WWE Universal Championship - Wwe Wallpaper

The WWE Universal Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the Raw brand. It is one of two world titles in the WWE, alongside the WWE Championship on the SmackDown brand. The title is currently held by Kevin Owens, who is in his first reign.

Named in honor of the WWE Universe, the championship was established on July 25, 2016 to be the world championship of the Raw brand. Its creation came as a result of the re-introduction of the brand extension and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, in which the WWE Championship, the promotion's original world title, became exclusive to SmackDown. The inaugural WWE Universal Champion was Finn BÃ¡lor.

History

With the reintroduction of the WWE brand extension, a draft took place on the SmackDown Live premiere episode on July 19, 2016 and WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown. At Battleground on July 24, Ambrose successfully defended the title in a triple threat match against Raw draftees Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. When Ambrose retained the title, Raw was left without a world title. On the following episode of Raw, Raw commissioner Stephanie McMahon and Raw general manager Mick Foley created the WWE Universal Championship to serve as the brand's top championship. According to Foley, the title was named in honor of the WWE Universe, the name WWE uses to refer to its fan base. In response, the WWE Championship was subsequently renamed to WWE World Championship before reverting back to the former name in December 2016.

The inaugural champion was crowned at SummerSlam on August 21, 2016 in a singles match; Seth Rollins was automatically set for that match, as he was Raw's number one draft pick and was not pinned at Battleground, while his opponent was determined by two fatal four-way matches on Raw, with the winners wrestling each other in a singles match. Finn BÃ¡lor won the first fatal four-way by defeating Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Rusev, while Roman Reigns won the second by defeating Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn, and Sheamus. BÃ¡lor then defeated Reigns and was added to the title match. At SummerSlam, BÃ¡lor defeated Rollins to become the inaugural champion, and as a result, BÃ¡lor became the first WWE wrestler to win a world title in their pay-per-view debut, as well as winning his first world title in less than a month since his debut on WWE's main roster.

Championship belt design

The title belt was unveiled at SummerSlam and is similar in appearance to the WWE Championship, with a few notable differences. The strap is red, to symbolize its exclusivity to Raw, with the underline of the WWE logo in the center plate being black to make it visible (essentially the reverse of the WWE Championship belt). As the championship belt is similar to the WWE Championship, the center plate is a large cut out of the WWE logo with diamonds sitting inside an irregular heptagonal plate, with the phrase "Universal Champion" in small print sitting underneath the logo. Each side plate, sitting on the other side of gold divider bars, features the same default side plates of the WWE Championship, with the champion's logo able to be customized for the side plates as a similarity of the name plate feature.

Reception

The physical belt garnered a strongly negative reaction from fans, both in attendance at SummerSlam, and online. Adam Silverstein of CBS Sports called it "ugly", while Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net referred to it as "a title belt that no one likes". The New England Sports Network said the live reaction to the belt turned what should have been a "landmark moment for the company" into an "awkward experience".

In the aftermath of the title's debut, Seth Rollins chastised the crowd's reaction, writing on Twitter: "More important than a title's appearance is what it represents for the men fighting over it. You really let me down tonight, Brooklyn". Raw general manager Mick Foley, while acknowledging that he himself might have chosen a different belt design, echoed Rollins' response in a lengthy Facebook post. He recalled being presented with the Hardcore Championship, a title belt made of broken metal pieces held together by duct tape, which challengers "made... mean something by busting [their] asses". In a kayfabe promo on the following episode of Raw, the villainous Rollins called the championship belt "beautiful".

Title history

Reigns

As of December 24, 2016, there have been 2 reigns and 1 vacancy. Finn BÃ¡lor was the inaugural champion, who defeated Seth Rollins in a pinfall and submission-only match on August 21, 2016 at SummerSlam, but was forced to vacate the title due to suffering a legitimate injury during the match. Due to this, his reign is the shortest at 22 hours, and he is the oldest champion at 35. Kevin Owens is the youngest champion at 32.

The current champion is Kevin Owens, who is in his first reign. He won the vacant championship in a four-way elimination match by defeating Big Cass, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins on the August 29, 2016 episode of Raw in Houston, Texas.