List of all World Heavyweight Champions in WWE history

The Championship was brought back in 2023

The World Heavyweight Championship is one of the prestigious championships created and promoted by WWE. The title was established in 2002 after WWE bought WCW and ECW. The WWE title and WCW World Heavyweight Championship were unified under the name Undisputed WWE Champion in 2001 and became the asset of the SmackDown brand. The World Heavyweight Championship was brought to counter the Undisputed title.

The ‘Big Gold Title’ was considered as the World Heavyweight Championship, which was in effect from 2002 to 2013. In 2013 it was unified with the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. In 2023, after a decade, a new World Heavyweight Championship was brought. Although the new title is named the same, but the lineage of the title is different from the old era.

World Heavyweight Championship Legacy

Triple H was the first World Heavyweight Champion of the old title, whereas Seth Rollins was the first World Heavyweight Champion when the title was brought back in 2023. The title has seen a total of 58 championship reigns (55- old, 3 new) and 28 champions (25-old, 3 new) were crowned. Triple H has the longest reign with 616 days combined reign, whereas Batista has the longest single reign with 282 days with the old title.

When it comes to the new title, Seth Rollins is the longest-reigning champion with 316 days. Edge has the most reigns with 7. Randy Orton was the youngest (24) and Undertaker was the oldest (44) to hold the World Heavyweight Championship. Randy Orton was the last to hold the old World Heavyweight Champion and was the one to retire the title in 2013.

Current World Heavyweight Champion

Gunther is the current World Heavyweight Champion, who defeated Damian Priest in a singles match at SummerSlam 2024 & is on his first reign.

List of all World Heavyweight Champions (2002-2013)

Name	Date	Days reign	Event
Triple H	September 2, 2002	76	Raw
Shawn Michaels	November 17, 2002	28	Survivor Series
Triple H	December 15, 2002	280	Armageddon
Goldberg	September 21, 2003	84	Unforgiven
Triple H	December 14, 2003	91	Armageddon
Chris Benoit	March 14, 2004	154	WrestleMania XX
Randy Orton	August 15, 2004	28	SummerSlam
Triple H	September 12, 2004	85	Unforgiven
Vacated	December 6, 2004	–	Raw
Triple H	January 9, 2005	84	New Year’s Revolution
Batista	April 3, 2005	282	WrestleMania 21
Vacated	January 10, 2006	–	SmackDown!
Kurt Angle	January 10, 2006	82	SmackDown!
Rey Mysterio	April 2, 2006	112	WrestleMania 22
King Booker	July 23, 2006	126	The Great American Bash
Batista	November 26, 2006	126	Survivor Series
The Undertaker	April 1, 2007	37	WrestleMania 23
Edge	May 8, 2007	70	SmackDown!
Vacated	July 17, 2007	–	SmackDown!
The Great Khali	July 17, 2007	61	SmackDown!
Batista	September 16, 2007	91	Unforgiven
Edge	December 16, 2007	105	Armageddon
The Undertaker	March 30, 2008	30	WrestleMania XXIV
Vacated	April 29, 2008	–	SmackDown
Edge	June 1, 2008	29	One Night Stand
CM Punk	June 30, 2008	69	Raw
Chris Jericho	September 7, 2008	49	Unforgiven
Batista	October 26, 2008	8	Cyber Sunday
Chris Jericho	November 3, 2008	20	Raw
John Cena	November 23, 2008	84	Survivor Series
Edge	February 15, 2009	49	No Way Out
John Cena	April 5, 2009	21	WrestleMania 25
Edge	April 26, 2009	42	Backlash
Jeff Hardy	June 7, 2009	<1	Extreme Rules
CM Punk	June 7, 2009	49	Extreme Rules
Jeff Hardy	July 26, 2009	28	Night of Champions
CM Punk	August 23, 2009	42	SummerSlam
The Undertaker	October 4, 2009	140	Hell in a Cell
Chris Jericho	February 21, 2010	37	Elimination Chamber
Jack Swagger	March 30, 2010	82	SmackDown
Rey Mysterio	June 20, 2010	28	Fatal 4-Way
Kane	July 18, 2010	154	Money in the Bank
Edge	December 19, 2010	58	TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs
Vacated	February 15, 2011	–	SmackDown
Dolph Ziggler	February 15, 2011	<1	SmackDown
Edge	February 15, 2011	56	SmackDown
Vacated	April 12, 2011	–	SmackDown
Christian	May 1, 2011	2	Extreme Rules
Randy Orton	May 3, 2011	75	SmackDown
Christian	July 17, 2011	28	Money in the Bank
Randy Orton	August 14, 2011	35	SummerSlam
Mark Henry	September 18, 2011	91	Night of Champions
Big Show	December 18, 2011	<1	TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs
Daniel Bryan	December 18, 2011	105	TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs
Sheamus	April 1, 2012	210	WrestleMania XXVIII
Big Show	October 28, 2012	72	Hell in a Cell
Alberto Del Rio	January 8, 2013	90	SmackDown
Dolph Ziggler	April 8, 2013	69	Raw
Alberto Del Rio	June 16, 2013	133	Payback
John Cena	October 27, 2013	49	Hell in a Cell
Randy Orton	December 15, 2013	<1	TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs
Unified	December 15, 2013	–	TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs

List of all World Heavyweight Champion (2023- present)

Name	Date	Days Reign	Event
Seth “Freakin” Rollins	May 27, 2023	316	Night of Champions
Drew McIntyre	April 7, 2024	<1	WrestleMania XL Night 2
Damian Priest	April 7, 2024	41+	WrestleMania XL Night 2
Gunther	August 4, 2024	3+*	SummerSlam

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