WWE Championship

The **WWE Championship** is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion, WWE, defended on the RAW brand, where it serves as the brand's top men's championship, as well being considering the top championship in the promotion as a whole. The current champion is Drew McIntyre, who is in his first canonical reign.

## WWE Championship

#### History

##### In real-life

The WWE Championship's lineage dates back to 1963, making it the oldest active championship in WWE. The conception of the championship came about after a series of disputes over the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship. At this time, WWE (then known as **Capitol Wrestling Corporation** (CWC)) was a member of the NWA, and the promotion's executives had a controlling stake in the operations of the NWA. The disputes began after then-NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, Buddy Rodgers was defeated by Lou Thesz for the championship on January 24, 1963; however, the CWC would dispute the championship win, saying that the championship could only be contested in a best two-out-of-three falls match, which was the tradition of the time. This dispute caused the CWC to secede from the NWA and rename itself the **World Wide Wrestling Federation** and establish what was then-known as the **WWWF World Heavyweight Championship**. The WWWF would once again become affiliated with the NWA, dropping the "World" from the name, until 1983, when the now-**World Wrestling Federation** (WWF) left the NWA for all, with the championship becoming the **WWF World Heavyweight Championship**. The championship would later become the **WWF Championship** in 1998, and then later the **WWF Undisputed Championship** following its unification with the WCW Championship in 2001, to then the **WWE Undisputed Championship** upon the company's re-brand in 2002, to then simply the **WWE Championship** in August 2002; a name which it has, besides a three year-span from 2013 until 2016, kept ever since.

##### In Universe Mode

In Universe Mode, the WWE Championship made its debut in "**Tables, Ladders and Chairs Recap/Preview**", where Bobby Lashley was the WWE Champion, making him the inaugural WWE Champion in Universe Mode. Although previous WWE Championships are not "canonical" in Universe Mode, they are still recognized. (i.e., despite John Cena not being a thirteen-time champion in Universe Mode as he is in real life, he is still recognized as such.)

#### Championship design

The WWE Championship design, which has become the blueprint for the world and women's championships in the WWE, features a center plate that is dominated by a cut-out of the WWE logo encrusted with diamonds on a black background which itself is inside a irregular heptagon. At the bottom edges of the center plate reads "WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION" in small lettering. The default side plates feature the WWE logo inside a red globe and are separated from the center plate with gold divider bars. As per usual with almost all WWE championships, the WWE Championship features customizable side plates.

The championship's design has become the standard design for the RAW and SmackDown Women's Championships as well as the Universal Championship, with the only changes between the four either being the lettering at the bottom of the center plate, the color of the center plate's background or the color/size of the strap. The championship has also inspired both the NXT United Kingdom Championship and the NXT UK Women's Championship.

#### Brand designation

Since the beginning of Universe Mode, a brand split has separated the roster into two separate rosters; RAW and SmackDown. The WWE Championship has, so far, between entirely exclusive to the RAW brand. Below is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the WWE Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.

#### Reigns

 **2** | Drew McIntyre | March 23, 2022