world heavyweight championship

The World Heavyweight Championship, informally known as "The Big Gold Belt", is the highest ranked championship on the RAW brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. Its lineage can not be traced back to the original NWA World Heavyweight Championship, though it can be traced back to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship lineage that began in 1991 with (then) champion Ric Flair. Now it is known simply as the World Heavyweight Championship without any promotional abbreviation preceding it.

History and trivia

It has been defended in WCW and WWE, with only the NWA World Heavyweight Championship being the only major title being able to make that claim. The only other World title of that stature to appear in as many promotions is the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, and while defended in ECW it was only recognized in WCW (champion Mike Awesome attacked Kevin Nash) and WWE (champion Tazz faced WWF Champion Triple H) without defenses.

Since it's re-debut, the youngest champion was Randy Orton at the age of 24.
The oldest champion was Shawn Michaels at 37.
The longest reign was by Triple H at under nine months.
The shortest reign was by Randy Orton at twenty-seven days.
The only text on the belt (Excluding the name of the current holder) is "World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion"

Naming lineage

WCW World Heavyweight Championship - 1991 (champion: Ric Flair) - March 2001 (champion: Booker T)
WCW Championship - June 2001 (champion: Booker T) - November 2001 (champion: The Rock)
World Championship - November 2001 (champion: The Rock) - December 2001 (champion: Chris Jericho)
unified with the WWE Championship - December 2001 (champion: Chris Jericho) - April 2002 (champion: Triple H)
replaced by the WWE Undisputed Championship - April 2002 (champion: Triple H) - September 2002 the title belt of both championships was replaced with one single belt (champion: Triple H)
World Heavyweight Championship - September 2002 (champion: Triple H)

Current champion

The current World Heavyweight Champion is Batista in his first reign. He defeated Triple H in the main event of WrestleMania 21 to win the title.