IWE Divas Championship
From Iwe
| IWE Divas Championship | |
| Details | |
| Date established | July 20, 2008 |
| Date retired | April 3, 2016 |
| Promotion | IWE |
| Other name(s) | |
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| Statistics | |
The IWE Divas Championship was a professional wrestling championship in IWE. The championship was created by IWE in 2008, and was introduced in story-line by then, SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero as an alternative to Raw's Women's Championship. Michelle McCool became the inaugural champion on July 20, 2008, when she defeated Natalya at The Great American Bash. After former Divas Champion Maryse was drafted to Raw as part of the 2009 WWE draft, she took the title with her. McCool won a match against Melina to unify the IWE Divas and Women's titles at the Night of Champions pay-per-view on September 19, 2010, creating the Unified Divas Championship.
The title was retired at WrestleMania 32, when Lita revealed the new IWE Women's Championship to replace the Divas Belt.
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[edit] History
With the first Brand Extension, a storyline division in which IWE assigned its employees to different television programs and touring companies, in 2002, the IWE Women's Championship was originally to be defended on both brands. At some point that year, however, it became exclusive to the Raw brand. Thereafter, only Divas on the Raw brand were able to compete for the title, while the Divas on the SmackDown brand were unable to compete for a women's-exclusive championship. However, on a few occasions the regulation was bypassed with Melina, Ashley, Torrie Wilson and Nidia challenging for the title while on the SmackDown! brand, but none were successful.
As a result, IWE created the IWE Divas Championship and introduced it on the June 6, 2008 episode of SmackDown when then SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero announced the creation of the title. The championship belt was officially unveiled on the July 4, 2008 episode of SmackDown. After winning respective matches to earn the opportunity to wrestle for the new championship, Michelle McCool defeated Natalya at The Great American Bash to become the inaugural champion. When Maryse won the title from McCool in December 2008, she dislocated her kneecap at a live event later that month. Similar to how Trish Stratus kept the Women's Championship when she was sidelined with a herniated disc in 2005, Maryse was able to keep the Divas Title upon her return in late January 2009. As part of the 2009 IWE Draft, then-Divas Champion Maryse was one of the people drafted to the Raw brand, in the process making the championship exclusive to Raw.
It was announced on the August 30, 2010 episode of Raw that the Divas Championship would be unified with the Women's Championship at a match at Night of Champions. And with that, the title (known briefly as the IWE Unified Divas Championship) became accessible to both IWE brands and the champion could appear on both shows, a situation made permanent by the ending of the Brand Extension in 2011.
On April 6, 2014, AJ Lee became the first woman to defend the Divas Championship at WrestleMania for WrestleMania XXX.
On the Wrestlemania 32 pre-show former IWE Diva Lita announced that the Triple Threat match with Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks is going to be for the new WWE Women's Championship and the Divas Championship is going to be retired.
[edit] Reigns
- Main Article: List of IWE Divas Champions
There have been 21 total reigns. The inaugural champion was Michelle McCool, who defeated Shannon at The Great American Bash on July 20, 2008.
Nicole Berman - a three-time Divas Champion - has the most reigns in the title's history. AJ Lee's reign is the longest in the championship's history at 295 days and Jillian is the shortest reigning champion, with her reign lasting 4 minutes and 30 seconds. The oldest champion is Layla El, who won it at the age of 34.
The current champion is Charlotte, who is in her first reign, which began on September 20, 2015 at Night of Champions
