This article is about a list of wrestlers who have held the now-retired "World Heavyweight Championship". For a list of wrestlers who have held the current WWE Championship, see List of WWE Champions.
Four-time, youngest, and final champion Randy Orton
The World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It was established by WWE in 2002 after WWE bought out World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and split its roster into two brands, Raw and SmackDown!, in a brand extension.
WWE's original world title, the WWE Championship, with which the WCW World Heavyweight Championship had been unified in 2001, was designated to the SmackDown! brand; as a result the World Heavyweight Championship was established for the Raw brand. The World Heavyweight Championship is not a continuation of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but rather its indirect successor.
At the TLC pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, when WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion John Cena, the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship, resulting in the retiring of the former, and the renaming of the latter to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
The championship was contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes. The first champion was Triple H, who was awarded the title on September 2, 2002 by Eric Bischoff, then-General Manager of Raw, and he also holds the record for longest combined reign at 616 days. Overall, there have been 25 different official champions, with Edge having the most reigns at seven. The longest single reign was held by Batista, lasting 282 days. The final holder was Randy Orton, who was also the youngest champion at the age of 24 when he first won the championship. The Undertaker was the oldest champion when he won the title for the third time at the age of 44 years.
Title history[]
| Reign | The reign number for the specific champion |
|---|---|
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title was won |
| No. | Champion | Reign | Date | Days held | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Triple H | 1 | September 2, 2002 | 76 | Raw |
| 2 | Shawn Michaels | 1 | November 17, 2002 | 28 | Survivor Series |
| 3 | Triple H | 2 | December 15, 2002 | 280 | Armageddon |
| 4 | Goldberg | 1 | September 21, 2003 | 84 | Unforgiven |
| 5 | Triple H | 3 | December 14, 2003 | 91 | Armageddon |
| 6 | Chris Benoit | 1 | March 14, 2004 | 154 | WrestleMania XX |
| 7 | Randy Orton | 1 | August 15, 2004 | 28 | SummerSlam |
| 8 | Triple H | 4 | September 12, 2004 | 85 | Unforgiven |
| — | Vacated | — | December 6, 2004 | — | Raw |
| 9 | Triple H | 5 | January 9, 2005 | 84 | New Year's Revolution |
| 10 | Batista | 1 | April 3, 2005 | 282 | WrestleMania 21 |
| — | Vacated | — | January 10, 2006 | — | SmackDown! |
| 11 | Kurt Angle | 1 | January 10, 2006 | 82 | SmackDown! |
| 12 | Rey Mysterio | 1 | April 2, 2006 | 112 | WrestleMania 22 |
| 13 | King Booker | 1 | July 23, 2006 | 126 | The Great American Bash |
| 14 | Batista | 2 | November 26, 2006 | 126 | Survivor Series |
| 15 | The Undertaker | 1 | April 1, 2007 | 37 | WrestleMania 23 |
| 16 | Edge | 1 | May 8, 2007 | 70 | SmackDown! |
| — | Vacated | — | July 17, 2007 | — | SmackDown! |
| 17 | The Great Khali | 1 | July 17, 2007 | 61 | SmackDown! |
| 18 | Batista | 3 | September 16, 2007 | 91 | Unforgiven |
| 19 | Edge | 2 | December 16, 2007 | 105 | Armageddon |
| 20 | The Undertaker | 2 | March 30, 2008 | 30 | WrestleMania XXIV |
| — | Vacated | — | April 29, 2008 | — | SmackDown! |
| 21 | Edge | 3 | June 1, 2008 | 29 | One Night Stand |
| 22 | CM Punk | 1 | June 30, 2008 | 69 | Raw |
| 23 | Chris Jericho | 1 | September 7, 2008 | 49 | Unforgiven |
| 24 | Batista | 4 | October 26, 2008 | 8 | Cyber Sunday |
| 25 | Chris Jericho | 2 | November 3, 2008 | 20 | Raw |
| 26 | John Cena | 1 | November 23, 2008 | 84 | Survivor Series |
| 27 | Edge | 4 | February 15, 2009 | 49 | No Way Out |
| 28 | John Cena | 2 | April 5, 2009 | 21 | WrestleMania XXV |
| 29 | Edge | 5 | April 26, 2009 | 42 | Backlash |
| 30 | Jeff Hardy | 1 | June 7, 2009 | <1 | Extreme Rules |
| 31 | CM Punk | 2 | 49 | ||
| 32 | Jeff Hardy | 2 | July 26, 2009 | 28 | Night of Champions |
| 33 | CM Punk | 3 | August 23, 2009 | 42 | SummerSlam |
| 34 | The Undertaker | 3 | October 4, 2009 | 140 | Hell in a Cell |
| 35 | Chris Jericho | 3 | February 21, 2010 | 37 | Elimination Chamber |
| 36 | Jack Swagger | 1 | March 30, 2010 | 82 | SmackDown |
| 37 | Rey Mysterio | 2 | June 20, 2010 | 28 | Fatal 4-Way |
| 38 | Kane | 1 | July 18, 2010 | 154 | Money in the Bank |
| 39 | Edge | 6 | December 19, 2010 | 58 | TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs |
| — | Vacated | — | February 15, 2011 | — | SmackDown |
| 40 | Dolph Ziggler | 1 | February 15, 2011 | <1 | SmackDown |
| 41 | Edge | 7 | 76 | ||
| 42 | Christian | 1 | May 1, 2011 | 78 | Extreme Rules |
| 43 | Randy Orton | 2 | July 17, 2011 | 28 | Money in the Bank |
| 44 | Christian | 2 | August 14, 2011 | 98 | SummerSlam |
| 45 | Randy Orton | 3 | November 20, 2011 | 17 | Survivor Series |
| 46 | Mark Henry | 1 | December 6, 2011 | 13 | SmackDown |
| 47 | Big Show | 1 | December 18, 2011 | <1 | TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs |
| 48 | Daniel Bryan | 1 | 105 | ||
| 49 | Sheamus | 1 | April 1, 2012 | 210 | WrestleMania XXVIII |
| 50 | Big Show | 2 | October 28, 2012 | 72 | Hell in a Cell |
| 51 | Alberto Del Rio | 1 | January 8, 2013 | 90 | SmackDown |
| 52 | Dolph Ziggler | 2 | April 8, 2013 | 69 | Raw |
| 53 | Alberto Del Rio | 2 | June 16, 2013 | 133 | Payback |
| 54 | John Cena | 3 | October 27, 2013 | 49 | Hell in a Cell |
| 55 | Randy Orton | 4 | December 15, 2013 | <1 | TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs |
| — | Unified | — | December 15, 2013 | — | TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs |
Combined reigns[]
Inaugural and five-time champion Triple H
Record seven-time champion Edge
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Triple H | 5 | 616 |
| 2 | Batista | 4 | 507 |
| 3 | Edge | 7 | 429 |
| 4 | Alberto Del Rio | 2 | 223 |
| 5 | Sheamus | 1 | 210 |
| 6 | The Undertaker | 3 | 207 |
| 7 | Christian | 2 | 176 |
| 8 | CM Punk | 3 | 160 |
| 9 | John Cena | 3 | 154 |
| Chris Benoit | 1 | 154 | |
| Kane | 1 | 154 | |
| 12 | Rey Mysterio | 2 | 140 |
| 13 | King Booker | 1 | 126 |
| 14 | Chris Jericho | 3 | 106 |
| 15 | Daniel Bryan | 1 | 105 |
| 16 | Goldberg | 1 | 84 |
| 17 | Jack Swagger | 1 | 82 |
| Kurt Angle | 1 | 82 | |
| 19 | Randy Orton | 4 | 73 |
| 20 | Big Show | 2 | 72 |
| 21 | Dolph Ziggler | 2 | 69 |
| 22 | The Great Khali | 1 | 61 |
| 23 | Jeff Hardy | 2 | 28 |
| Shawn Michaels | 1 | 28 | |
| 25 | Mark Henry | 1 | 13 |