WWE Universal Championship
WWE Universal Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
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Undisputed WWE Universal Championship belt used by current champion Roman Reigns, which represents both the Universal Championship and WWE Championship (2023–present). | |||||||||||||||||||
Details | |||||||||||||||||||
Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||||
Brand | SmackDown | ||||||||||||||||||
Date established | July 25, 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||
Current champion(s) | Roman Reigns | ||||||||||||||||||
Date won | August 30, 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||
Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
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The WWE Universal Championship is a men's
Named in honor of WWE's fanbase, referred to as the
History
In mid-2016, the
The inaugural champion was crowned at
At
At
Brand designation
The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the WWE Universal Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.
Date of transition | Brand | Notes |
---|---|---|
July 25, 2016 | Raw | The championship was established for Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown in the 2016 WWE Draft. Finn Bálor subsequently became the inaugural Universal Champion at SummerSlam on August 21.
|
October 31, 2019 | SmackDown | The Universal Championship moved to Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason to win the Universal Championship at Crown Jewel .
|
Championship belt designs
2016–2019
The standard Universal Championship belt is based on the "Network Logo" design of the WWE Championship belt introduced in 2014, with a few notable differences. Like the WWE Championship belt, the center plate is a large cut out of the WWE logo with diamonds sitting inside an irregular heptagonal plate, but with the capital words "Universal Champion" in small print sitting underneath the logo. Just the same, there are gold divider bars that separate the center plate from its two side plates. Each side plate features the same default removable center section as the WWE Championship (the WWE logo over a red globe), which can be customized with the champion's logo.[20] The most prominent difference is the belt's strap, the color of which indicates the brand it is exclusive to. When the belt was first unveiled at SummerSlam 2016, the strap was red to symbolize its exclusivity to the Raw brand and the underline of the WWE logo on the center plate was black to make it visible (essentially the reverse of the WWE Championship belt).[20] After the title became exclusive to SmackDown in late 2019, Bray Wyatt introduced a blue strap variation and the underline of the WWE logo was changed from black to red.[21][22]
Custom designs (2019–present)
In addition to the SmackDown version of the belt, Bray Wyatt also introduced a custom version of the championship for his "Fiend" character on the November 29 episode of SmackDown.[23] The custom belt featured The Fiend's face in the place of the center plate. The character's phrases "Hurt" and "Heal" were written in red on black leather strips in the place of side plates while the strap of the belt itself was red and black worn leather with red stitching holding it together. The character's phrase "Let Me In" was also included. Wyatt used both the standard and custom versions of the championship during his first reign (2019–2020); his cheery Firefly Fun House character held the standard blue belt, while his sinister Fiend character held the custom belt.[24][25]
After Roman Reigns became the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, both the standard versions of the Universal Championship and WWE Championship belts were used in tandem to represent the undisputed title, although both titles retained their individual lineages. On the June 2, 2023, episode of SmackDown, in celebration of Reigns reaching 1,000 days as Universal Champion, he was presented with a special custom belt, which features the same "Network Logo" design on a black strap, but with the WWE logo encrusted with black diamonds, a gold nugget-textured background behind the logo, text at the bottom of the plate that says "Undisputed Champion", and custom side plates.[18] Despite this, his manager Paul Heyman had continued to carry around the standard WWE and Universal Championship belts until the end of July.[26] On WWE's website, pictures of the separate title belts are still used for the individual title histories of each championship.
Reception
The Universal Championship design was heavily criticized.
WWE employees responded in the aftermath of the title's debut. Seth Rollins chastised the SummerSlam crowd's reaction, writing on Twitter: "More important than a title's appearance is what it represents for the men fighting over it. You really let me down tonight, Brooklyn."[32] While acknowledging that he himself might have chosen a different belt design, Mick Foley echoed Rollins's response in a lengthy Facebook post. He recalled being presented with the WWF Hardcore Championship, a title belt made of broken metal pieces held together by duct tape, which challengers "made ... mean something by busting [their] asses".[34] In a kayfabe promo on the following episode of Raw, the then-villainous Rollins called the championship belt "beautiful".[28]
Later in 2016, Jim Vorel of Paste ranked the title as the worst of nine then contested in WWE, noting its "obnoxious" design.[27] On the other hand, Nick Schwartz of Fox Sports wrote: "It's really not as bad as fans made it seem at SummerSlam. It's fine."[35]
Reigns
As of March 29, 2024, there have been fourteen reigns between eight champions and two vacancies. Finn Bálor was the inaugural champion. Brock Lesnar holds the record for most reigns at three. Roman Reigns' ongoing second reign is the longest singular reign at 1,307+ days, while Bálor has the shortest reign at 22 hours as he was forced to vacate the title due to suffering a legitimate injury in winning it. Reigns also holds the record for longest combined reign at 1,371+ days. Kevin Owens is the youngest champion when he won it at 32 years, 114 days old, while Goldberg is the oldest when he won the title for a second time at 53.
Roman Reigns is the current champion in his second reign. He won the title by defeating previous champion "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and
Name | Years |
---|---|
WWE Universal Championship | July 25, 2016 – April 3, 2022[14] |
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship[14]
|
April 3, 2022[14] – Present |
No. | Overall reign number |
---|---|
Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
Days | Number of days held |
Days recog. | Number of days held recognized by the promotion |
<1 | Reign lasted less than a day |
+ | Current reign is changing daily |
No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Days recog. | |||||
WWE: Raw | ||||||||||
1 | Finn Bálor | August 21, 2016 | SummerSlam | Brooklyn, NY
|
1 | 1 | <1 | The title was established for pinfall and submission-only match to become the inaugural champion.
|
[38] | |
— | Vacated
|
August 22, 2016 | Raw | Brooklyn, NY
|
— | — | — | Vacated due to Finn Bálor suffering a legit shoulder injury during his match at SummerSlam. | [10][11] | |
2 | Kevin Owens | August 29, 2016 | Raw | Houston, TX | 1 | 188 | 188 | This was a Big Cass, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins , who Owens last eliminated to win.
|
[39] | |
3 | Goldberg | March 5, 2017 | Fastlane | Milwaukee, WI | 1 | 28 | 27 | [40] | ||
4 | Brock Lesnar | April 2, 2017 | WrestleMania 33 | Orlando, FL | 1 | 504 | 503 | [41] | ||
5 | Roman Reigns | August 19, 2018 | SummerSlam | Brooklyn, NY
|
1 | 64 | 63 | [42] | ||
— | Vacated
|
October 22, 2018 | Raw | Providence, RI
|
— | — | — | Vacated after Roman Reigns announced that he had a legitimate re-diagnosis of leukemia. | [43][44] | |
6 | Brock Lesnar | November 2, 2018 | Crown Jewel | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 2 | 156 | 156 | Originally scheduled as a triple threat match in which Roman Reigns was to defend the title against Lesnar and Braun Strowman.[45] After Reigns relinquished the championship, the match became a singles match between Lesnar and Strowman for the vacant title.[44]
|
[46] | |
7 | Seth Rollins | April 7, 2019 | WrestleMania 35 | East Rutherford, NJ
|
1 | 98 | 98 | [47] | ||
8 | Brock Lesnar | July 14, 2019 | Extreme Rules | Philadelphia, PA | 3 | 28 | 27 | This was Lesnar's Money in the Bank cash-in match .
|
[48] | |
9 | Seth Rollins | August 11, 2019 | SummerSlam | Toronto, ON, Canada | 2 | 81 | 80 | [49] | ||
10 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | October 31, 2019 | Crown Jewel | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 1 | 119 | 118 | This was a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason. brand due to Wyatt's status as a SmackDown wrestler.
The title became exclusive to the SmackDown |
[50] | |
SmackDown
| ||||||||||
11 | Goldberg | February 27, 2020 | Super ShowDown | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 2 | 27 or 28 | 37 | WWE recognizes this reign as ending on April 4, 2020, when the following match aired on tape delay. | [51] | |
12 | Braun Strowman | March 25 or 26, 2020 | WrestleMania 36 Part 1 |
Orlando, FL | 1 | 150 or 151 | 141 | WrestleMania was taped on March 25 and 26, but it is currently unknown which day this match was taped. WWE recognizes this reign as beginning on April 4, 2020, when the match aired on tape delay.[52] | [53] | |
13 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | August 23, 2020 | SummerSlam | Orlando, FL | 2 | 7 | 6 | This was a Falls Count Anywhere match .
|
[54] | |
14 | Roman Reigns | August 30, 2020 | Payback | Orlando, FL | 2 | 1,307+ | 1,307+ | This was a Undisputed WWE Universal Champion of both brands. Despite the match being billed as a unification match, both titles remain independently active. was established for Raw as the counterpart to Reigns' Undisputed Championship.
In April 2023, after Reigns was drafted to SmackDown in the 2023 WWE Draft, a new World Heavyweight Championship |
[55][14] |
Combined reigns
As of March 29, 2024.
† | Indicates the current champion |
---|---|
¤ | The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest length is considered. |
Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined days |
Combined days rec. by WWE |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Roman Reigns † | 2 | 1,371+ | 1,370+ |
2 | Brock Lesnar | 3 | 688 | 686 |
3 | Kevin Owens | 1 | 188 | |
4 | Seth Rollins | 2 | 179 | 178 |
5 | Braun Strowman | 1 | ¤150 | 141 |
6 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt |
2 | 126 | 124 |
7 | Goldberg | 2 | ¤55 | 64 |
8 | Finn Bálor | 1 | 1 | <1 |
See also
Notes
- ^ In tandem with the WWE Championship.
References
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