Difference between revisions 3837111 and 3837117 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)billed as the winner of this tournament, having defeated 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. 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 NWANWA terriory, established the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to complementalongside the NWA's world title. WCW then seceded fromleft the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to the WWF. Both organizations grew into mainstream prominence and were eventuallygroups became popular with the general public, and then were involved in a television ratings war, dubbed the Monday Night Wars. Near the end of the ratings war, WCW began a financial decline, which culminatended in March 2001 with the WWF's purchase of WCW.[1] As a result ofWith theis purchase, the WWF acquirnow owned the video library of WCW, select talent contracts, and championships, among other assets. The slew of former WCW talent joining the WWF roster began "The Invasion" which effectively phased out the WCW name. Following this, the WCW World Championship was unified with the WWF World Championship, at Vengeance 2001 in December.[2] At the event, Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the WCW World Championship and WWF World Championship respectively. Consequently, Chris Jericho was named the final WCW World Champion and the subsequent Undisputed WWF World Champion as the WWF Championship became the Undisputed World Championship in professional wrestling.  [3][4]

===Undisputed World Championship and Return to Regular World Title Status===
 
By 2002, the WWF roster had doubled in size due to the overabundance of contracted workers from the original WWF, as well as those who had come across from WCW and ECW. As a result of the increase, the WWF divided the roster through its two main television programs, Raw and SmackDown!, assigning championships and appointing figureheads to each brand. This expansion became known as the Brand Extension.[5] In May 2002, the (contracted; show full)[[pt:WWE Championship]]
[[ro:WWE Championship]]
[[ru:Чемпион WWE]]
[[fi:WWE Championship]]
[[th:ผู้ชนะเลิศดับเบิลยูดับเบิลยูอี]]
[[tr:WWE Championship]]
[[uk:Чемпіонство WWE]]
[[vi:WWE Championship]]