WWE Championship

The WWE Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in World Wrestling Enterprise (WWE). It was established under the then WWWF in 1963. After Raw and Smackdown! became distinct brands under WWE, the championship has moved between both brands on different occasions, mainly as a result of the WWE Draft. The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. The belt is generally thought of as the most prestigious championship available today in professional wrestling.

History
The WWE Championship was introduced in 1963 with Buddy Rogers becoming the inaugural champion on April 29. However, its origin is attributed to events that began in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a promotion with various subsidiaries. In the 1950s, Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) was a subsidiary to the NWA and by 1963, CWC executives held a controlling stake over NWA operations. During this time, Buddy Rogers held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the world title of the NWA and its subsidiaries, until January 24, when Lou Thesz defeated Rogers for the championship. Following a dispute over the result, CWC seceded from the NWA and became the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). The WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was then established as having spun off from the NWA title when the recognition was awarded to Buddy Rogers following an apocryphal tournament in Rio de Janeiro, defeating Antonino Rocca in the finals. Affiliated with the NWA once again, the WWWF was renamed to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, and after conclusively ending its affiliation with the NWA in 1983, the championship became known as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship and later simply as the WWF Championship by the 1990s.

Prominence
In 1991, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), another subsidiary to the NWA, established the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to complement the NWA's world title. WCW then seceded from the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to the WWF. Both organizations grew into mainstream prominence and were eventually involved in a television ratings war, dubbed the Monday Night Wars. Near the end of the ratings war, WCW began a financial decline, which culminated in March 2001 with the WWF's purchase of WCW. As a result of the purchase, the WWF acquired the video library of WCW, select talent contracts, and championships among other assets. The slew of former WCW talent joining the WWF roster began "The Invasion" which effectively phased out the WCW name. Following this, the WCW Championship was unified with the WWF Championship, at Vengeance 2001 in December. At the event, Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the WCW Championship and WWF Championship respectively. Consequently, Chris Jericho was named the final WCW Champion and the subsequent Undisputed Champion as the WWF Championship became the Undisputed Championship in professional wrestling with no other prominent world heavyweight title to dispute the recognition.

Undisputed Championship
By 2002, the WWF roster had doubled in size due to the overabundance of contracted workers. As a result of the increase, the WWF divided the roster through its two main television programs, Raw and Smackdown!, assigning championships and appointing figureheads to each brand. This expansion became known as the Brand Extension. In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the championship became known as the WWE Undisputed Championship. Following these changes, the WWE Undisputed Championship remained unaffiliated with either brand as competitors from both brands could challenge the WWE Undisputed Champion. Following the appointment of Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon as General Managers of the Raw and Smackdown! brands respectively, Stephanie McMahon contracted then-WWE Undisputed Champion, Brock Lesnar, to the Smackdown! brand, leaving the Raw brand without a world title. On September 2, after disputing the status of the Undisputed Championship, Eric Bischoff announced the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, having spun off from the Undisputed title. Immediately afterward, the WWE Undisputed Championship returned to being the WWE Championship. Later in May 2008, three years after Shane McMahon was put in power of the WWE, he renames the company to World Wrestling Enterprise.

Brand designation
Following the events of the WWE Brand Extension, an annual WWE Draft was established, in which select members of the WWE roster are reassigned to a different brand. After three years on the Smackdown! brand, the WWE Championship switched brands during the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, in which the WWE Champion John Cena was drafted to Raw while the World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho was drafted to Smackdown!. In February of 2008, it is announced on Smackdown! by General Manager Teddy Long, the Wednesday after Wrestlemania 24 that a new show will be aired on [|WWE.com] named NXT and not only will he move position from Smackdown! to NXT as General Manager of the show, there will be a brand new draft during the 2008's Draft Room, effectively taking a third of Raws and Smackdown!s roster to supplement the new roster for NXT''.

Custom belt designs
Special custom belts have been created to match the gimmicks of some champions:
 * "Superstar" Billy Graham (red leather strap)
 * The Ultimate Warrior (white, blue, and purple leather straps)
 * Sgt. Slaughter (blue leather strap, later changed to original black strap at WrestleMania VII)
 * "Stone Cold" Steve Austin ("Smokin' Skull" belt)
 * John Cena/Randy Orton (Spinner belt with free-motion "spinner" WWE logo)

A much larger version of the belt was created for André the Giant before WrestleMania III, although he never wore it as champion. A custom championship belt was designed and constructed for The Rock which featured his trademark Brahma Bull logo in the center, but it never appeared on television. Similarly, Edge had originally designed an entirely different custom belt than the "Rated R Spinner" design he used for his second reign; however, the plans were scrapped due to time constraints. The "Spinner" belt's design has become the WWE Championship's primary design since Wk 1, April 2007's episode of  Raw. The physical belt itself originally indicated the brand it was designated to. When it was first introduced, it featured a unique side plate design that read "Mon-Nite Raw" when John Cena was drafted to the Raw brand. Furthermore, the belt also features a silver tip on the end of the leather strap. The next week of Raw, Randy Orton "cashes in" his Money in the Bank contract and winning the WWE Championship while claiming the Spinner design as his own as to make a mockery of Cena. 15 months later the Raw after Great American Bash 2008 where CM Punk then won the championship off of Orton, to start the show, Punk sits on a ladder, talking to the audience then revealing a surprise "for the audience". Drum roll is heard across the arena, smoke comes down encapsulating the item to be revealed as it's lowered from the rafters of the arena, Punk takes the item and reveals that it's the old WWE Championship, the famous "Undisputed" championship, previous belt before Cena replaced it for the Spinner belt.

Reigns
The WWE World Heavyweight Championship was the first world championship introduced into WWF in 1963. The inaugural champion was Buddy Rogers, and there have been 44 different official champions overall. The longest reigning champion was Bruno Sammartino who held the title from May 17, 1963, to January 18, 1971, for a total of 2,803 days (7 years, 8 months, and 1 day). Bruno Sammartino also holds the record for longest combined reign at 4,040 days. The shortest reigning champion was André the Giant who officially held the title for 30 seconds. The youngest champion is Brock Lesnar, who won the title at the age of 25. The oldest champion is Mr. McMahon who won it at the age of 54. John Cena has held the title the most times with 13 championship reigns. There have been ten vacancies throughout the title's history.