World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

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World Heavyweight Championship
Seth "Freakin" Rollins

The World Heavyweight Championship is a men's

Seth "Freakin" Rollins, who defeated AJ Styles in a tournament final at Night of Champions
on May 27, 2023, to become the inaugural champion.

The title's creation came as a result of Roman Reigns and the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. After Reigns became undisputed champion in April 2022, he defended the tandem title across both brands, but these defenses were infrequent due to the terms of his contract. With the announcement of the 2023 WWE Draft, the World Heavyweight Championship was unveiled on the April 24, 2023, episode of Raw and subsequently became exclusive to Raw after Reigns and the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship became exclusive to SmackDown.

The title is distinct from WWE's previous World Heavyweight Championship that was contested from 2002 until 2013 when it was unified into the WWE Championship. The two titles share the same name, but do not share the same lineage.[1]

History

Seth "Freakin" Rollins, shown here with the WWE Championship

On the April 24, 2023, episode of

Friday Night SmackDown, Reigns was drafted to SmackDown, subsequently making the World Heavyweight Championship exclusive to Raw.[4]

During the

singles match the same night, with those respective winners advancing to the championship match at Night of Champions.[5] According to wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, the reason that SmackDown wrestlers were included in the tournament was due to WWE's attempt to retain viewership for the May 12 episode of SmackDown, as it and other wrestling programs that week were going head-to-head with the 2023 NBA playoffs.[6]

The participants for the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament were revealed on May 7 on WWE's

Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Shinsuke Nakamura, and The Miz from Raw, and AJ Styles, Austin Theory, Bobby Lashley, Edge, Rey Mysterio, and Sheamus from SmackDown.[7] On the May 8 episode of Raw, Rollins defeated Nakamura and Priest in the first triple threat while Bálor defeated Miz and Rhodes in the second. Rollins subsequently defeated Bálor in the semifinals to win Raw's bracket.[8] On the May 12 episode of SmackDown, Styles defeated Edge and Mysterio in the first triple threat while Lashley defeated Sheamus and Theory in the second. Styles subsequently defeated Lashley in the semifinals to win SmackDown's bracket, thus setting up the tournament final between Rollins and Styles.[9] At Night of Champions, Rollins defeated Styles to become the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion.[10][11] The title was defended for the first time on the June 5 episode of Raw.[12]

Inaugural World Heavyweight Championship tournament (2023)

Belt design

The World Heavyweight Championship belt has a design that pays homage to the historic Big Gold Belt, which was used for WWE's previous World Heavyweight Championship (2002–2013). It also features tributes to previous designs of the company's original world championship, the WWE Championship (1963–present).[13]

Like the historic Big Gold Belt, the title has three large gold plates on a black leather strap. All three plates include traditional filigree with each plate outlined in a rope trim to represent the three ropes of a wrestling ring. Like the majority of WWE's other championship belts, the side plates include a removable round center section which can be replaced with the reigning champion's logo in lieu of the nameplate that was found on the original Big Gold Belt; the default side plates feature a gold WWE logo over a globe (customizable side plates were introduced with the 2013–2014 version of the WWE Championship belt).[13]

At the center of the center plate, there is a large globe that has WWE's logo over top of it. The WWE logo is silver with black filled in the blank spaces of the globe. The globe itself represents that the title is defended around the world. Above the globe is a banner with the text "WORLD" written in silver with a banner below the globe that says "CHAMPION", also in silver. Also on the center plate are three lions, which represent the McMahon family crest (as WWE was founded and owned by the McMahon family until September 2023); there is a full-bodied lion on each opposing side of the globe facing outwards while the third is a lion's head at the very bottom of the center plate (the McMahon family crest was previously included on the side plates of the WWE Championship belts from 1998 to 2005). At the top of the center plate right above the "WORLD" banner is a crown, a nod to Bruno Sammartino's WWE Championship belt during his long reign (there was also a crown on the Big Gold Belt). Right above the crown is an eagle, which is an homage to the various WWE Championship belts that included an eagle up until 2013, most notably the Winged Eagle championship belt design (1988–1998). There are a total of 60 diamonds across the three plates; these were in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of WWE, as the company was founded in April 1963 and the title was unveiled in April 2023.[13]

Reception

The creation of the World Heavyweight Championship was met with mixed reception. Some liked the idea of the title, feeling that it would give new opportunities for several wrestlers, but others were critical.

PWInsider felt that since Roman Reigns was not in the inaugural tournament, it made the World Heavyweight Championship seem like a secondary title to his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.[16] Former WWE and Extreme Championship Wrestling wrestler Tommy Dreamer opined that the title's creation felt like a consolation prize, stating that it gave the impression that nobody could beat Reigns. Nonetheless, he praised the design of the belt.[14] Conversely, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T stated that he did not think it felt like a secondary title or consolation prize, agreeing with the sentiment that it would provide new opportunities, especially for younger wrestlers.[15]

WWE commentator Corey Graves said that having the title was great as it would allow Raw and SmackDown to identify as separate brands (as brand division had been lax over the preceding year), but he claimed that until Reigns was defeated, anyone holding the World Heavyweight Championship would feel inferior to Reigns.[17] Scherer also felt that whoever would finally beat Reigns, the impact would be lessened due to the existence of the World Heavyweight Championship.[18] Prior to competing in the tournament final, runner-up AJ Styles said that it was hard to argue that the new title was not secondary compared to Reigns' undisputed championship.[19] WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle also praised the design of the belt, but acknowledged the notion that it felt like a secondary title compared to Reigns' titles.[20]

Reigns

As of March 28, 2024.

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days
WWE: Raw
1
Seth "Freakin" Rollins
May 27, 2023 Night of Champions
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
1 306+ The title was established and designated to
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship became exclusive to SmackDown following the 2023 WWE Draft. Rollins defeated AJ Styles
in the tournament final to become the inaugural champion.
[21][11]

See also

References

  1. ^ "World Heavyweight Title". WWE.
  2. Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived
    from the original on April 25, 2023. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  3. ComicBook.com
    . Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  4. Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online
    . Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  5. ^ Tessier, Colin (May 5, 2023). "Triple H: World Heavyweight Title Tournament Will Begin On 5/8 WWE Raw, Continue On 5/12 SmackDown". Fightful. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  6. ComicBook.com
    . Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  7. Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online
    . Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  8. ^ Keller, Wade (May 8, 2023). "WWE Raw Results (5-8-2023): Keller's report with analysis of World Title Tournament matches, Backlash fallout, Trish". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  9. ^ Powell, Jason (May 12, 2023). "5/12 WWE Friday Night Smackdown results: Powell's review of Roman Reigns' return, AJ Styles vs. Edge vs. Rey Mysterio, and Austin Theory vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Sheamus tournament matches, winners meet for a spot in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  10. ^ Lambert, Jeremy (May 27, 2023). "Seth Rollins Becomes Inaugural WWE World Heavyweight Champion At WWE Night Of Champions". Fightful. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Powell, Jason (May 27, 2023). "WWE Night of Champions results: Powell's live review of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vs. Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles, Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Bianca Belair vs. Asuka for the Raw Women's Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on May 27, 2023. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  12. Pro Wrestling Torch
    . Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  13. ^ a b c WWE (May 3, 2023). Get a closer look at the new World Heavyweight Championship. YouTube. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  14. ^ a b Rodriguez, David Gonzalez (April 28, 2023). "Tommy Dreamer thinks WWE's new championship looks like a consolation prize". Solowrestling.com (in Spanish). Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  15. ^ a b Rodriguez, David Gonzalez (May 9, 2023). "Booker T doesn't think the new WWE Championship is a consolation prize". Solowrestling.com (in Spanish). Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  16. PWInsider
    . Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  17. ^ Jimenez, Mario (April 30, 2023). "Corey Graves believes the new world heavyweight champion will look inferior to Roman Reigns". Solowrestling.com (in Spanish). Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  18. PWInsider
    . Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  19. 411Mania
    . Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  20. ^ Ranft, Shaun (May 25, 2023). "Kurt Angle Likes The New WWE World Heavyweight Title, But Says It's Definitely Secondary". Wrestling Inc. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
  21. ^ Miller, Gregory (April 24, 2023). "Triple H introduces the World Heavyweight Championship". WWE. Retrieved April 24, 2023.

External links