World Heavyweight Championship ( WWE ) The World Heavyweight Championship was one of the two top ranked championships of the WWE , which was found on SmackDown . It was introduced into the company when WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar signed exclusively with SmackDown ! , Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded number one contender Triple H with the old WCW World Heavyweight Championship and declared him World Champion . While WWE claims the title has a different lineage from other titles , the original World Heavyweight Championship , NWA World Heavyweight Championship , and WCW World Heavyweight Championship are often referred to when talking about its history . The title was RAW exclusive since CM Punk defeated then - World Heavyweight Champion Edge to bring back the title to the brand in the summer of 2008 . At No Way Out 2009 , Edge , a SmackDown Superstar , inserted himself into the RAW Elimination Chamber match and went on to win the contest , thus bringing the World Heavyweight Championship with him to SmackDown . History . In August 2002 , after Brock Lesnar won the WWE Undisputed Championship ( the main championship in World Wrestling Entertainment , defended on the RAW and SmackDown ! brands ) , he signed an exclusive contract to appear and defend the Undisputed Championship on the SmackDown ! brand only , thus leaving the RAW brand without a major championship . Following Lesnar ' s actions , RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff introduced the World Heavyweight Championship and commissioned it to be the main title for the RAW brand . This new championship was represented by the Big Gold Belt , an iconic wrestling belt that previously represented the NWA Championship , and later the WCW Championship . He awarded the championship to Triple H citing the fact that he was " the last man to wear the belt , " in reference to Triple H being the last person to physically hold the Big Gold Belt during his reign as Undisputed Champion while it was still represented by two belts . Months later , the Big Gold Belt was replaced with a new similar belt that features the WWE logo at the top of the front plate . Following the introduction of the World Heavyweight Championship and the creation of a new separate set of tag - team belts for SmackDown ! , the two sets of tag - team titles were renamed to mirror those of the top titles . The original WWE World Tag Team Championship for RAW simply became known as the World Tag Team Championship , while the new tag - team titles for SmackDown ! became known as the WWE Tag Team Championship . When the two top titles switched shows , neither of the tag - team belts were renamed . 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 , the " SmackDown ! Championship " , only for it to be deemed unnecessary when Batista was drafted to SmackDown ! . After the WWE 2008 Draft , the WWE Champion Triple H was drafted to SmackDown , returning the WWE Championship to the SmackDown brand . On June 30 , 2008 , CM Punk used his Money in the Bank contract for a World Heavyweight Championship match against the World Heavyweight Champion Edge . This was done after Punk was drafted to Raw from the ECW brand . Punk defeated Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship , moving the title to the Raw brand . The title remained on Raw until February 15 , 2009 at No Way Out , when Edge won an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship . However , with Edge being a member of the SmackDown brand at the time , the title was moved to SmackDown . On April 5 at WrestleMania XXV , the title returned to Raw after John Cena , a member of the Raw brand , defeated Edge and The Big Show in a Triple Threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship . However , less than a month later at Backlash , Edge defeated Cena , bringing the title back to SmackDown . When Jack Swagger , who was at the time a member of the Raw roster , cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and defeated World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho on the April 2 , 2010 episode of SmackDown , the belt remained exclusive to the SmackDown brand , and Swagger was transferred to the SmackDown roster . On August 29 , 2011 , the brand extension was effectively ended , and all WWE programming became " Supershows " featuring the entire roster . With that , the World Heavyweight title ( along with every other championship in WWE ) became available for all wrestlers to compete for , and was defended on all shows . On December 15 , 2013 , WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion John Cena at the in a TLC match to unify the titles . With that Orton was recognized the final World Heavyweight Champion , and the next day title was officially retired by WWE . The championship belt was still in use as a component of the newly renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship until it was retired on the August 18 , 2014 edition of RAW . Lineage and terminology . Officially , according to World Wrestling Entertainment ' s website , WWE ' s position regarding the history of the belt is that the World Heavyweight Championship is a new title and not the same championship as the WCW or NWA titles before it , and that the championship does not inherit the title history of the two belts . However , it has been made clear that it is the successor to both titles . Despite this position , WWE announcers occasionally make allusions to the World Heavyweight Championship ' s history as far back as 1904 , a reference to Georg Hackenschmidt ' s World Title reign , as well as that of the NWA and WCW titles . For instance , on January 13 , 2006 , Batista was forced to drop the World Heavyweight Championship due to legitimate injury . In his speech , he included Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes in his short list of previous holders of the belt . However , while Flair and Rhodes are former WCW and NWA champions , Flair has never held WWE ' s World Heavyweight Championship and Rhodes has never won a singles title in WWE at all . Then on December 6 , 2006 , WWE . com announced the temporary retirement of The Big Show . In the statement it said that The Big Show is the only wrestler to hold the WWE Championship , ECW Championship and World Heavyweight Championship . Perhaps adding to the confusion is due to the fact that WWE often uses the term " world championship " or " world heavyweight champion " in general for all acknowledged World Championships rather than WWE ' s World Heavyweight Championship in particular . Ric Flair , for instance , is touted as a 16 - time world champion , referring to him winning the respective World Titles in the NWA , WCW , and WWE . Similar title count amalgamations have been made for other wrestlers , including Hulk Hogan , Kurt Angle , and Triple H . In WWE ' s tribute to Triple H ' s ten reigns , he is listed as the first World Heavyweight Champion . On September 19 , 2010 , Kane became the first person to hold the WWE Championship , ECW Championship and World Heavyweight Championship . Reigns . The inaugural champion was Triple H , and there have been 25 different official champions overall . The longest reigning champion was Batista who held the title from April 3 , 2005 to January 13 , 2006 for a total of 282 days . Triple H holds the record for longest combined reigns at 617 days . The shortest reigning champion was Big Show who officially held the title for 45 seconds . The youngest champion was Randy Orton , who won the title of the age of 24 . The oldest champion is The Undertaker who won at the age of 44 . Edge has held the title the most times with seven championship reigns . Randy Orton was the final champion in his fourth reign . He defeated John Cena in a TLC match at on December 15 , 2013 in Houston , Texas to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships .