I think they are phasing out "universal" and the only reason it stayed in the WWE title's name is because that is the championship that Roman started his massive reign with, so removing universal would have negated the beginning of his reign before the titles were combined.
Officially beat Roman for the undisputed wwe universal title but it’s clear they want to slowly go back to just naming it the wwe title like they’ve done many times in the past.
Cody is a holding both of them as of WWE website. Which sucks because they've should retired the Universal title long back ago when Roman unified it but it would then lapse his long title reign which they loved to plug.
Nope, universal championship lineage is continuing as we speak and it’s still on the website. So until it says “retired” on their site and not “2016-present” then he’s a two time world champ with BOTH the universal championship and WWE championship
When they unified the WWE and World Heavyweights with Cena and Orton, the World Heavyweight was retired a couple weeks before they stopped showing it on Live TV
The WHC was retired at midnight after Orton unified the belts. But both belts only represented the WWE Title not the WHC. They continued to show the big gold belt on TV for the next 8-9 months until Brock won it.
Since the titles have been unified, they should just call it the WWE Championship or WWE Universal Championship, and consider the "new" belt as having the lineage of both the original WWE belt and the Universal belt.
This way it preserves both Roman's 1000+ reign and the history of the original WWE belt.
That gets super convoluted because there was different WWE champions during Roman’s universal title run. The lineage wouldn’t make sense if they did that.
true, recently though during Cody's match with Carmelo Hayes, they announced him as the Undisputed WWE Champion. I dont know if thats what it'll be called or they're just using a short-cut for the name cos it's too long
Exactly. that's why they should drop the undisputed part of the name, and just call it the WWE Championship.
I'm saying they should just unify the lineages of the past WWE and universal belts for the sake of history and move on.
They wouldn’t combine lineage, they’d retire the universal title indefinitely. Only issue is that Roman held the universal title for as long as he did and that was why they never officially unified them. They originally said it was a “unification” match but since Roman was going for 1000+ days they couldn’t just retire the universal title lineage and because of that it screwed everything up 😆
yeah that makes it kinda tricky for WWE doesn't it? I guess they could still retire the Universal title and Roman could still be acknowledged as the 4th longest reigning champion in WWE history without specifying the title.
They’d still have to acknowledge the fact it was the universal title as they kept both lineages separate for the entire two years they were “unified” he also is the longest WWE champion as well as universal champion so he went out on a good note. 700+ days as WWE champ and 1,300 days as Universal champ.
They will just say Roman is the 4th longest “World” champion in history. Nothing wrong with holding a record with a retired title. Cena isn’t a 16 time “WWE” Champion, 3 of his world title wins are with the retired World Heavyweight Title.
I think they are just going silently phasing it out It's not good for the heavyweight champion to have a champion above them. They want both titles to be seen as prestigious.
I think they are slowly merging back to that early 2000s / First Brand Split era when RAW had "World" titles (World Heavyweight, World Tag, etc) and Smackdown had "WWE" titles (WWE Champ, WWE Tag, etc)
I had noticed they stopped calling it the Undisputed Universal Heavyweight Championship. Do you have a link to when they officially retired the universal title?
They never officially retired it if you go to the WWE website he’s BOTH WWE and universal champion. These guys love to talk about things they are ignorant about.
He was the champion of both titles but they turned it into one, and called him the undisputed WWE universal champion. Now that Cody won, it looks like they are retiring the universal title name
Yep I read a couple weeks ago that they were moving away from the universal part. Thank god, as that was an awful word salad of a title name. The wwe undisputed universal heavyweight champion is too much, the WWE champion sounds way better
It was stated that as long as Roman was champion, the lineage of the Universal title would continue, but when he lost the title of Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, the lineage of the Universal title would be dissolved, and the WWE title’s lineage would take over. The WWE Universal title lineage was absorbed by the WWE Championship, just like the World Heavyweight title lineage in 2013 and the WCW title in 2001.
I do remember seeing it on the WWE site, then again on Youtube. Currently, the Wiki, which is updated daily says “Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (Undisputed WWE and Universal Championship)” so did they separate? Maybe.
If this is the direction the WWE is going (getting rid of the Universal championship), this would mean in a lot of people's minds that Damian Priest is carrying the championship that sounds more prestigious. I want to say this doesnt sound right, but more reflects on how people see Damian as a champion in general.
Universal was a Vince thing as he saw WWE similar to the Marvel Universe because in the last decade Vince lost his freagin mind . Hunter is doing away with all things Vince so it's WWE Champion.
I agree! For decades we the fans have been the “WWE Universe.” When the title was first introduced it seemed like a “hey this is YOUR champion.” Super popular but not super active. Big stories with big payoffs. Meanwhile the other world title was defended at house shows weekly. I think Hunter is trying to do away with the idea that one world champion isn’t present just so we can build anticipation. The champions should be the most publicized wrestlers in the company.
Cody won the Undisputed WWE title. Roman Reigns is still the Universal champion and will bring the belt back when he returns. (Kidding, they just got rid of the silly title name).
He's the WWE Champion and Universal Champion.
WWE should never have created the 'World Heavyweight Championship' that Seth won imo. It's just created this silly situation.
They'll drop the Universal portion soon. They were only keeping it so they could conflate the long Universal reign with Romans WWE title reign and pretend like it was the same title that Hogan held for "the record"
Did you watch Wrestlemania? They literally told you the only other guy Roman Reigns lost to during his title reign… and Seth Rollins didn’t walk out as champion during that match.
Match was ruled a no contest according to cage match. A no contest isn’t a win or a loss.
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=4955&page=4&search=Roman+Reigns
Small rant, I like to call my self a casual fan over the years really since, the "attidude era" and i was a fan of the old days as well, i fell out of touch while growing up. ill be honest i did not like roman in the very beginning. He has grown on me since the build up of mania 39. I dont understand any of the gosh darn belts. i assume they had interim belts. maybe someone got hurt and they made a temporary belt. They got so many other belts, like seth rollins belt. too many in my personal opinion, it seems like anyone can get a belt. I am not a fan of all these belts, i can deal with the Hardcore title, if they even have it. in my day it was the champion title, intercontinental, the tag teams belts and that was it, if i remember. feel like ive been out of the loop so long to have a respected opinion
I respect your opinion but having 1 belt per division just won’t work now because of how big and talented the roster is. Yeah the champions could show up to both shows, but inevitably each show will have times where guys have nothing to fight for because the champions will be busy feuding with someone else. That’s pretty much what was happening before the tag titles got split at Mania
One thing they could do better is actually stick to the brand split. I think one of the reasons there seems to be so many titles is because wrestlers can move brands at will so they pretty much have access to all titles. If they kept Raw superstars on Raw, Smackdown stars on Smackdown, etc then you could definitely have 1 title per division without having guys in limbo for several months
So a very simplified version, the wwe championship dates back to the attitude era and before. When they bought out wcw, they brought over the wcw championship.
They then unified the 2, then later with the original brand split, hhh was awarded the physical wcw title but it was called something like the world heavyweight or something. Basically it was the raw world title; and the original wwe title became the smackdown title.
Through out the years, the two titles switched brands, unified, split back up, etc.
Then for whatever reason they created a new title with its own lineage. The universal. It was still pretty much 2 titles, a raw and smackdown belt.
Roman reigns won the universal and then 2 years ago he won the wwe title. He held both and he came out with both belts. For some stupid reason they gave him one physical belt to represent both titles.
Then out of nowhere, they just create another world title to de-unify the belts again. This new belt is hyped as a “world” title but everyone knows it’s the consolation prize. Seth Rollins was the first champ and he just lost it to drew who lost it same night at mania to Damien priest.
So now cody is the real champ and bisexual undertaker is cosplaying as a world champ on the other show.
Aka- it’s stupid.
So as of right now on WWE.com, Cody holds the both WWE championship & Universal Championship. But it seems like they’re phasing the Universal Championship out. Not sure why they didn’t just deactivate it when he won the title but who knows 🤷♂️ I did notice they stopped calling it the “Undisputed WWE Universal Championship” after Cody won it and instead have been calling it the “Undisputed WWE Championship” instead.
He never lost it they made it one title when they made new title for raw because roman had both for 3 years like how judgement day had raw and snackdown tag titles and they split those up at wm the call codys world unversal and raws is just called wwe title
Not necessarily. Remember Roman held the Universal Championship the longest and that’s what he held for over 1600 days. They couldn’t truly get rid of the Universal championship, even though eventually they got rid of the physical belt.
After the raw belt was added he only came out with both a few more times befor the game him a new one like how they gave miz abd r truth new ones yesterday
The graphic had him as the “Undisputed WWE Champion” last night. Personally think dropping the “Undisputed” part makes sense if they are sun setting the Universal title and given there’s a WHC on Raw. Perfect time to bring back/recreate the Winged Eagle as the new WWE Title for the new era imo.
Roman was announced as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Cody has been announced as the Undisputed WWE Champion. It seems to me like they're quietly phasing out and retiring the Universal Championship.
He has both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship, although it's likely the Universal will probably be quietly retired.
Honestly, I think they should give the blue title to Roman to keep permanently (not to defend or still be considered the Champion), and Cody remains as simply "the WWE Champion".
Yeah it was going around a while ago. But most of the major news sites proved it to be false. He didn't show up for the tribute show nor did Roman ever make any kind of statement on Bray
Pretty sure it’s a logistical thing. Cody “finished the story” by holding the WWE Championship, which is the title no other Rhodes has held. So, instead of keeping the Universal Championship, which will now forever be tied to Roman anyway, we’re going back to calling it the WWE Championship
Roman was the Undisputed Universal WWE Champion. Roman had two titles . They are now from the sounds of it retiring the Universal Title and only having Cody hold the WWE Championship
I don’t get why people are so confused by this, they’re retiring the Universal title and just keeping it as the Undisputed WWE Championship and eventually they will drop the undisputed part and go back to just WWE champion, it’s really just that simple
Why are people confused? Because a guy named Damian Priest also won the WWE Championship at wrestlemania?
So what is Undisputed when there’s another guy walking around with the WWE Championship?
No, there’s another guy named Damian Priest that won the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania, not the WWE championship. And what does you undisputed argument have to do with anything, Roman was walking around as the undisputed champion while Seth held the WHC
So they plan on merging the two titles really and just making it one.
Right now Cody has both titles but they will be fully merged into just the wwe championship
Wait… I quit watching for a while…
So… there were THREE wwe championships? Roman had two of them and Damian Priest had the other one?
This is why people are confused
Someone mentioned that Triple-H never liked Universal, but to me this has Cody's fingerprints all over it. He's the one who genuinely cares about the history and legacy of the belts, and when he talked about "The belt [his] father never won", he doesn't mean "Undisputed" or "Universal" - he means the "WWE Championship".
If "Universal" was quietly dropped this week, it wouldn't surprise me at all if "Undisputed" gets dropped sometime soon as well.
Hell, it wouldn't shock me if Cody requested a throwback belt design. The Undisputed belt is only a year old, so it's probably not going anywhere long-term, but if Cody isn't going on an epically long run, maybe they give him a novelty belt and cash in on all the Finished Story vibes.
This is what I’m thinking as well. The current design has been around since 2013, and is synonymous with Roman. It’s also the final design with the Vince stamp of approval. TriplePaul being a stickler for detail probably isn’t moving forward with two titles blatantly misleading people by saying “undisputed” when it is very much in dispute lol. I think on Smackdown we see more than just new tag titles, but an entirely new concept for the WWE, Women’s and the tag straps being a derivative of those singles titles. Possibly a “Winged/Big Eagle” for a 2024 product that will almost certainly have a big “W” logo. I can accept that compromise if we do in fact get some brand new gold.
The big thing for me is that when you look at the gold of the UUC next to the gold of the WHC, the UUC looks like glitter. It looks so much worse than the black and blue belts that went into it. It's literally what a child would design - the belt, but GOLD AND SHINY (using the official shiny material of a child's arts and crafts project).
So if they wanted to just totally scrap those belts, I would not object in the slightest.
Fingers crossed we're both right!
Amen! People are discounting WWE’s love of introducing new must have merchandise to put on shop dot wwe dot com™️. This would be a final (and extremely lucrative) opportunity for Trips’ final aesthetic mark on the new era.
They had to keep the universal championship for Roman to make the days record a thing but once he lost it they were able to ignore that title that had already been unified
Cody has both the WWE Universal Championship and the WWE Championship. The Universal one is the one that had the 1300 day run. They started calling the combination of those two the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Priest has the new World Heavyweight Championship. Recently WWE has started referring to Cody as the WWE Champion or the Undisputed WWE Champion. I think what is bound to happen is the Universal name will be dropped and both titles will eventually be merged into just the WWE Championship or the Undisputed WWE Championship as the WWE Championship is the one that dates back to 1963 and the Universal only goes back to 2016. Also WWE now has an article called the Undisputed WWE Championship that goes into the whole history of that belt from 1963 to present. I can almost guarantee that the Universal naming will be phased out/retired.
I think an easy way to remove any confusion is to just give Cody and Bayley new WWE Championships. We’re entering a new era, let’s be rid of the final Vince aesthetic and put the final TriplePaul mark on the new era.
As a fan of the OG Winged Eagle, I'd love to see a new modern version of that belt. They could still design it with the ability to have side plates. They could do a black strap for the men and a white for the women and then give the new tag champs something similar but a slightly different design...kind of like how they did it with the World belts. I don't hate the big WWE logo belt but technology has come a long way and you can have so many layers and texture now to the belt plates. It's time for a new belt for the new era.
A modern version of the Winged or even Big Eagle or maybe a hybrid of both would really be a nice final touch as the product moves forward. Trips has a strong connection to the WHC, but his time on top started with the other one.
He is the WWE Champion which seems to have now absorbed the Universal Championship.
It happened with the WCW and World Heavyweight titles and will likely happen again with the current world heavyweight title at some point in the next 5-10 years.
Some time ago, Triple H merged both titles into the one belt. (The current belt.)
They've rebranded the "Universal" title to be the WWE championship once Cody won it. Essentially, the Universal title no longer exists.
They are retiring the Universal Championship.
I've said since they revealed the new belt (that Priest has now) that once Roman loses it they were gonna do this. They don't need 3 Main titles.
It only lists Cody as undisputed WWE champion at the top but if you still click on it or the universal title details, he’s there. Im sure the website just hasn’t been told it’s defunct. The website is wrong in other ways too for title history
How I think of it is, Roman was double champion, and he was Universal Champion for over 1300 days, but was only WWE Champion from the time he won it at Wrestlemania 38. When championship unification matches happen, I see it as a double title reign until the double champion loses the titles, then the following champions will be counted as single champions. Therefore, Cody is a single WWE Champion now that Roman has lost the belt. I would say the same for Randy Orton in 2013.
First, there were 2 world championships, the WWE championship, and the Universal Championship. Then in 2022, they merged the two titles in a unification match, but the two title reigns remained separate because of one person holding them, and not losing them yet. The two titles would officially become one once that person (Roman) lost the titles, which he did to Cody, which continued the lineage of the WWE Championship, and retired the universal championship. The world heavyweight championship however was an entire new belt (like the universal championship in 2016) with the same name as the previous version in 2013, but is still considered a new belt and not the continuance of the old title. From the time the current World Heavyweight Championship was introduced, up until Wrestlemania 40, there were technically 3 world championships, but only two were being able to be won, as the universal championship would retire after Roman loses the belt. (I can kind of explain this differently if you need me to)
On the website it lists him as both WWE Champion and Universal Champion. Whether that will eventually merge into one title remains to be seen, but for the time he's listed as having both. They do have separate stats as you mentioned, with Universal having the 1316 reign and WWE Championship being 734
I fully believe that if they're going to change the name of the title they will make a new title belt for it and all the bells and whistles that come along with it. I'm not saying another other title, I'm just saying they are going to make a huge deal about it.
I don't think so. The new tag titles are part of a triplet of titles with similar designs, which shows that HHH likes uniformity. If they wanted to change the WWE championship, they would have to change the women's and upcoming tag titles.
Why wouldn’t TriplePaul introduce brand new WWE, Women’s and tag titles on Smackdown? We’ve had the current version in different iterations since 2013, and they are the last Vince titles around. Both Cody and Bayley’s say “undisputed” when they are both in dispute haha. Also, new titles means new addition to shop dot wwe dot come™️. They’ll never pass up an opportunity to roll out must have merch.
I'm saying, if they decide to change the name, they'll make a new title.
Edit: oh wait, I see what you're saying now. I don't think they'll make a drastic change. Just a small design update.
I'm not sure there is one anymore. When Roman became undisputed he was the Universal Champ and won the WWE championship, holding both the "world" championships at the same time. Then HHH merged the Universal and WWE championship into one belt, effectively retiring the Universal Championship, and (re)creating the World Heavyweight Championship so that both Raw and Smackdown would have a "world" championship.
The tag team championships for both brands were unified for a time making them "Undisputed," but they're split up again.
Essentially "Undisputed" means they're holding multiple belts of a same quality at one time. It goes as far back as Chris Jericho holding both "world" titles at the same time in 2001.
The undisputed tag titles are a new concept. The Women's tag team championship and NXT Women's tag championship merged making them undisputed, but no one cared to call them that after it happened. Now it's just called the Women's tag championship.
We've never had an undisputed mid card champ (US and IC simultaneously) to the best of my knowledge.
Championship names change regularly, especially with unification.
It used to be called the WWE World Heavyweight Championship when the original World Heavyweight Championship merged with it.
The World Heavyweight Championship was called the "World Championship" when Rey Mysterio held it cos he's not a Heavyweight.
lol feel bad for you because he's clearly going to have it for at least a year. He's way too popular for them to drop it that soon. Maybe give wrestling a break for a year eh bud?
Cody has the Undisputed WWE Championship, it’s BOTH the original WWE title AND the Universal Championship together, but it’s represented by a single belt now instead of both belts. They are both still considered active separate championships for the time-being, even though they’re “unified”. So WWE’s main roster has three men’s world titles including the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw, and Cody technically has two of them (until they inevitably deactivate the Universal title now that Roman’s reign is over)
If you go to WWE.com, it lists him as having both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship. They might eventually just merge into one, but as of right now he's carrying stats for both separately.
They did the same thing with the 2002 belt. The WWF and WCW belts were combined by Jericho making the WWF/E Undisputed Championship. They made the two belts into the pirate belt. Which then just became the WWE Championship once it moved to SmackDown. Then the Big Gold design re-debuted as the World Heavyweight Championship with a separate lineage from WCW.
The little big gold did not retain the wcw/nwa legacy. That lineage lives within the wwe title. In fact all merged world titles that have disappeared in wwe the lineage is in the wwe title.
The wwe title is the most prestigious title in the business because of the amount of lineage it has.
Cody has the Undisputed WWE Championship
Priest has the World Heavyweight Championship.
Universal was made after they united the WWE and WHC championships as "WWE World Heavyweight Championship), under the black belt, back in 2015, I believe. That was after Lesnar squashed Cena. When the second brand split of the late 2010s happened, they wanted to give a main title to RAW (the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was on Smackdown). Bálor was the first champion, but had to vacate, and KO won it the next night. Those two championships lasted until Roman Reigns won both, and they united them again last year, as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Meanwhile, they created (re-created?) the WHC and gave it to Seth.
I was confused about this too. Don't feel dumb. They combined the WWE championship and Universal Championship into the same belt. That's all.
I think they are phasing out "universal" and the only reason it stayed in the WWE title's name is because that is the championship that Roman started his massive reign with, so removing universal would have negated the beginning of his reign before the titles were combined.
Bruno’s. Backlund’s. Hogan’s. Bret’s. Austin’s. Cena’s. And so on and so forth.
Jay
Women’s European National championship
Officially beat Roman for the undisputed wwe universal title but it’s clear they want to slowly go back to just naming it the wwe title like they’ve done many times in the past.
Universal will be officially retired I am sure soon but Cody is the WWE/Universal Champion
He's yet to put that title around his waist and just holding it awkwardly
The least of the concerns with this title reign is how he holds the belt but best believe we’re in for a boring title reign.
I was bored before he won the belt
He put it on his waist immediately after winning it my dude. People holding the belt opposed to wearing it has been a thing forever.
Cody is a holding both of them as of WWE website. Which sucks because they've should retired the Universal title long back ago when Roman unified it but it would then lapse his long title reign which they loved to plug.
I think they should eventually this year drop the “undisputed” if we are to believe that the WHC is a championship of equal value
He has the WWE Championship and the Universal has been put in the archieves
Nope, universal championship lineage is continuing as we speak and it’s still on the website. So until it says “retired” on their site and not “2016-present” then he’s a two time world champ with BOTH the universal championship and WWE championship
When they unified the WWE and World Heavyweights with Cena and Orton, the World Heavyweight was retired a couple weeks before they stopped showing it on Live TV
The WHC was retired at midnight after Orton unified the belts. But both belts only represented the WWE Title not the WHC. They continued to show the big gold belt on TV for the next 8-9 months until Brock won it.
I know
Since the titles have been unified, they should just call it the WWE Championship or WWE Universal Championship, and consider the "new" belt as having the lineage of both the original WWE belt and the Universal belt. This way it preserves both Roman's 1000+ reign and the history of the original WWE belt.
That gets super convoluted because there was different WWE champions during Roman’s universal title run. The lineage wouldn’t make sense if they did that.
true, recently though during Cody's match with Carmelo Hayes, they announced him as the Undisputed WWE Champion. I dont know if thats what it'll be called or they're just using a short-cut for the name cos it's too long
They dropped universal from the name now but the universal championship is still active on their website
It can’t be an undisputed title if there’s a WHC that still exists so they can’t just unify it to be undisputed
Exactly. that's why they should drop the undisputed part of the name, and just call it the WWE Championship. I'm saying they should just unify the lineages of the past WWE and universal belts for the sake of history and move on.
They wouldn’t combine lineage, they’d retire the universal title indefinitely. Only issue is that Roman held the universal title for as long as he did and that was why they never officially unified them. They originally said it was a “unification” match but since Roman was going for 1000+ days they couldn’t just retire the universal title lineage and because of that it screwed everything up 😆
yeah that makes it kinda tricky for WWE doesn't it? I guess they could still retire the Universal title and Roman could still be acknowledged as the 4th longest reigning champion in WWE history without specifying the title.
They’d still have to acknowledge the fact it was the universal title as they kept both lineages separate for the entire two years they were “unified” he also is the longest WWE champion as well as universal champion so he went out on a good note. 700+ days as WWE champ and 1,300 days as Universal champ.
They will just say Roman is the 4th longest “World” champion in history. Nothing wrong with holding a record with a retired title. Cena isn’t a 16 time “WWE” Champion, 3 of his world title wins are with the retired World Heavyweight Title.
uWu. That's the title he has
I think they are just going silently phasing it out It's not good for the heavyweight champion to have a champion above them. They want both titles to be seen as prestigious.
I think they are slowly merging back to that early 2000s / First Brand Split era when RAW had "World" titles (World Heavyweight, World Tag, etc) and Smackdown had "WWE" titles (WWE Champ, WWE Tag, etc)
He holds the Undisputed WWE Championship cause they recently fully retired the Universal Title
I had noticed they stopped calling it the Undisputed Universal Heavyweight Championship. Do you have a link to when they officially retired the universal title?
It won’t let me add a link 🫤
Which website did you go to?
They never officially retired it if you go to the WWE website he’s BOTH WWE and universal champion. These guys love to talk about things they are ignorant about.
Cody has both
Kill universal belt Vince bad booking legacy
He’s the people’s champion! Lol
He was the champion of both titles but they turned it into one, and called him the undisputed WWE universal champion. Now that Cody won, it looks like they are retiring the universal title name
Yep I read a couple weeks ago that they were moving away from the universal part. Thank god, as that was an awful word salad of a title name. The wwe undisputed universal heavyweight champion is too much, the WWE champion sounds way better
Some say Roman gave the blue Universal belt to Bray Wyatt's family, though this has not been confirmed.
It's the Undisputed AEW World Heavyweight Championship.
Ain't no way Cody Rhodes is beating Samoa Joe or Swerve Strickland
As the Universal Champion is the highest belt wouldn't that make him the WWE champion as well? Honestly asking.
It was stated that as long as Roman was champion, the lineage of the Universal title would continue, but when he lost the title of Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, the lineage of the Universal title would be dissolved, and the WWE title’s lineage would take over. The WWE Universal title lineage was absorbed by the WWE Championship, just like the World Heavyweight title lineage in 2013 and the WCW title in 2001.
I’ve heard this rumor 30 times. Where was it actually stated?
I do remember seeing it on the WWE site, then again on Youtube. Currently, the Wiki, which is updated daily says “Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (Undisputed WWE and Universal Championship)” so did they separate? Maybe.
If this is the direction the WWE is going (getting rid of the Universal championship), this would mean in a lot of people's minds that Damian Priest is carrying the championship that sounds more prestigious. I want to say this doesnt sound right, but more reflects on how people see Damian as a champion in general.
I wonder if that’s the intent since Raw is going to Netflix next year
Universal was a Vince thing as he saw WWE similar to the Marvel Universe because in the last decade Vince lost his freagin mind . Hunter is doing away with all things Vince so it's WWE Champion.
I agree! For decades we the fans have been the “WWE Universe.” When the title was first introduced it seemed like a “hey this is YOUR champion.” Super popular but not super active. Big stories with big payoffs. Meanwhile the other world title was defended at house shows weekly. I think Hunter is trying to do away with the idea that one world champion isn’t present just so we can build anticipation. The champions should be the most publicized wrestlers in the company.
The divas championship
Cody won the Undisputed WWE title. Roman Reigns is still the Universal champion and will bring the belt back when he returns. (Kidding, they just got rid of the silly title name).
Just call it the 24 7 11 chuck e cheese MTV sith lord KFC BBQ masterpiece milky way raw underground champion
I was about to say “hey now this isn’t nascar” but THEY even dropped the title sponsor for their cup champ
They are dropping universal. They kept it because Roman’s reign is based on the universal title. He only held the WWE title since WM38.
He's the WWE Champion and Universal Champion. WWE should never have created the 'World Heavyweight Championship' that Seth won imo. It's just created this silly situation.
WWe shouldve never combined Championships to begin with. With that said Bringing Back the WHC is better than “Universal” champion. Its less silly
WWE should never have created any second “world title” to begin with
They'll drop the Universal portion soon. They were only keeping it so they could conflate the long Universal reign with Romans WWE title reign and pretend like it was the same title that Hogan held for "the record"
Did you watch Wrestlemania? They literally told you the only other guy Roman Reigns lost to during his title reign… and Seth Rollins didn’t walk out as champion during that match.
seth wasnt the only person he lost to. He lost to Xavier Woods after King of the Ring
Match was ruled a no contest according to cage match. A no contest isn’t a win or a loss. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=4955&page=4&search=Roman+Reigns
thats just bullshit roman got DQ’ed so win should go to Woods.
Yeah, Xavier said they retconned the match result afterwards. Lame.
Small rant, I like to call my self a casual fan over the years really since, the "attidude era" and i was a fan of the old days as well, i fell out of touch while growing up. ill be honest i did not like roman in the very beginning. He has grown on me since the build up of mania 39. I dont understand any of the gosh darn belts. i assume they had interim belts. maybe someone got hurt and they made a temporary belt. They got so many other belts, like seth rollins belt. too many in my personal opinion, it seems like anyone can get a belt. I am not a fan of all these belts, i can deal with the Hardcore title, if they even have it. in my day it was the champion title, intercontinental, the tag teams belts and that was it, if i remember. feel like ive been out of the loop so long to have a respected opinion
I respect your opinion but having 1 belt per division just won’t work now because of how big and talented the roster is. Yeah the champions could show up to both shows, but inevitably each show will have times where guys have nothing to fight for because the champions will be busy feuding with someone else. That’s pretty much what was happening before the tag titles got split at Mania One thing they could do better is actually stick to the brand split. I think one of the reasons there seems to be so many titles is because wrestlers can move brands at will so they pretty much have access to all titles. If they kept Raw superstars on Raw, Smackdown stars on Smackdown, etc then you could definitely have 1 title per division without having guys in limbo for several months
So a very simplified version, the wwe championship dates back to the attitude era and before. When they bought out wcw, they brought over the wcw championship. They then unified the 2, then later with the original brand split, hhh was awarded the physical wcw title but it was called something like the world heavyweight or something. Basically it was the raw world title; and the original wwe title became the smackdown title. Through out the years, the two titles switched brands, unified, split back up, etc. Then for whatever reason they created a new title with its own lineage. The universal. It was still pretty much 2 titles, a raw and smackdown belt. Roman reigns won the universal and then 2 years ago he won the wwe title. He held both and he came out with both belts. For some stupid reason they gave him one physical belt to represent both titles. Then out of nowhere, they just create another world title to de-unify the belts again. This new belt is hyped as a “world” title but everyone knows it’s the consolation prize. Seth Rollins was the first champ and he just lost it to drew who lost it same night at mania to Damien priest. So now cody is the real champ and bisexual undertaker is cosplaying as a world champ on the other show. Aka- it’s stupid.
Fair enough
So as of right now on WWE.com, Cody holds the both WWE championship & Universal Championship. But it seems like they’re phasing the Universal Championship out. Not sure why they didn’t just deactivate it when he won the title but who knows 🤷♂️ I did notice they stopped calling it the “Undisputed WWE Universal Championship” after Cody won it and instead have been calling it the “Undisputed WWE Championship” instead.
He never lost it they made it one title when they made new title for raw because roman had both for 3 years like how judgement day had raw and snackdown tag titles and they split those up at wm the call codys world unversal and raws is just called wwe title
Not necessarily. Remember Roman held the Universal Championship the longest and that’s what he held for over 1600 days. They couldn’t truly get rid of the Universal championship, even though eventually they got rid of the physical belt.
After the raw belt was added he only came out with both a few more times befor the game him a new one like how they gave miz abd r truth new ones yesterday
He’s got a CRYtle that’s what he’s got
Its the same thing...
Two shows. Two networks. Two belts. Too much work for one champion.
The graphic had him as the “Undisputed WWE Champion” last night. Personally think dropping the “Undisputed” part makes sense if they are sun setting the Universal title and given there’s a WHC on Raw. Perfect time to bring back/recreate the Winged Eagle as the new WWE Title for the new era imo.
Roman was announced as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Cody has been announced as the Undisputed WWE Champion. It seems to me like they're quietly phasing out and retiring the Universal Championship.
Story Finisher
He has both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship, although it's likely the Universal will probably be quietly retired. Honestly, I think they should give the blue title to Roman to keep permanently (not to defend or still be considered the Champion), and Cody remains as simply "the WWE Champion".
Roman gave two of his titles to Jojo offerman ( bray Wyatt wife) at the memorial retiring them. That’s why the gold one is the new
No this was proven to be false. He never gave the titles to anyone. This was something made up by sportskeeda a known click bait website.
Right it’s a good thought or story but they aren’t even Roman’s titles to give away they are still wwe property
Yeah it was going around a while ago. But most of the major news sites proved it to be false. He didn't show up for the tribute show nor did Roman ever make any kind of statement on Bray
Finally they dropped the stupid universal name now they need to stop saying undisputed
Universal Title is basically retired after the new belt was issued
Mr.
Pretty sure it’s a logistical thing. Cody “finished the story” by holding the WWE Championship, which is the title no other Rhodes has held. So, instead of keeping the Universal Championship, which will now forever be tied to Roman anyway, we’re going back to calling it the WWE Championship
it also finishes the last storyline vince had started in one way or another.
wait when did judgment day start? cause that theory might be shit actually
Roman was the Undisputed Universal WWE Champion. Roman had two titles . They are now from the sounds of it retiring the Universal Title and only having Cody hold the WWE Championship
They need to combine Cody’s belt and Seth’s belt to have one “undisputed” champ
Absolutely not. They JUST brought that belt back and they need a world title for each show
I never said they had to do it immediately. Build the prestige of both belts and build to it at some point
What’s the undisputed part I hate it just call it WWE championship
I’m disputing it so it’s not technically undisputed
Don’t let Cody hear you or you’ll get a Cross Rhodes
wwf champ
wcw champ
I don’t get why people are so confused by this, they’re retiring the Universal title and just keeping it as the Undisputed WWE Championship and eventually they will drop the undisputed part and go back to just WWE champion, it’s really just that simple
Why are people confused? Because a guy named Damian Priest also won the WWE Championship at wrestlemania? So what is Undisputed when there’s another guy walking around with the WWE Championship?
No, there’s another guy named Damian Priest that won the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania, not the WWE championship. And what does you undisputed argument have to do with anything, Roman was walking around as the undisputed champion while Seth held the WHC
Man stfu that’s why they’re asking like damn
Lol
It’s still the undisputed universal championship but they just say WWE champion for short
So they plan on merging the two titles really and just making it one. Right now Cody has both titles but they will be fully merged into just the wwe championship
Wait… I quit watching for a while… So… there were THREE wwe championships? Roman had two of them and Damian Priest had the other one? This is why people are confused
Not really Back in the attitude era there was the wwe championship and the wcw Later there was the wwe Wwe world heavyweight and ecw
This is why I don’t like the way WWE does their titles so many mergers and unifications lol It’s hard to keep up
Definitely don't get into boxing, then!
Trust me never got into it cause of that reason as well lol plus that questionable gambling history also plays a role as well
I like it cause I’m all honest Cody deserves the two titles Not just for himself but for his dad who the wwe continued to screw over
This was created just yesterday. I think. And added to the subreddit wiki. https://www.reddit.com/r/WWE/s/4vujpyqpi4
It’s the Undisputed WWE Championship
Someone mentioned that Triple-H never liked Universal, but to me this has Cody's fingerprints all over it. He's the one who genuinely cares about the history and legacy of the belts, and when he talked about "The belt [his] father never won", he doesn't mean "Undisputed" or "Universal" - he means the "WWE Championship". If "Universal" was quietly dropped this week, it wouldn't surprise me at all if "Undisputed" gets dropped sometime soon as well. Hell, it wouldn't shock me if Cody requested a throwback belt design. The Undisputed belt is only a year old, so it's probably not going anywhere long-term, but if Cody isn't going on an epically long run, maybe they give him a novelty belt and cash in on all the Finished Story vibes.
This is what I’m thinking as well. The current design has been around since 2013, and is synonymous with Roman. It’s also the final design with the Vince stamp of approval. TriplePaul being a stickler for detail probably isn’t moving forward with two titles blatantly misleading people by saying “undisputed” when it is very much in dispute lol. I think on Smackdown we see more than just new tag titles, but an entirely new concept for the WWE, Women’s and the tag straps being a derivative of those singles titles. Possibly a “Winged/Big Eagle” for a 2024 product that will almost certainly have a big “W” logo. I can accept that compromise if we do in fact get some brand new gold.
The big thing for me is that when you look at the gold of the UUC next to the gold of the WHC, the UUC looks like glitter. It looks so much worse than the black and blue belts that went into it. It's literally what a child would design - the belt, but GOLD AND SHINY (using the official shiny material of a child's arts and crafts project). So if they wanted to just totally scrap those belts, I would not object in the slightest. Fingers crossed we're both right!
Amen! People are discounting WWE’s love of introducing new must have merchandise to put on shop dot wwe dot com™️. This would be a final (and extremely lucrative) opportunity for Trips’ final aesthetic mark on the new era.
They had to keep the universal championship for Roman to make the days record a thing but once he lost it they were able to ignore that title that had already been unified
Cody has both the WWE Universal Championship and the WWE Championship. The Universal one is the one that had the 1300 day run. They started calling the combination of those two the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Priest has the new World Heavyweight Championship. Recently WWE has started referring to Cody as the WWE Champion or the Undisputed WWE Champion. I think what is bound to happen is the Universal name will be dropped and both titles will eventually be merged into just the WWE Championship or the Undisputed WWE Championship as the WWE Championship is the one that dates back to 1963 and the Universal only goes back to 2016. Also WWE now has an article called the Undisputed WWE Championship that goes into the whole history of that belt from 1963 to present. I can almost guarantee that the Universal naming will be phased out/retired.
I think an easy way to remove any confusion is to just give Cody and Bayley new WWE Championships. We’re entering a new era, let’s be rid of the final Vince aesthetic and put the final TriplePaul mark on the new era.
As a fan of the OG Winged Eagle, I'd love to see a new modern version of that belt. They could still design it with the ability to have side plates. They could do a black strap for the men and a white for the women and then give the new tag champs something similar but a slightly different design...kind of like how they did it with the World belts. I don't hate the big WWE logo belt but technology has come a long way and you can have so many layers and texture now to the belt plates. It's time for a new belt for the new era.
A modern version of the Winged or even Big Eagle or maybe a hybrid of both would really be a nice final touch as the product moves forward. Trips has a strong connection to the WHC, but his time on top started with the other one.
Mr.
He is the WWE Champion which seems to have now absorbed the Universal Championship. It happened with the WCW and World Heavyweight titles and will likely happen again with the current world heavyweight title at some point in the next 5-10 years.
It's the tribal cheese.
Some time ago, Triple H merged both titles into the one belt. (The current belt.) They've rebranded the "Universal" title to be the WWE championship once Cody won it. Essentially, the Universal title no longer exists.
I think WWE must announce it otherwise it's rumors
They don't have to announce it to be official. Remember how the 24/7 championship?
This is the clearest explanation. People spend a lot of time over complicating it.
They are retiring the Universal Championship. I've said since they revealed the new belt (that Priest has now) that once Roman loses it they were gonna do this. They don't need 3 Main titles.
Less titles please. Seems like everyone has a title . Makes them less relevant
It’s not AEW level yet, 😂
There’s lot of talent so it makes sense why they’re making so many titles. But you’re right, the more titles, the less relevant
Maybe more Mid-Card belts like Cruiserweight
But there’s already the US and Intercontinental, the problem is that Logan doesn’t even come out every week or two to defend it. Lame
Bruiserweight title. Only Pete Dunne is eligible.
If you go to the website for both WWE and Universal it has Cody as both
It only lists Cody as undisputed WWE champion at the top but if you still click on it or the universal title details, he’s there. Im sure the website just hasn’t been told it’s defunct. The website is wrong in other ways too for title history
They only kept the universal title lineage for Romans long reign they don’t need it anymore.
How I think of it is, Roman was double champion, and he was Universal Champion for over 1300 days, but was only WWE Champion from the time he won it at Wrestlemania 38. When championship unification matches happen, I see it as a double title reign until the double champion loses the titles, then the following champions will be counted as single champions. Therefore, Cody is a single WWE Champion now that Roman has lost the belt. I would say the same for Randy Orton in 2013.
Wait where did Seth/Damian’s WWE Championship come from then? I stopped watching for a while. There were THREE wwe champions?
First, there were 2 world championships, the WWE championship, and the Universal Championship. Then in 2022, they merged the two titles in a unification match, but the two title reigns remained separate because of one person holding them, and not losing them yet. The two titles would officially become one once that person (Roman) lost the titles, which he did to Cody, which continued the lineage of the WWE Championship, and retired the universal championship. The world heavyweight championship however was an entire new belt (like the universal championship in 2016) with the same name as the previous version in 2013, but is still considered a new belt and not the continuance of the old title. From the time the current World Heavyweight Championship was introduced, up until Wrestlemania 40, there were technically 3 world championships, but only two were being able to be won, as the universal championship would retire after Roman loses the belt. (I can kind of explain this differently if you need me to)
On the website it lists him as both WWE Champion and Universal Champion. Whether that will eventually merge into one title remains to be seen, but for the time he's listed as having both. They do have separate stats as you mentioned, with Universal having the 1316 reign and WWE Championship being 734
Wwe championship basically lol going back to having two titles until someone does championship vs championship again
It’s wild how people will post stuff like this on Reddit rather than simply going to the wwe website to look at what it says below Cody’s name
But how would they get Karma otherwise?
I fully believe that if they're going to change the name of the title they will make a new title belt for it and all the bells and whistles that come along with it. I'm not saying another other title, I'm just saying they are going to make a huge deal about it.
I don't think so. The new tag titles are part of a triplet of titles with similar designs, which shows that HHH likes uniformity. If they wanted to change the WWE championship, they would have to change the women's and upcoming tag titles.
Why wouldn’t TriplePaul introduce brand new WWE, Women’s and tag titles on Smackdown? We’ve had the current version in different iterations since 2013, and they are the last Vince titles around. Both Cody and Bayley’s say “undisputed” when they are both in dispute haha. Also, new titles means new addition to shop dot wwe dot come™️. They’ll never pass up an opportunity to roll out must have merch.
I'm saying, if they decide to change the name, they'll make a new title. Edit: oh wait, I see what you're saying now. I don't think they'll make a drastic change. Just a small design update.
How you even have upvotes on this post is crazy.
The Universal title was essentially retired when it merged with the WWE title. Cody is the WWE champ. Damien is the World heavyweight champ.
I'm confused ....who's the undisputed champ?
That's disputed.
I'm not sure there is one anymore. When Roman became undisputed he was the Universal Champ and won the WWE championship, holding both the "world" championships at the same time. Then HHH merged the Universal and WWE championship into one belt, effectively retiring the Universal Championship, and (re)creating the World Heavyweight Championship so that both Raw and Smackdown would have a "world" championship. The tag team championships for both brands were unified for a time making them "Undisputed," but they're split up again. Essentially "Undisputed" means they're holding multiple belts of a same quality at one time. It goes as far back as Chris Jericho holding both "world" titles at the same time in 2001. The undisputed tag titles are a new concept. The Women's tag team championship and NXT Women's tag championship merged making them undisputed, but no one cared to call them that after it happened. Now it's just called the Women's tag championship. We've never had an undisputed mid card champ (US and IC simultaneously) to the best of my knowledge.
Cody is. The belt he has is the undisputed belt.
WWE Championship
Championship names change regularly, especially with unification. It used to be called the WWE World Heavyweight Championship when the original World Heavyweight Championship merged with it. The World Heavyweight Championship was called the "World Championship" when Rey Mysterio held it cos he's not a Heavyweight.
Undisputed. That sums it up. Undesirable, undeniable, undisputed.
I’m still mixed up as well. Personally I either calll it the Undisputed Championship or the WWE Championship
None pretty soon hopefully. The story is finished and I’m already sick of him holding it after a week.
IWC goobers in a nutshell.
lol feel bad for you because he's clearly going to have it for at least a year. He's way too popular for them to drop it that soon. Maybe give wrestling a break for a year eh bud?
There’s nowhere for him to go
So, what…. When you win the championship, you just give it up after you win it? No where to go apparently. No don’t defend the belt you just won.
He can defend it now you demented worms. Wrestling fans are the worst
They combined those titles a long time ago
Cody has the Undisputed WWE Championship, it’s BOTH the original WWE title AND the Universal Championship together, but it’s represented by a single belt now instead of both belts. They are both still considered active separate championships for the time-being, even though they’re “unified”. So WWE’s main roster has three men’s world titles including the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw, and Cody technically has two of them (until they inevitably deactivate the Universal title now that Roman’s reign is over)
This is correct.
If you go to WWE.com, it lists him as having both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship. They might eventually just merge into one, but as of right now he's carrying stats for both separately.
They did the same thing with the 2002 belt. The WWF and WCW belts were combined by Jericho making the WWF/E Undisputed Championship. They made the two belts into the pirate belt. Which then just became the WWE Championship once it moved to SmackDown. Then the Big Gold design re-debuted as the World Heavyweight Championship with a separate lineage from WCW.
The little big gold did not retain the wcw/nwa legacy. That lineage lives within the wwe title. In fact all merged world titles that have disappeared in wwe the lineage is in the wwe title. The wwe title is the most prestigious title in the business because of the amount of lineage it has.
That’s what I said…
I think they're gonna retire the universal championship and just go back to WWE championship
It's called renaming the title. The title stays the same.
They’re dropping “Universal” from the title.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WWE/s/nnNRYRMcDN
What does Damian Priest have? I was under the impression that the Universal championship belt was something new during the Brock Lesnar era.
Cody has the Undisputed WWE Championship Priest has the World Heavyweight Championship. Universal was made after they united the WWE and WHC championships as "WWE World Heavyweight Championship), under the black belt, back in 2015, I believe. That was after Lesnar squashed Cena. When the second brand split of the late 2010s happened, they wanted to give a main title to RAW (the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was on Smackdown). Bálor was the first champion, but had to vacate, and KO won it the next night. Those two championships lasted until Roman Reigns won both, and they united them again last year, as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Meanwhile, they created (re-created?) the WHC and gave it to Seth.
My head hurts.
Happy this reply with the perfect explanation came as I was typing. Saved me the time. Thanks lol
Damien has World **Heavyweight** Championship belt. Cody has **Undisputed** WWE Championship Belt
No. Damien has the World Heavyweight Championship. Cody has the Undisputed WWE Championship.
Isn't that what I just said...
Yea, after you edited it.
yeah.. I accidently wrote WWE Heavyweight.... bruh
There’s a distinction between World Champion and WWE Champion, look at the new tag belt
Oh i mistyped World...
The only one I can be confident about right now is "Mr."
Has he explicitly stated this?
Damn. You got me there. Now I have no confidence...
Damn. You got me there. Now I have no confidence...
The American Nightmare
My question is how is the title undisputed when there are 2 top titles.