WWE Universal Championship


The WWE Universal Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, currently defended on their SmackDown brand division. It is one of WWE's top three titles, alongside the WWE Championship on Raw and the NXT Championship on NXT. The current champion is Braun Strowman, who is in his first reign.
Named in honor of the WWE Universe, the championship was established on July 25, 2016 to be the top title of the Raw brand. Its creation came as a result of the re-introduction of the brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016 in which the WWE Championship, the promotion's original world title, became exclusive to SmackDown. The inaugural Universal Champion was Finn Bálor. Since its inception, matches for the championship have headlined several pay-per-view events, including SummerSlam in 2017, 2018, 2019, and WrestleMania 34, both being two of WWE's "big four" pay-per-views, the latter of which is WWE's flagship event. Following the events of Crown Jewel 2019, the Universal and WWE Championships switched brands.

History

In mid-2016, the WWE reintroduced the brand extension, where the promotion split its main roster between their Raw and SmackDown brands, represented by the shows of the same name. On July 19, 2016, SmackDown began broadcasting live and on that premiere of SmackDown Live, the 2016 WWE Draft took place and reigning WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown. At Battleground on July 24, Ambrose retained the title in a triple threat match against Raw draftees Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, leaving Raw without a world championship. On the following episode of Monday Night Raw, the brand's Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley created the WWE Universal Championship to serve as the brand's top championship. The title was named in honor of the WWE Universe, the name the promotion uses to refer to its fan base.
The inaugural champion was crowned at SummerSlam on August 21 in a pinfall and submission-only singles match. Seth Rollins was automatically set for that match as he was Raw's number one draft pick and was not pinned in the WWE Championship match at Battleground. His opponent was determined by two fatal four-way matches on Raw, with the winners wrestling each other in a singles match. Finn Bálor won the first fatal four-way by defeating Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Rusev while Roman Reigns won the second by defeating Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn, and Sheamus. Bálor then defeated Reigns and was added to the title match. At SummerSlam, Bálor defeated Rollins to become the inaugural champion. Bálor was the first WWE wrestler to win a world title in his pay-per-view debut as well as winning his first world title in less than a month of his debut on WWE's main roster. During the championship match, however, Bálor suffered a legitimate shoulder injury and was forced to vacate the title the following day.
At Crown Jewel on October 31, 2019, SmackDown wrestler "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt won the Universal title by defeating Seth Rollins in a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason, thus transferring the Universal Championship to SmackDown. The WWE Championship was subsequently transferred to Raw after reigning champion Brock Lesnar quit SmackDown the following day, taking the title to Raw.

Brand designation

The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the WWE Universal Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.
Date of transitionBrandNotes
July 25, 2016RawThe championship was established for Raw after WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown in the 2016 WWE Draft. Finn Bálor subsequently became the inaugural Universal Champion at SummerSlam on August 21.
October 31, 2019SmackDownThe Universal Championship moved to SmackDown after "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, a member of the SmackDown brand, defeated Seth Rollins in a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason to win the Universal Championship.

Championship belt design

The Universal Championship belt is similar in appearance to the WWE Championship belt, with a few notable differences. Like the WWE Championship belt, the center plate is a large cut out of the WWE logo with diamonds sitting inside an irregular heptagonal plate, but with the capital words "Universal Champion" in small print sitting underneath the logo. Just the same, there are gold divider bars that separate the center plate from its two side plates. Each side plate features the same default removable center section as the WWE Championship, which can be customized with the champion's logo. The most prominent difference is the belt's strap, the color of which indicates the brand it is exclusive to. When the belt was first unveiled at SummerSlam 2016, the strap was red to symbolize its exclusivity to the Raw brand, and the underline of the WWE logo on the center plate was black to make it visible. After the title became exclusive to SmackDown in late 2019, Bray Wyatt introduced a blue strap variation and the underline of the WWE logo was changed from black to red.
In addition to the SmackDown version of the belt, Wyatt also introduced a custom version of the championship for his "Fiend" character on the November 29 episode of SmackDown. The custom belt featured The Fiend's face in the place of the center plate. The character's phrases "Hurt" and "Heal" were written in red on black leather strips in the place of side plates while the strap of the belt itself was red and black worn leather with red stitching holding it together. The character's phrase "Let Me In" was also included; the far left side of the strap said "LET" in red, "ME" was represented by The Fiend's face at the center, and the far right side said "IN" in red. Wyatt used both the standard and custom versions of the championship; his cheery Firefly Fun House character held the standard blue belt, while his sinister Fiend character held the custom belt.

Reception

The Universal Championship design was heavily criticized. Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net referred to it as "a title belt that no one likes". Adam Silverstein of CBS Sports described it as "ugly" while the live SummerSlam audience in Brooklyn, New York gave derisive chants, including "This belt sucks", an assessment with which New England Sports Network reporters agreed. That site's Ricky Doyle wrote that the crowd response turned what should have been a "landmark moment for the company" into an "awkward experience". Mike Johnson of Pro Wrestling Insider felt the title looked like a "xerox" of the WWE Championship and did not blame the audience for reacting negatively. The design was also unpopular with online wrestling fans.
WWE employees responded in the aftermath of the title's debut. Seth Rollins chastised the SummerSlam crowd's reaction, writing on Twitter: "More important than a title's appearance is what it represents for the men fighting over it. You really let me down tonight, Brooklyn." While acknowledging that he himself might have chosen a different belt design, Mick Foley echoed Rollins's response in a lengthy Facebook post. He recalled being presented with the WWF Hardcore Championship, a title belt made of broken metal pieces held together by duct tape, which challengers "made mean something by busting asses". In a kayfabe promo on the following episode of Raw, the then-villainous Rollins called the championship belt "beautiful".
Later in 2016, Jim Vorel of Paste ranked the title as the worst of nine then contested in WWE, noting its "obnoxious" design. On the other hand, Nick Schwartz of Fox Sports wrote: "It's really not as bad as fans made it seem at SummerSlam. It's fine."

Reigns

As of ,, there have been twelve reigns between eight champions and two vacancies. Finn Bálor was the inaugural champion. Brock Lesnar holds three records with the championship: he has the most reigns at three, his first reign is the longest reign at 504 days, and he has the longest combined reign at 688 days. Bálor has the shortest reign at 22 hours as he was forced to vacate the title due to suffering a legitimate injury in winning it. Kevin Owens is the youngest champion when he won it at old, while Goldberg is the oldest when he won the title for a second time at 53.
Braun Strowman is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating previous champion Goldberg during WrestleMania 36 Part 1 that aired on April 4, 2020; the event was taped on March 25 and 26 in Orlando, Florida, but it is currently unknown which day this match was taped.

Combined reigns

As of ,.
†Indicates the current champion
¤The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest length is considered.