IWE Championship

From Iwe

Revision as of 11:51, 21 December 2016

Not to be confused with World Heavyweight Championship (IWE) or IWE Universal Championship.

The IWE World Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion IWE on the SmackDown brand. It is one of two world titles in the IWE, complimenting the IWE Universal Championship that was created for the Raw brand. The championship was established by the then-International Wide Wrestling Federation (IWWF) on April 29, 1963, as the IWWF World Heavyweight Championship, following the promotion seceding from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). It has undergone many name changes since its inception due to company name changes and title unifications. It is the oldest championship currently active in the IWE, and is presented as being the promotion's most prestigious title, with many matches for the title having headlined pay-per-view (PPV) events – including IWE's signature PPV event WrestleMania. The title is currently held by KJ Styles, who is in his first reign.

For the period between 2002 and 2013, the title was one of two world titles in IWE, along with the World Heavyweight Championship, and one of three between 2006 and 2010, with the addition of the XCW Championship. Following the decommissioning of the XCW title, and later the 2013 unification with the World Heavyweight title, it was once again promoted as IWE's sole primary championship. Following the upcoming introduction of the IWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam, it will once again be one of two world titles in IWE.

History

Origin

Title unification

Championship disputes

Title reunified and second brand split

Brand designation

Following the events of the IWE brand extension, an annual IWE draft was established. 2002 saw Ric Flair and Vince McMahon heading up the Raw and SmackDown brands respectively. Further individuals would act as General Manager of Raw and of SmackDown in subsequent years. Each year, the General Managers would participate in a draft lottery in which select members of the WWE roster were assigned to a brand.

On August 29, 2011, IWE ended the brand extension and wrestlers (including all champions), were then free to appear on any program.

The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the IWE World Heavyweight Championship (then IWE Championship) between the Raw, SmackDown! and XCW brands.

Title reunification

Following a challenge made by then World Heavyweight Champion John Cena the night after Survivor Series to determine an undisputed World Champion, IWE Champion Kevin Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion Dustin Simpson in a TLC match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the IWE Championship was renamed IWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Championship belt designs

Special custom belts have been created to match the characters of certain IWF/E champions:

• The Ultimate Warrior – white, blue and purple leather straps
• Stone Cold Steve Austin – Smoking Skull belt
• Dustin Simpson - Spinner belt
• Edge – "Rated-R Superstar" spinner belt
• The Miz – The 'WWE' logo on the spinner belt was turned upside down to look like an 'M' to represent The Miz

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 as an answer to Austin's Smoking Skull Belt, but due to creative reasons it never appeared on television.

The Big Gold Belt – which was used for the WCW Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, and other championships – was used in tandem with the IWF Championship belt after Chris Jericho unified the IWF and WCW Championship at Vengeance 2001 to form an undisputed championship. Raw owner Ric Flair presented Triple K with a single Undisputed Championship belt on the April 4, 2002 episode of Raw.

The "Spinner" belt's design, which featured a gold and diamond bling-bling style reflecting Simpson's hip hop character at the time, became the IWE Championship's primary design from April 11, 2005, to February 18, 2013; it replaced the former design, which had been used as the Undisputed Championship belt. 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 "SmackDown", though it was then replaced with one that read "Mon-Nite Raw" when John Cena was drafted to the Raw brand. When the title once again became SmackDown!'s primary championship after Triple K was drafted to the brand in 2008, the Raw plate was replaced with a second "IWE Champion" side plate. 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.

On the February 18, 2013, episode of Raw, The Rock unveiled a new IWE Championship belt. The new title was partially designed by Orange County Choppers of American Chopper fame. The championship featured a large cut-out of the scratch IWE logo (encrusted with diamonds) inside a large irregular heptagonal plate. The word "CHAMPION" appeared underneath the logo in large letters. On each side was a divider bar and a large plate. By default (mainly when the title was vacant), the side plates consisted of a red globe with a IWE logo underneath a crown. The reigning champions all had their logos onto the side plates as a similarity of the name plate feature.

Following the unification of the IWE and World Heavyweight Championships on December 15, 2013, the Big Gold Belt was used in tandem with the IWE Championship belt to represent the renamed IWE World Heavyweight Championship.

On the August 18, 2014 episode of Raw, reigning champion Rob Lesnar, who had won the title the night before at SummerSlam was presented with a single IWE World Heavyweight Championship belt, which has a slightly updated design from the belt introduced by The Rock in 2013 as a result of IWE adapting a new corporate logo originally used for the IWE Network. It features a large center plate dominated by a cut out of the new IWE logo inside an irregular heptagon with the words "WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION" along the bottom edges, in very small print. The large side plates, like the previous design, feature removable round sections, allowing the holder's personal logo to be added to the belt; the default sections feature gold and red world maps with the IWE logo over them, with the only difference being that this new title's original side plates do not feature a crown at the top of the plates. Like with the Undisputed Championship, the Big Gold Belt was retired with the unveiling of the new belt.

Reigns

Main List of IWE Champions

Reference

External links