thumb|Youngest, four-time and final champion [[Randy Orton]]
The World Heavyweight Championship was a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It was established by WWE in 2002 after WWE bought out World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and split its roster into two brands, Raw and SmackDown!, in a brand extension. WWE's original world title, the WWE Championship, with which the WCW World Heavyweight Championship had been unified in 2001, was designated to the SmackDown! brand; as a result, the World Heavyweight Championship was established for the Raw brand. Although both titles used the "Big Gold Belt" design, the World Heavyweight Championship was not a continuation of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship but rather its indirect successor.
At the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, when WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion John Cena, 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. The championship was contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes. The first champion was Triple H, who was awarded the title on September 2, 2002, by Eric Bischoff, then-General Manager of Raw, and he also holds the record for longest combined reign at 616 days. Overall, there have been 25 different official champions, with Edge having the most reigns at seven. The longest single reign was held by Batista, lasting 282 days. The final holder was Orton, who was also the youngest champion at the age of 24 when he first won the championship, as well as the shortest reigning champion in his fourth and final reign, immediately retiring the title after winning and unifying it with the WWE Championship. The Undertaker was the oldest champion when he won the title for the third time at the age of 44 years.
Title history
Names
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Name
!Years
|-
|World Heavyweight Championship
|September 2, 2002 – December 15, 2013
|-
|World Championship
|April 2, 2006 – July 23, 2006; June 20, 2010 – July 18, 2010
|}
Reigns
Combined reigns
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center"
!Rank
!Wrestler
!No. of<br>reigns
!Combined days
!Combined days<br>recognized by WWE
|-
!1
| || 5
|616
|611
|-
!2
| || 4
|507
|503
|-
!3
| || 7
| 409 || 405
|-
!4
| || 2
| 223 || 222
|-
!5
| || 1
| colspan="2" | 210
|-
!6
| || 3
| colspan="2" | 207
|-
!7
| || 3
|160
|157
|-
!rowspan=3|8
| || 1
|rowspan=3 | 154
|rowspan=2 | 153
|-
| || 1
|-
| || 3
| 152
|-
!11
| || 2
|140
|138
|-
!12
| || 4
| 138 || 132
|-
!13
| || 1
|126
|125
|-
!14
| || 3
| colspan="2" | 106
|-
!15
| ||1
|105
|104
|-
!16
|
|1
| colspan="2" | 91
|-
!17
|
|1
|84
|83
|-
!rowspan=2|18
|
|1
| 83 || 78
|-
|
|1
|82
|81
|-
!20
| || 2
| colspan="2" | 72
|-
!21
| || 2
| colspan="2" | 69
|-
!22
| || 1
|61
|60
|-
!23
| || 2
| 31 || 32
|-
!rowspan=2|24
| || 2
| rowspan="2" |28
| rowspan="2" |27
|-
| || 1
|}
See also
- List of NWA World Heavyweight Champions
- List of WCW World Heavyweight Champions
- World championships in WWE
Notes
References
;General
;Specific
External links
- World Heavyweight Title | WWE at WWE.com
- World Heavyweight Championship (WWE) at Wrestling-Titles.com