champions, Rollins defeated Styles to
become the inaugural World Heavyweight
Champion.[10][11] The title was defended
for the first time on the June 5 episode of
Raw.[12]
Inaugural World Heavyweight
Championship tournament (2023)

Belt design

The World Heavyweight Championship

belt has a design that pays homage to the
historic Big Gold Belt, which was used for
WWE's previous World Heavyweight
Championship (2002–2013). It also
features tributes to previous designs of
the company's original world
championship, the WWE Championship
(1963–present).[13]
Like the historic Big Gold Belt, the title has
three large gold plates on a black leather
strap. All three plates include traditional
filigree with each plate outlined in a rope
trim to represent the three ropes of a
wrestling ring. Like the majority of WWE's
other championship belts, the side plates
include a removable round center section
which can be replaced with the reigning
champion's logo in lieu of the nameplate
that was found on the original Big Gold
Belt; the default side plates feature a gold
WWE logo over a globe (customizable side
plates were introduced with the 2013–
2014 version of the WWE Championship
belt).[13]
At the center of the center plate, there is a
large globe that has WWE's logo over top
of it. The WWE logo is silver with black
filled in the blank spaces of the globe. The
globe itself represents that the title is
defended around the world. Above the
globe is a banner with the text "WORLD"
written in silver with a banner below the
globe that says "CHAMPION", also in
silver. Also on the center plate are three
lions, which represent the McMahon
family crest (as WWE was founded and
owned by the McMahon family until
September 2023); there is a full-bodied
lion on each opposing side of the globe
facing outwards while the third is a lion's
head at the very bottom of the center plate
(the McMahon family crest was previously
included on the side plates of the WWE
Championship belts from 1998 to 2005).
At the top of the center plate right above
the "WORLD" banner is a crown, a nod to
Bruno Sammartino's WWE Championship
belt during his long reign (there was also a
crown on the Big Gold Belt). Right above
the crown is an eagle, which is an homage
to the various WWE Championship belts
that included an eagle up until 2013, most
notably the Winged Eagle championship
belt design (1988–1998). There are a total
of 60 diamonds across the three plates to
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the
company, which was established in April
1963.[13]

Reception

The creation of the World Heavyweight

Championship was met with mixed
reception. Some liked the idea of the title,
feeling that it would give new
opportunities for several wrestlers, but
others were critical.[14][15] Dave Scherer of
PWInsider felt that since Roman Reigns
was not in the inaugural tournament, it
made the World Heavyweight
Championship seem like a secondary title
to his Undisputed WWE Universal
Championship.[16] Former WWE and
Extreme Championship Wrestling wrestler
Tommy Dreamer opined that the title's
creation felt like a consolation prize,
stating that it gave the impression that
nobody could beat Reigns. Nonetheless,
he praised the design of the belt.[14]
Conversely, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T
stated that he did not think it felt like a
secondary title or consolation prize,
agreeing with the sentiment that it would
provide new opportunities, especially for
younger wrestlers.[15]

WWE commentator Corey Graves said that

having the title was great as it would allow
Raw and SmackDown to identify as
separate brands (as brand division had
been lax over the preceding year), but he
claimed that until Reigns was defeated,
anyone holding the World Heavyweight
Championship would feel inferior to
Reigns.[17] Scherer also felt that whoever
would finally beat Reigns, the impact
would be lessened due to the existence of
the World Heavyweight Championship.[18]
Prior to competing in the tournament final,
runner-up AJ Styles said that it was hard to
argue that the new title was not secondary
compared to Reigns' undisputed
championship.[19] WWE Hall of Famer Kurt
Angle also praised the design of the belt,
but acknowledged the notion that it felt
like a secondary title compared to Reigns'
titles.[20]

Reigns

As of January 19, 2024.

Key

No. Overall reign number

Reign Reign number for the specific champion

Days Number of days held

+ Current reign is changing daily

 Championship change Reign statistics
No. Champion Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days

WWE: Raw

The title was

established
and
designated to
Raw after the
Undisputed
WWE
Universal
Championship
became
Seth Jeddah,
Night of exclusive to [21][11]
1 "Freakin" May 27, 2023 Saudi 1 237+
Champions SmackDown
Rollins Arabia following the
2023 WWE
Draft. Rollins
defeated AJ
Styles in the
tournament
final to
become the
inaugural
champion.

See also

World championships in WWE

References

1 "W ld H i ht Titl " (htt //

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External links

Official World Heavyweight

Championship Title History (https://ww
w.wwe.com/classics/titlehistory/world-
heavyweight-championship)

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=World_Heavyweight_Championship_(WWE)&ol
did=1196820815"
This page was last edited on 18 January 2024, at
16:27 (UTC). •
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