WWE Championship

The **WWE Championship** is a professional wrestling world championship, acting as the main title for the Raw brand in NNJ Wrestling. The title is currently held by Shawn Michaels, who is in his third reign.

The WWE Championship is widely considered by fans and industry insiders alike to be one of, if not the single most prestigious championship in all of professional wrestling. As such, whoever is holding the title at any given time is generally considered to be one of the best wrestlers in the world.

## History

The origins of the WWE Championship can be traced back to 1963 and is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious championships in all of professional wrestling, given its long lineage of legendary champions and longevity within the sport. In 2020, Ned Turner announced yet another reboot of NNJ, vacating the championship. The vacated WWE Championship was contested in a ladder match on the first episode of Raw between Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton and Jack Gallagher. McIntyre emerged victorious, becoming the first champion of the reboot era.

At the time, it was the *de facto* rule on Raw that the WWE Champion would not appear on weekly television unless necessary and would not defend the championship at any pay-per-view that was not headlined by Raw. As such, two months after his victory in his first title defense, McIntyre was defeated in the main event of Payback (Season 1) by Shawn Michaels. The night following Payback, Shawn Michaels became the first champion of the Reboot Era to successfully defend the WWE Championship when he did so in the main event of Raw against Ned Turner, who booked himself in the main event in a seemingly futile attempt to live out his childhood dream.

Over the coming month, Seth Rollins was rising back up through the ranks of this new iteration of Monday Night Raw. Rollins was defeated at Payback by R-Truth in a bid for the United Kingdom Championship. Following this loss, Rollins was entered into a four-man WWE Championship elimination tournament the next night on Raw, where he successfully defeated AJ Styles. However, there was some controversy over the finish, as Styles' head was resting on the bottom ring rope during the pinfall that Rollins won the match with. Due to this, Ned Turner scheduled a rematch between the two the week after, where Rollins was definitively successful this time. Rollins then faced off against Ric Flair to determine the No. 1 contender for Michaels' championship, where he was successful.

Michaels and Rollins' rivalry is a historic one in NNJ, as the pair have faced off in every iteration for the WWE Championship. Going into Money in the Bank, however, Rollins was 2-0 against Michaels in previous matches. Rollins, despite being the challenger, was able to hold serve and extend his winning streak against Michaels and become the third WWE Champion of the Reboot Era at Money in the Bank.

After his victory at Money in the Bank, Rollins had no time to celebrate. It was announced weeks prior that Drew McIntyre would be engaging his rematch clause against whoever the victor was for a match the next night on Monday Night Raw. In the weeks after Payback, Drew McIntyre was on a revenge tour and began a 4-match winning streak in order to prepare himself for the rematch. In an all-time great NNJ match, McIntyre defeated Rollins to regain his WWE Championship and begin his second reign, while ending Seth Rollins' reign after only one day.

McIntyre would only end up holding the title in his second reign for a month, due to a completely unforeseen challenger arising. On the go-home episode of Raw before Battleground (2020), McIntyre competed in a non-title match against the reigning Million Dollar Champion from Saturday Night's Main Event, Randy Savage. Savage impressed everyone in attendance, particularly McIntyre himself, scoring an upset victory over the WWE Champion. McIntyre already had a scheduled opponent for Battleground, but given the McIntyre's defeat to someone who wasn't even on the roster, NNJ owner Ned Turner was furious and booked a rematch immediately following the show, this time on Battleground, and more importantly, this time for the WWE Championship. Turner was keen on having McIntyre come out on top over Savage to ensure the prestige of the title would not be sullied by having someone from the development roster win in only their second main roster appearance, so to decrease the possibility of this occurring, Turner made the match a two-out-of-three falls match. In spectacular, poetic fashion, this plan backfired, as at Battleground, Randy Savage defeated Drew McIntyre two falls to zero.

Infuriated further by having Savage now as the rightful WWE Champion, Ned Turner announced the following night that an Elimination Chamber match would be held at SummerSlam (2020), where Randy Savage would have to endure Raw's top contenders in order to keep his new found championship. Furthermore, if Savage wanted to increase his chances of winning, he was being forced to take these superstars on one at a time in the weeks leading up to the event. If Savage won, his entry spot was increased by one. In what is now considered to be one of the most memorable runs in Raw history, over the next four weeks Randy Savage faced off against the likes of John Cena, Seth Rollins, Shawn Michaels, and Finn Bálor in one-on-one contests. Savage would split these matches 2-2, winning against Rollins and Bálor, whilst losing to Cena and Michaels. Entering third in the match, Savage endured as long as he possibly could before succumbing to an act of revenge by Drew McIntyre, who hit him with the Celtic Cross. The final three men left in the chamber at that point were John Cena, Drew McIntyre and Shawn Michaels. After eliminating McIntyre, Michaels hit John Cena with Sweet Chin Music and walked away as the WWE Champion for the second time, unknowingly about to embark on the most dominant run in NNJ Wrestling history.

Michaels proceeded to have one of the most lengthy, dominant title reigns in NNJ history, successfully defending the title four times against the likes of Kassius Ohno, The Godfather, John Cena and Jinder Mahal, respectively. Michaels was, simply put, dominant in non-title matches as well over the course of his title reign, amassing a record of 20 wins and only one loss (his earlier match against Seth Rollins) by the time his reign came to an end.

Unfortunately for Shawn Michaels, Ned Turner had enough of this title reign, and dispatched The Corporation to put an end to it. Shawn Michaels was scheduled for the impossible: a 3-on-1 handicap match against John Cena, Roman Reigns and John Bradshaw Layfield. At least, supposedly impossible. Shawn Michaels won that handicap match that night. However, doing so took a toll on him physically, as to be expected. And as such, the events of what has been dubbed "the darkest day in NNJ history" began to unfold that night when the music of Finn Bálor sounded throughout the arena. Finn Bálor was cashing in his Money in the Bank contract; and he did so successfully. A beaten down Shawn Michaels put up a good fight, but he was no match for the ravenous Bálor.

## Title Reigns

*"Weeks held" is indicative of how many weeks the competitor has held the championship in-universe - not using a real life calendar. However, the dates listed are accurate to when they won the title according to a real life calendar.*

## Combined Reigns

*Reigns are ranked based on successful combined title defenses, and if those are the same between multiple competitors, number of combined days as champion; the one marked in **italics** indicates who the current champion is.*