In professional wrestling, a championship, often referred to as a title, is a form of recognition promoted by professional wrestling organizations. These titles are represented physically by a championship belt that is worn or carried by the champion(s). Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in predetermined rivalries. These narratives create feuds between the various competitors, which usually cast them as either faces (heroes), heels (villains), or more rarely tweeners (morally ambiguous).
Professional wrestling portrays the structure of title match combat sports. Participants compete for a championship and must defend it after winning it. Almost all professional wrestling promotions have one major title, and some have more. Typically, each promotion only recognizes the "legitimacy" of their own titles, although cross-promotion does happen.
Behind the scenes, the bookers in a company will place the title on the most accomplished performer, or those the bookers believe will generate fan interest in terms of event attendance and television viewership. Lower-ranked titles may also be used on the performers who show potential, thus allowing them greater exposure to the audience. However, other circumstances may also determine the use of a championship.
A wrestler's championship accomplishments can be central to their career, becoming a measure of their performance ability and drawing power. The most accomplished or decorated wrestlers tend to be revered as legends. American wrestler Ric Flair has had multiple world heavyweight championship reigns spanning over three decades.
Professional wrestling's championship belts are modeled similarly to the championship belts in boxing, and other combat sports such as mixed martial arts. They are made of elaborately designed plates of gold or other precious metals, usually bearing the name of the title and the wrestling promotion, and is on a leather strap. A wrestler may win a sanctioned championship and redesign the belt itself. Some (such as John Cena's Spinner Belt) later became the official belt design.
Read also: Championship Highlights
Record 14-time WWE Champion John Cena.
While rare, there are cases of championships being represented with items other than belts, such as championship trophies, medals, crowns, etc.
Title Vacancies and Interim Champions
The fate of a title depends on the champion's condition and the importance of the title to the promotion (e.g. Gregory Helms held the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, despite being sidelined with an injury, because the Cruiserweight Championship was not a major championship). The champion may be forced to vacate his or her title if the injury becomes too severe and the championship is too important.
In May 2015, Daniel Bryan vacated the WWE Intercontinental Championship due to a major concussion and a year before, he had to vacate the world title due to neck surgery. However, a champion may keep their title despite a severe injury and despite the championship being quite important. In 1998, Shane Douglas kept the ECW World Heavyweight Championship while sidelined.
In 2005, Trish Stratus kept the WWE Women's Championship while sidelined with a herniated disk for four months. In 2012, CM Punk kept the WWE Championship while undergoing and recovering from knee surgery.
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In All Elite Wrestling, when a champion gets injured, a match is held to determine an interim champion until the lineal champion is cleared to compete, after which a match is held between the two to crown an undisputed champion. For example, Jon Moxley became interim AEW World Champion in June 2022 after then-lineal champion, CM Punk, was sidelined with a foot injury. When Punk returned in August, Moxley defeated him in a match to become the undisputed champion. These interim reigns are not recognized as official reigns.
However, if the lineal champion's injury renders them indefinitely sidelined, they can forfeit the championship and the interim champion becomes the lineal champion. An example of this happened in November 2022, when it was announced that then-lineal AEW Women's World Champion, Thunder Rosa relinquished the title due to a back injury she suffered in August.
Before the 1980s when title matches were rare, some champions could keep their titles even when injured; Bruno Sammartino kept his WWWF World Heavyweight Championship from April to June 1976 despite being injured by a botched body slam from Stan Hansen.
Types of Championships
A wrestler can earn a championship by defeating the current champion in a match (by far the most common) or in other ways determined by the promotion, such as winning a tournament for a vacant championship (occasionally, though very rare, in an effort to get a Heel over, an on-screen authority figure may simply hand a championship to a wrestler without the wrestler earning it, as was the case with Triple H and the World Championship in 2002). Championships are usually won/held by a wrestler whom the promotion's bookers believe will generate fan interest in terms of event attendance and TV viewership. The wrestler can create this crowd reaction either through in-ring skill, from a quirky gimmick (e.g. Eugene), or from mic skills while cutting promos.
Professional wrestling's championship belts are modeled after the championship belts in boxing. They are made of elaborately designed gold plates (thus their common nickname "gold," for example, "Your son has a fondness for gold," means he's either a current or former champion), usually bearing the name of the title and the wrestling promotion, on a leather strap. Since 2002, all major WWE titles have included a nameplate with the current titleholder on the bottom of the main faceplate. This is in the style of the NWA Championship of the 1980s (nicknamed the "Big Gold Belt"), which later became the primary title belt of World Championship Wrestling, which included a nameplate.
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World Heavyweight Championship
The world heavyweight championship (also just world championship, heavyweight championship, or in some cases the name of the promotion followed by championship) is the name given to the championship that is typically presented as being the most prestigious of those contested within a promotion. The wrestler holding a championship with this name is most commonly referred to as the "world heavyweight champion" or "world champion" (though some promotions may use synonymous/alternate terms, such as the AAA Mega Championship of Lucha Libre AAA World Wide or the Undisputed WWE Championship, the premier title of WWE).
Since professional wrestling is scripted, there is no promotion or group of people that recognize one official world title of the industry (the closest was the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship during the territory days during the mid to late 20th century). Instead, each promotion can promote their top title as a world title, with some of them promoting title matches around the world to claim the designation.
The first widely recognized world heavyweight championship was the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, created in 1905, and the inaugural champion was George Hackenschmidt.
Regional Championships
The most common types of championships are regional championships. Most national promotions will hold claim to a World Heavyweight Championship or something of the same global status, which always holds the premier position within the promotion. Smaller promotions often opt not to claim a world title due to their scope being limited to a specific area.
Chris Jericho as the WWE Intercontinental Champion.
A very common championship variation. The championship usually specifies the location on where the promotion is based, an example being WWE's WWE United States Championship. Sometimes it may specify a specific state or territory, such as the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship.
It is also common to be a smaller division of the world, an example being the WWE Intercontinental Championship, the TNA International Championship , or the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship.
Weight Class Championships
Another common classification of championships are by weight classes. Typically promotions prefer to have a heavyweight title as their top prize, with other designators such as cruiser weight, middleweight, or light-heavyweight titles. Despite having different weight limits from their boxing counterparts, these titles are considered to be equal standing with their boxing classes. Given the scripted nature of professional wrestling matches, weight classes are not always strictly adhered to.
Promotions often utilize one sub-heavyweight classification, while others sometimes may have more. Classifying championships into weight classes is also common practice in the lucha libre promotions of Mexico. Lucha libre has a detailed weight class system patterned after boxing. Each weight class has an official upper limit, but examples of wrestlers who are technically too heavy to hold their title can be found.
Gender Classifications
Gender occasionally plays a role in the classifications of championship belts. For gender-specific titles, the classification "Men's" or "Women's" is often included at the beginning of the championship's name. Due to professional wrestling generally being a sport dominated by men, only women's titles are given official gender classifications. Generally, only men are allowed to win the championships without a gender specification, though Chyna winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship in 1999 against Jeff Jarrett is a notable exception.
In promotions featuring only a single gender (such as Women of Wrestling or Shimmer Women Athletes), gender classifications are often unnecessary as well. Entertainer and comedian Andy Kaufman once parlayed gender classifications to his advantage, turning inter-gender competitions into a unique wrestling side-show. Kaufman declared himself the "Inter-Gender Champion of the World", and offered $1,000 to any woman who could pin him.
Gimmick and Style Championships
Gimmick match classifications sometime come into prominence in the creation of title belts. Gimmick championships often take very differing forms. A common variation is the Hardcore Championship, which throws rules out the window in favor of a weapons-filled and often bloody competition.
Every WWF Hardcore Championship Title Change in the Year 2000!
Hook as FTW Champion in AEW.
A recent example of a hardcore championship is the FTW Championship, which was used in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) from 2020 to 2024 and was primarily contested in FTW Rules matches. Another past such title was the WWE Hardcore Championship, which was active from 1998 to 2002.
In recent years, style-based championships have centered around what is known as "scientific" or technical wrestling.
A variation that was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s and made a return in the 2020s is a "television championship" or "iron man championship", which involves more frequent title defenses as well as the stipulations that the belt can only change hands on television (as opposed to non-televised house shows) with title matches having a short, TV-friendly time limit, usually 10 or 15 minutes.
These titles were originally introduced during a time when weekly TV shows were seen as a vehicle to promote the money-making live shows, where major title defenses took place. Television titles provided a championship that would be defended on the weekly television shows. Examples of a television championship include the AEW TNT Championship (named after the home network of AEW's Collision plus other AEW programming) and the ROH World Television Championship.
In 2021, AEW introduced the first TV title specifically for female wrestlers, the AEW TBS Championship, named for the network that is the home of Dynamite as of January 5, 2022, serving as the counterpart to the male TNT Championship. Sister promotion ROH introduced a similar title for their women's division, the ROH Women's World Television Championship.
A modern take on the traditional TV title are internet championships. As professional wrestling began having events on streaming and online platforms, some promotions modified their television championships to be promoted as internet championships to reflect this. Examples of this include the TNA Digital Media Championship, which was created in 2021 and defended up to 2025, where the full match are free to watch on to TNA's online platforms and YouTube.
In 2024, WWE introduced the Speed Championship for the men and women division.
Tag Team Championships
Tag Team championships are yet another different form of wrestling title. Some consider it to be a style championship, but tag team championships are unique in their ability to include multiple wrestlers on teams competing for multiple belts. The most common form of tag team championships are in 2-on-2 format, which is often implicitly understood.
Other tag team championships include 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 formats, which are often explicitly stated within the championship name to distinguish them from the 2-on-2 championships. Some teams may invoke what is called the Freebird Rule, in which a stable of three or more wrestlers are all officially recognized as champion, allowing any pairing of the stable's members to defend the championship. Tag Team Championships are also often combined with regional modifiers, gimmick modifiers, and gender modifiers to further distinguish them.
In such cases, the primary title is usually called the world tag team championship, with the other championships seen as secondary titles.
Unsanctioned Championships and Title Renaming
The concept of championships, and their central role in wrestling, allow for the potential for angles. One such angle is an unsanctioned championship title. A wrestler may also win a sanctioned championship and "rename" it for the duration of his or her reign.
Championship Belt Options
Thereâs a belt for every kind of champion, and you can design one to match any passion. From fantasy leagues and pro sports to esports, pop culture, and corporate victories.
| Belt Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Custom Design | Upload your file or type your text for printing on the plates. |
| Material | Heavy-metal plating, bold designs. |
| Custom Engraving | Real custom engraving with no setup fee. |
| Production Time | About 3-7 business days. |
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