WWE Universal Championship

WWE Universal Championship
Two-time and longest reining champion Roman Reigns with the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship belt that represents both the Universal and WWE Championships (2023–present).
Details
Promotion	WWE
Brand	SmackDown
Date established	July 25, 2016
Current champion(s)	Cody Rhodes
Date won	April 7, 2024
Other name(s)
WWE Universal Championship (2016–present) Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (2022–present)
Statistics First champion(s) Finn Bálor Most reigns Brock Lesnar (3 reigns) Longest reign Roman Reigns (2nd reign, 1,316 days) Shortest reign Finn Bálor (22 hours) Oldest winner Goldberg (53 years, 62 days) Youngest winner Kevin Owens (32 years, 114 days) Heaviest champion Braun Strowman (385 lb (175 kg)) Lightest champion Finn Bálor (190 lb (86 kg))

The WWE Universal Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in WWE for the men of the SmackDown brand. It is one of three world championships in WWE, along with the WWE Championship (with which it is currently defended together as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship) and the World Heavyweight Championship from the Raw brand. The current champion is Cody Rhodes, who is in his first reign. He beat Roman Reigns in a Bloodline rules match on April 7, 2024 at night two of WrestleMania XL. Reigns had held the title for more than one thousand days.

History

Creation

With the return of the WWE Brand Extension in the middle of 2016, a draft took place in July 19. The WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown. And as a result, Raw was left without a world title. On the July 25, 2016 episode of Raw, Stephanie McMahon and the general manager Mick Foley created the WWE Universal Championship to be the world title of the program. The first champion was determined at SummerSlam on August 21, 2016. Finn Bálor beat Seth Rollins to win the title.

Undisputed WWE Universal Championship

At WrestleMania 38 Night 2 on April 3, 2022, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match to win both championships and become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. WWE called the match a championship unification match; however, both titles's histories are still seperately active with Reigns being a double champion, defending both titles together across both brands as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. On the April 24, 2023, episode of Raw, WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H announced that regardless of what brand Reigns was drafted to in the 2023 WWE Draft, he and his undisputed championship would become exclusive to that brand. Triple H then prsented a new World Heavyweight Championship for the other brand, which was won by Seth "Freakin" Rollins at Night of Champions. Reigns was drafted to SmackDown and the World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to Raw. On the June 2, 2023, episode of SmackDown, Triple H gave Reigns with a new singular championship belt to represent the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Despite this, Reigns' manager Paul Heyman continued to carry the old WWE and Universal Championship belts until the end of July.

Title history

Reigns

Reign	The reign number for the specific champion listed
Location	The city in which the title was won
Event	The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title was won
+	Indicates the current reign is changing daily

No.	Wrestler	Reign	Date	Days held	Location	Event	Notes
1	Finn Bálor	1	August 21, 2016	<1	New York, NY	SummerSlam	Beat Seth Rollins in a pinfall and submission-only match to become the first champion.
—	Vacated	—	August 22, 2016	—	New York, NY	Raw	Vacated after Finn Bálor got a shoulder injury during the match at SummerSlam.
2	Kevin Owens	1	August 29, 2016	188	Houston, TX	Raw	This was a four-way elimination match, also involving Big Cass, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.
3	Goldberg	1	March 5, 2017	28	Milwaukee, WI	Fastlane
4	Brock Lesnar	1	April 2, 2017	504	Orlando, FL	WrestleMania 33
5	Roman Reigns	1	August 19, 2018	64	Brooklyn, NY	SummerSlam
—	Vacated	—	October 22, 2018	—	Providence, RI	Raw	Vacated after Roman Reigns got leukemia.
6	Brock Lesnar	2	November 2, 2018	156	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia	Crown Jewel	Beat Braun Strowman to win the vacant title.
7	Seth Rollins	1	April 7, 2019	98	East Rutherford, NJ	WrestleMania 35
8	Brock Lesnar	3	July 14, 2019	28	Pittsburgh, PA	Extreme Rules	Cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Seth Rollins
9	Seth Rollins	2	August 11, 2019	80	Toronto, Canada	SummerSlam
10	The Fiend (Bray Wyatt)	1	October 31, 2019	118	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia	Crown Jewel	This was a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason. The title became exclusive to the SmackDown brand because of Wyatt's status as a SmackDown wrestler.
11	Goldberg	2	February 27, 2020	37		Super Show-Down
12	Braun Strowman	1	April 3, 2020	141	Orlando, FL	WrestleMania 36
13	The Fiend (Bray Wyatt)	2	August 23rd, 2020	6		SummerSlam
14	Roman Reigns	2	August 30, 2020	1,316		Payback	This was a triple threat match, also involving Braun Strowman. This is the fifth-longest world championship reign in WWE history, and the longest reign for any WWE championship since 1988.
15	Cody Rhodes	1	April 7, 2024	9	Philadelphia, PA	WrestleMania XL Night 2	This was a Bloodline Rules match.

Combined reigns

Record three-time champion Brock Lesnar with the first design of the belt (2016-2019)

As of April 16, 2024.

†	Indicates the current champion

†	Indicates the current champion
¤	The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest length is considered.
<1	Reign was less than a day

Rank	Wrestler	No. of reigns	Combined days	Combined days rec. by WWE
1	Roman Reigns	2	1,380	1,379
2	Brock Lesnar	3	688	686
3	Kevin Owens	1	188	188
4	Seth Rollins	2	179	178
5	Braun Strowman	1	¤150	141
6	"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt	2	126	124
7	Goldberg	2	¤55	64
8	Cody Rhodes †	1	9+	8+
9	Finn Bálor	1	1	<1

Other websites

• "Official WWE Universal Championship Title History".
• "Wrestling-Titles.com: WWE Universal Championship".