Named in honor of the WWE Universe, the championship was established on July 25, 2016 to be the top title of the Raw brand. Its creation came as a result of the reintroduction of the brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016 in which the WWE Championship, the promotion's original world title, became exclusive to SmackDown. The inaugural Universal Champion was Finn Bálor. Since its inception, matches for the championship have headlined several pay-per-view events, including SummerSlam in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, WrestleMania 34 and 37 Night 2, both being two of WWE's "big four" pay-per-views, the latter of which is WWE's flagship event. Following the events of Crown Jewel 2019, the Universal and WWE Championships switched brands.