World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

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

On the April 24, 2023, episode of WWE's flagship professional wrestling television program, Monday Night Raw, WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H announced the 2023 WWE Draft, a process used by the promotion in which wrestlers are exclusively assigned to compete on a brand. He then addressed Roman Reigns and the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Since WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, Reigns had held and defended the promotion's two world championships, the WWE Championship and WWE Universal Championship, as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship across both the Raw and SmackDown brands. However, due to his contract, Reigns seldom defended the title. Thus, Triple H announced that whichever brand drafted Reigns in the upcoming 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. It was also revealed that the inaugural champion would be crowned at Night of Champions on May 27, 2023.[2][3] During Night 1 of the draft on the April 28 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Reigns was drafted to SmackDown, subsequently making the World Heavyweight Championship exclusive to Raw.[4]

During the Backlash press conference on May 5, 2023, Triple H announced a tournament for the title including wrestlers from both brands with a bracket for each brand. The first round and semifinals for each bracket were scheduled for the May 8 and May 12 episodes of Raw and SmackDown, respectively. The first-round matches for each episode consisted of two triple threat matches with the respective winners advancing to the semifinals in a 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 YouTube channel: Cody Rhodes, Damian Priest, Finn Bálor, 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]

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 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the company, which was established in April 1963.[13]

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.[14][15] Dave Scherer of 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]

As of October 25, 2023.

• World championships in WWE

• Official World Heavyweight Championship Title History