WWE Championship
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The World Wrestling Entertainment Championship or WWE Championship or WWE Heavyweight Championship, is one of the two top prizes in WWE. It was exclusive to the Smackdown! brand from August 26, 2002 through June 6, 2005, while the World Heavyweight Championship was exclusive to WWE RAW; however, when WWE Champion John Cena was drafted to RAW during the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, he took the belt with him to RAW.
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History
Originally known as the WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) World Heavyweight Championship until Vince McMahon, Jr. bought the company from his father and renamed it to WWF. After this it was called the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) World Heavyweight Championship, however it was often simply called the WWF Heavyweight Championship or WWF Championship.
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 WWF Vengeance pay-per-view event in San Diego, California. While 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 unified belt which continued to be defended as the WWF Undisputed Championship. During the title reign of Hollywood Hulk Hogan, legal matters caused the company to change its name to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and the championship was likewise renamed. The WWF logo on the belt was replaced with the new WWE logo. The belt style remained in use and the 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, the World Heavyweight Championship was created by RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff and it was awarded to Triple H on September 3, 2002, leaving the former Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar as simply the SmackDown! WWE Champion. When John Cena was drafted to RAW, both belts became RAW-exclusive, however this is expected to change soon.
Facts and trivia
- The longest reign is by Bruno Sammartino's first at seven years.
- The Longest reign for a heel wrestler is "Superstar" Billy Graham at a little over a year
- The shortest reign ever was André the Giant's reign, which lasted only 45 seconds.
- The most WWE Championship reigns is seven, held by The Rock, followed by both Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin with six, Bret Hart and Triple H with five, The Undertaker and Kurt Angle with four, and Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, and Brock Lesnar with three. Due to some controversial matches, Bob Backlund can lay claim to two additional reigns on top of his two official ones, totalling four.
- The youngest champion to ever hold the championship is Brock Lesnar, who won the title at the age of 25.
- The oldest champion to ever hold the championship is Vince McMahon, who was 54.
- The fastest ever debut-to-championship win is Brock Lesnar in just under six months.
- The tallest ever champion is The Big Show, billed as 7'2".
- The heaviest ever champion is Yokozuna, billed variously as 400 to 600lbs throughout his career.
- The shortest WWE Championship match was Diesel defeating champion Bob Backlund in November 94 in 8 seconds.
Current champion
The current World Wrestling Entertainment Champion is John Cena. He won the championship at WrestleMania 21 by defeating John "Bradshaw" Layfield by hitting an F-U on Bradshaw after he attempted a Clothesline from Hell.
Two weeks later, John Cena changed the style of the belt to one with a spinning center much like he did the WWE United States Championship, which upon losing was restored to the flag version. Bradshaw continued to carry the previous version of the WWE title belt until Cena claimed it at Judgment Day 2005.
When Cena was "randomly" selected as the first pick in the RAW/SmackDown! Draft Lottery of 2005, the WWE championship switched brands as well, becoming a RAW title (which effectively gave RAW the two highest titles in the company, the WWE championship and World Heavyweight championship).