Difference between revisions 3834200 and 3837111 on simplewiki

{{simple|date=January 2012}}
:''This article is about the best-known WWE championship, one that was once defended only on the [[WWE Raw|Raw]] [[WWE Brand Extension|brand]] of [[WWE]]. For the newer WWE top championship, once defended only on [[WWE SmackDown|SmackDown]], see [[World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)]].''
{{Infobox championship
|image=WWE Championship.jpg
|caption=The WWE Championship belt <br /> (April 11, 2005 – August 20, 2006; September 18, 2006 – present)
(contracted; show full)27;'' is a [[professional wrestling]] [[World Heavyweight Championship|world]] [[championship (professional wrestling)|championship]] in [[WWE]]. It is the original world title of WWE, and is largely considered the highest-ranking title in WWE. For a little more than two years (April 2009 to August 2011), it was defended only on the [[WWE Raw|Raw]] [[WWE Brand Extension|brand]], but can now be defended at any WWE event.

==History==
===Origin===
 
The WWE World Championship was introduced in 1963
, with Buddy Rogers becoming the inauguralfirst world champion on April 29. However, its origin is attributed to events that began in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a promotion with various subsidiariesIts introduction is said to have come about because of events in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a promotion with many branches (also known as "territories") in North America and worldwide. In the 1950s, Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) was a subsidiary to the NWAn NWA territory, and by 1963, CWC executives helad a controlling stake over NWA operationslarge amount of control over NWA. During this time, Buddy Rogers held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the world title of the NWA and its subsidiaries, until January 24, when, until Lou Thesz defeated Rogers for the championship. Following on January 24, 1963. After a dispute over the result, CWC seceded fromleft the NWA and a new federacreated a new promotion, the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was created. The WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was then established as having spun off from the NWA title wh. This new company then created a backstory for its new title, claiming that the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship had been spun off from the NWA World Championship, and that a tournament had been the recognition was awarded to Buddy Rogers following an apocryphal tournament in Rio de Janeiro,ld in Rio de Janeiro to crown a new champion. Buddy Rogers was billed as the winner of this tournament, having defeatinged Antonino Rocca in the finals. (In reality, no such tournament took place.) Affiliated with the NWA once again, the WWWF was renamed to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, and after conclusively ending its affiliatio. After WWF broke ties again with the NWA in 1983, this time for good, the championship became known as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship and later simply as the WWF  (World)  Championship by the 1990s.

===Prominence===
 
In 1991, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), another subsidiary to the NWA, established the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to complement the NWA's world title. WCW then seceded from the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to the WWF. Both organizations grew into mainstream prominence and were eventually involved in a television ratings war, dubbed the Monday Night Wars. Near the end of the ratings war, WCW began a financial decline, which culminat(contracted; show full)[[pt:WWE Championship]]
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