WWE Universal Championship
| WWE Universal Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Current champion Cody Rhodes with the Undisputed WWE Championship belt that represents both the Universal and WWE Championships (2023–present). | |||||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||||
| Brand | SmackDown | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | July 25, 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Cody Rhodes | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date won | April 7, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
The WWE Universal Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in WWE for the men of the SmackDown brand. It is one of three world championships in WWE, along with the WWE Championship (with which it is currently defended together as the Undisputed WWE Championship) and the World Heavyweight Championship from the Raw brand. The current champion is Cody Rhodes, who is in his first reign. He beat Roman Reigns in a Bloodline rules match on April 7, 2024 at night two of WrestleMania XL. Reigns had held the title for more than one thousand days.
History
[change | change source]Creation
[change | change source]With the return of the WWE Brand Extension in the middle of 2016,[1][2] a draft took place in July 19. The WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown. And as a result, Raw was left without a world title.[3] On the July 25, 2016 episode of Raw, Stephanie McMahon and the general manager Mick Foley created the WWE Universal Championship to be the world title of the program.[4] The first champion was determined at SummerSlam on August 21, 2016. Finn Bálor beat Seth Rollins to win the title.[5]
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
[change | change source]
At WrestleMania 38 Night 2 on April 3, 2022, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match to win both championships and become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. WWE called the match a championship unification match; however, both titles's histories are still seperately active with Reigns being a double champion, defending both titles together across both brands as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. 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 then presented a new World Heavyweight Championship for the other brand, which was won by Seth "Freakin" Rollins at Night of Champions. Reigns was drafted to SmackDown and the World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to Raw. On the June 2, 2023, episode of SmackDown, Triple H gave Reigns with a new singular championship belt to represent the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Despite this, Reigns' manager Paul Heyman continued to carry the old WWE and Universal Championship belts until the end of July. After Cody Rhodes won the championships from Reigns in a Bloodline Rules match at WrestleMania XL Night 2 on April 7, 2024, the combined championships began being simply called the Undisputed WWE Championship.
Title history
[change | change source]Reigns
[change | change source]| Reign | The reign number for the specific champion listed |
|---|---|
| Location | The city in which the title was won |
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title was won |
| + | Indicates the current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Wrestler | Reign | Date | Days held | Location | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finn Bálor | 1 | August 21, 2016 | <1 | New York, NY | SummerSlam | Beat Seth Rollins in a pinfall and submission-only match to become the first champion. |
| — | Vacated | — | August 22, 2016 | — | New York, NY | Raw | Vacated after Finn Bálor got a shoulder injury during the match at SummerSlam. |
| 2 | Kevin Owens | 1 | August 29, 2016 | 188 | Houston, TX | Raw | This was a elimination match, also involving Big Cass, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. |
| 3 | Goldberg | 1 | March 5, 2017 | 28 | Milwaukee, WI | Fastlane | |
| 4 | Brock Lesnar | 1 | April 2, 2017 | 504 | Orlando, FL | WrestleMania 33 | |
| 5 | Roman Reigns | 1 | August 19, 2018 | 64 | Brooklyn, NY | SummerSlam | |
| — | Vacated | — | October 22, 2018 | — | Providence, RI | Raw | Vacated after Roman Reigns got leukemia. |
| 6 | Brock Lesnar | 2 | November 2, 2018 | 156 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Crown Jewel | Beat Braun Strowman to win the vacant title. |
| 7 | Seth Rollins | 1 | April 7, 2019 | 98 | East Rutherford, NJ | WrestleMania 35 | |
| 8 | Brock Lesnar | 3 | July 14, 2019 | 28 | Pittsburgh, PA | Extreme Rules | Cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Seth Rollins |
| 9 | Seth Rollins | 2 | August 11, 2019 | 80 | Toronto, Canada | SummerSlam | |
| 10 | The Fiend (Bray Wyatt) | 1 | October 31, 2019 | 118 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Crown Jewel | This was a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason. The title became exclusive to the SmackDown brand because of Wyatt's status as a SmackDown wrestler. |
| 11 | Goldberg | 2 | February 27, 2020 | 37 | Super Show-Down | ||
| 12 | Braun Strowman | 1 | April 3, 2020 | 141 | Orlando, FL | WrestleMania 36 | |
| 13 | The Fiend (Bray Wyatt) | 2 | August 23, 2020 | 6 | SummerSlam | ||
| 14 | Roman Reigns | 2 | August 30, 2020 | 1,316 | Payback | This was a triple threat match, also involving Braun Strowman.
At WrestleMania 38 Night 2 on April 3, 2022, Reigns defeated WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to win the title. Both championships together began being called "Undisputed WWE Universal Championship". This is the fifth-longest world championship reign in WWE history, and the longest reign for any WWE championship since 1988. | |
| 15 | Cody Rhodes | 1 | April 7, 2024 | 233+ | Philadelphia, PA | WrestleMania XL Night 2 | This was a Bloodline Rules match. Both combined championships began being simply called "Undisputed WWE Championship" after his win. |
Combined reigns
[change | change source]
As of November 26, 2024.
| † | Is the current champion |
|---|---|
| ¤ | The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest length is listed. |
| <1 | Reign was less than a day |
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined days |
Combined days rec. by WWE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Reigns | 2 | 1,380 | 1,379 |
| 2 | Brock Lesnar | 3 | 688 | 686 |
| 3 | Cody Rhodes † | 1 | 233+ | |
| 4 | Kevin Owens | 1 | 188 | |
| 5 | Seth Rollins | 2 | 179 | 178 |
| 6 | Braun Strowman | 1 | ¤150 | 141 |
| 7 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | 2 | 126 | 124 |
| 8 | Goldberg | 2 | ¤55 | 64 |
| 9 | Finn Bálor | 1 | <1 | |
Footnotes
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Together with the WWE Championship.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Steinberg, Brian (May 25, 2016). "WWE's 'Smackdown' Will Move To Live Broadcast On USA (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
- ↑ "WWE's destiny to be determined during SmackDown's Live premiere". WWE. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
- ↑ "2016 WWE Draft results: WWE officially ushers in New Era". WWE. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- ↑ Tedesco, Mike (July 25, 2016). "WWE RAW Results – 7/25/16 (Live from Pittsburgh, fallout from Battleground, new era of RAW begins)". Wrestleview. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
- ↑ Laboon, Jeff. "Finn Bálor def. Seth Rollins". WWE. Retrieved August 21, 2016.