WWE Raw Women's Championship

The Raw Women's Championship belt with default side plates

## Other name(s)

• WWE Women's Championship
(2016)
 • **WWE Raw Women's Championship**
(2016–present)

The **WWE Raw Women's Championship** is a women's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the Raw brand. It's currently held by Alexa Bliss, who is in her second reign.

The title was introduced as the WWE Women's Championship on April 3, 2016 at WrestleMania 32, it replaced the Divas Championship and has a unique title history, separate from WWE's original Women's Championship and the Divas Championship. Charlotte Flair, then known simply as Charlotte, was the inaugural champion. As a result of the 2016 draft, the championship became exclusive to the Raw brand with a subsequent rename, and SmackDown created the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship as a counterpart title.

## History

On April 3, 2016, the WWE Hall of Famer Lita appeared during the WrestleMania 32 pre-show and, after recapping the history of women's professional wrestling in WWE, unveiled the brand-new championship and declared that WWE's women would no longer be referred to as WWE Divas, but as "WWE Superstars" just as their male counterparts are. This came after the term "Diva" was scrutinized by some commentators, fans, and several past and present WWE female performers, including then-Divas Champion Charlotte, who were in favor of changing the championship to the Women's Championship. It was also changed because some of WWE female wrestlers felt it diminished their athletic abilities and relegated them to "eye candy". Lita then announced that the winner of the Divas Championship triple threat match between Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks later that night would become the first-ever WWE Women's Champion, subsequently retiring the Divas Championship. Charlotte, the final Divas Champion, became the inaugural WWE Women's Champion when she defeated Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch.

Following the reintroduction of the brand extension, then champion Charlotte was drafted to the Raw brand on the July 19, 2016 premiere episode of *SmackDown Live*, making the championship exclusive to Raw. In response, SmackDown created the SmackDown Women's Championship on August 23, 2016. The WWE Women's Championship was subsequently renamed to reflect its exclusivity to Raw.

When the title was introduced, it shared its name with the original Women's Championship. However, the new title does not share the same title history as the original, which was unified with the Divas Championship in 2010, with the combined title inheriting the latter's lineage and history. WWE acknowledges the original championship as its predecessor, and notes that the lineage of female champions dates back to The Fabulous Moolah's reign in 1956.

## Championship belt design

The Raw Women's Championship belt is similar in appearance to the WWE World Championship belt, with a few notable differences. The strap is smaller to fit the champion, and white, as opposed to black. The die-cut WWE logo in the center plate sits on a red background, as opposed to a black one. The small print below the logo reads "Women's Champion". Like the WWE World Championship belt, the Raw Women's Championship belt features two side plates, both separated by gold divider bars, with the WWE logo on the globe as default plates, which are customized with the current champion's logos as a similarity of the name plate feature of other championship belts.

## Title history

### Name

 **WWE Raw Women's Championship** | September 5, 2016 – present

### Reigns

As of January 30, 2024, overall there have been 10 reigns between 4 champions. Charlotte Flair, then known simply as Charlotte, was the inaugural champion, and she holds multiple records with the championship: her first reign is the longest reign at 113 days and she has the longest combined reign at 242 days, she is the oldest champion at 30 years old, and she is tied with Sasha Banks for the most reigns at four. Banks is the youngest champion at 24 years old and her fourth reign is the shortest at 8 days.

Alexa Bliss is the current champion in her fourth reign. She won the title by defeating Sasha Banks on *Raw* on August 28, 2017 in her contractual rematch.

 Location
 Event
 —

## Combined reigns

As of January 30, 2024.

 2
 3
 4

1 During her first two reigns, Charlotte Flair's ring name was simply "Charlotte".

## See also

* NXT Women's Championship
* WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

## Notes

1. ↑ When she became the inaugural champion, her ring name was just Charlotte

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 During Charlotte Flair's first two reigns, her ring name was just "Charlotte".

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Raw Women's Championship". *WWE.com*.
2. ↑ Konuwa, Alfred (March 30, 2016). "Is WWE Planning To Rebrand Its Divas Division?". *Forbes*. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
3. ↑ Ahmed, Tufayel. "WrestleMania 32: By Dumping the 'Divas' Branding, WWE Makes Its Biggest Step to Gender Equality". Newsweek. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
4. ↑ Gass, Dorathy (2014-06-20). "Wrestlemania 32: How The Women Stole The Show". Wrestle Newz. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 WWE Staff (April 3, 2016). "All-new WWE Women's Championship introduced at WrestleMania". WWE. Retrieved April 3, 2016. Lita introduced the all-new WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania, and revealed that Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch will compete for this title tonight.
6. ↑ Caldwell, James. "4/3 WrestleMania 32 PPV Pre-Show Results – CALDWELL's Complete Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
7. ↑ Artus, Matthew (April 3, 2016). "Charlotte def. Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks to become first new WWE Women's Champion". WWE. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
8. ↑ Tedesco, Mike (July 25, 2016). "WWE RAW Results – 7/25/16 (Live from Pittsburgh, fallout from Battleground, new era of RAW begins)". *Wrestleview*. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
9. ↑ Caldwell, James. "8/21 WWE Summerslam Results – CALDWELL’S Complete Live Report". *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
10. ↑ Tedesco, Mike. "WWE RAW Results – 10/3/16 (Live from Los Angeles, Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks for the RAW Women’s Title)". *WrestleView*. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
11. ↑ Powell, Jason. "Powell’s WWE Hell in a Cell 2016 live review: Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte for the WWE Women’s Championship, Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship, Roman Reigns vs. Rusev for the U.S. Championship". *Pro Wreslting Dot Net*. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
12. ↑ Keller, Wade (November 28, 2016). "KELLER’S WWE RAW REPORT 11/28: Live coverage – Charlotte defends against Sasha Banks, New Day defends against Anderson & Gallows". *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
13. ↑ Powell, Jason. "Powell’s WWE Roadblock: End of the Line 2016 live review: Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte in an Iron Man match for the Raw Women’s Championship, Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Title". *Pro Wreslting Dot Net*. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
14. ↑ Keller, Wade. "KELLER’S WWE RAW REPORT 2/13: Las Vegas Festival of Friendship, Emmalina’s debut, Fastlane developments, more". *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
15. ↑ Powell, Jason. "4/30 Powell’s WWE Payback Live Review: Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman, Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho for the U.S. Championship, Samoa Joe vs. Seth Rollins, Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt in a House of Horrors match". *Pro Wreslting Dot Net*. Retrieved April 30, 2017.