WCW World Heavyweight Championship

Lore & Background

Following the acquisition of WCW by the WWF in March 2001, it became one of two world titles in the WWF, and was the second world championship utilized by the company, after their original title, the WWF Championship. Upon its acquisition, its name was immediately abbreviated to the WCW Championship and finally, the World Championship in November. It continued to complement the WWF Championship until the following month, when both titles were unified to create the Undisputed WWF Championship on December 9, 2001, at Vengeance; the undisputed title followed the lineage of the WWF Championship while the WCW title was immediately retired. Ric Flair was the first holder of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, with Chris Jericho being the last. The title was the second to be represented by the historic Big Gold Belt, first introduced in 1986.

Reader's Guide

The championship was established on January 11, 1991, when Ric Flair defeated Sting to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and was recognized as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. The new championship was not initially represented by its own title belt, and WCW continued to use the NWA World Heavyweight Championship title belt. On July 1, 1991, creative disagreements and a contractual dispute between Ric Flair and WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd led to Flair's WCW contract being terminated, the WCW World title being vacated, and Flair subsequently signing with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation. A new WCW World Heavyweight title belt was ordered, but was not ready in time for The Great American Bash on July 14. WCW was forced to use a belt owned by Dusty Rhodes from the defunct Professional Wrestling Federation in Florida with a gold-colored plate tacked on with the words 'WCW World Heavyweight Champion', which was awarded to Lex Luger after he defeated Barry Windham in a cage match for the vacant championship. The new belt appeared shortly after the event. In September 1993, WCW left the NWA for good over a dispute regarding the other NWA members demanding that NWA world champion be available for booking, and due to the use of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on syndicated programming recorded months in advance. After leaving the NWA, WCW kept the Big Gold Belt, and it was renamed the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. At Starrcade in December 1993, Flair won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, by defeating Vader. WCW decided to unify the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (represented by the new belt) and International Championship (represented by the 'Big Gold Belt'), by having Flair wrestle Sting in June 1994. Flair won and unified the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. The unified championship retained the lineage of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, while the International Championship was retired. The belt design used from mid-1991 to mid-1994 to represent the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was dropped in favor of keeping the 'Big Gold Belt', which had originally represented the title when it was established in January 1991.

Did You Know?

• The longest reigning champion was Hulk Hogan during his first reign, who held the title from July 17, 1994, to October 29, 1995, for a total of 469 days.
• In 2000, the championship changed hands 25 times and was vacated five times, with no reign lasting longer than 76 days.
• Actor David Arquette and head writer Vince Russo both held the title in 2000, despite not being actual wrestlers at the time.