World championships in WWE

Earlier that year in March, the WWF acquired World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which shortly after began The Invasion storyline, a war between the WWF and the combined faction of former WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) wrestlers called The Alliance.

This culminated at Survivor Series in November where the WWF won The Invasion war, disbanding The Alliance.

However, after reigning WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar signed an exclusive deal to only appear on SmackDown, Raw was left without a world championship.

[27] In June 2006, WWE established a third brand dubbed ECW on which stars from the former promotion and newer talent competed.

In June 2012, WWE established the NXT brand as their developmental territory to replace Florida Championship Wrestling.

The NXT Championship was subsequently established on July 1, 2012 when it always was a world title but just on the developmental brand, Seth Rollins defeated Jinder Mahal in the tournament finals to become the inaugural champion.

[36] In a press conference at The O2 Arena on 15 December 2016, Triple H, the chief operating officer and head of NXT for the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, revealed that there would be a 16-man single-elimination tournament to crown the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion for the promotion's new United Kingdom division.

The tournament was held over a two-day period, 14 and 15 January 2017, and was streamed exclusively on the WWE Network.

Tyler Bate won the inaugural tournament to become the first WWE United Kingdom Champion.

[40][41] On the June 2, 2023, episode of SmackDown, in celebration of Reigns reaching 1,000 days as Universal Champion, he was presented with a single belt, which features the same "Network Logo" design of the individual titles, but with notable differences.

[42][43] His manager Paul Heyman had continued to carry around the standard WWE and Universal Championship belts until the end of July.

Uniquely, the Crown Jewel championship belt remains in Saudi Arabia at the WWE Experience building.

The men and women's WWE Crown Jewel champions instead receive championship rings.

The following list shows the wrestlers that are currently holding all active men's world championships in WWE.

The following list shows retired men's world championships and the final title holders before the belts were deactivated in WWE.

The following list shows the inaugural holders for each world championship created and/or promoted by WWE.

The following list shows the ten longest world championship reigns in WWE history.

The following list shows the longest reigning champion for each world championship created and/or promoted by WWE.

The following list shows the wrestlers with the most reigns for each world championship created and/or promoted by WWE.

The following list shows the wrestlers who have the most world championship reigns in total, combining all titles they have held as recognized by WWE.

This list also shows the titles that they won to achieve this record (minimum five world championship reigns).

WWE 's inaugural world champion, Buddy Rogers , who became the WWWF World Heavyweight Champion in 1963, a title that is now known as the WWE Championship .
Bruno Sammartino defeated inaugural champion Buddy Rogers and became the longest-reigning champion at 2,803 days; pictured here in his second reign with the then- WWWF Heavyweight Championship (now WWE Championship)
Triple H after winning the Undisputed WWF Championship (now WWE Championship) at WrestleMania X8 ; the former WCW Championship (left) and WWF Championship belts represented the unified title until a single belt was presented to Triple H in April 2002; later that same year in September, Triple H became the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion (original) , which also used the Big Gold Belt design that had represented the WCW Championship.
Randy Orton unified the World Heavyweight Championship (original) with the WWE Championship in December 2013, retiring the former and renaming the latter to WWE World Heavyweight Championship (which reverted to WWE Championship in 2016); the two belts represented the unified title until a single belt was presented to Brock Lesnar in August 2014.
The inaugural WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair
The inaugural WWE Universal Champion Finn Bálor
The Undisputed WWE Championship belt, which has represented both the WWE Championship and WWE Universal Championship since June 2023.
The inaugural World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins , shown here with the WWE Championship . Rollins was also the inaugural NXT Champion and is the only wrestler to have held the NXT, WWE, Universal , and World Heavyweight Championships