WWE World Heavyweight Championship and title counts

[oldschool123]

Sorry if this has been discussed before but how does the unification of the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship affect title counts?

To give a specific example would you consider Daniel Bryan a two time WWE Champion, a one time World Heavyweight Champion and a one time WWE World Heavyweight Champion or a three time WWE Champion and a two time World Heavyweight Champion?

MOD NOTE: Stay on topic guys. This is not about adding new titles. That is material for another thread. Off topic posts will be deleted and you risk getting infracted for spam.

 

[Dagger Dias]

The World Heavyweight Championship got merged with the WWE Championship, so both belt lineages are now part of the same one. To use your Daniel Bryan example one could argue he is a 4 time WWE World Champion. He has held the World Heavyweight Championship once and the WWE Championship 3 times (one being current) yet the unification made the belt he holds at this time contain the history of both of the belts that got merged. It's simpler to just use a combination of all WWE Championship reigns and all World Heavyweight Championship reigns. Here are some examples.... Daniel Bryan is a 4 time WWE World Champion, John Cena is a 14 time WWE World Champion, Edge is an 11 time WWE World Champion, and so forth. WWE often did this anyway for years on commentary, using a combined number of WWE/World title reigns for many wrestlers.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Byran is a one time WWE World Heavyweight Champion, a two time WWE Champion and a one time World Heavyweight Champion.

The current title he's holding is different to the former main WWE title that Hogan, Austin, The Rock etc held.

 

[GOOZEKING]

Forget wwe world heaven champion name.... We all know that in a few months they are gonna throw away big belt and just keep wwe title. So to answer your question he is a 4 time world champ aka 3 time wwe and 1 time world heaveyweight champ

 

[Hillali2]

Its a valid question, and I agree with dagger dias' assessment.

I hope that they don't throw away the big gold belt, I like the idea of the champion having the two belts.

 

[MattRhys20]

Personally, I consider him to be a TWO TIME World Champion.

I don't consider his victory at Summerslam or at Night Of Champions as reigns. I just feel that you have to win your first title defence. Holding the title for the 2 minutes before Orton cashed in doesn't count in my mind. Neither does being stripped of the title because of a bad ref call.

 

[Pedigree1]

Until the vanquish the WHC belt altogether IMO,Bryan is 4 time WWE/WHC champion. I think a reign whether its 2 minutes or 20 months is a reign nonetheless. I hope the WWE continues to go the rout of Bryan or whoever,holding up the two titles. The WHC simply has too much history behind it,to be a vacated title.. I also agree with Dagger Dias assessment..

 

[whoopin' ass]

Honestly it depends on what they are trying to push. Look at Cena - he is a record making 10 time wwe champ but when he held the Big Gold Belt, he was a 12 times(or whatever) world champ. Booker T is a 5 time WCW champ but a 6 time World Champion. So in the end, it depends on who holds it and what they are trying to push.

Personally, the wwe world heavyweight title Bryan has is the same thing as the WWE title Cena held is the same thing that Austin, Bret, HBK, Hogan ... held - it is the WWE title in the end. The World title is a little different since it is obviously the old WCW title which wwe recognizes when it is convenient(like claiming its NWA heritage). To me, you have every right to claim it has the same heritage as the wwe title since it was broken off from the Undisputed WWE title - they didn't revive WCW, they just used the same design so it is valid. That's the problem with having 2 top titles in a company like wwe did - how do you claim one is more important or has a certain history based off of the look of the title? Had Bishoff given HHH the Attitude era title and not the WCW title, would people have looked at it differently?

 

[Aquaman6686]

This isn't a topic for debate. WWE.com already confirmed that the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is the WWE Championship. The same title Bruno Sammartino held as the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship. Randy Orton is considered the final World Heavyweight Champion and that title is officially retired. Any wrestler who ever held any of the following - WWWF World Heavyweight Championship, WWWF Championship, WWF Championship, WWF Undisputed Championship, Undisputed WWE Championship, WWE Championship, or WWE World Heavyweight Championship - all held the SAME title. It's only the name that's different. Fan opinions on the title's name or who "officially" held it are irrelevant. Those are opinions. They don't matter. Facts matter.

 

[MC_Live]

Aquaman6686 is right. According to the WWE website, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is the new name for the WWE Championship that has been around since 1963. The World Heavyweight Championship was officially retired after unification. So in the Daniel Bryan case, he is a 1 time World Heavyweight Champion and a 3 time WWE (World Heavyweight) Champion.

 

[whoopin' ass]

But I guess there is a question here: what's the difference between the two? Considering that both had the same starting point, the Undisputed WWE title, why can't a 2 time World Champ be called a 2 time WWE champ? Remember that the Undisputed title was the combining of 2 titles from 2 companies so really the moment it was created both the WWE and WCW World titles were retired. Since that was the end of WCW, the moment they split the titles again, the World title had every right to claim the WWF/WWWF title heritage as it was a new title despite what it looked like. It was never defended as the WCW World title after HHH got it - why isn't Booker T a 6 time WCW champ then? Had they chosen a new design, we would be asking the same question as people wouldn't still be seeing the old WCW title. To me, everything should be converted to WWE World Champ status as that is what the title is now and again, it was formed by the combining of 2 titles so it can claim both heritages. The World Title didn't get retired, both the World title and WWE Title were retired and replaced with the WWE World Heavyweight title. Otherwise, who is the current WWE Champ? There is no longer a WWE Title either.

 

[Aquaman6686]

But I guess there is a question here: what's the difference between the two? Considering that both had the same starting point, the Undisputed WWE title, why can't a 2 time World Champ be called a 2 time WWE champ? Remember that the Undisputed title was the combining of 2 titles from 2 companies so really the moment it was created both the WWE and WCW World titles were retired. Since that was the end of WCW, the moment they split the titles again, the World title had every right to claim the WWF/WWWF title heritage as it was a new title despite what it looked like. It was never defended as the WCW World title after HHH got it - why isn't Booker T a 6 time WCW champ then? Had they chosen a new design, we would be asking the same question as people wouldn't still be seeing the old WCW title. To me, everything should be converted to WWE World Champ status as that is what the title is now and again, it was formed by the combining of 2 titles so it can claim both heritages. The World Title didn't get retired, both the World title and WWE Title were retired and replaced with the WWE World Heavyweight title. Otherwise, who is the current WWE Champ? There is no longer a WWE Title either.

A 2-Time World Heavyweight Champion can't be called a 2-Time WWE Champion because they were two separate titles. Christian is a 2-Time World Heavyweight Champion, but he's never been WWE Champion. Stone Cold was WWE Champion 6 times, but he was never World Heavyweight Champion. I don't get how this is confusing.

The World Heavyweight Championship was never defended as the WCW Championship because it WASN'T the WCW Championship. It was the same belt design (at first, it was modified later). By your reckoning, Triple H should also be declared a former NWA World Heavyweight Champion and WCW International Heavyweight Champion, since those titles used the Big Gold Belt design at some point as well.

You can think the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is a brand new title all you want, but you're wrong. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship is the same title that Buddy Rogers held in 1963, the same title Sammartino held for 7+ years, the same title Hulk Hogan held, that Austin beat HBK for at WrestleMania 14, and so on and so on. New names, same title.

WWWF World Heavyweight Championship --> WWWF Championship --> WWF Championship --> WWF World Heavyweight Championship --> WWF Undisputed Championship --> Undisputed WWE Championship --> WWE Championship --> WWE World Heavyweight Championship

 

[JaeDavies23]

Without sitting and reading through everyone else's posts, I was curious about this matter myself so I looked it up a few weeks back. The lineage of the World Heavyweight title ended in December 2013 with Randy Orton being considered the final holder of the "big gold" belt. The somewhat new incarnated title now known as the WWE World Heavyweight championship will follow on the history of the WWE championship from here on in.

It's a shame that they've retired the World title, that belt has over a 100 years of history if you look into it.