The World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE.
It was established by WWE in 2002 after WWE bought out World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and split its roster into two franchises, Raw and SmackDown!, in a brand extension.
WWE's original world title, the WWE Championship (then known as the Undisputed (WWE) Championship, which was the combination of the WWF and WCW World Heavyweight Championships, unified by Chris Jericho), was designated to the SmackDown! brand, which resulted in the World Heavyweight Championship being established and designated to the Raw brand...Read more:SmackDown -20 Man Battle Royal - World Heavyweight
It was established by WWE in 2002 after WWE bought out World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and split its roster into two franchises, Raw and SmackDown!, in a brand extension.
WWE's original world title, the WWE Championship (then known as the Undisputed (WWE) Championship, which was the combination of the WWF and WCW World Heavyweight Championships, unified by Chris Jericho), was designated to the SmackDown! brand, which resulted in the World Heavyweight Championship being established and designated to the Raw brand...Read more:SmackDown -20 Man Battle Royal - World Heavyweight
The World Heavyweight Championship is not a continuation of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but rather its successor by way of the Undisputed WWE Championship, just as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship spun off from the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.[4][5] For a list of champions who have held those titles, see the list of WCW World Heavyweight Champions and list of NWA World Heavyweight Champions respectively...Read more:SmackDown -20 Man Battle Royal - World Heavyweight
The championship was generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants usually execute scripted finishes rather than contend in directly competition. The first champion was Triple H, who was awarded the title on September 2, 2002 by Eric Bischoff, the General Manager of Raw. Triple H also holds the record for longest combined reign at 616 days. Overall, there have been 25 different official champions, with Edge having the most reigns at seven. The longest single reign was held by Batista, lasting 282 days. The final holder is Randy Orton, who is also the youngest champion at age 24...Read more:SmackDown -20 Man Battle Royal - World Heavyweight
