World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)
This article is about WWE's version of the World Heavyweight Championship. For the original WWWF/WWF/WWE World Heavyweight Championship, see WWE Championship. |
The World Heavyweight Championship belt (2002- present |
The
World Heavyweight Championship (otherwise known as the
World Championship) is a
professional wrestling title. Currently, it is the highest ranked championship on the
SmackDown! brand of
World Wrestling Entertainment. The belt was introduced in
2002 originally as the top-level championship for the
RAW brand.
The championship was originally represented by the "
Big Gold Belt", an iconic wrestling belt that previously represented the
NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and later the
WCW World Heavyweight Championship. In
2003, several months after the title was reintroduced, the belt was modified from the original design to include a new WWE logo at the top of the belt and a slight curve on the face plate.
It is certainly not disputed that the current World Heavyweight Championship belt has a design inspired by the "Big Gold Belt," but whether the championship is considered to be in the lineage of the two has been under debate (see
Lineage controversy). [In
December 2001, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (then referred simply as the "WCW Championship" and often the "World Championship") was merged with the
WWF Championship, forming the
WWF Undisputed Championship. This event took place on
December 9,
2001 when
Chris Jericho defeated
The Rock to gain the World Championship and later that night beat the WWF Champion
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin to unify the two titles. From this point forward the belts were merged and referred to as the Undisputed Championship, although it was effectively one championship as the two belts were always defended together. The two belts were replaced by one belt on
April 1,
2002, when
Ric Flair then
co-owner of the WWF (by 'storyline') presented then-champion
Triple H with a new belt. During the initial brand extension period, when
RAW and
SmackDown! became
de facto separate wrestling promotions, the Undisputed Championship (along with the
WWE Women's Championship) was defended on both shows, effectively designating the title as representing the top championships of
RAW and
SmackDown!.
In
August 2002, WWE Undisputed Champion
Brock Lesnar declared he would be a
SmackDown! exclusive wrestler and no longer wrestle on
RAW or defend the title against any
RAW stars under any circumstances. In response, on
September 2 2002, then-General Manager of
RAW Eric Bischoff introduced the World Heavyweight Championship to be the new top-tier championship for
RAW and also stated that he wanted the legacy of this belt to continue to make history. Bischoff immediately awarded the old WCW belt to
Triple H because he was the "last man to wear the belt," in reference to Triple H being the last to physically hold the WCW title belt as champion. Also, Triple H had a title shot set up, before Lesnar signed exclusively to
SmackDown!.
Following the formation of the World Heavyweight Championship and the creation of separate set of tag-team belts for
SmackDown!, the two sets of tag-team belts were renamed to mirror those of the top belts: hence the WWE World Tag Team Championship became the
World Tag Team Championship, while the newer belts took "WWE" into its name. When the two top singles titles switched shows, neither tag-team belt was renamed. With the top belts being show-exclusive, the
WWE Women's Championship was quietly made into a
RAW-exclusive belt.
The World Heavyweight Championship was initially considered by some to be the lesser of the two championship belts, but was eventually regarded as the greater of the two when, in the "major" pay-per-view events, the World Heavyweight Championship title match would often be billed later on the card than the WWE Championship match. However, with the
WWE 2005 Draft, the two top belts effectively switched shows, with WWE Champion
John Cena, moving to
RAW as the first pick in the draft and World Heavyweight Champion
Batista moving to
SmackDown!. In the four-week interim period between the first and last draft picks,
RAW had both of the top belts while
SmackDown! had neither, prompting
SmackDown! General Manager
Theodore Long to attempt to introduce a third top belt (presumably called the "WWE SmackDown! Championship"), only for it to be deemed unnecessary when Batista was introduced to
SmackDown!.
|
Triple H was the first ever World Heavyweight Champion. |
Batista would continue to hold the title for the rest of the year, only being forced to vacate the title on
January 10,
2006 due to injury (despite working injured in the last months of his reign due to the sudden death of
Eddie Guerrero, who was largely rumored to win the title from Batista so he could nurse his injury). In a shocking twist,
SmackDown!, a taped show that is shown two to three days later on television, announced the new champion at the night of the taping as major breaking news, contrary to WWE's spoiler conventions in which such stories would be relegated to the background (as it was felt that spoilers for
SmackDown! would have a negative impact on its ratings). Even more shocking was the fact that the new champion was
Kurt Angle, who was a
RAW wrestler at the time.
Angle would reveal on
RAW the next week, where he was still obliged to fight
Shawn Michaels, that he had negotiated a contract on
SmackDown! after hearing of Batista's injury, and the fact that his
RAW contract had expired at the end of the previous year (how Angle remained on
RAW in a "handshake agreement" for several weeks after his contract expired remained unexplained), with negotiations on a contract extension stalled after the firing of
general manager Eric Bischoff.
Whether Bischoff had retracted the WCW Championship from the Undisputed Championship or introduced a new championship with a belt that only looks like the WCW Championship belt is a matter of debate among wrestling fans. The WWE's position on the matter has changed over the years, but currently it recognizes the World Heavyweight Championship as being a new title. WWE.com currently lists the title as a new title created in 2002. [
1] In mid-2005, WWE.com added a Title History section for the WCW Championship, which listed
Chris Jericho as its final champion and may have proven that the current World Heavyweight Championship was a new title. However, the WCW Title History section was removed from WWE.com soon afterwards, causing confusion once again.
The general consensus is that the current World Heavyweight Championship initially claimed legitimacy as the successor to the NWA and WCW belts, but the subtle point has been dropped after the belt gained a reputation of its own. In particular, when
Chris Benoit had won the belt at
WrestleMania XX, announcers
Jim Ross and
Jerry Lawler stated that he had won the belt for the first time, despite the fact that Benoit had won the WCW Championship before (in fact, Benoit left WCW while he was champion). To date, only
Goldberg,
Kurt Angle,
Chris Benoit and
Booker T have won both the WCW Championships and World Heavyweight Championships.
While WWE announcers occasionally make allusions to the belt's lineage dating back as far as
1904, a reference to the
World Heavyweight Championship held by
Georg Hackenschmidt, as well as segments detailing the history linking that timeframe as well as the WCW lineage to the title during episodes of
WWE Confidential, the majority of evidence suggests that the belt does not derive its lineage beyond its debut on
September 2,
2002, and instead is simply using the WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt to represent the new title.
Perhaps most telling of how the World Heavyweight Championship is considered a new belt (and perhaps subtly that the WCW championship was not a major championship in post-Brand Extension WWE, but that it is included in world title histories for some wrestlers (i.e. Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan were both listed as former WCW champions during the 2002 Brand Extension in the stats given for them when the initial draft took place)) was on the
May 19,
2003 edition of
RAW, when
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin gave
Triple H the choice to defend the title against any former "world champion" on the roster and specifically named all of
RAW's former WWE champions but not
Booker T,
Scott Steiner, and
Goldberg, all of whom were former WCW Champions but had never won a world title in WWE, implying that WWE does not recognize WCW Champions as former "world champions."
Adding to this interpretation is the fact that WWE states that Randy Orton is its youngest World Heavyweight Champion (having captured the title at the age of 24, possibly in an effort to upstage Brock Lesnar's "record" of winning the belt at 25 years of age), ignoring the fact that
The Big Show held the WCW World Heavyweight title at the age of 23. This makes sense if WWE does not recognize WCW Championship reigns as "world heavyweight championship" reigns.
It is to be noted, however, legends such as
Ric Flair have their major wrestling title totals,
including the WCW championship, amalgamated - thus he is considered to be a sixteen-time world champion despite the fact that he had never held the World Heavyweight Championship (although he was a six-time WCW champion and two-time WWE champion).
Some fans claim that the NWA and WCW Championships have carried on in the World Heavyweight Championship, citing the restoration of the
WWE United States Championship and the
WWE Cruiserweight Championship as examples, though on the WWE.Com title history, the Cruiserweight and United States Championship title histories list WCW title holders, while the World Heavyweight Championship history does not.
Any question of the true lineage of the World Heavyweight Championship was complicated on the
January 13,
2006 edition of
WWE Friday Night SmackDown!. When
Batista dropped the title on that day due to injury, he included
Dusty Rhodes in a short list of previous holders of the title. Dusty Rhodes was a holder of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but never held a singles title in WWE. In addition, though he has held the WWE Championship before, Ric Flair has not held the "Big Gold Belt" in WWE. This could be the first on-screen acknowledgement of a connection between the lineages of the WCW and WWE versions of the "Big Gold Belt". A brief recap of this event the on
January 21 2006,
SmackDown! also displayed the WCW version of the "Big Gold Belt" when General Manager
Theodore Long referred to the heritage of the title. Recently,
Kurt Angle has stated he was a "six-time world champion," a total that includes his one WCW Championship reign along with his four WWE Championship and one World Heavyweight Championship reign, thus making a similar claim to Flair and implicitly recognizing the WCW Championship as a world championship.
Yet more confusion appeared on WWE's Mobile Service on August 9, 2006. In a "On this date in history" message, Hulk Hogan was mentioned as "winning The World Heavyweight Championship from Lex Luger at Road Wild 1997," with no mention of it being the WCW Championship.
Some fans also claim that WWE's view on its own title histories (and thus lineage) may be susceptible to
revisionism: such revisionism would explain how the WWE recognized
The Fabulous Moolah holding the
WWE Women's Championship for over 30 years (it actually was inactive for much of that period) or how WWE does not recognize the
WWF Light Heavyweight Championship's lineage history before it was awarded to
Taka Michinoku, despite the fact that it had been defended before as part of the
J-Crown. WWE treated
Chris Benoit's World Heavyweight Championship win at
WrestleMania XX as his "first" world championship, despite the fact that he was a former WCW Champion, ostensibly to add to the drama of his win, while it recognizes Ric Flair's WCW Championships as world championship reigns. Kurt Angle has referred to his WCW Championship reign as a world championship, but WWE has recently added a section to its website devoted to Triple H's ten World Title reigns[
2], in which it calls him the "first" World Heavyweight Champion[
3] It seems WWE's treatment of the lineage of this title is, at best, uncertain, and WWE has constantly reinterpreted its stance as it has seen fit.
Part of the controversy can be explained by the fact that WWE often uses the terms "world championship" or "world heavyweight champion" as a generic term (as opposed to the specific "World Heavyweight Championship" title in particular) to refer to either of the top-tier championships of WWE, i.e. either the
RAW or
SmackDown! world title.
In the aforementioned
May 19 2003 edition of
RAW, when the World Heavyweight Championship was held by Triple H, then co-General Manager "Stone Cold" Steve Austin demanded that he defend the belt against a former world heavyweight champion and listed Shawn Michaels, Kane, Chris Jericho, and Kevin Nash as being among Triple H's options for opponents. Of the four, only Shawn Michaels had held the "World Heavyweight Championship" in its current form; Chris Jericho was a former WCW Champion who had held the belt after it was renamed the "World Championship" but prior to its
September 2,
2002 reintroduction; Kevin Nash had been a former WWF and WCW Champion but had never held the belt in its current form; and Kane was a former WWE Champion but had never held any version of the "big gold belt." Given the fact that Kane was included in Austin's list, the generic term "world heavyweight champion" must be seen to include WWF/E Championship reigns as well. Former WCW Champions like Booker T, Scott Steiner, and Goldberg, all of whom were on the RAW roster at the time, who had never held a WWE world championship, were specifically not listed by Austin. Austin, however, also did not include Ric Flair, who was a former WWE Champion, so his list is arguably not conclusive (although Austin may have omitted Flair as he was Triple H's ally at the time and Austin therefore did not want to have him in the match). Given WWE's dismissive attitude towards any wrestling concept that it did not originate itself, it is not surprising to see that WWE does not want recognize the WCW Championship as a "world heavyweight championship."
The lone exception to this rule is Ric Flair, who is touted as a sixteen-time world champion. He has only won two WWF Championships; the remainder of his WWE-recognized world championship reigns are NWA titles (8) and WCW titles (6). Flair, however, has a special place in the legacy of professional wrestling, and WWE wants to tout his numerous world titles to acknowledge this. It is noteworthy that no other WWE wrestler has any pre-unification WCW Championship reigns recognized as a "world championship" (prior to
WrestleMania 21, for example, Kurt Angle was touted as a "former WCW Champion and a four-time WWE Champion,"
not a "five-time world champion") and no mention has ever been made of former WCW Champions, such as Goldberg, Booker T or Chris Benoit, winning the title "again" when they won the World Heavyweight Championship in WWE.
The following pertains specifically to the history of the belt since its WWE reintroduction in 2002:
*The only three superstars that have claimed both the World Heavyweight Championship and the
WWE Championship in their careers are
Triple H,
Shawn Michaels and
Kurt Angle. Of the three superstars in the list, only Kurt Angle has held both titles since the Raw/Smackdown brand split in 2002.
*
Goldberg,
Kurt Angle,
Chris Benoit and
King Booker are the only former WCW World Champions to hold this belt.
*
Kurt Angle is the only person ever to have won the
WWE Championship,
WCW World Heavyweight Championship and World Heavyweight Championship, as well as being the only Olympic gold medalist to win the title.
*Both Shawn Michaels and Triple H have won the World title in
Elimination Chamber matches, making them the only men in WWE history to win one of the heavyweight championships in any sort of a
cage match.
*Kurt Angle and Triple H are the only people to win the title in a match that was not during a pay-per view. Kurt Angle won it in a 20-man Battle Royal on
SmackDown! and Triple H was awarded the title by Eric Bischoff on
RAW.
*Bill Goldberg is the only Jewish-American to hold the World Heavyweight Championship.
*Chris Benoit is the only born Canadian to date to have won the World Heavyweight Championship.
*
Rey Mysterio is the first Mexican-American, masked wrestler,
Luchador, and former
Cruiserweight Champion to have won the World Heavyweight Championship.
*In the past 3 years the winner of the Royal Rumble match (Rey Mysterio, Batista and Chris Benoit) have gone onto win the World Heavyweight Championship in the
WrestleMania main event match of their brand whether it was
RAW or
SmackDown!, although Benoit moved from SmackDown to RAW to challenge for the title.
*King Booker is the first African-American wrestler to hold the World Heavyweight Championship.
The current champion is
King Booker, in his first reign. King Booker won the title by pinning
Rey Mysterio at
The Great American Bash on
July 23,
2006.
*
List of WWE World Heavyweight Champions*
List of WWE World Heavyweight Championship reigns by length*
List of WWE world champions by age*
Championship unification*
List of Number of World Title Reigns*
WCW World Heavyweight Championship*
WWE World Heavyweight Title History
