Claim: Randy Orton is a performer.

The WWE Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE , currently on the SmackDown brand . It is the first world title established in WWE , having been introduced in 1963 as the World Wide Wrestling Federation -LRB- WWWF -RRB- World Heavyweight Championship . The promotion was renamed World Wrestling Federation -LRB- WWF -RRB- in 1979 and ended its affiliation with the National Wrestling Alliance -LRB- NWA -RRB- in 1983 , with the title also renamed to reflect the changes .  In 2001 , it was unified with the World Championship -LRB- formerly the WCW World Heavyweight Championship -RRB- following the WWF 's buyout of World Championship Wrestling -LRB- WCW -RRB- and became the Undisputed WWF Championship . In 2002 , the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment -LRB- WWE -RRB- and split its roster into two brands , Raw and SmackDown . The title , now renamed WWE Championship , was then designated to the SmackDown brand , while WWE established an alternate world title known as the World Heavyweight Championship for the Raw brand . A third alternate world title , the ECW World Heavyweight Championship , was reactivated for the ECW brand in 2006 . It was vacated and decommissioned when the ECW brand disbanded in 2010 .   When WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion John Cena at the TLC pay-per-view on December 15 , 2013 , the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship , resulting in the retiring of the former , and the renaming of the latter to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship . On June 27 , 2016 , the name was shortened back to the WWE Championship , before assuming the WWE World Championship name on July 26 , 2016 , when the brand extension returned . It became designated to the SmackDown brand , and WWE again established an alternate world title known as the WWE Universal Championship for the Raw brand . In December 2016 , WWE again shortened the title 's name back to WWE Championship .   The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches , in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition . Some reigns were held by champions using a ring name , while others use their real name . The first champion was Buddy Rogers , who won the championship in 1963 . The champion with the single longest reign is Bruno Sammartino with a reign of 2,803 days , while the record for longest combined reign is also held by Sammartino at 4,040 . The current champion is Jinder Mahal , who is in his first reign . He won the championship by defeating Randy Orton at Backlash in Rosemont , Illinois on May 21 , 2017 .   Overall , there have been 50 different official champions , with John Cena having the most reigns at thirteen . Seven men in history have held the championship for a continuous reign of one year -LRB- 365 days -RRB- or more . They are Bruno Sammartino , Pedro Morales , Bob Backlund , Hulk Hogan , Randy Savage , John Cena , and CM Punk .