World Heavyweight Championship - Definition and Overview

The World Heavyweight Championship is the highest ranked championship on the RAW brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. Its lineage can be traced back to the original NWA World Heavyweight Championship, though it distinctively broke from that lineage in 1991 with (then) champion Ric Flair becoming the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Now it is known simply as the World Heavyweight Championship without any promotional abbreviation preceding it.

History and trivia

It has been defended in the NWA, WCW and WWE, with no other major title being able to make that claim. The only other World title of that stature to appear in as many promotions is the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, and while defended in ECW it was only recognized in WCW (champion Mike Awesome attacked Kevin Nash) and WWE (champion Tazz faced WWF Champion Triple H) without defenses.

• Since it's re-debut, the youngest champion was Randy Orton at the age of 24.
• The oldest champion was Shawn Michaels at 37.
• The longest reign was by Triple H at under nine months.
• The shortest reign was by Randy Orton at twenty-seven days.

Naming lineage

• part of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship until 1991
• WCW World Heavyweight Championship - 1991 (champion: Ric Flair) - March 2001 (champion: Booker T)
• WCW Championship - June 2001 (champion: Booker T) - November 2001 (champion: The Rock)
• World Championship - November 2001 (champion: The Rock) - December 2001 (champion: Chris Jericho)
• unified with the WWE Championship - December 2001 (champion: Chris Jericho) - April 2002 (champion: Triple H)
• replaced by the WWE Undisputed Championship - April 2002 (champion: Triple H) - September 2002 the title belt of both championships was replaced with one single belt (champion: Triple H)
• World Heavyweight Championship - September 2002 (champion: Triple H)

Current champion

The current World Heavyweight Champion is Triple H in his sixth reign. He defeated Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Edge, Batista and Randy Orton in an Elimination Chamber match at WWE New Year's Revolution.

WWE state this is Triple H's 10th world title reign, combining his 5 WWE Championships and 5 World Championships. Triple H did win a WWE or World title a total of 10 times, but with his 5th WWE win he also won the then unified World Championship, making him a total 11 time Champion.

See also

• List of World Heavyweight Champions