World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)
The World Heavyweight Championship was one of the top wrestling championships in the WWE along with the WWE Championship. It was created on RAW to match SmackDown's WWE Championship in August 2002. Some of the past champions include Edge, Triple H, The Undertaker, Booker T, Batista, and Kurt Angle.
| World Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Three-time Champion CM Punk | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | September 2, 2002 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date retired | December 15, 2013 (unified with the WWE Championship) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The World Heavyweight Championship was brought to Raw by then-General Manager Eric Bischoff after WWE Champion Brock Lesnar became exclusive to SmackDown. Bischoff awarded the championship to Triple H, but he had to defend it against his then-best friend, Ric Flair. Triple H was successful and has held the championship on five different occasions. Other holders of this prestigious championship include Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio and more.
The final champion was Randy Orton. He beat then-champion John Cena on December 15, 2013 at TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs. He was already WWE Champion when he won the championship and unified the World Heavyweight Championship with the WWE Championship to make the "WWE World Heavyweight Championship".[1] The World Heavyweight Championship was retired the next day.[2]In 2023, a new World Heavyweight Championship was made but it does not continue the history of the old title.
