Wwe universal championship

This article is about a list of wrestlers who have held the current WWE Championship. For a list of wrestlers who have the now-retired World Heavyweight Championship defended from to , see List of World Heavyweight Champions (WWE, –). For the wrestlers who have held the current World Heavyweight Championship, see World Heavyweight Championship (WWE). For a list of current title holders in WWE, see List of current champions in WWE.

The WWE Championship is a professional wrestlingworld heavyweight championship in WWE, currently defended on the SmackDownbrand. It was the first world title established in WWE, at the time known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), having been introduced in as the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship. The WWWF, a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territory, did not recognize Lou Thesz's victory over reigning NWA champion Buddy Rogers and sought to create its own world title upon exiting the body.^[a] The WWWF Wwe history of the championship.