Top: The SmackDown version of the Universal Championship belt introduced in 2019, displayed on WWE's official title history. Bottom: The Undisputed WWE Universal Championship belt, which represents both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship (2023–present).
Named in honor of WWE's fanbase, referred to as the WWE Universe, the championship was established on July 25, 2016, to be the top title of the Raw brand at the time. Its creation came as a result of the reintroduction of the brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, in which the WWE Championship, the promotion's original world title, became exclusive to SmackDown. The inaugural Universal Champion was Finn Bálor. Since its inception, matches for the championship have headlined several pay-per-view and livestreaming events, including seven consecutive SummerSlams from 2017 to 2023, as well as five WrestleManias (34, 37 Night 2, 38 Night 2, 39 Night 2, and XL Night 2), both being two of WWE's "big five" pay-per-views, the latter of which is WWE's flagship event. Following the events of the 2019 Crown Jewel, the title moved to SmackDown.
In mid-2016, the professional wrestling promotion WWE reintroduced the brand extension in which the promotion split its main roster between the Raw and SmackDown brands, where wrestlers would exclusively perform on each brands' respective weekly television program (the original brand split ended in August 2011).[1][2] On July 19, 2016, to coincide with SmackDown shifting to a live broadcast format, the 2016 WWE Draft took place. During the draft, Dean Ambrose, who held the promotion's original world championship, the WWE Championship, was drafted to SmackDown.[3] At Battleground on July 24, Ambrose retained the title in a triple threat match against Raw draftees Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns,[4] thus leaving Raw without a world title.[5] On the following episode of Raw, the brand's Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley established the WWE Universal Championship to serve as the brand's top championship. The title was named in honor of the WWE Universe, the name the promotion uses to refer to its fan base.[6]
The inaugural champion was crowned at SummerSlam on August 21 in a pinfall and submission-only singles match. Rollins was automatically set for that match as he was Raw's number one draft pick and was not pinned in the WWE Championship match at Battleground. His opponent was determined by two fatal four-way matches on Raw, with the winners wrestling each other in a singles match.[6]Finn Bálor won the first fatal four-way by defeating Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Rusev, while Reigns won the second by defeating Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn, and Sheamus.[6] Bálor then defeated Reigns and was added to the title match.[7] At SummerSlam, Bálor, wrestling under his "Demon" persona, defeated Rollins to become the inaugural champion. Bálor was the first WWE wrestler to win a world title in his pay-per-view debut as well as winning his first world title in less than a month of his debut on WWE's main roster.[8][9] During the championship match, however, Bálor suffered a legitimate shoulder injury and was forced to vacate the title the following day.[10][11]
At Crown Jewel on October 31, 2019, SmackDown wrestler "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt won the Universal title by defeating Seth Rollins in a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason, thus transferring the Universal Championship to SmackDown.[12] The WWE Championship was subsequently transferred to Raw after reigning champion Brock Lesnar quit SmackDown the following day, taking the title to Raw.[13]
At WrestleMania 38 Night 2 on April 3, 2022, reigning Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match to claim both championships and become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. WWE had billed the match as a championship unification match; however, both titles have remained independently active with Reigns being a double champion, defending both titles together across both brands as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.[14] On the April 24, 2023, episode of Raw, WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H announced that regardless of what brand Reigns was drafted to in the 2023 WWE Draft, he and his undisputed championship would become exclusive to that brand. Triple H subsequently unveiled a new World Heavyweight Championship for the opposing brand, which was won by Seth "Freakin" Rollins at Night of Champions.[15][16] As Reigns was drafted to SmackDown, the World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to Raw.[17] On the June 2, 2023, episode of SmackDown, Triple H presented Reigns with a new singular championship belt to represent the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.[18] Amidst confusion of the lineages, Fightful reported that WWE confirmed to them that the two championships are still in fact separate lineages despite there being only one belt.[19]
Brand designation
The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the WWE Universal Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.
Two-time champion Roman Reigns in his first reign with the original Raw version of the championship belt used from 2016 to 2019
The Universal Championship belt was 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 was 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 were gold divider bars that separated the center plate from its two side plates. Each side plate featured the same default removable center section as the WWE Championship (the WWE logo over a red globe), which could be customized with the champion's logo.[20] The most prominent difference was the belt's strap, the color of which indicated the brand it was 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]
2019–2020 (Custom design)
Two-time champion Bray Wyatt, shown here as "The Fiend", whose custom version of the Universal Championship belt was based on his mask
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]
2023–present
Roman Reigns with the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship belt (2023–present), which represents both the Universal and WWE Championships. He became undisputed champion during his second Universal Championship reign, which is the longest reign for the title at 1,316 days and the fourth longest world championship reign in WWE history.
After Roman Reigns became the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, both 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 new single title belt to represent the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. It features the same "Network Logo" design on a black strap, but the WWE logo is encrusted with black diamonds, it has a gold nugget-textured background behind the logo which was made as part of the metal plate instead of colored leather, and the text at the bottom of the plate says "Undisputed Champion"; the side plates remained the same.[18] Despite this, his manager Paul Heyman had continued to carry around the previous Universal and WWE Championship belts until the end of July.[26] On WWE's website, pictures of the previous title belts were still used for the individual title histories of each championship until April 2024 when the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship belt replaced the image for the WWE Championship; the Universal Championship title history remains a picture of the previous blue belt.
Reception
The original red Universal Championship design was heavily criticized.[27] Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net referred to it as "a title belt that no one likes".[28] Adam Silverstein of CBS Sports described it as "ugly"[29] while the live SummerSlam audience in Brooklyn, New York gave derisive chants, including "This belt sucks",[30] an assessment with which New England Sports Network reporters agreed.[31] That site's Ricky Doyle wrote that the crowd response turned what should have been a "landmark moment for the company" into an "awkward experience".[32] Mike Johnson of Pro Wrestling Insider felt the title looked like a "xerox" of the WWE Championship and did not blame the audience for reacting negatively.[33] The design was also unpopular with online wrestling fans.[30]
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 kayfabepromo 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 the 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]
As of May 2, 2024, there have been fifteen reigns between nine champions and two vacancies. Finn Bálor was the inaugural champion. Brock Lesnar holds the record for most reigns at three. Roman Reigns' second reign is the longest singular reign at 1,316 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 1,380 days (1,379 days as recognized by WWE). 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.
Originally scheduled as a triple threat match in which Roman Reigns was to defend the title against Lesnar and Braun Strowman.[43] After Reigns relinquished the championship, the match became a singles match between Lesnar and Strowman for the vacant title.[42]
This was a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason. The title became exclusive to the SmackDown brand due to Wyatt's status as a SmackDown wrestler.
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.[50]
^"SummerSlam (2016) (Finn Bálor vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship)". SummerSlam. August 21, 2016. 200 minutes in. WWE Network. Finn Bálor becomes the first Superstar to ever win a world title in his debut match on a pay-per-view.
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