List of WWE Champions


The WWE Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE, currently on the Raw brand. It was the first world title established in WWE, having been introduced in 1963 as the World Wide Wrestling Federation World Heavyweight Championship. The promotion was renamed World Wrestling Federation in 1979 and ended its affiliation with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1983, with the title also renamed to reflect the changes. In 2001, it was unified with the World Championship following the WWF's buyout of World Championship Wrestling and became the Undisputed WWF Championship. In 2002, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment and split its roster into two brands, Raw and SmackDown. The title, now renamed WWE Championship, was then designated to the SmackDown brand while WWE established an alternate world title known as the World Heavyweight Championship for the Raw brand. A third alternate world title, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, was reactivated for the ECW brand in 2006. It was vacated and decommissioned when the ECW brand disbanded in 2010.
When WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion John Cena at the pay-per-view event on December 15, 2013, the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship, resulting in the retiring of the former and the renaming of the latter to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. On June 27, 2016, the name was shortened back to the WWE Championship before assuming the WWE World Championship name on July 26, when the brand extension returned. It became designated to the SmackDown brand and WWE again established an alternate world title known as the WWE Universal Championship for the Raw brand. In December 2016, WWE again shortened the title's name back to WWE Championship. Following the events of Crown Jewel 2019, the Universal and WWE Championships switched brands.
The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. Some reigns were held by champions using a ring name while others use their real name. Drew McIntyre is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated Brock Lesnar during WrestleMania 36 Part 2 that aired on April 5, 2020; the event was taped on March 25 and 26 in Orlando, Florida, but it is currently unknown which day this match was taped.
As of ,, there have been 137 recognized reigns between 52 different recognized champions and 11 recognized vacancies. The first champion was Buddy Rogers, who won the championship in 1963. The champion with the single longest reign is Bruno Sammartino with a reign of 2,803 days while the record for longest combined reign is also held by Sammartino at 4,040. John Cena has the most reigns at 13. Eight men in history have held the championship for a continuous reign of one year or more: Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, John Cena, CM Punk, and AJ Styles.

Title history

Names

Reigns

As of ,.

Combined reigns

As of ,.
Rec.Recognized by the promotion
†Current champion; reign changing daily
<1Reign was less than a day
¤The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest length is considered.