IWE Universal Championship
From Iwe
| IWE Universal Championship | |
| Top: The standard Universal Championship belt introduced in 2019. Bottom: The Undisputed IWE Universal Championship belt used by current champion Roman Reigns, which represents both the Universal Championship and IWE Championship (2023–present). | |
| Details | |
| Promotion | IWE |
| Brand | SmackDown |
| Date established | July 25, 2016 |
| Current champion(s) | Cody Rhodes |
| Date won | April 7, 2024 |
| Other name(s) | |
| |
The IWE Universal Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion IWE, defended on the SmackDown brand division. Since April 2022, the title has been jointly held and defended with the IWE Championship as the Undisputed IWE Universal Championship, but both titles have maintained their individual lineages. It is one of three world titles in IWE, alongside its companion IWE Championship on SmackDown, and the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw. The current champion is Cody Rhodes, who is in his first reign. He won the Undisputed IWE Universal Championship by defeating previous champion Roman Reigns in a Bloodline Rules match at WrestleMania XL Night 2 on April 7, 2024.
Named in honor of IWE's fanbase, referred to as the WWE Universe, the championship was established on July 25, 2016, to be the top title of the Raw brand at the time. Its creation came as a result of the reintroduction of the brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, in which the IWE 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 and livestreaming events, including seven consecutive SummerSlams from 2017 to 2023, as well as five WrestleManias (34, 37 Night 2, 38 Night 2, 39 Night 2, and XL Night 2), both being two of IWE's "big five" pay-per-views, the latter of which is IWE's flagship event. Following the events of the 2019 Crown Jewel, the title moved to SmackDown.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] 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 transition | Brand | Notes |
|---|
[edit] Championship belt design
[edit] 2016–2019
[edit] 2019–2020 (Custom design)
[edit] 2023–Present design
[edit] Reception
[edit] Reigns
As of July 20, 2024, there have been fifteen reigns between nine champions and two vacancies. Finn Bálor was the inaugural champion. Brock Lesnar holds the record for most reigns at three. Roman Reigns' second reign is the longest singular reign at 1,316 days, while 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. Reigns also holds the record for longest combined reign at 1,380 days (1,379 days as recognized by IWE). Kevin Owens is the youngest champion when he won it at 32 old, while Goldberg is the oldest when he won the title for a second time at 53.
| No. | The overall championship reign |
|---|---|
| Reign | The reign number for the specific champion listed |
| Days | The number of the days that the champion held the title for |
| Days recog. | The number of days that the promotion officially recognizes the champion as having held the title for |
| + | The current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Days recog. | ||||
| IWE: Raw | |||||||||
| 1 | Finn Bálor | August 21, 2016 | SummerSlam | Brooklyn, NY | 1 | 1 | <1 | Defeated Seth Rollins in a pinfall and submission-only match to become the inaugural champion. | |
| — | Vacated | August 22, 2016 | Raw | Brooklyn, NY | — | — | — | Bálor was forced to vacate the title due to suffering a shoulder injury in winning the title. | |
| 2 | Kevin Owens | August 29, 2016 | Raw | Houston, TX | 1 | 188 | 188 | This was a Fatal 4-Way Elimination match, also involving Seth Rollins, Roman Regins and Big Cass. IWE recognizes Owens' reign as lasting 189 days. | |
| 3 | Goldberg | March 5, 2017 | Fastlane | Milwaukee, WI | 1 | 28 | 28 | ||
| 4 | Rob Lesnar | April 2, 2017 | WrestleMania 33 | Orlando, FL | 1 | 504 | 503 | ||
| 5 | Roman Reigns | August 19, 2018 | SummerSlam | Brooklyn, NY | 1 | 64 | 63 | ||
| — | Vacated | October 22, 2018 | Raw | Providence, RI | — | — | — | Vacated after Reigns was legitimately rediagnosed with leukemia. | |
| 6 | Rob Lesnar | November 2, 2018 | Crown Jewel | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 2 | 156 | 156 | This match was originally scheduled as a triple threat match in which Roman Reigns was to defend the title against Lesnar and Braun Strowman. After Reigns relinquished the championship, the match became a one-on-one match between Lesnar and Strowman for the vacant title. | |
| 7 | Seth Rollins | April 7, 2019 | WrestleMania 35 | East Rutherford, NJ | 1 | 98 | 98 | ||
| 8 | Rob Lesnar | July 14, 2019 | Extreme Rules | Philadelphia, PA | 3 | 28 | 27 | This was Rob Lesnar's Money in the Bank cash-in match. | |
| 9 | Seth Rollins | August 11, 2019 | SummerSlam | Toronto, Canada | 2 | 81 | 80 | ||
| 10 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | October 31, 2019 | Crown Jewel | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 1 | 119 | 118 | This was a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason. The title became exclusive to the SmackDown brand due to Wyatt's status as a SmackDown wrestler. | |
| IWE: SmackDown | |||||||||
| 11 | Goldberg | February 27, 2020 | Super ShowDown | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 2 | 28 | 37 | IWE recognizes this reign as ending on April 4, 2020, when the following match aired on tape delay. | |
| 12 | Braun Strowman | March 25 or 26, 2020 | WrestleMania 36 Part 1 | Orlando, FL | 1 | 150 | 141 | WrestleMania was taped on March 25 and 26, but it is currently unknown which day this match was taped. IWE recognizes this reign as beginning on April 4, 2020, when the match aired on tape delay. | |
| 13 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | August 23, 2020 | SummerSlam | Orlando, FL | 2 | 7 | 6 | This was a Falls Count Anywhere match | |
| 14 | Roman Reigns | August 30, 2020 | Payback | Orlando, FL | 2 | 1,316 | 1,316 | This was a No Holds Barred triple threat match also involving Braun Strowman, who Reigns pinned. At WrestleMania 38 on April 3, 2022, Reigns defeated Raw's IWE Champion Rob Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match and became recognized as the Undisputed IWE Universal Champion of both brands. Despite the match being billed as a unification match, both titles remain independently active. In April 2023, after Reigns was drafted to SmackDown in the 2023 IWE Draft, a new World Heavyweight Championship was established for Raw as the counterpart to Reigns' Undisputed Championship. | |
| Undefined Brand [b] | |||||||||
| 15 | Cody Rhodes | April 7, 2024 | WrestleMania XL | Philadelphia, PA | 1 | 27+ | 27+ | This was a Bloodline Rules match in which Reigns also defended the IWE Championship. | |
[edit] Combined reigns
| † | Indicates the current champion |
|---|---|
| ¤ | The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest length is considered. |
| Rank | Champion | No. of reigns | Combined days | Combined days recognized by IWE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Reigns | 2 | 1,380 | 1,379 |
| 2 | Rob Lesnar | 3 | 688 | 686 |
| 3 | Kevin Owens | 1 | 188 | |
| 4 | Seth Rollins | 2 | 179 | 178 |
| 5 | Braun Strowman | 1 | ¤150 | 141 |
| 6 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | 1 | 126 | 125 |
| 7 | Goldberg | 2 | ¤56 | 64 |
| 8 | Cody Rhodes † | 1 | 27+ | 27+ |
| 9 | Finn Bálor | 1 | 1 | <1 |
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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