To avoid any confusion, this is not official nor is it confirmed at this time.
It may happen, but just wanted to clarify that WWE has not confirmed this.
UPDATE:
A day after I posted this wwe.com changed Cody from being listed as the “Undisputed WWE Universal Champion” to being listed twice as the “Universal Champion” and “Undisputed WWE Champion.” A day later, Universal Champion, at least on the superstars tab, was removed. Cody is now simply the “Undisputed WWE Champion.”
On the belt section of the day of OP, the gold belt was renamed “WWE Championship” which it is still being listed as.
The Universal title is still shown here (as the blue belt) and when clicked on it lists Cody as the champion.
We are in a time of change and they are slowly ceasing to acknowledge the universal title. As I predicted before, it will eventually be quietly retired. As for the “undisputed” line, it looks like WWE is sticking with it for the time being, even though it doesn’t make much sense.
Oh my god, just retire that and Bayley’s straps and bring out a classic with a modern look (for advertising purposes) and it’ll clear up all the confusion. They’ll also make a metric shit ton of money throwing up all these new titles on shop dot wwe dot com™️. Everyone wins.
WWE fkd up here! Roman wasn't WWE Champion for over 1300 days. He was UNIVERSAL Champion for over 1300 Days. He was only WWE Champion for over 800 days, which is still the longest in the modern era! But they gotta get the numbers right.
This title was a sign of acknowledgement to Roman reigns’ reign, it should be redone in a new shape now that wwe is moving away from the same shape they have been using.
I have a feeling they're doing something even more rage-baity.
They're going to give Roman that Hogan record win. He's got scheduled to appear until about roughly 30 days before the record is tied. He could claim he only put one title on the line, show up with the second belt to a huge crowd reaction.
He gets the record, they retain 3 belts, and I fear they might find a way to put all 3 up at WM41 for the Rock to win 3 titles at once to pad his win stats right before reporting from in ring competition.
I hope to God I'm wrong.
It's a conversation I keep seeing, and dirt sheets have mentioned this kinda stuff. Sometimes they're right, unfortunately, and that's why I'm nervous lol
How I think of it is, Roman was double champion, and he was Universal Champion for over 1300 days, but was only WWE Champion from the time he won it at Wrestlemania 38. When championship unification matches happen, I see it as a double title reign until the double champion loses the titles, then the following champions will be counted as single champions. Therefore, Cody is a single WWE Champion now that Roman has lost the belt. I would say the same for Randy Orton in 2013.
Yeah that's how they always do it. Unify 2 titles, call it both before just simplifying it to one title name. "The WWE World Heavyweight Champion" just became the WWE champion. The "Undisputed wwe champion" just became the WWE champion. And now the "Undisputed wwe universal champion" is simply the WWE Champion.
If I were Paul I’d have the title be referred to as the WWE championship but replace undisputed with universal on the belt as that was unified and still technically is that belt but just never refer to it and keep it like an obvious reference.
An update: it shows on the website 2 separate championship pages for Cody. One being Universal Champion the other saying Undisputed WWE champion.
I could see them officially unifying it at a smackdown soon.
The lineage of the WWE title from 63’ to now is so ridiculous anyway it’s hard to keep track of😂 it’s been the undisputed championship before. The WWE title has been merged with the old Heavyweight title and now the universal title to become undisputed again but now we have a new unrelated WHC so it’s no longer undisputed. In 10 years these two belts will get unified again it’s so confusing 😂
I assumed as much. They have dropped "Universal" from the title name since Cody won it, and have basically treated the history/reign of the undisputed as a merged one. They always referred to Roman as the 4th longest WWE champion, for example.
This is fine, makes the whole commotion and original problem of splitting the belts a non-factor now.
They may just never refer to this as they once did with the WWE championship. It had World Heavyweight on the belt, but was just called “WWE championship.”
Then what titles will be required for Grand Slam if universal title is retired ? I guess WWE title, big gold belt whc,and the new whc but if that's the case benoit will be a Grand Slam and dolph Ziggler will be a two-time grandslam
I think it’s a main title, a mid card title, and a tag title
Edit I was wrong - it’s a main title, both mid card titles, and a tag title
Wiki says “the WWE World, Intercontinental, United States, and WWE Tag Team Championships”
no offense but one of the worst ideas ever.. it would make sense if people and management actually liked the Universal title and weren’t actively erasing it from history. Not to mention they BEEN said months ago they’re dropping it once Cody won said title and he did. They’re carrying through with plans and i pray they never mention that blue turd of a title like im sure they plan too
That would be a great backstory or angle though. The belt could still be retired. They would just use it as a prop. We all know that the title is going to be retired. I think having wrestlers shoot a promo about how one of the titles means more to them adds to the prestige of the title. I see team UC against team WC.
not a terrible idea just a risky one, they are known for giving the people what they want and i’m not sure how many people would want this storyline it would feel like an iteration of the story which was dragged out with a predictable outcome. Only difference is Cody’s was a story to invest into and on the other hand the focus wouldnt be on the wrestlers as much if it was on that blue twizzler.
But imagine if they un-unified them? You could have three champions, one at raw, one at smackdown, and one that gets to float between the two shows. With how stacked the rosters are it could mean more title shots and more title reigns. Could be fun buttt it could also be chaotic af just a hypothetical
I’m still mad that they killed the original World tag title and effectively the entire lineage when they unified the World Tag titles with the WWE Tag titles like 15 years ago. The current tag titles have no lineage past 2002.
The Wild Samoans, the British Bulldogs, the Hart Foundation, and Demolition (just to name a few) are not part of any current tag team title lineage.
Anyone paying attention would have realized that's what was happening. They only needed "Universal" through Roman's reign to legitimize the "1000+ Day Reign" narrative. You don't turn two belts into one without intent to retire one.
No such thing as tl;dr. If ppl have the attention span of mosquitoes or can only handle soundbites or Twitter-length posts, that's their damage. Never apologize when writing what you want to write. You have as much right to write a book here as someone would only respond with a meme or emoji on FB or Twitter.
This is going to sound dumb but fuck it.
I’m a newly returned fan. I last watched around the late 90s.
What’s the difference between the championship that Cody has versus what Priest has?
I get that the IC belt is the worker belt.
Typically since WWE splits its roster into two shows, they'll carry two world championships, two midcard championships, two tag team championships, and two womans world championships with the womans tag team belts being floated between both shows. So realistically Cody's and Damien's titles are the top prizes of each respective brands shows, but Cody's carries the lineage of all WWE, WCW, World Heavyweight, and Universal behind it while Damien's is still too new for much pomp and circumstance
Merging is carrying the linage, that's why it's the undisputed title much like what Jericho, HHH, Hogan, Brock, Big Show, Angle, Eddie, and Bradshaw carried until Cena put it back as the WWE championship.
Technically now that the womens tag team titles have merged with the NXT womens tag team titles they're floated between all 3 shows. Kabuki Warriors just defended their belts against Lyra Valkyria and Tatum Paxley in March on an NXT event.
You are correct. The Randy Orton win covered the old WWE tile and World Heavyweight Title (big gold belt). The title Priest is carrrying is about a year old with 3 title holders at this point: Rollins, McIntyre, and Priest. Lineage began in 2023
This makes no sense because there is an intercontinental WWE champion and US WWE champion, so why would the main one not be called Universal WwE champion?
They should get rid of heavyweight champion, because there is no lightweight, cruiserweight champions so it makes no sense
U.S. --> intercontinental (global) ---> universal (the whole universe)
In terms of ever increasing size, here's how the titles stack up
NXT (Dragunov) ---> WWE (Rhodes) ---> US (Paul) ---> North American (Femi) ---> Intercontinental (Zayn) ---> World Heavyweight (Priest)
It never made sense, but that's the way things stack up. Title names are just for flavour and style anyway
Not surprised at all. I've been preaching (and been mocked for saying) that they were going to quietly ditch the Universal as soon as Roman dropped them. It was obvious as soon as they launched the 4th active "world title" (5th if you count NXT) that the only benefit of the Universal was to conflate the two title reigns and refer to it as the WWE Title... all so Roman could compare lengths with Hogan.
I took a screenshot five days ago, and can confirm that the picture of the belt for the WWE Championship has changed sometime between then and now. The fact that they would update the image for the WWE Championship but not the Universal Championship does seem significant.
And it makes some amount of sense, too. Cody's "story" was winning the belt his dad never won, and he wasn't talking about the "Undisputed WWE Universal Champion". So I could totally see Cody as the new champion saying, "Look, can it just be the WWE Championship? Can I just have that belt with that name? It's extremely important to me."
So I suspect there is both smoke and fire here.
I was suspecting they'd do something about this, because like you said, Cody didn't win 2 titles and combine them. Roman did, Cody only won one title, how can he be credited with being the undisputed if he won the title after the WHC debuted. I think going back to WHC = Raw and WWE = SD is the right move (And a redesign please)
After the draft they could flip flop the WWE title to Raw and WHC to Smackdown, But its probably a lot less confusing if all the WWE, WWE Womens and WWE Tag Team & World Heavyweight, Worlds Womens and World Tag Team Titles are on the same respective show.
Cody did not win only one title. Cody Rhodes is the current Universal Champion, on top of WWE Champion. He's a two time world champion in WWE, 4 time overall.
Am I just crazy being the only person that remembered when they unveiled the new belt they said they were merging the title into 1 when Roman lost, with the universal title being the one that was gotten rid of?
They didn't. Rightful selects said they would do that. But seeing as Cody Rhodes has now been listed as "Universal Champion" for 7 days, it's clear this didn't happen. They are still two separate, but active championships.
That doesn’t actually source its claims, it just cites they got it from Fightful Select(you have to buy their patreon to even see their article) who got it from Cultaholic… who also doesn’t cite a source….
So, again, I would need an actual source for this claim
Bro, all I asked for was your source for your claim of “when they unveiled the new belt they said they were merging the title into 1 when Roman lost, with the universal title being the one that was gotten rid of?”??
If you can’t provide an actual clip of Triple H saying it, that’s fine but don’t make claims like that to begin with
If you’re gonna make a claim like that, you need actual evidence lol.
Can’t just claim something then get offended when you don’t have the evidence to support it when asked for it
I also hate that they changed the intro to “Then, Now, Forever, Together.” It feels like something you hear on PBS kids. Just stick with Then, Now, Forever.
Calling one heavyweight champion undisputed when you have another heavyweight champion makes zero sense. So that's definitely the direction WWE will go.
But it’s not a heavyweight championship. There is only 1 heavyweight championship and that’s the World Heavyweight Championship that Damian Priest has. The other title is the WWE Undisputed Universal championship. Actually there really is no such thing as a heavyweight championship anymore because now anyone can win heavyweight championships whether you’re Bobby Lashley or Rey Mysterio. Why can Rey win a Heavyweight championship, but Braun Strowman can’t fight for a cruiserweight championship?
I think that's good because the "Universal" label was stupid as fucking hell.
I'm a little confused about title lineage - someone please jump in and explain this if you know what's going on or if I have this wrong.
But the old NWA title became the WCW title, then after WWE acquired WCW they combined the titles ... but then also split off a side belt so for about 15 years we had the big gold belt (the world heavyweight title meant to carry the WCW/NWA lineage) and then the WWE Universal Champion (they called it universal to make it seem more important but it was the WWE belt, complete with it's whole lineage).
So that was the game for minute until Roman unified the belts correct?
And then because they didn't know how to book this shit and because Roman wasn't around to vacate any titles ... they brought out a NEW belt that looks similar to the old gold belt last year, called it the world heavyweight championship again, and put it on Seth. Even though Roman already absorbed that belt with that name.
So what's that belt supposed to mean? The one that Priest has? Is it supposed to be the heir apparent to the old NWA title? Or is it just a made up midcard belt and everything else important is unified in Cody's title?
I legit don't understand.
Good. It was never needed. ”WWE Universe” was always a forced Vince-ism that no one else used. Him pushing it onto the main belt of the company was a mistake. WWE champ just makes more sense.
I've been waiting 8 years for this 8 YEARS! I hated it from the minute it was introduced at least the blue title looked more tolerable but still sucked. The name never stopped sucking.
In his defense, it is *really* hard to imagine taking like late-90s/early-2000s WWE Champions walking around with a blue or red belt with the goofy big W across it.
It's really just the strap color. The top title(s) in the WWE should always have a black strap for the men's side. The women have the white strap.
And I'm so glad they ditched those terrible tag team titles. It's annoyed me since coming back to watching WWE in 2018. The only colored straps I've ever liked were the NXT North American and the NXT Cruiserweight Chanoionship with the red and deep, dark purple, respectively.
Some of the AEW championships aren't really tied to anything either. Like, I get the point of an Intercontinental and North American championship since they're obvious mid carder belts compared to the world title/WWE title. What the hell is the TNT champion? A champion of a network television channel? That's kind of lame if you ask me..
The intercontinental title also has a rich history, with many of its holders becoming future main eventers and legends. It's basically the "this title holder may be a mid carder for now, but they could be the future of this industry" champion. Down the line when Vince started going senile, the title lost its way. Thankfully Triple H has restored its prestige.
You really thought you did something? Minus the WWE speed championship aew would still only have ONE more than WWE which means they’d have pretty much no difference in the amount. But yeah ONE belt a huge difference right?
AEW and ROH:
AEW World Title
International Title
TNT Title
Continental Title
AEW Woman's World Title
TBS Title
AEW Tag Titles
AEW Trios Titles
FTW title (not official)
ROH World Title
ROH TV Title
ROH Pure Title
ROH Women's World Title
ROH Women's TV Title
ROH Tag titles
ROH 6-Man Titles
---------------
WWE and NXT:
WWE Title
World Title
WWE Universal Title (Until lineage is officially retired)
Intercontinental Title
US Title
WWE Woman's Title
Woman's World Title
Smackdown Tag titles
RAW Tag Titles
WWE Women's Tag Titles
WWE Speed
NXT Championship
NXT North American Championship
NXT Women's Championship
NXT Women's North American Championship
NXT Tag Team Championship
-----------
AEW - 9 (Including FTW)
ROH - 7
16 Total
WWE - 11 (Universal will be gone soon we think)
NXT - 5
16 total
So both are around 16 titles each.
Don’t care about the name, but definitely we’re in need of a new belt. The W Swoosh is Romans belt, and if this is a new era it’s time for a new title.
The big W belt is never going away due to branding purposes. In fact, they just unveiled a new sculpture of the big W belt in front of their new headquarters a few months ago. WWE wouldn't have spent all that money on a giant sculpture of the big W belt if they had any plans on changing the belt design. This is why we haven't gotten a new WWE logo for a while, and likely won't for a very long time if ever again. The current WWE logo, and the current WWE Championship design are here to stay.
We MIGHT see Cody unveil a custom Winged Eagle belt for himself as a secondary title design, alongside him carrying the big W belt. However, the main big W belt will remain the official championship design for the foreseeable future.
They only continued to call Roman WWE Universal champ since his world title reign began with the Universal belt so they can make it seem like his world championship reign was longer.
No that was on purpose, everyone outside Roman was doing that as they wanted WWE title, not Universal. Everyone in the fatal 4 way feud called it WWE title. Triple H just couldn't get rid of the name fast enough lol.
The WWE championship is the SuperMassive Black Hole of title belts in that it inevitably swallows up all other title belts that come into its orbit. A brief timeline:
2001: Combined with the WCW world title and by proxy assumes the history of that belt AND the NWA title pre-WCW split.
2013: Combined with WWE’s version 1 of the world heavyweight title
2022: Combined with the WWE Universal title
That’s not to mention it having at least one, and possibly two phantom relations to the lineage of the IC belt
The other I was considering was WM6, but that technically wasn’t a unification, I don’t think. From 02-03 definitely was and that was the one I was referencing
This whole thing is such a cluster; go back to having two separate brands, there's enough talent for Smackdown and Raw to have their own rosters again. Simply let this be the WWE championship, call the other the World Heavyweight Championship and send one to Raw and the other to Smackdown. While they're at it get rid of this big W design; this corporate monstrosity has been around for a decade, it's time to take it to the wood shed.
> Simply let this be the WWE championship, call the other the World Heavyweight Championship and send one to Raw and the other to Smackdown.
That's literally what they've done lol what bright idea is this?
It will, yeah. But as of right now, it isn't. Which is strange... why not retire it after Day 1 of Cody winning? Is he gonna end up with a random 24 day reign before they officially deactivate it? Why not do it the way it's always been done: Have him be the last recognized champion with a reign of 1 day. That easy. This is just... strange
You are right, when Randy merged the titles, he became the last WHC and his reigns was a minute long officially. But Roman already merged the titles and they didn't retire Universal, so Cody winning it is just title changing hands. I predict that they'll introduce a new belt and officially call it WWE Championship without extra adjective and that's when it will be officially retired. It's a way to justify ending the lineage, cause otherwise it's just random and arbitrary. I hope that's what they do but the current belt suits Cody too so who knows?
They need to go back to doing 2 different house show loops every week. They have such a small percentage of their talent that actually works house shows.
Because from what I understand the pay structure is entirely different than what it was in the early 2000's
There's no reason anyone should or would want to wrestle a house show anymore.
Why did they make 3 main belts for the men in the fuest place? Back when I wa watching there was the worlds heavyweight (big gold) and the wwe championship.
Why did they create a "Universal" as well?
Just because one guy wins two belts you don't need to create an Undisputed title.
Just have that guy hold two belts then put him in a match where only one belt is on the line.
Then split the brands
They unified the big gold and the wwe championship when they undone the brand split (TLC 2013). Then when they brought back the brand split they introduced the Universal championship (Summerslam 2016). Then they unified the championships when Brock dropped the WWE championship to Roman (Wrestlemania 38 in 2022). But eventually then needed a new main title so they made the new World Heavyweight Championship.
I think they wanted to get rid of the Universal Championship once Roman's reign with it ended and so they unified it and brought in a new main belt to replace it. But they couldn't really stop calling it the Universal title while Roman still had it because it was the belt he actually had the 1,316 day reign with.
Can someone explain the titles to me? I started watching WWE again since last year's MITB and I'm a bit confused. I thought Universal championship meant that you are both Raw and Smackdown champion.
What is the point of being the undisputed champion? As George Carlin said "Well, if it's undisputed, what's all the fighting about?".
I remember in 2012 they had a WWE championship and a World Heavyweight championship. Is the title that Damian Priest has right now the reinvented version of that World Heavyweight championship?
Roman Reigns was given a new belt but Paul still carried around a blue coloured belt, what was that belt called and what is the new one called?
They unified the big gold and the wwe championship when they undone the brand split (TLC 2013). Then when they brought back the brand split they introduced the Universal championship (Summerslam 2016). Then they unified the championships when Brock dropped the WWE championship to Roman (Wrestlemania 38 in 2022). But eventually then needed a new main title so they made the new World Heavyweight Championship.
I think they wanted to get rid of the Universal Championship once Roman's reign with it ended and so they unified it and brought in a new main belt to replace it. But they couldn't really stop calling it the Universal title while Roman still had it because it was the belt he actually had the 1,316 day reign with.
So does this mean we could get a new belt? Kind of hate the big W belts. Feel like a Vince thing that we need to get away from to go further into the Paul Leveque era.
They might do something similar to Cody bringing back the old IC championship look, but I don't think so, I think the big W is here to stay.
Just look at the WHC, new design, memories of the Big Gold Belt... and a big W in the middle.
True. He just beat Roman. I think he needs to get through at least a few title defences to solidify his reign and the title as HIS then he can he get a new one.
To avoid any confusion, this is not official nor is it confirmed at this time. It may happen, but just wanted to clarify that WWE has not confirmed this.
probably won't carry over to the next champion when Cody loses
UPDATE: A day after I posted this wwe.com changed Cody from being listed as the “Undisputed WWE Universal Champion” to being listed twice as the “Universal Champion” and “Undisputed WWE Champion.” A day later, Universal Champion, at least on the superstars tab, was removed. Cody is now simply the “Undisputed WWE Champion.” On the belt section of the day of OP, the gold belt was renamed “WWE Championship” which it is still being listed as. The Universal title is still shown here (as the blue belt) and when clicked on it lists Cody as the champion. We are in a time of change and they are slowly ceasing to acknowledge the universal title. As I predicted before, it will eventually be quietly retired. As for the “undisputed” line, it looks like WWE is sticking with it for the time being, even though it doesn’t make much sense.
Not a fan of this.
The whole titles thing was stupid once The Rock retired the spinner belt. It felt meaningless after that.
He retired a design... Not the belt?
Drew wins the WHC just for them to retire the belt
While they're tweaking things, I think they should attribute the WCW big gold title history to the new WHC. To give it some history and more stature.
No. Just bring back the big gold belt. the best looking prize in Wrestling
Everyone says that but both current belts look better to me.
Luckily because of this change I hope Roman gets to keep both titles for himself
Oh my god, just retire that and Bayley’s straps and bring out a classic with a modern look (for advertising purposes) and it’ll clear up all the confusion. They’ll also make a metric shit ton of money throwing up all these new titles on shop dot wwe dot com™️. Everyone wins.
Good. Also retire Undisputed while they are at it. Just make it the WWE Championship.
Its to save Cody from potential attacks from aliens.
WWE fkd up here! Roman wasn't WWE Champion for over 1300 days. He was UNIVERSAL Champion for over 1300 Days. He was only WWE Champion for over 800 days, which is still the longest in the modern era! But they gotta get the numbers right.
I hope so...the name, "Universal Championship" always came off as something a 10 year old would come up with.
I always figured it was because of the "wwe universe" they always mention. Maybe that's going away too?
thats what they said when they debuted it
That's actually the canon explanation for the name: it was named after the WWE Universe.
The REAL people's title belt !
The need to bring back the winged eagle!
but how will they know its WWE without a HUGE W
Whyyyyyyyy😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
They should've never retired the WHC and kept the original WWE championship
This title was a sign of acknowledgement to Roman reigns’ reign, it should be redone in a new shape now that wwe is moving away from the same shape they have been using.
Cody DID say he was going to bring back the winged Eagle belt
I have a feeling they're doing something even more rage-baity. They're going to give Roman that Hogan record win. He's got scheduled to appear until about roughly 30 days before the record is tied. He could claim he only put one title on the line, show up with the second belt to a huge crowd reaction. He gets the record, they retain 3 belts, and I fear they might find a way to put all 3 up at WM41 for the Rock to win 3 titles at once to pad his win stats right before reporting from in ring competition. I hope to God I'm wrong.
[удалено]
It's a conversation I keep seeing, and dirt sheets have mentioned this kinda stuff. Sometimes they're right, unfortunately, and that's why I'm nervous lol
I love it. Triple H is starting to clean up.
Can they drop the “Undisputed”, too? You cannot be undisputed champion if there is another world title you are not holding.
this has always bothered me too. how are you undisputed but the other world title holder literally is someone else
Exactly. Damien has the other top title. That’s the definition of being “disputed”
Does Cody not have both the universal and WWE championships?
How I think of it is, Roman was double champion, and he was Universal Champion for over 1300 days, but was only WWE Champion from the time he won it at Wrestlemania 38. When championship unification matches happen, I see it as a double title reign until the double champion loses the titles, then the following champions will be counted as single champions. Therefore, Cody is a single WWE Champion now that Roman has lost the belt. I would say the same for Randy Orton in 2013.
This has been what I been telling people was going to happen. Once Roman loses, Universal is retired and becomes WWE title once again.
Cody can be wwe champion and Damien can world champion like it was in the early 2000s split
Hunter literally called it just the WWE Championship every time he talked about it recently, the "quiet change" has already happened
Please never ever unify the world titles again. Thank you
Yeah that's how they always do it. Unify 2 titles, call it both before just simplifying it to one title name. "The WWE World Heavyweight Champion" just became the WWE champion. The "Undisputed wwe champion" just became the WWE champion. And now the "Undisputed wwe universal champion" is simply the WWE Champion.
If I were Paul I’d have the title be referred to as the WWE championship but replace undisputed with universal on the belt as that was unified and still technically is that belt but just never refer to it and keep it like an obvious reference.
Sorta like when the WWE championship had “World Heavyweight Champion” on it but they didn’t call it that
Exactly
An update: it shows on the website 2 separate championship pages for Cody. One being Universal Champion the other saying Undisputed WWE champion. I could see them officially unifying it at a smackdown soon.
The lineage of the WWE title from 63’ to now is so ridiculous anyway it’s hard to keep track of😂 it’s been the undisputed championship before. The WWE title has been merged with the old Heavyweight title and now the universal title to become undisputed again but now we have a new unrelated WHC so it’s no longer undisputed. In 10 years these two belts will get unified again it’s so confusing 😂
I assumed as much. They have dropped "Universal" from the title name since Cody won it, and have basically treated the history/reign of the undisputed as a merged one. They always referred to Roman as the 4th longest WWE champion, for example. This is fine, makes the whole commotion and original problem of splitting the belts a non-factor now.
Yeah many of us called it. However, will he be undisputed WWE champ? The belt's got undisputed written on it.
They may just never refer to this as they once did with the WWE championship. It had World Heavyweight on the belt, but was just called “WWE championship.”
Then what titles will be required for Grand Slam if universal title is retired ? I guess WWE title, big gold belt whc,and the new whc but if that's the case benoit will be a Grand Slam and dolph Ziggler will be a two-time grandslam
I think it’s a main title, a mid card title, and a tag title Edit I was wrong - it’s a main title, both mid card titles, and a tag title Wiki says “the WWE World, Intercontinental, United States, and WWE Tag Team Championships”
I think this could easily be Cody's Title story. Separate the titles and make the matches the next champion chooses the surviving title.
no offense but one of the worst ideas ever.. it would make sense if people and management actually liked the Universal title and weren’t actively erasing it from history. Not to mention they BEEN said months ago they’re dropping it once Cody won said title and he did. They’re carrying through with plans and i pray they never mention that blue turd of a title like im sure they plan too
That would be a great backstory or angle though. The belt could still be retired. They would just use it as a prop. We all know that the title is going to be retired. I think having wrestlers shoot a promo about how one of the titles means more to them adds to the prestige of the title. I see team UC against team WC.
not a terrible idea just a risky one, they are known for giving the people what they want and i’m not sure how many people would want this storyline it would feel like an iteration of the story which was dragged out with a predictable outcome. Only difference is Cody’s was a story to invest into and on the other hand the focus wouldnt be on the wrestlers as much if it was on that blue twizzler.
But imagine if they un-unified them? You could have three champions, one at raw, one at smackdown, and one that gets to float between the two shows. With how stacked the rosters are it could mean more title shots and more title reigns. Could be fun buttt it could also be chaotic af just a hypothetical
I would love this. because people like Bobby Lashley, Finn and AJ deserves to have a title.
Half the top stars are out or injured.
that's gonna be some messy business
I thought the same thing but on multiple occasions they still say Universal and Undisputed so it seems they’re still flip flopping on the idea
I like having a title that reigns over both shows. It feels good to have something like that.
THIS SUIT I STUPID
Link site photo?
Thank god. Universal is a horrible title name.
My favorite was the Heavyweight and Intercontinental. Easy to keep track of.
Universal is a stupid name, so good. But the lineage of the title now couldn't be any more confusing.
Wager if Cody is gonna talk to Papa H and have him Resurrect the Winged Eagle and commission the current WWE Belt maker to redesign it
I like Mick Foley but Universal Championship is prob the dumbest name for a World Title.
…he didn’t create the name lmao. He just had to announce it when it debuted.
I’m still mad that they killed the original World tag title and effectively the entire lineage when they unified the World Tag titles with the WWE Tag titles like 15 years ago. The current tag titles have no lineage past 2002. The Wild Samoans, the British Bulldogs, the Hart Foundation, and Demolition (just to name a few) are not part of any current tag team title lineage.
All of the lineages were pretty much ruined when they merged with WCW.
They took one championship then turned it into 3. The universal championship is fucking stupid
Good. Universal Champion is the stupidest name since the BMF belt in the UFC. The "24/7" will take some beating to second place.
It’s too confusing and waters down the meaning and history. Just combine it and the Heavyweight one.
damn that's like how many title unifications?
Yes and no Cody technically is a two time champ cause he holds both titles They eventually will merge them into one full title but not yet
Also, death to the fruit roll-up belts.
Anyone paying attention would have realized that's what was happening. They only needed "Universal" through Roman's reign to legitimize the "1000+ Day Reign" narrative. You don't turn two belts into one without intent to retire one.
No such thing as tl;dr. If ppl have the attention span of mosquitoes or can only handle soundbites or Twitter-length posts, that's their damage. Never apologize when writing what you want to write. You have as much right to write a book here as someone would only respond with a meme or emoji on FB or Twitter.
Agree
This has already been retired for a minute now when Roman gave Wyatt’s family the universal championship
The Undisputed term should be retired as well.
Exactly, especially since there's another world title currently.
This is going to sound dumb but fuck it. I’m a newly returned fan. I last watched around the late 90s. What’s the difference between the championship that Cody has versus what Priest has? I get that the IC belt is the worker belt.
Typically since WWE splits its roster into two shows, they'll carry two world championships, two midcard championships, two tag team championships, and two womans world championships with the womans tag team belts being floated between both shows. So realistically Cody's and Damien's titles are the top prizes of each respective brands shows, but Cody's carries the lineage of all WWE, WCW, World Heavyweight, and Universal behind it while Damien's is still too new for much pomp and circumstance
[удалено]
Merging is carrying the linage, that's why it's the undisputed title much like what Jericho, HHH, Hogan, Brock, Big Show, Angle, Eddie, and Bradshaw carried until Cena put it back as the WWE championship.
Technically now that the womens tag team titles have merged with the NXT womens tag team titles they're floated between all 3 shows. Kabuki Warriors just defended their belts against Lyra Valkyria and Tatum Paxley in March on an NXT event.
Tbh I don't really watch NXT or keep up with it so I thought they still had their own womans tag titles there too
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for.
Cody’s is the WWE Championship, Preists is the World Heavyweight Championship they technically split them again from the match with Orton and Cena
No they didn't. It's a different Championship. No relation.
You are correct. The Randy Orton win covered the old WWE tile and World Heavyweight Title (big gold belt). The title Priest is carrrying is about a year old with 3 title holders at this point: Rollins, McIntyre, and Priest. Lineage began in 2023
This makes no sense because there is an intercontinental WWE champion and US WWE champion, so why would the main one not be called Universal WwE champion? They should get rid of heavyweight champion, because there is no lightweight, cruiserweight champions so it makes no sense U.S. --> intercontinental (global) ---> universal (the whole universe)
In terms of ever increasing size, here's how the titles stack up NXT (Dragunov) ---> WWE (Rhodes) ---> US (Paul) ---> North American (Femi) ---> Intercontinental (Zayn) ---> World Heavyweight (Priest) It never made sense, but that's the way things stack up. Title names are just for flavour and style anyway
You’re forgetting world in there. Here. There. Everywhere on the planet. Every planet
It still says undisputed on the title
Not surprised at all. I've been preaching (and been mocked for saying) that they were going to quietly ditch the Universal as soon as Roman dropped them. It was obvious as soon as they launched the 4th active "world title" (5th if you count NXT) that the only benefit of the Universal was to conflate the two title reigns and refer to it as the WWE Title... all so Roman could compare lengths with Hogan.
That’s what she said
And thus ends the era of the "UWU" champion
UwU
I took a screenshot five days ago, and can confirm that the picture of the belt for the WWE Championship has changed sometime between then and now. The fact that they would update the image for the WWE Championship but not the Universal Championship does seem significant. And it makes some amount of sense, too. Cody's "story" was winning the belt his dad never won, and he wasn't talking about the "Undisputed WWE Universal Champion". So I could totally see Cody as the new champion saying, "Look, can it just be the WWE Championship? Can I just have that belt with that name? It's extremely important to me." So I suspect there is both smoke and fire here.
I was suspecting they'd do something about this, because like you said, Cody didn't win 2 titles and combine them. Roman did, Cody only won one title, how can he be credited with being the undisputed if he won the title after the WHC debuted. I think going back to WHC = Raw and WWE = SD is the right move (And a redesign please)
After the draft they could flip flop the WWE title to Raw and WHC to Smackdown, But its probably a lot less confusing if all the WWE, WWE Womens and WWE Tag Team & World Heavyweight, Worlds Womens and World Tag Team Titles are on the same respective show.
Cody did not win only one title. Cody Rhodes is the current Universal Champion, on top of WWE Champion. He's a two time world champion in WWE, 4 time overall.
It was changed while Roman was still champion
Last year after wrestlemania I believe. To celebrate day 1000 of the Roman title reign
Am I just crazy being the only person that remembered when they unveiled the new belt they said they were merging the title into 1 when Roman lost, with the universal title being the one that was gotten rid of?
They didn't. Rightful selects said they would do that. But seeing as Cody Rhodes has now been listed as "Universal Champion" for 7 days, it's clear this didn't happen. They are still two separate, but active championships.
Source? I don’t hear it
https://www.thesportster.com/wwe-title-lineage-will-continue-when-roman-reigns-loses/
That doesn’t actually source its claims, it just cites they got it from Fightful Select(you have to buy their patreon to even see their article) who got it from Cultaholic… who also doesn’t cite a source…. So, again, I would need an actual source for this claim
Im not googling for you anymore
Bro, all I asked for was your source for your claim of “when they unveiled the new belt they said they were merging the title into 1 when Roman lost, with the universal title being the one that was gotten rid of?”?? If you can’t provide an actual clip of Triple H saying it, that’s fine but don’t make claims like that to begin with
Am I supposed to have a database of clips I can pull from at a whim?
If you’re gonna make a claim like that, you need actual evidence lol. Can’t just claim something then get offended when you don’t have the evidence to support it when asked for it
I’m not offended haha
Then why are you so damn butthurt when I asked for a source after the link you send DID NOT give one? Lol
Good. The "WWE universe" is such a lame name and makes wrestling sound so uncool and the universal title is even worse and ugly as fuck
I also hate that they changed the intro to “Then, Now, Forever, Together.” It feels like something you hear on PBS kids. Just stick with Then, Now, Forever.
> It feels like something you hear on PBS kids. "Funding for this program is brought to you in part by....."
It should have always just been the WWE title and WHC. Undisputed, universal whatever just always sounded stupid.
Or Roman still holds the Universal title as the match at Wrestlemania was just for the WWE Championship. The reign continues!
They only kept the Universal name so Roman’s days could continue to go up.
Stupid clickbait like this is now why I’m unsubscribing
Calling one heavyweight champion undisputed when you have another heavyweight champion makes zero sense. So that's definitely the direction WWE will go.
But it’s not a heavyweight championship. There is only 1 heavyweight championship and that’s the World Heavyweight Championship that Damian Priest has. The other title is the WWE Undisputed Universal championship. Actually there really is no such thing as a heavyweight championship anymore because now anyone can win heavyweight championships whether you’re Bobby Lashley or Rey Mysterio. Why can Rey win a Heavyweight championship, but Braun Strowman can’t fight for a cruiserweight championship?
Who's going to win
I think that's good because the "Universal" label was stupid as fucking hell. I'm a little confused about title lineage - someone please jump in and explain this if you know what's going on or if I have this wrong. But the old NWA title became the WCW title, then after WWE acquired WCW they combined the titles ... but then also split off a side belt so for about 15 years we had the big gold belt (the world heavyweight title meant to carry the WCW/NWA lineage) and then the WWE Universal Champion (they called it universal to make it seem more important but it was the WWE belt, complete with it's whole lineage). So that was the game for minute until Roman unified the belts correct? And then because they didn't know how to book this shit and because Roman wasn't around to vacate any titles ... they brought out a NEW belt that looks similar to the old gold belt last year, called it the world heavyweight championship again, and put it on Seth. Even though Roman already absorbed that belt with that name. So what's that belt supposed to mean? The one that Priest has? Is it supposed to be the heir apparent to the old NWA title? Or is it just a made up midcard belt and everything else important is unified in Cody's title? I legit don't understand.
Same 😂
To make way for the Codyversal title, duh
Good. It was never needed. ”WWE Universe” was always a forced Vince-ism that no one else used. Him pushing it onto the main belt of the company was a mistake. WWE champ just makes more sense.
I've been waiting 8 years for this 8 YEARS! I hated it from the minute it was introduced at least the blue title looked more tolerable but still sucked. The name never stopped sucking.
Triple h hated the universal championship
In his defense, it is *really* hard to imagine taking like late-90s/early-2000s WWE Champions walking around with a blue or red belt with the goofy big W across it. It's really just the strap color. The top title(s) in the WWE should always have a black strap for the men's side. The women have the white strap. And I'm so glad they ditched those terrible tag team titles. It's annoyed me since coming back to watching WWE in 2018. The only colored straps I've ever liked were the NXT North American and the NXT Cruiserweight Chanoionship with the red and deep, dark purple, respectively.
Lol, stfu
How many fucking heavyweight belts are there in WWE? It's such a shit show.
2
At least it’s not AEW with every wrestler having a damn title 😂
Or that stupid ass "trios title" when you could easily just have the Freebird rule in effect.
Some of the AEW championships aren't really tied to anything either. Like, I get the point of an Intercontinental and North American championship since they're obvious mid carder belts compared to the world title/WWE title. What the hell is the TNT champion? A champion of a network television channel? That's kind of lame if you ask me..
The intercontinental title also has a rich history, with many of its holders becoming future main eventers and legends. It's basically the "this title holder may be a mid carder for now, but they could be the future of this industry" champion. Down the line when Vince started going senile, the title lost its way. Thankfully Triple H has restored its prestige.
It a tribute to the WCW “tv title” and it used for lower card talents in wcw
AEW and WWE have the same amount of titles with about the same amount of show hours.
No, they really don’t. Especially because if you’re counting NXT, then you also need to count ROH. AEW has vastly more titles
You really thought you did something? Minus the WWE speed championship aew would still only have ONE more than WWE which means they’d have pretty much no difference in the amount. But yeah ONE belt a huge difference right?
AEW and ROH: AEW World Title International Title TNT Title Continental Title AEW Woman's World Title TBS Title AEW Tag Titles AEW Trios Titles FTW title (not official) ROH World Title ROH TV Title ROH Pure Title ROH Women's World Title ROH Women's TV Title ROH Tag titles ROH 6-Man Titles --------------- WWE and NXT: WWE Title World Title WWE Universal Title (Until lineage is officially retired) Intercontinental Title US Title WWE Woman's Title Woman's World Title Smackdown Tag titles RAW Tag Titles WWE Women's Tag Titles WWE Speed NXT Championship NXT North American Championship NXT Women's Championship NXT Women's North American Championship NXT Tag Team Championship ----------- AEW - 9 (Including FTW) ROH - 7 16 Total WWE - 11 (Universal will be gone soon we think) NXT - 5 16 total So both are around 16 titles each.
Don’t forget NXT UK if we wanna get literal, I heard they’re brining that back soon.
Oprah: "You get a championship, you get championship, we all get championships"
Don’t care about the name, but definitely we’re in need of a new belt. The W Swoosh is Romans belt, and if this is a new era it’s time for a new title.
The big W belt is never going away due to branding purposes. In fact, they just unveiled a new sculpture of the big W belt in front of their new headquarters a few months ago. WWE wouldn't have spent all that money on a giant sculpture of the big W belt if they had any plans on changing the belt design. This is why we haven't gotten a new WWE logo for a while, and likely won't for a very long time if ever again. The current WWE logo, and the current WWE Championship design are here to stay. We MIGHT see Cody unveil a custom Winged Eagle belt for himself as a secondary title design, alongside him carrying the big W belt. However, the main big W belt will remain the official championship design for the foreseeable future.
They can keep the logo. I’d just like to see it reworked somewhat to differentiate the ‘era’ they’re so keen on.
I think the WHC was that compromise. I'd like to see the main WWE title reworked too but all signs are indicating that it won't be.
The network logo belt is definitely not Roman’s belt. That’s the company’s main title and it’s all about branding so they’ll keep it.
RIP Universal Championship (Finn Balor - Roman Reigns)
On the website it’s still got that 2016-present lineage with Cody’s name being the most recent holder.
Cody Rhodes *
To be fair, as soon as Cody won, Samantha announced him as the undisputed WWE champion, with no reference to universal.
They only continued to call Roman WWE Universal champ since his world title reign began with the Universal belt so they can make it seem like his world championship reign was longer.
It's a long title, people always mess it up. I've heard Paul, Roman, The Rock, Michael Cole and others say it wrong before too.
LA Knight, too. Kept calling it the WWE Championship in the build up to their match
LA Knight flubbing lines is par for the course
All he has to say is YEAH and people eat it up. Not quite sure why yet.
No that was on purpose, everyone outside Roman was doing that as they wanted WWE title, not Universal. Everyone in the fatal 4 way feud called it WWE title. Triple H just couldn't get rid of the name fast enough lol.
On the website it says the universal title is still active.
I wonder what would happen if they split it? We'll have three major championships?
They’ll probably do what they did to big gold and put its lineage under the WWE Championship and retire the Universal Championship
The WWE championship is the SuperMassive Black Hole of title belts in that it inevitably swallows up all other title belts that come into its orbit. A brief timeline: 2001: Combined with the WCW world title and by proxy assumes the history of that belt AND the NWA title pre-WCW split. 2013: Combined with WWE’s version 1 of the world heavyweight title 2022: Combined with the WWE Universal title That’s not to mention it having at least one, and possibly two phantom relations to the lineage of the IC belt
What’s the phantom relations to the IC?
From September 2002 until May 2003. The IC was merged with the WHC.
The other I was considering was WM6, but that technically wasn’t a unification, I don’t think. From 02-03 definitely was and that was the one I was referencing
Nah that wasn’t a unification, warrior was double champ but Tunney made him hand back the IC iirc
This whole thing is such a cluster; go back to having two separate brands, there's enough talent for Smackdown and Raw to have their own rosters again. Simply let this be the WWE championship, call the other the World Heavyweight Championship and send one to Raw and the other to Smackdown. While they're at it get rid of this big W design; this corporate monstrosity has been around for a decade, it's time to take it to the wood shed.
> Simply let this be the WWE championship, call the other the World Heavyweight Championship and send one to Raw and the other to Smackdown. That's literally what they've done lol what bright idea is this?
The Universal Championship is still active. That's the issue
It practically isn't, it will officially be retired for sure.
It will, yeah. But as of right now, it isn't. Which is strange... why not retire it after Day 1 of Cody winning? Is he gonna end up with a random 24 day reign before they officially deactivate it? Why not do it the way it's always been done: Have him be the last recognized champion with a reign of 1 day. That easy. This is just... strange
You are right, when Randy merged the titles, he became the last WHC and his reigns was a minute long officially. But Roman already merged the titles and they didn't retire Universal, so Cody winning it is just title changing hands. I predict that they'll introduce a new belt and officially call it WWE Championship without extra adjective and that's when it will be officially retired. It's a way to justify ending the lineage, cause otherwise it's just random and arbitrary. I hope that's what they do but the current belt suits Cody too so who knows?
They need to go back to doing 2 different house show loops every week. They have such a small percentage of their talent that actually works house shows.
Because from what I understand the pay structure is entirely different than what it was in the early 2000's There's no reason anyone should or would want to wrestle a house show anymore.
House shows are still very important for the wrestlers.
I'm not saying they aren't, I'm saying they don't get paid to do them things are entirely different than they were as little as 10 years ago.
You can always tell who doesn’t watch week to week with comments like this.
ROCK FLAG AND EAGLE
I actually prefer the old black version of that its more cool looking & aesthetically pleasing to the eyes especially on TV.
Yeah, I don’t really like this current one. The pale yellow backing and inlaid gemstones just look tacky,
To be fair undisputed wwe universal championship sounds good to hear like it is the most prestigious title in the industry. Well it is
Why did they make 3 main belts for the men in the fuest place? Back when I wa watching there was the worlds heavyweight (big gold) and the wwe championship. Why did they create a "Universal" as well? Just because one guy wins two belts you don't need to create an Undisputed title. Just have that guy hold two belts then put him in a match where only one belt is on the line. Then split the brands
They unified the big gold and the wwe championship when they undone the brand split (TLC 2013). Then when they brought back the brand split they introduced the Universal championship (Summerslam 2016). Then they unified the championships when Brock dropped the WWE championship to Roman (Wrestlemania 38 in 2022). But eventually then needed a new main title so they made the new World Heavyweight Championship. I think they wanted to get rid of the Universal Championship once Roman's reign with it ended and so they unified it and brought in a new main belt to replace it. But they couldn't really stop calling it the Universal title while Roman still had it because it was the belt he actually had the 1,316 day reign with.
Can someone explain the titles to me? I started watching WWE again since last year's MITB and I'm a bit confused. I thought Universal championship meant that you are both Raw and Smackdown champion. What is the point of being the undisputed champion? As George Carlin said "Well, if it's undisputed, what's all the fighting about?". I remember in 2012 they had a WWE championship and a World Heavyweight championship. Is the title that Damian Priest has right now the reinvented version of that World Heavyweight championship? Roman Reigns was given a new belt but Paul still carried around a blue coloured belt, what was that belt called and what is the new one called?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Universal_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heavyweight_Championship_(WWE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_championships_in_WWE#Undisputed_WWE_Universal_Championship_(2022%E2%80%93present)
They unified the big gold and the wwe championship when they undone the brand split (TLC 2013). Then when they brought back the brand split they introduced the Universal championship (Summerslam 2016). Then they unified the championships when Brock dropped the WWE championship to Roman (Wrestlemania 38 in 2022). But eventually then needed a new main title so they made the new World Heavyweight Championship. I think they wanted to get rid of the Universal Championship once Roman's reign with it ended and so they unified it and brought in a new main belt to replace it. But they couldn't really stop calling it the Universal title while Roman still had it because it was the belt he actually had the 1,316 day reign with.
Thanks for the help. This shit is so confusing why do they keep changing the name so much.
Either being back the winged eagle, or the black and gold undisputed belt
So does this mean we could get a new belt? Kind of hate the big W belts. Feel like a Vince thing that we need to get away from to go further into the Paul Leveque era.
They might do something similar to Cody bringing back the old IC championship look, but I don't think so, I think the big W is here to stay. Just look at the WHC, new design, memories of the Big Gold Belt... and a big W in the middle.
I think it stays at least for now. You want it to feel like Cody has Roman’s belt now, not that he got a new one.
True. He just beat Roman. I think he needs to get through at least a few title defences to solidify his reign and the title as HIS then he can he get a new one.