WWE Universal Championship

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 promotion, and was created on July 25, 2016 to rival the WWE World Championship, which became exclusive to SmackDown following the re-introduction of the brand extension on July 19, 2016. The championship is named in honor of the WWE Universe. Finn Bálor was the inaugural champion. The title is currently held by James Harrison who is in his record fourth reign as champion.

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 World Heavyweight 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.

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, while his opponent was determined by two fatal four-way matches on Raw, with the winners wrestling each other in a singles match. Finn Bálor 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. Bálor then defeated Reigns and was added to the title match. At SummerSlam, Bálor defeated Rollins to become the inaugural champion, and as a result, Bálor 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.

Reigns
As of July 19, 2021, there have been 13 reigns and 2 vacancies. Finn Bálor is 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. James Harrison is the youngest champion at 20 and his reign at 741 days is the longest.

The title is currently held by James Harrison who is in his record fourth reign as champion, he defeated previous champion Roman Reigns at Money in the Bank, after cashing-in his Money in the Bank contract.

Combined reigns
As of August 27, 2024.