History Of WWE

The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship under auspices of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It operates some distinct championship brands, such as Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. The championship has moved between the three brands on various occasions, as a consequence of the WWE draft. The professional wrestling matches determining the reigns of WWE championship often have competitors involved in scripted rivalries. The article dwells at length on the origin and background of WWE championship. Read on to know how it began its exciting journey.

Buddy Rogers is credited with introducing the WWE championship in 1963, who also became the inaugural champion on April 29. However, the origin of the championship can be traced to certain events that began in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a company that sanctions professional wrestling championships. In 1963, Buddy Rogers held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (the world title of the NWA and its subsidiaries). He was defeated by Lou Thesz the next year, who snatched the championship title from him. During this time, Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), earlier a subsidiary to the NWA, held major control over NWA and its board of directors.

 

Subsequently, CWC broke away from the NWA to become World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). Thus, the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was established, heavily inspired from the NWA title.The first title was awarded to Buddy Rogers after he defeated Antonino Rocca in the finals at a made-up tournament, held in Rio De Janerio. The WWWF was rechristened as World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, after one again affiliating itself with the NWA. Later in 1983, the championship was again renamed as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, when the affiliation with NWA was decisively snapped. In the 1990s, it simply came to be known as WWF Championship.

 

A parallel world championship was also started by another subsidiary to the NWA, World Championship Wrestling (WCW). This soon led to a television ratings war between WWF Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. However, WCW was purchased by the WWF in 2001 following financial decline of the former. Both the championships were unified in the same year, in December. Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin and won the championship. Thus, the WWF became the undisputed championship in professional wrestling, with no prominent title to challenge its position.

 

The WWF divided its roster through two main television programs, Raw and SmackDown! by 2002. Each brand was assigned its own championship and figure heads. This was done because of a superfluity of contracted workers that doubled the size of WWF roster. In the same year the WWF was renamed as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the championship came to be known as WWE Undisputed Championship. However, it did not affiliate to any of the brands. The WWE Undisputed Championship returned to being the WWE Championship very soon, following some issues related to championship title with both its brands. The current WWE champion is Sheamus, who defeated John Cena on December 13, 2009 in San Antonio, Texas.