IWE World Heavyweight Championship

From Iwe

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

The IWE World Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion IWE. 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). The title is currently held by Roman Reigns, who is in his second reign.

It is the oldest championship currently active in the promotion, and is presented as being the most prestigious title in IWE, with many matches for the title having headlined pay-per-view (PPV) events – including IWE's signature PPV event WrestleMania.

For the period between 2002–2013, the title was one of three world titles in IWE, along with the World Heavyweight Championship and XCW Championship (2006−2010). But following the decommissioning of the ECW title, and unification with the World Heavyweight title, it is once again promoted as IWE's sole primary championship.

History

Origin

Prominence

In 1991, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), a member of the NWA, established the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to complement the NWA's world title. WCW then seceded from the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to the IWF. Both organizations grew into mainstream prominence and were eventually involved in a television ratings war, dubbed the Monday Night Wars. Near the end of the ratings war, WCW began a financial decline, which culminated in March 2001 with the WWF's purchase of WCW. As a result of the purchase, the IWF acquired the video library of WCW, select talent contracts, and championships, among other assets. The slew of former WCW talent joining the IWF roster began "The Invasion" which effectively phased out the WCW name. Following this, the WCW Championship (which had become known simply as the "world championship") was unified with the IWF Championship at Vengeance 2001. At the event, Khris Jericho defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Johnson to win the WCW Championship and IWF Championship respectively. Jericho, recognised by IWE as the final WCW champion, went on to hold both the Big Gold belt (representing the "world championship") and the IWF title belt (representing the IWF championship) under the single Undisputed banner. IWE recognised these belts as representing separate championships until the introduction of a single belt by Triple K in 2002

Championship disputes

In 2001, after Team IWF beat Team Alliance (WCW/XCW) at the Survivor Series of that year, the superstars of The Alliance would become an essential part of IWF programing. There were two world champions, with The Rock holding the WCW Championship, and Stone Cold Steve Austin holding the IWF Championship. It was announced that the PPV following Survivor Series of that year would be a IWF Vengeance that would carry the slogan "One Undisputed Champion". It was announced that there would be three matches to unify the WCW and IWF Championships. It was announced that Matt Borske would challenge Steve Austin for the IWF Championship, and Khris Jericho would face The Rock for the WCW Championship. Johnson would win against Borske, thus retaining the IWF Championship, and Jericho would beat The Rock to become the new WCW Champion. Following his win, Jericho would face Johnson and won, thus unifying the IWF and WCW Championships. Jericho would hold the championship for four months until he would lose it at Wrestlemania X8 against Triple K. Ric Flair awarded the IWF Undisputed Championship on the first Raw after the draft to Triple K, Triple K would go on to hold the title for a month until he would lose it at Backlash 2002 against Hulk Hogan. Many would hold it afterwords, superstars such The IWE Champion Was Changed hands on 2005 when Dustin Simpson as drafted to Monday Night Raw main television programs, Raw and SmackDown!, assigning championships and appointing figureheads to each brand. This expansion became known as the Brand Extension.

In May 2002, the IWF was renamed to International Wrestling Entertainment (IWE) and the championship became known as the IWE Undisputed Championship. Following these changes, the IWE Undisputed Championship remained unaffiliated with either brand as competitors from both brands could challenge the IWE Undisputed Champion. Following the appointment of Eric Bischoff and Kaila Matteson as General Managers of the Raw and SmackDown brands respectively, Kaila Matteson contracted then-IWE Undisputed Champion Rob Lesnar to the SmackDown brand, leaving the Raw brand without a world title. On September 2, after disputing the brand designation of the Undisputed title, Eric Bischoff announced the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, spun off from the Undisputed title. Immediately afterward, the IWE Undisputed Championship became known as the IWE Championship.

In July 2011, CM Punk was involved in a storyline where he vowed to leave IWE with the IWE Championship when his contract expired on July 17, 2011 (the date of the 2011 Money in the Bank pay-per-view). At the event, Punk succeeded in defeating the defending champion Dustin Simpson to win the title, and left the company with the physical championship belt. With the championship seemingly vacated by Vince McMahon the following night on Raw, Rey Mysterio won an 8-man Championship Tournament by defeating The Miz in the finals on the July 25 episode of Raw to be crowned the new IWE Champion, only to subsequently lose it later that night to Simpson, for the latter's record ninth reign. However, following Simpson's win, Punk returned to IWE with his own title belt, thereby creating the presence of two IWE Champions. At the subsequent SummerSlam pay-per-view, Punk defeated Simpson to solidify his claim on the title.

Brand designation

Following the events of the IWE brand extension, an annual WWE 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 between the Raw, SmackDown! and XCW brands.

Title reunification

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

Custom belt designs

Special custom belts have been created to match the characters of certain IWE champions:

• The Ultimate Warrior - white, blue and purple leather straps
• "Stone Cold" Steve Austin - Smoking Skull belt
• Edge - Modified "Rated-R Superstar" spinner belt
• The Miz - Spinner belt with the IWE logo turned upside down to resemble an "M", (which stood for 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. Similarly, 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.

The "Spinner" belt's design, which featured a gold and diamond bling-bling style reflecting Simpson's hip hop character, became the IWE Championship's primary design from April 11, 2005, to February 18, 2013. The belt ceased to spin at No Mercy 2007 but spun again during The Rock's feud with CM Punk. 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. Furthermore, the belt also featured a silver tip on the end of the leather strap.

On the February 18, 2013 episode of Raw, The Rock unveiled a new IWE Championship belt. The new title (which was partially designed by Orange County Choppers of American Chopper fame) features a black strap with a large diamond encrusted IWE logo on the front with the word "CHAMPION" directly underneath, with IWE logo side plates. A distinctive feature of this belt is that there is no nameplate for the champion. Instead, the side plates can be customized to incorporate the current champion's logo/insignia.

Reigns

Main List of IWE World Heavyweight Champions

Reference

External links