2002-2013[]
The World Heavyweight Championship was a world heavyweight championship owned by WWE. It was one of two top championships in WWE, complementing the WWE Championship. The title was one of six to be represented by the historic Big Gold Belt, first introduced in 1985. It was established under the Raw brand in 2002, after Raw and SmackDown became distinct brands under WWE, and moved between both brands on different occasions (mainly as a result of the WWE Draft) until August 29, 2011 when all programming became full roster "supershows". Its heritage can be traced back to the first world heavyweight championship, thereby giving the belt a legacy over 100 years old, the oldest in the world.
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WWE World Heavyweight Championship Lineage[]
- Triple H: September 2, 2002 - WWE Raw
- Shawn Michaels: November 17, 2002 - WWE Survivor Series 2002
- Triple H 2: December 15, 2002 - WWE Armageddon 2002
- Goldberg: September 21, 2003 - WWE Unforgiven 2003
- Triple H 3: December 14, 2003 - WWE Armageddon 2003
- Chris Benoit: March 14, 2004 - WWE WrestleMania 20
- Randy Orton: August 15, 2004 - WWE SummerSlam 2004
- Triple H 4: September 12, 2004 - WWE Unforgiven 2004
Vacated: December 6, 2004 — WWE Raw The championship was vacated after a double fall occurred in a triple threat match, also involving Chris Benoit and Edge.
- Triple H 5: January 9, 2005 - WWE New Year's Revolution 2005
- Batista: April 3, 2005 - WWE WrestleMania 21
Vacated: January 13, 2006 — WWE SmackDown
- Kurt Angle: January 13, 2006 - WWE SmackDown
- Rey Mysterio: April 2, 2006 - WWE WrestleMania 22
- King Booker: July 23, 2006 - WWE The Great American Bash 2006
- Batista 2: November 26, 2006 - WWE Survivor Series 2006
- The Undertaker: April 1, 2007 - WWE WrestleMania 23
- Edge: May 8, 2007 - WWE SmackDown
Vacated: July 17, 2007 - WWE SmackDown
- The Great Khali: July 17, 2007 - WWE SmackDown
- Batista 3: September 16, 2007 - WWE Unforgiven 2007
- Edge 2: December 16, 2007 - WWE Armageddon 2007
- The Undertaker 2: March 30, 2008 - WWE WrestleMania 24
Vacated: April 29, 2008 — WWE SmackDown
- Edge 3: June 1, 2008 - WWE One Night Stand 2008
- CM Punk: June 30, 2008 - WWE Raw
- Chris Jericho: September 7, 2008 - WWE Unforgiven 2008
- Batista 4: October 26, 2008 - WWE Cyber Sunday 2008
- Chris Jericho 2: November 3, 2008 - WWE Raw
- John Cena 1: November 23, 2008 - WWE Survivor Series
- Edge 4: February 15, 2009 - WWE No Way Out 2009
- John Cena 2: April 5, 2009 - WWE WrestleMania 25
- Edge 5: April 26, 2009 - WWE Backlash 2009
- Jeff Hardy: June 7, 2009 - WWE Extreme Rules 2009
- CM Punk 2: June 7, 2009 - WWE Extreme Rules 2009
- Jeff Hardy 2: July 26, 2009 - WWE Night of Champions 2009
- CM Punk 3: August 23, 2009 - WWE SummerSlam 2009
- The Undertaker 3: October 4, 2009 - WWE Hell in a Cell 2009
- Chris Jericho 3: February 21, 2010 - WWE Elimination Chamber 2010
- Jack Swagger: April 2, 2010 - WWE SmackDown
- Rey Mysterio 2 :June 20, 2010 - WWE Fatal 4-Way 2010
- Kane: July 18, 2010 - WWE Money in the Bank 2010
- Edge 6: December 19, 2010 - WWE TLC 2010
- Dolph Ziggler: February 15, 2011 - WWE SmackDown 600th Episode
- Edge 7: February 15, 2011 - WWE SmackDown 600th Episode
Vacated: April 12, 2011 — WWE SmackDown Title declared vacant due to Edge's retirement.
- Christian: May 1, 2011 - WWE Extreme Rules 2011
- Randy Orton 2: May 6, 2011 - WWE SmackDown
- Christian 2: July 17, 2011 - WWE Money in the Bank 2011
- Randy Orton 3: August 14, 2011 - WWE SummerSlam 2011
- Mark Henry: September 18, 2011 - WWE Night of Champions 2011
- Big Show: December 18, 2011 - WWE TLC 2011
- Daniel Bryan: December 18, 2011 - WWE TLC 2011
- Sheamus: April 1, 2012 - WWE WrestleMania 28
- Big Show 2: October 28, 2012 - WWE Hell in a Cell 2012
- Alberto Del Rio: January 8, 2013 - WWE SmackDown
- Dolph Ziggler 2: April 8, 2013 - WWE Raw
- Alberto Del Rio 2: June 16, 2013 - WWE Payback 2013
- John Cena 3: October 27, 2013 - WWE Hell in a Cell 2013
- Randy Orton 4: December 15, 2013 - WWE TLC 2013
Unified: December 16, 2013 - Unified with the WWE Championship (now known as the WWE (World Heavyweight) Championship). Title officially retired by WWE on December 16 however the physical belt was still used along with the WWE Championship until August 18 2014.
2023-Present[]
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A new World Heavyweight Championship was unveiled in April 2023 with a similar belt design to the Big Gold Belt. The new title follows the lineage of the above championship.
Lineage[]
- Seth Rollins - May 27 2023 - Night of Champions
- Drew McIntyre - April 7 2024 - WrestleMania 40 Night 2
- Damian Priest - April 7 2024 - WrestleMania 40 Night 2 (MITB)
- Gunther - August 3 2024 - SummerSlam
- Jey Uso - April 19 2024 - WrestleMania 41 Saturday