WWE Universal Championship

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"WWE Raw Championship" redirects here. For the former world championships on Raw, see WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship (WWE).
WWE Universal Championship
File:WWE Universal Championship.png
The Universal Championship belt with default side plates
Details
Current champion(s) Seth Rollins
Date won April 7, 2019
Date established July 25, 2016
Promotion WWE
Brand Raw

The WWE Universal Championship is a world heavyweight championship[lower-alpha 1] created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the Raw brand.[9] It is one of two world titles for WWE's main roster, alongside the WWE Championship on the SmackDown brand. The championship is currently held by Seth Rollins, who is in his first reign.

Named in honor of the WWE Universe,[10] the championship was established on July 25, 2016 to be the world championship of the Raw brand. Its creation came as a result of the re-introduction 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.[11] The inaugural Universal Champion was Finn Bálor. Since its inception, matches for the championship have headlined several pay-per-view events, including SummerSlam in 2017[12] and 2018,[13] and WrestleMania 34,[14] both being two of WWE's "big four" pay-per-views, the latter of which is WWE's flagship event.

History

File:WWE World Heavyweight Title Lineage.jpg
A diagram showing the evolution of various world heavyweight championships
The inaugural Universal Champion Finn Bálor

In mid-2016, the WWE reintroduced the brand extension, where the promotion split its main roster between the Raw and SmackDown brands, represented by the shows of the same name (the previous brand extension ended in 2011).[15][16] On July 19, 2016, SmackDown began broadcasting live and on that premiere of SmackDown Live, the 2016 WWE draft took place and reigning WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown.[11] At Battleground on July 24, Ambrose retained the title in a triple threat match against Raw draftees Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns,[17] leaving Raw without a world title.[18] On the following episode of Monday Night Raw, the brand's Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley created the WWE Universal Championship to serve as the brand's top championship.[10] The title was named in honor of the WWE Universe, the name the promotion uses to refer to its fan base.[10]

The inaugural champion was crowned at SummerSlam on August 21 in a singles match. Seth 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.[10] Finn Bálor won the first fatal four-way by defeating Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Rusev while Roman Reigns won the second by defeating Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn, and Sheamus.[10] Bálor then defeated Reigns and was added to the title match.[19] At SummerSlam, Bálor 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.[20] During the championship match, however, Bálor suffered a legitimate shoulder injury and was forced to vacate the title the following day.[21][22]

Championship belt design

The title belt was unveiled at SummerSlam and is similar in appearance to the WWE Championship, with a few notable differences. The strap is red, to symbolize its exclusivity to the Raw brand, with the underline of the WWE logo in the center plate being black to make it visible (essentially the reverse of the WWE Championship belt). As the championship belt is similar to the WWE Championship, the center plate is a large cut out of the WWE logo with diamonds sitting inside an irregular heptagonal plate, with the capital words "Universal Champion" in small print sitting underneath the logo. Each side plate, sitting on the other side of gold divider bars, features the same default side plates of the WWE Championship, with the champion's logo able to be customized for the side plates as a similarity of the name plate feature.[23]

Reception

The Universal Championship design was heavily criticized.[24] Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net referred to it as "a title belt that no one likes".[25] Adam Silverstein of CBS Sports described it as "ugly"[26] while the live SummerSlam audience in Brooklyn, New York gave derisive chants, including "This belt sucks",[27] an assessment with which New England Sports Network reporters agreed.[28] 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".[29] 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.[30] The design was also unpopular with online wrestling fans.[27]

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".[29] 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".[31] In a kayfabe promo on the following episode of Raw, the then-villainous Rollins called the championship belt "beautiful".[25]

Later in 2016, Jim Vorel of Paste ranked the title as the worst of nine then contested in WWE, noting its "obnoxious" design.[24] 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".[32]

Title history

Record two-time champion Brock Lesnar, the longest single and combined reigning Universal Champion; his 504-day first reign is the sixth longest world championship reign in WWE history and the longest since 1988[33]

Reigns

As of July 6, 2024, there have been seven reigns between six champions and two vacancies. Finn Bálor was the inaugural champion. Brock Lesnar holds three records with the championship: he has the most reigns at two, his first reign is the longest reign at 504 days (beginning on April 2, 2017 and ending on August 19, 2018), and he has the longest combined reign at Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. days. Bálor has the shortest reign at 22 hours as he was forced to vacate the title due to suffering a legitimate injury in winning the title. Kevin Owens is the youngest champion when he won it at 32 years old, while Goldberg is the oldest when he won it at 50.

Seth Rollins is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated Brock Lesnar to win the title at WrestleMania 35 on April 7, 2019 in East Rutherford, NJ. The championship had been vacated on two occasions in 2016 and 2018.

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
Days recog. Number of days held recognized by the promotion
+ Current reign is changing daily

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No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days Days recog.
1 Finn Bálor August 21, 2016 SummerSlam Brooklyn, NY 1 Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. Defeated Seth Rollins in a pinfall and submission-only match to become the inaugural champion. [34]
— Vacated August 22, 2016 Raw Brooklyn, NY — — — Vacated due to Finn Bálor suffering a legitimate shoulder injury during his match at SummerSlam. [21][22]
2 Kevin Owens August 29, 2016 Raw Houston, TX 1 Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. This was a fatal four-way elimination match for the vacant title also involving Big Cass, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. [35]
3 Goldberg March 5, 2017 Fastlane Milwaukee, WI 1 Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. [36]
4 Brock Lesnar April 2, 2017 WrestleMania 33 Orlando, FL 1 Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. [37]
5 Roman Reigns August 19, 2018 SummerSlam Brooklyn, NY 1 Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. [13]
— Vacated October 22, 2018 Raw Providence, RI — — — Vacated after Roman Reigns announced a legitimate diagnosis of leukemia. [38][39]
6 Brock Lesnar November 2, 2018 Crown Jewel Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2 Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist. Defeated Braun Strowman to win the vacant title.
7 Seth Rollins April 7, 2019 WrestleMania 35 East Rutherford, NJ 1 Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.+ Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.+

Combined reigns

As of July 6, 2024.

† Indicates the current champion
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns		 Combined days Combined days
recognized by WWE
1 Brock Lesnar 2 660 659
2 Kevin Owens 1 188
3 Roman Reigns 1 64 63
4 Goldberg 1 28 27
5 Finn Bálor 1 1
6 Seth Rollins † 1 Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.+

Notes

  1. ↑ WWE has referred to the Universal Championship as a "world title", both on its programming[1] and in print.[2] This designation has been corroborated by reliable sources such as Pro Wrestling Dot Net,[3] Pro Wrestling Torch,[4] ESPN,[5] Fox Sports,[6] Sky Sports,[7] and Slam! Sports.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ http://nesn.com/2016/08/wwe-summerslam-2016-live-results-highlights-from-every-match-in-brooklyn/
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ http://www.foxsports.com/wwe/gallery/wwe-championship-belt-ranking-best-121516
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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