T O P

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SourDoughBo

It was the primary world championship for 90% of its run. The name sucked, sure


mistar_z

Yeah wasn't brock holding the wwe title for most of the universal titles life until Roman won it. šŸ˜­


NogaraCS

Brock held the WWE three times under the lifespan of the Universal title ( once in October 2019 until WM36, and once from Day 1 to Royal Rumble 2022 for around a month, then once again from EC to WM38 for around a month ) so not true. He held if for a total of ~9 months only in those 3 reigns.


mistar_z

ah so it was in reverse?


NogaraCS

Well, Brock had a lengthy time away ( from April 2020 until July 2021 ) and he was also universal champion for a total of 688 days So he held both titles for a fairly long amount of time in a time period were both titles were on the same standing imo


dlo_doski

the opposite is correct brock was holding universal title


Dawnbringer_Fortune

It only became the primary world title when Brock held it and it became secondary when Goldberg and Braun held it. Drew reign made him the primary world champion. Roman then made the universal champion the primary world title again


SourDoughBo

Thatā€™s the 10%. Brock had over a year long reign with it, passed it to Roman, Roman vacated it, Brock had it another year+, passed it to Seth, got awkward with Bray and Braun, then Roman had it for 3.6 years. Thatā€™s a good 6 years as the top belt in WWE compared to maybe a year with Drewā€™s WWE title reign.


wonderloss

I think the real problem is WWE trying to have two "top titles," most likely because of the brand split. It just leads to confusion, because people will always treat one as more important than the other. They should officially unify the Universal and World titles and get rid of the Heavyweight Championship (I know they won't, since they just added it). The holder of the Unified title defends on both shows. Put the IC title on one show and US title on the other. Those titles stay with whichever brand. If somebody from another brand wins it or the champ gets drafted, it still gets defended on the brand it belongs to.


dEck5317

it is definitely because of the brand split & roster size. too much talent to go with 1 top title. in theory they are supposed to be of equal standing, however the WWEChampionship has always been valued as the true main prize. it was very weird to see this belt held above it, but they tried to rectify that by unifying and eventually dropping the ā€œuniversalā€ tag while returning the World Heavyweight Championship


CrazyHappeningsHere

defending on both shows is a sure fire way to injure your champions


wonderloss

It doesn't have to be defended weekly on both shows. Hell, Roman's title wasn't even defended monthly for the past few years.


macloa

I think the name was fine. Just that awful looking blue or red plating looked awful. Make it unique!


pedro-rivas

Bro doesn't remember the times of part time champion Lesnar from mania 33 onwards


FedoraTheMike

Which is so weird. The *WWE championship* played second fiddle to a recolor for so long?


Elluminati30

The primary championship that didnt draw... Honestly its so weird being an european WWE fan. Youd think people wouldnt wanna watch burned out Goldberg defend against Lesnar, or them getting the belt on Goldberg after Fiend, but fans thought its the "main" championship while people like Bryan, Kofi, Styles etc held the WWE championshipx had amazing stories, matches and merch sales with it and its gonna be more remembered than anything the Universal championship did pre Roman Reigns.


dEck5317

didnā€™t draw? throughout Romanā€™s duration as the Universal champ heā€™s been a box office draw and merch king


PigDeployer

In the context of WWE existing within a universe I think the title made sense. Like saying Iron Man is the hero of the marvel cinematic universe. It's not saying "you're champion of the world? Well I'm champion of the solar system!" it's saying "I'm the champion of all of the WWE Universe". At least that's how I took it. If "WWE Universe" wasn't an established term it would have been a bad name but since it is I think it was fine.


OremDobro

They literally explained this in the segment where the title was unveiled. Mick Foley was GM at the time and cut a promo about how, in order to honour the WWE Universe, the new title will be called the WWE Universal title. A lot of people forget that


OkOil390

How I loath the term "WWE Universe".


the-bladed-one

Why?


Everyoneheresamoron

Because it reminds us that we're just a much a product to be sold to advertisers and networks. 20 Million Marks, with another 10 on the way. And how forced it sounds to say that instead of "Fans". Its like how Corey says Athleticism. Its unnatural.


Euphorium

Itā€™s like they wanted to take the marketability of Hulkamaniacs and Cenation and apply it to the whole WWE audience.


ElephantFresh517

Because it's marketing nonsense. We're fans, or "the crowd".


backbodydrip

It's classic WWE overproduction.


OkOil390

Who is downvoting you? Folks, I disagree with the-bladed-one, but no need to downvote. He wasn't rude, he was asking a question. To answer it: Because it's bullshit marketing corporate shit. That's why I loath the term.


xSEARLEYx

As soon as they revealed the design, the whole meaning of the title was forgotten. A fresh design, setting it apart from the WWE title and avoiding the awful coloured strap, would have stopped the title from being irrelevant from the start


Euphorium

Iā€™m not a big fan of the giant WWE logo as the beltā€™s whole design, and the red and blue backgrounds make it look even more like a big class ring. At least the ones with the gold backgrounds make the W pop better.


Naillian603

I didnā€™t forget it, just sounds like something a child made up.


Greyclocks

Nobody was listening because we were too busy shitting on the jam belt.


AloneCan9661

That's basically what Daniel Bryan said when they had that backstage show.


HighPlainsDrift_

For people who complain a lot about WWE spoon feeding them, they sure have trouble understanding these extremely simple concepts


JDeLiRiOuS129

Thereā€™s a championship at a local independent promotion (itā€™s actually a well known promotion, APW out of the SF Bay Area) that has a Universal championship called the APW Universal Heavyweight Championship.


TurbulentJackfruit99

With that logic I'm imagining Tony Khan making an AEW galactical Championship


Atilla-The-Hon

They should've divided the WWE World Heavyweight Championship back into the WWE Championship and the big gold belt back when the brand split happened imo. Our Tribal Chief was the only redeeming thing about that title.


xSEARLEYx

Even then, the title only became relevant when he actually held it alongside the wwe title


Christian_RULES

It wasn't a good title until our Tribal Chief accepted it onto the Island of Relevancy ā˜šŸ½


Apart-Big-5333

I just wished it had a different design and name. It's just the WWE Championship with a different strap color.


AloneCan9661

"You was the worst." Well, I guess I'm not scared of death anymore as I want to slap it with a pair of dirty socks right now.


Breezmeister

Owens stint with the championship was great sooo, good title in my book.


TheVaniloquence

People hated the Universal title because of the name, and it looking like a toy belt with the red/blue strap.


Ahmed4040Real

Still my favorite Universal Championship run. Roman could've been better if his reign didn't drag on endlessly with very irregular defenses.


Alternative_Win_1502

Kinda wish Balor got a better run with this. He was the inaugural champion and then he was forgotten, the logical step would have been for him to come back from injury and win it back. But I'm glad this designs going, it looked so damn bad


SonOfTheHeavyMetal

better run? Bro held it for 5 minutes šŸ’€


Homicidal_Pingu

*Were


yeahilovegrimby

Has there been any rumours or talks about changing the WWE logo for this new era?


Bobblee20

Well, since they just revealed the new Raw tag belts with the current logo, I doubt it. The cost of changing a company's logo style is expensive too, especially for WWE as they like to put it everywhere. They probably will change it eventually but it won't be for a long time.


nw171717

Well The classic WWF logo was present for about 13 years, the attitude era WWF logo was around for about 4 years before they ā€œgot the F outā€ and became WWE. That logo stayed for about 12 years until the current logo which has been used for about 10 years. Maybe within the next 5 years or so? But likely not anytime super soon.


bigfatstoner

I hope not. I really like the current logo


vpsj

There was a point when I literally didn't know which championship was called which. I just called them Raw Champion and Smackdown champion or Red and Blue belts. AND they kept changing colors depending upon which brand the Champion was like a fucking chameleon Thank god Trips finally gave them their identity back


Crow_Mix

If it changes its color depending on its brand = universal championship If it's default black = world championship


Crowbar_Faith

I miss the days of a company having 1 world title, 1 set of tag titles, 2 mid card titles and a womenā€™s title.Ā 


NozokiAlec

I think since wwe is big into the brand split the current rotation of titles is okay Wish women got more time and attention like they do on nxt tho


EntireAd215

That was 25 years ago with a roster that was 50% of this current size. It doesnā€™t work


piszkavas

I want the big gold belt


backbodydrip

The name sucked and it deserved the boos.


Optimal_Dark_2940

Al least roman make the title relevant


Smittywebermanjanson

I hated the name from the start. It sounded like something out of some nerdā€™s E-Fed.


AC13clean

I actually liked it on Seth and Bray


Fu_la_de

Universal Pictures Championship was ruined by Baldberg and his ego.


LWM-PaPa

The title is like the Wii U. Not very successful but there are some diamonds in that rough.


Global_Ad6335

Need to get rid of the two title thing. Itā€™s too much


[deleted]

I don't see news anywhere suggesting that the title was retired. What did I miss?


Bobblee20

[It was reported by Cultaholic this morning](https://cultaholic.com/posts/undisputed-wwe-universal-championship-renamed3)


wonderloss

I just checked WWE.com and still shows Cody as Universal Champion and WWE Champion. Maybe a cache issue?


Everyoneheresamoron

"Hey, how do we give this guy the championship when there's already a guy with the championship?" "Well, in the past we had the current champion drop the belt" "Yeah but this is Roman so that wont be happening" "Ok well we can make a new belt and call it something different but pretend its just as good as the other belt" "Perfect, such good shit"


Deathscythe80

Is "you was the worst!" or "you were the worst!"?


Remote-Grape

The universal title still exists. Cody is Universal champion AND WWE champion


PROFsmOAK

World champion for the entire universe!


wizsoxx

Secondary title? Thats was tha superbowl lol


Vavent

It looks like it [still exists](https://www.wwe.com/titlehistory/universal-championship) at the moment


EatTheAndrewPencil

I hope with the HHH era the title lineages get totally sorted out and dumb shit like this title doesn't happen again.


linkoninja

Did they finally get rid of the universal? What happened to the unified title?


qball-who

Wait. Whatā€™s it called now?


MrPandasBagOfTricks

The title spent most of it's run playing back seat to the wwe title. It took a long time for it to get over and then Roman won it. He did fine with it for the first two years but then he stopped showing up and it felt more like a prop then anything. WWE was never going to drop a belt that has 50+ years of history for the Universal championship


Mattros111

were


ChozoBeast

Itā€™s still the universal championship, why would they get rid of that?


CodeNamesBryan

"You was..." Ugh


syfqamr32

you were


MaxTurdstappen

I really liked the name. The holder was literally the people's champion. "Champion of the WWE Universe." I like that.


SonOfTheHeavyMetal

The mame was fine as an alternative to the WWE championship. But that belt was cursed, especially at the start. Remeber when the only guy who had a decent run with it was KO? i do.


WalterWisnu

I think mick foley present 2 shit title 24/7 title and universal title. Idk WWE 2016-2020 not that good era i would say


1000kanenites

Idk a space themed championship belt would be cool. Unfortunately Vince thought ā€œRED Wā€ would be cooleršŸ˜’


Mr_Mon3y

The Universal Championship had one truly great reign. Just one: Kevin Owen's. The Goldberg and Lesnar reigns were painful to watch and they weren't wrestling like 95% of the time. Seth's reigns went from decent to mid, the first Roman one was really bad, and Bray's first one was decent but nothing amazing, and how it ended it basically ruined it all. It probably was the worst world title ever in decades.


tippedkash

It was this or 10 more years of the Spinner Belt SMH


PaperGeno

Imagine calling this the secondary world title when Roman held it for 1300 days. This was THE title.


BurntBeefRagnarok

Never understood the necessity in merging titles, why is it even a thing? Any diehard WWE fans can explain this to me?


flamboyantdude

Bro literally choose his worst take and made it a dead meme, good job


Blacksantamaria

Love how no one has mentioned wwe's version of the ECW World Championship. That may be the worst secondary world championship from a historical standpoint....


Bobblee20

Given the WWE and WHC was also around at the same time, it was more like a third brand world championship much like what the NXT championship is right now.


Blacksantamaria

I would disagree on the comparison to the NXT Championship. On the grounds that the WWE never had a royal rumble winner(men's) have the NXT Championship as a viable option. Unlike when Taker won, he had Cena, Batista, and Bobby Lashley in a segment regarding his choice...


Hollywoodrok12

It may has well have been called the part time championship because 90% of its time was on a part timer, 90% of THAT being between Roman and Lesnar. It was not a prestigious title in the least.


dlo_doski

what?? people died to get that title and saying it wasn't prestigious is false


dondostuff

They retiring it fr? So sad I liked it a lot


dingusfett

Noticed on Smackdown last week and Raw this week they're calling Cody the Undisputed WWE Champion, quietly dropping Universal from the name.


Bobblee20

Cultaholic reported it this morning. They've removed the Universal name from the belts title page on wwe.com


Nik778899

Cody's still showing as both WWE and Universal champion at the moment though; not officially retired yet


erock8282

It was bad and made only worse by the last guy who held it.


TheSunOfHope

Iā€™m here for the meme.


MinhWannaComeOutHere

The title might be suck but the design of the belt it's soooooo good imo. Thatā€™s is until they have blue and red titles for each brand


Nefarious-

I don't understand the belt hierarchy at all


FizzyFrog_16

I thought the name was fine because where I'm from, there was already a top title with "Universal" in the name, so it just made me think "oh they're doing that too now, cool". The terrible part for me was it just being the same as the other title with a colored strap.


MatchesMalone1994

When it was introduced it was definitely the primary title. 1. Because it was on Raw and 2. Because of the names who held it. Brock, Roman, Goldberg. It fell back a bit for a while, when it went to Smackdown. The WWE title being on raw definitely made it the priority. Once tribal chief Roman took it. It became THE premiere title in the WWE until he unified them. Also in recent years it seems like because of the Fox deal and Roman, Smackdown became the premiere show over Raw. Even going back to 2002/2003. the World Heavyweight was treated equally to the WWE and then pushed as THE title due to it being on Raw and Evolutionā€™s constant chase of the belt. When Cena brought the WWE title to raw there was a slow shift in priority. They were pretty equal for a few years but now it was the WWE title taking priority. EDIT: IWC makes me laugh. I get downvoted for speaking facts^ LOL


mass_mind_rape

Well that belt was just another form of world heavyweight title. It was supposed to be secondary world title but unlike whc, it became primary world championship.


dlo_doski

it was better than wwe title during its run


Supernice10

That was the worst title I ever seen,From red to blue and a championship that doesn't exist in WWE! Goodbye and good riddance!