World Heavyweight Championship (WWE, 2023–present)

The **World Heavyweight Championship** is a professional wrestling world championship in WWE for the men of the Raw brand. It is one of two world titles on WWE's main roster, along with the WWE Championship on SmackDown. The first champion was Seth "Freakin" Rollins, who defeated AJ Styles in a tournament final at Night of Champions on May 27, 2023.

Right now the champion is CM Punk, who is in his record-tying second reign. He defeated Jey Uso to win the vacant championship on November 1, 2025, at _Saturday Night's Main Event XLI_ in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The title does not continue the history of WWE's old World Heavyweight Championship from 2002 until 2013.

## History

On the April 24, 2023, episode of _Monday Night Raw_, Triple H announced the 2023 WWE Draft, a process used to decide which wrestlers are exclusive to a brand. He then said that Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns defended the title less because of his contract. So Triple H announced that the brand Reigns would go to in the draft would become the exclusive home to him and the undisputed championship. Triple H also presented a new World Heavyweight Championship that would be defended on the other brand and announced that the first champion would be crowned at Night of Champions on May 27, 2023. During night one of the draft on the April 28 episode of _SmackDown_, Reigns was drafted to SmackDown, this made the World Heavyweight Championship exclusive to Raw.

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 took place for the May 8 and May 12 episodes of _Raw_ and _SmackDown_. The first-round matches for each episode consisted of two triple threat matches with the winners going to the semifinals in a singles match the same night, with those winners wrestling in the championship match at Night of Champions.

The wrestlers for the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament were announces 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. 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 defeated Bálor in the semifinals to win Raw's bracket. 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 defeated Lashley in the semifinals to win SmackDown's bracket, which set up the tournament final between Rollins and Styles. At Night of Champions, Rollins defeated Styles to become the first World Heavyweight Champion. The title was defended for the first time on the June 5 episode of _Raw_.

## Reigns

As of  , .

## Combined reigns

As of  ,
|style="background:#ffe6bd;"|†|
| --- | --- |
|Is the current champion||
|Reign was shorter than a day||
|Rank|Wrestler|No. of reigns|Combined days|Combined days rec by WWE|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||2||||
||2|313|312||
|†|2|+|||
||1|118|||
||1|51|||
||1|<1|||

## Other websites

- Official World Heavyweight Championship Title History

## Infobox (pro wrestling championship)

- **name**: World Heavyweight Championship
- **image**: Damian Priest, WrestleMania XL.jpg
- **caption**: One-time champion Damian Priest
- **currentholder**: CM Punk
- **created**: April 24, 2023
- **promotion**: WWE
- **brand**: Raw (WWE brand), Raw
- **firstchamp**: Seth Rollins, Seth "Freakin" Rollins
- **mostreigns**: *Gunther (wrestler), Gunther

*Seth Rollins

*CM Punk
(2 reigns)
- **longestreign**: Seth Rollins, Seth "Freakin" Rollins
(1st reign, 316 days)
- **shortestreign**: CM Punk
(1st reign, 5 minutes and 9 seconds)
- **oldest**: CM Punk
()
- **youngest**: Gunther (wrestler), Gunther
()
- **heaviest**: Drew McIntyre

- **lightest**: CM Punk