| World Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||||
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&sq=Google&lang=en&file=File:World_Heavyweight_Championship_WWE_2023.png) The World Heavyweight Championship belt with default side plates | |||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||
| Brand | Raw | ||||||||||||||||
| Date established | April 24, 2023 | ||||||||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Gunther | ||||||||||||||||
| Date won | August 3, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||
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The World Heavyweight Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of three men's world titles on WWE's main roster, along with the WWE Championship and WWE Universal Championship, which are jointly held and defended as the Undisputed WWE Championship on Smackdown. The current champion is Gunther, who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Damian Priest at SummerSlam on August 3, 2024.
The title's creation came as a result of Roman Reigns, who at the time jointly held both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. With the announcement of the 2023 WWE Draft, the World Heavyweight Championship was unveiled on the April 24, 2023, episode of Monday Night Raw and subsequently became exclusive to Raw after Reigns and the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship became exclusive to SmackDown. The inaugural World Heavyweight Champion was Seth "Freakin" Rollins.
The title is distinct from WWE's previous World Heavyweight Championship that was contested from 2002 until 2013 when it was unified into the WWE Championship. Although the two titles share the same name, they do not have a direct lineage.[1]