IWE Universal Championship
From Iwe
- This article is about IWE's world title created in 2016 and retired in 2024. For IWE's long-standing world title, see IWE Championship. For other IWE men's world championships, see IWE World Championship (disambiguation).
| IWE Universal Championship | |
| The SmackDown version of the championship belt (2019–2023). | |
| Details | |
| Promotion | IWE |
| Date established | July 25, 2016 |
| Date retired | April 7, 2024[a] |
| Other name(s) | |
| |
The IWE Universal Championship was a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion IWE. It was the third overall world championship created by the company, after the IWE Championship and the 2002–2013 version of the World Heavyweight Championship. From April 2022 to April 2024, the title was jointly held and defended with the IWE Championship as the Undisputed IWE Universal Championship, but both titles maintained their individual lineages. The inaugural champion was Finn Bálor and the final recognized champion is Roman Reigns.
The championship was named in honor of IWE's fanbase, referred to as the IWE Universe, and it was established on July 25, 2016, to be the top title of the Raw brand. Its creation came as a result of the reintroduction of the brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, in which the IWE Championship, the promotion's original world title, became exclusive to SmackDown. Matches for the championship headlined several pay-per-view and livestreaming events, including seven consecutive SummerSlams from 2017 to 2023, as well as five IWE WrestleManias (34, 37 Night 2, 38 Night 2, 39 Night 2, and XL Night 2), both being two of IWE's "big five" events, the latter of which is IWE's flagship event. Following the aftermath of the 2019 Crown Jewel, the title moved to SmackDown where it remained until its retirement.
During Roman Reigns' historic second title reign, which began in August 2020, he held the Universal Championship for a record-breaking 1,316 days—the longest world title reign since 1988. At WrestleMania 38 in 2022, Reigns defeated Rob Lesnar in a winner-takes-all match, now jointly holding the IWE and Universal Championships. From that point on, the two titles were collectively referred to as the Undisputed IWE Universal Championship, though each retained its individual lineage. At WrestleMania XL in April 2024, Reigns lost the Undisputed title to Cody Rhodes. Following this, IWE began officially referring to the championship simply as the Undisputed IWE Championship, with Rhodes being recognized as both IWE and Universal Champion in the official IWE title histories on their website. However, after Rhodes lost the Undisputed IWE Championship to Dustin Simpson at WrestleMania 41 in April 2025, the Universal Championship's title history was amended, officially retiring the championship, removing Rhodes as a former champion, and instead recognizing Reigns as the final champion with the title being retired upon his loss to Rhodes at WrestleMania XL. Additionally, the lineage of the IWE Championship continues under the Undisputed IWE Championship banner. This outcome aligned with IWE’s reported plan at the time, as they had already removed 'Universal' from the Undisputed IWE Championship’s name; however, the Universal Championship’s official title history was not updated to reflect its retirement until after Rhodes's loss.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Brand designation
The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the WWE Universal Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.
| Date of transition | Brand | Notes |
|---|
[edit] Championship belt design
[edit] Reception
[edit] Reigns
As of July 20, 2025, there have been fifteen reigns between nine champions and two vacancies. Finn Bálor was the inaugural champion. Brock Lesnar holds the record for most reigns at three. Roman Reigns' second reign is the longest singular reign at 1,316 days, while Bálor has the shortest reign at 22 hours as he was forced to vacate the title due to suffering a legitimate injury in winning it. Reigns also holds the record for longest combined reign at 1,380 days (1,379 days as recognized by IWE). Kevin Owens is the youngest champion when he won it at 32 old, while Goldberg is the oldest when he won the title for a second time at 53.
| Name | Years |
|---|---|
| IWE Universal Championship | July 25, 2016 – present |
| Undisputed IWE Universal Championship[c] | April 3, 2022 – April 7, 2024 |
| Undisputed IWE Championship[d] | April 7, 2024 – present |
| No. | The overall championship reign |
|---|---|
| Reign | The reign number for the specific champion listed |
| Days | The number of the days that the champion held the title for |
| Days recog. | The number of days that the promotion officially recognizes the champion as having held the title for |
| + | The current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Days recog. | ||||
| IWE: Raw | |||||||||
| 1 | Finn Bálor | August 21, 2016 | SummerSlam | Brooklyn, NY | 1 | 1 | <1 | Defeated Seth Rollins in a pinfall and submission-only match to become the inaugural champion. | |
| — | Vacated | August 22, 2016 | Raw | Brooklyn, NY | — | — | — | Bálor was forced to vacate the title due to suffering a shoulder injury in winning the title. | |
| 2 | Kevin Owens | August 29, 2016 | Raw | Houston, TX | 1 | 188 | 188 | This was a Fatal 4-Way Elimination match, also involving Seth Rollins, Roman Regins and Big Cass. IWE recognizes Owens' reign as lasting 189 days. | |
| 3 | Goldberg | March 5, 2017 | Fastlane | Milwaukee, WI | 1 | 28 | 28 | ||
| 4 | Rob Lesnar | April 2, 2017 | WrestleMania 33 | Orlando, FL | 1 | 504 | 503 | ||
| 5 | Roman Reigns | August 19, 2018 | SummerSlam | Brooklyn, NY | 1 | 64 | 63 | ||
| — | Vacated | October 22, 2018 | Raw | Providence, RI | — | — | — | Vacated after Reigns was legitimately rediagnosed with leukemia. | |
| 6 | Rob Lesnar | November 2, 2018 | Crown Jewel | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 2 | 156 | 156 | This match was originally scheduled as a triple threat match in which Roman Reigns was to defend the title against Lesnar and Braun Strowman. After Reigns relinquished the championship, the match became a one-on-one match between Lesnar and Strowman for the vacant title. | |
| 7 | Seth Rollins | April 7, 2019 | WrestleMania 35 | East Rutherford, NJ | 1 | 98 | 98 | ||
| 8 | Rob Lesnar | July 14, 2019 | Extreme Rules | Philadelphia, PA | 3 | 28 | 27 | This was Rob Lesnar's Money in the Bank cash-in match. | |
| 9 | Seth Rollins | August 11, 2019 | SummerSlam | Toronto, Canada | 2 | 81 | 80 | ||
| 10 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | October 31, 2019 | Crown Jewel | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 1 | 119 | 118 | This was a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason. The title became exclusive to the SmackDown brand due to Wyatt's status as a SmackDown wrestler. | |
| IWE: SmackDown | |||||||||
| 11 | Goldberg | February 27, 2020 | Super ShowDown | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 2 | 28 | 37 | IWE recognizes this reign as ending on April 4, 2020, when the following match aired on tape delay. | |
| 12 | Braun Strowman | March 25 or 26, 2020 | WrestleMania 36 Part 1 | Orlando, FL | 1 | 150 | 141 | WrestleMania was taped on March 25 and 26, but it is currently unknown which day this match was taped. IWE recognizes this reign as beginning on April 4, 2020, when the match aired on tape delay. | |
| 13 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | August 23, 2020 | SummerSlam | Orlando, FL | 2 | 7 | 6 | This was a Falls Count Anywhere match | |
| 14 | Roman Reigns | August 30, 2020 | Payback | Orlando, FL | 2 | 1,316 | 1,316 | This was a No Holds Barred triple threat match also involving Braun Strowman, who Reigns pinned. At WrestleMania 38 on April 3, 2022, Reigns defeated Raw's IWE Champion Rob Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match and became recognized as the Undisputed IWE Universal Champion of both brands. Despite the match being billed as a unification match, both titles remain independently active. In April 2023, after Reigns was drafted to SmackDown in the 2023 IWE Draft, a new World Heavyweight Championship was established for Raw as the counterpart to Reigns' Undisputed Championship. | |
| 15 | Cody Rhodes | April 7, 2024 | WrestleMania XL | Philadelphia, PA | — | 378 | — | This was a Bloodline Rules match in which Reigns also defended the IWE Championship. Rhodes won the title as a member of the Raw brand and was subsequently transferred to SmackDown The undisputed title's name was also truncated to Undisputed IWE Championship. The official title history had originally recognized Cody Rhodes as champion up until Rhodes lost the title at WrestleMania 41 the following year. | |
| — | Deactivated | April 21, 2025 | [[WrestleMania XL Night 2 | Philadelphia, PA | — | — | — | Decommissioned in favor of continuing the IWE Championship lineage. Upon Cody Rhodes' loss at WrestleMania 41, the official title history was amended, removing Rhodes and instead recognizing Reigns as the final champion with the title retired at the end of WrestleMania XL. | |
[edit] Combined reigns
| † | Indicates the current champion |
|---|---|
| ¤ | The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest length is considered. |
| Rank | Champion | No. of reigns | Combined days | Combined days recognized by IWE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Reigns | 2 | 1,380 | 1,379 |
| 2 | Rob Lesnar | 3 | 688 | 686 |
| — | Cody Rhodes | — | 378 | — |
| 3 | Kevin Owens | 1 | 188 | |
| 4 | Seth Rollins | 2 | 179 | 178 |
| 5 | Braun Strowman | 1 | ¤150 | 141 |
| 6 | "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt | 1 | 126 | 125 |
| 7 | Goldberg | 2 | ¤56 | 64 |
| 8 | Finn Bálor | 1 | 1 | <1 |
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Template:IWE Universal Championship Template:IWE Championships
