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177-771: Following the acquisition of WCW by the WWF in March 2001, it became one of two world titles in the WWF, with its name being immediately abbreviated to the WCW Championship and finally, the World Championship in November. It continued to complement the then- WWF Championship until the following month, when both titles were unified to create the Undisputed WWF Championship . Ric Flair was

354-443: A Banzai Drop . This was Hogan's last WWF pay-per-view appearance until 2002, as both he and Jimmy Hart were preparing to leave the promotion. Hogan continued his feud on the international house show circuit with Yokozuna until August 1993. After that, Hogan sat out the rest of his contract which expired later that year. On May 3, 1993, Hogan returned to NJPW as WWF Champion and defeated IWGP Heavyweight Champion The Great Muta in

531-819: A TLC match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the unified championship was renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship and retained the lineage of the WWE Championship; the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. Orton and subsequent champions held both championship belts until a single championship belt was given to reigning champion Brock Lesnar in August 2014. After Dean Ambrose became champion in June 2016,

708-678: A Winner Takes All match to claim both world championships and then become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. WWE billed the match as a championship unification match and Reigns as a double champion, defending both titles together across both brands as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship . On the April 24, 2023, episode of Raw , WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H announced that regardless of what brand Reigns

885-469: A heroic all-American helped usher in the 1980s professional wrestling boom , where he headlined eight of the first nine editions of the WWF's flagship annual event WrestleMania (a record which was broken by Roman Reigns ). Hogan also was a regular headliner of Saturday Night's Main Event and its spin-off The Main Event in which he headlined 31 editions of both shows combined. During his initial run, he

1062-537: A quitclaim deal between Titan Sports, Marvel Comics and himself wherein Marvel obtained the trademarks "Hulk Hogan", "Hulkster" and "Hulkamania" for 20 years, and Titan agreed to no longer refer to him as "incredible" nor simply "Hulk" or ever dress him in purple or green. Marvel also subsequently received .9% of reportable gross merchandise revenue associated with Hogan, $ 100 for each of his matches and 10% of Titan's portion of his other earnings under this name (or 10% of

1239-481: A steel cage match at WrestleMania 2 ), Paul Orndorff, and Hercules Hernandez . In the fall of 1986, Hogan occasionally wrestled in tag team matches with The Machines as Hulk Machine under a mask copied from NJPW's gimmick " Super Strong Machine ". At WrestleMania III in 1987, Hogan was booked to defend the title against André the Giant, who had been the sport's premier star and was pushed as undefeated for

1416-517: A television ratings war, dubbed the Monday Night War . Near the end of the ratings war, WCW began a financial decline , which culminated in WWF purchasing WCW in March 2001. As a result of the purchase, the WWF acquired, among other assets, WCW's championships . Thus, there were two world titles in the WWF: the original WWF Championship and the WCW Championship, which was eventually renamed

1593-699: A Madison Square Garden house show before it was discarded altogether. The War Bonnet gimmick was revisited in the WWE's online comedy series Are You Serious? in 2012. The Mega Powers began to implode due to Savage's burgeoning jealousy of Hogan and his paranoid suspicions that Hogan and Elizabeth were more than friends. At the Royal Rumble in 1989, Hogan eliminated Savage from the Royal Rumble match while eliminating Bad News Brown, which caused tension, only to be eliminated by The Twin Towers himself. In early 1989,

1770-644: A blueprint for WWE's men's and women's world championships, with the only differences being the name at the bottom of the center plate and the colors, as well as the women's being smaller. First was the WWE Women's Championship in April 2016, which became the Raw Women's Championship later that year, although it reverted to its original name in June 2023. After the WWE World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to SmackDown as

1947-503: A championship match for the early version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Hogan was the only challenger in the history of that title that didn't win the tournament to become the no. 1 contender to the championship. After accepting an offer to work on the film Rocky III (a decision Vincent J. McMahon disapproved of and subsequently chose to release Hogan from the promotion for), Hogan made his debut in

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2124-403: A convoluted scam involving "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and Earl Hebner (who assumed the place of his twin brother Dave Hebner , the match's appointed referee ). After André delivered a belly to belly suplex on Hogan, Hebner counted the pin while Hogan's left shoulder was clearly off the mat. After the match, André handed the title over to DiBiase to complete their business deal. As

2301-470: A custom design that meant something, later said that WWE probably decided to go with the Rated R Spinner version in order to sell more merchandise. During Daniel Bryan's fourth reign (2018–2019) as part of his environmentalist heel gimmick, he threw the standard title belt in a garbage can (bemoaning the fact it was made from leather) and introduced a new custom belt, dubbed the "Planet's Championship", featuring

2478-415: A customized belt for John Cena, remained the standard title belt from 2005 to 2013. During Edge 's second reign in 2006, he introduced his own variation, the "Rated R Spinner" design, replacing the WWE scratch logo with his "Rated R Superstar" logo. Edge had sketched a completely new custom design, but due to creative differences, it did not get made. Edge, who was not a fan of his spinner version and wanted

2655-408: A double disqualification. Later that night in the main event, Hogan came to ringside to stop André interfering which helped "Macho Man" Randy Savage defeat Ted DiBiase to win the title. Together, Hogan, Savage, and manager Miss Elizabeth formed a partnership known as The Mega Powers . After Savage became WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, they feuded with The Mega Bucks (André

2832-501: A dream match at Wrestling Dontaku . Hogan wrestled against Muta again, this time under his real name (Keiji Mutoh), on September 26, 1993. Hogan also wrestled The Hell Raisers with Muta and Masahiro Chono as his tag team partners. His last match in Japan was on January 4, 1994, at Battlefield , when he defeated Tatsumi Fujinami. Starting in March 1994, Hogan began making appearances on WCW television, as interviewer Gene Okerlund —who

3009-404: A format which became near-routine: He delivered steady offense, but eventually lose momentum, seemingly nearing defeat. After being hit with his opponent's finishing move, he got a sudden second wind , fighting back while "feeding" off the energy of the audience, becoming impervious to attack – a process described as "Hulking up". His signature maneuvers – pointing at

3186-524: A fourth demandment—believing in yourself—and he also became known as "The Immortal" Hulk Hogan. Hogan became the first wrestler to win two Royal Rumble matches in a row, as he won the 1991 Royal Rumble match . At WrestleMania VII , Hogan stood up for the United States against Sgt. Slaughter , defeating him for his third WWF Championship, and then defeating him again in the rematch at United Kingdom-only pay-per-view UK Rampage at London Arena. In

3363-576: A globe in the center, along with Roman columns and olive branches. It read "World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion" and included the famous WWF block logo at the top, while four side plates had flags (two flags per side plate) representing the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Soviet Union, and Italy. On February 5, 1988, just before ending his first championship reign, Hogan introduced another new design,

3540-567: A great man. He's told me he's not gonna have Blassie around". The storyline shortcut was necessary because less than three weeks later on January 23, Hogan won his first WWF World Heavyweight Championship, pinning The Iron Sheik (who had Blassie in his corner ) in Madison Square Garden . The storyline accompanying the victory was that Hogan was a "last minute" replacement for the Sheik's original opponent Bob Backlund, and became

3717-448: A group of thugs in a failed attempt to take Hogan out before WrestleMania. Later that night, Hogan won his fifth WWF Championship by pinning Yokozuna in an impromptu match only moments after Yokozuna had defeated Bret Hart for the championship. Hogan reportedly used his influence to have the finish of WrestleMania changed the weekend of the event so he would be champion during an upcoming international and de facto farewell tour. At

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3894-422: A huge toll on his fighting spirit that he wanted to retire. Viewers were asked to write letters to Hogan and send postcards asking for his return (they got a postcard-sized picture in return, autographed by Hogan, as a "thank you"). Hogan returned by SummerSlam , and he dominated Earthquake for several months in a series of matches across the country. His defeat of this overwhelmingly large foe prompted Hogan to add

4071-427: A job wrestling outside of Florida; Graham agreed and Hogan soon joined Louie Tillet's Alabama territory. Hogan also convinced Leslie, who had yet to become a wrestler, to come with him and promised to teach him everything he knew about the sport. In Alabama, Hogan and Leslie wrestled as Terry and Ed Boulder, known as The Boulder Brothers. These early matches prompted a rumor among wrestling fans (who were not aware of

4248-405: A large center plate dominated by a cut out of the current WWE logo (encrusted with diamonds) inside an irregular heptagon with the capital words "World Heavyweight Champion" along the bottom edges, in very small print. The backing behind the logo was again the black leather strap with nugget texture. The belt retained the gold divider bars introduced in the previous design. The large side plates, like

4425-417: A large irregular heptagonal plate, with the border of the plate featuring diamonds and other gems. The backing behind the logo was the black leather strap itself with a nugget texture. The word "Champion" appeared in a large gold banner underneath the logo. Gold divider bars separated the center plate from its two large side plates. The side plates featured a removable center section that could be customized with

4602-470: A name plate, and like the previous two designs, it had an eagle atop the globe. There were also stars seemingly shooting out from the globe. It originally had the WWF scratch logo and read "World Wrestling Federation Champion"; after the promotion was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002, both the scratch logo and wording were changed accordingly. The inner side plates on this design also contained

4779-506: A new single title belt to represent the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. It features the same "Network Logo" design on a black strap, but the WWE logo is encrusted with black diamonds, it has a gold nugget-textured background behind the logo which was made as part of the metal plate instead of colored leather, and the text at the bottom of the plate says "Undisputed Champion"; the side plates remained

4956-690: A non-title handicap match in the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois . Hogan went on to repeatedly challenge Bockwinkel for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship , with the matches generally ending in disqualifications (a decision wherein the Championship does not change hands). In April 1982, Hogan defeated Bockwinkel and was declared the new AWA World Heavyweight Champion, only for

5133-615: A pair of wrestling boots and informed him that he was scheduled to wrestle his first match the following week. In his professional wrestling debut, Eddie Graham booked him against Brian Blair in Fort Myers, Florida , on August 10, 1977, in CWF. A short time later, Hogan donned a mask and assumed the persona of "The Super Destroyer", a hooded character first played by Don Jardine and subsequently used by other wrestlers. Hogan eventually could no longer work with Hiro Matsuda , whom he felt

5310-608: A result of the 2016 brand split, the design would also be used for the WWE Universal Championship that was introduced for the Raw brand. The design was also used for the SmackDown Women's Championship introduced in August until that title received a new design in June 2023 when it was renamed Women's World Championship. The NXT United Kingdom Championship and NXT UK Women's Championship belts also used

5487-400: A result, he became a major figure during the " Monday Night War ", another boom of mainstream professional wrestling . He headlined WCW's annual flagship event Starrcade three times ( 1994 , 1996 and 1997 ) in which Starrcade 1997 was the most profitable WCW pay-per-view in the company's history. Hogan returned to the WWF in 2002 following its acquisition of WCW the prior year, winning

WCW World Heavyweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

5664-512: A result, the WWF World Heavyweight Championship was vacated for the first time in its 25-year history because then WWF President Jack Tunney decreed the championship could not be sold from one wrestler to another. At WrestleMania IV , Hogan participated in a tournament for the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship to regain it; he and André were given a bye into quarter-finals, but their match resulted in

5841-508: A series of matches across the country during late 1989, beginning with a tag team match at SummerSlam , in which Hogan and Brutus Beefcake topped Zeus and Savage. Hogan and Zeus met at the Survivor Series , where the "Hulkamaniacs" faced the "Million Dollar Team"; in the early part of the match, Hogan put Zeus over by hitting him with everything to no effect. Zeus then manhandled Hogan and shoved referee Dave Hebner down twice, with

6018-606: A steel cage match on the Saturday Night's Main Event XXI , which was aired on May 27. In May on WWF on NESN , Hogan retained the title by losing once again by count-out against Savage. This was also the last time the WWF World Heavyweight Championship was referred to as such during a televised title defense, as Hogan's next successful title defense against The Honky Tonk Man on Saturday Night's Main Event XXII saw

6195-424: A story in 1988's Marvel Comics Presents #45 , a wrestler resembling Hogan was tossed through an arena roof by The Incredible Hulk, because he "picked the wrong name." Over the next year, Hogan became the face of professional wrestling as McMahon pushed the WWF into a pop culture enterprise with The Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection on MTV , drawing record houses, pay-per-view buyrates, and television ratings in

6372-663: A telephone survey asking if people wanted to see Hogan in WCW. On June 11, 1994, Hogan officially signed with Ted Turner 's World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in a ceremony that was held at Disney-MGM Studios . The next month, with Jimmy Hart as his manager, Hogan won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in his debut match, defeating Ric Flair in a "dream match" at Bash at the Beach . Hogan continued his feud with Flair (who defeated him by count-out on

6549-563: A television taping in St. Louis, Missouri , on December 27, 1983, defeating Bill Dixon. On the January 7, 1984, episode of Championship Wrestling , Hogan confirmed his fan favorite status (for any WWF fans unaware of his late 1981 babyface turn) by saving Bob Backlund from a three-way assault by the Wild Samoans . Hogan's turn was explained simply by Backlund: "He's changed his ways. He's

6726-581: A title to London police officer Charlie Guenigault for his "exceptional bravery" during the 2017 London Bridge attack , and to the U.S. servicemen and women who have helped in hosting WWE Tribute to the Troops (since 2015) as well as for their continued service to the country. In 2020, WWE Championship belts were also presented to Christophe Agius and Philippe Chéreau, WWE announcers in France for 20 consecutive years presenting WWE on French television. With

6903-608: A title vacancy that occurred in 1994 and instead viewing that as one continuous reign. WWE Championship The WWE Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE , defended on the SmackDown brand division . Since April 2022, the title has been jointly held and defended with the WWE Universal Championship as

7080-571: A tradition for WWE, and they have since created custom WWE Championship belts for winners in professional sports, with the side plates commemorating the achievement. They have also presented a custom belt to exceptionally notable people for their efforts in their profession. WWE had originally presented custom WWE Championships to winners in both male and female sports, but in 2018, they began presenting those in female sports with custom Women's Championship belts. Since that original gift in 2014, WWE has presented custom WWE Championship belts to winners of

7257-518: A week; this was far more than the $ 175 a week they would make working for Tillet. Hogan and Leslie accepted this offer and left Tillet's territory. During his time in Memphis, Hogan appeared on a local talk show, where he sat beside Lou Ferrigno , star of the television series The Incredible Hulk . The host commented on how Hogan, who stood 6 ft 7 in (201 cm) and weighed 295 pounds with 24-inch biceps, actually dwarfed "The Hulk". Watching

WCW World Heavyweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

7434-552: Is an American retired professional wrestler . He is widely regarded as the most recognized wrestling star worldwide, the most popular wrestler of the 1980s and one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Hogan began his professional wrestling career in 1977, but gained worldwide recognition after signing with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE ) in December 1983. There, his persona as

7611-719: Is of Italian , Panamanian , Scottish , and French descent; his paternal grandfather also named Pietro was born in 1886 in Cigliano , Province of Vercelli . Bollea had an older brother named Allan (1947–1986) who died at the age of 38 from a drug overdose. When he was one and a half years old, his family moved to Port Tampa, Florida . As a boy, he was a pitcher in Little League Baseball . Hogan attended Robinson High School . He began watching professional wrestling at 16 years old. While in high school, he revered Dusty Rhodes , and he regularly attended cards at

7788-496: Is the longest in the title's history) ended when he lost the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to The Giant at Halloween Havoc via disqualification. Following the controversial loss (which was due to a "contract clause"), the WCW World Heavyweight Championship became vacant and a new champion was to be crowned in a 60-man three-ring battle royal at World War III , where The Giant cost Hogan

7965-406: Is the oldest championship currently active in WWE, and is presented as being the promotion's most prestigious title, with many matches for the title having headlined pay-per-view and livestreaming events —including WWE's flagship event WrestleMania . In professional wrestling in general, it is considered to be one of the most prestigious championships of all time. From its inception until 2001, it

8142-526: The Clash of the Champions XXVIII , thus Hogan retained the title), which culminated in a steel cage match (with Flair's career on the line and Mr. T as the special guest referee ) that Hogan won. After Hogan headlined WCW's premier annual event Starrcade ( Starrcade: Triple Threat ) in December 1994 by defeating The Butcher for the title, his next feud was against Vader , who challenged him for

8319-449: The 1990 Royal Rumble match , before losing to Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior in a title versus title match at WrestleMania VI on April 1, 1990. Hogan soon became embroiled in a heated feud with the 468-pound Earthquake, who had crushed Hogan's ribs in a sneak attack on The Brother Love Show in May 1990. On television, announcers explained that both Hogan's injuries and his WrestleMania VI loss to Warrior took such

8496-599: The American Wrestling Association (AWA), owned by Verne Gagne , in August 1981. Hogan started his AWA run as a villain, with "Luscious" Johnny Valiant as his manager. This did not last long, however, as the AWA fans fell in love with Hogan's presence and Hogan became the top fan favorite of the AWA, battling the Heenan Family and Nick Bockwinkel . Hogan's turn as a fan favorite came at

8673-600: The Axe Bomber , a crooked arm lariat , as his finisher in Japan instead of the running leg drop that has been his standard finisher in America. Hogan still made appearances for the WWF, even unsuccessfully challenging Pedro Morales for the Intercontinental Championship on March 26, 1981. On June 2, 1983, Hogan became the first International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) tournament winner and

8850-558: The Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) territory from September through December 1979 as Sterling Golden. In the fall of 1979, former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk introduced Bollea to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) owner/promoter Vincent J. McMahon , who was impressed with his charisma and physical stature. McMahon, who wanted to use an Irish name, gave him the last name Hogan, and also wanted him to dye his hair red. Bollea claims his hair

9027-479: The NWA Television Championship at the time. The '84 belt consisted of a dual-plated gold and silver main plate as well as two dual-plated side plates on each side. The main plate was engraved with red lettering. The '85 belt had a silver and black main plate with raised silver lettering and the same side plates as the '84 belt. Both belts included black straps. Both center plates read "WWF" at

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9204-476: The Tampa Sportatorium . It was at one of those wrestling cards where he first noticed Superstar Billy Graham and began looking to him for inspiration; since he first saw Graham on TV, Hogan wanted to match his "inhuman" look. Hogan was also a musician, spending a decade playing fretless bass guitar in several Florida-based rock bands. He went on to study at Hillsborough Community College and

9381-662: The Undisputed WWE Championship , but both titles have maintained their individual lineages. It is one of three world titles in WWE, alongside its companion Universal Championship on SmackDown, and the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw . The current champion is Cody Rhodes , who is in his first reign. He won the undisputed title by defeating previous champion Roman Reigns in a Bloodline Rules match at WrestleMania XL Night 2 on April 7, 2024. The original world championship of

9558-608: The University of South Florida . After music gigs began to get in the way of his time in college, he dropped out of the University of South Florida. Eventually, Hogan and two local musicians formed a band called Ruckus in 1976. The band soon became popular in the Tampa Bay region. During his spare time, Hogan worked out at Hector's Gym in the Tampa Bay area, where he began lifting. Many of the wrestlers who were competing in

9735-578: The World Series , Super Bowl , NBA Finals , FIFA Women's World Cup , College Football Playoff National Championship , Stanley Cup Finals , Australian Open , Premier League , Bundesliga , Indian Premier League , Liga MX , Argentine Primera División , Major League Baseball Home Run Derby , Formula One World Championship , UEFA Champions League , Overwatch League , Cricket World Cup , Men's US Open , and Canadian Football League Grey Cup . WWE also presented

9912-580: The " WCW Disney tapings ", it was revealed that WCW had been changing titles around without the NWA agreeing on it, making it a breach of contract. In September 1993, WCW left the NWA for good over a dispute regarding the other NWA members demanding that NWA world champion be available for booking, and due to the use of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on syndicated programming recorded months in advance. By fall 1993, Rick Rude

10089-421: The "Spinner Belt", which had a gold and diamond bling-bling style reflecting his hip hop character at the time. Although originally a custom belt for Cena, it became the WWE Championship's primary design from April 12, 2005, until February 18, 2013. The scratch WWE logo, placed between an eagle on top and the word "Champ" and a name plate below, could be spun like spinner wheels or a turntable in keeping with

10266-436: The "Winged Eagle" championship belt, which became the primary design for the next decade with many wrestlers holding this version, and is considered the most popular design of the championship. Its nickname is derived from the eagle's wings seemingly coming off of the center plate, which included the block WWF logo and read "World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion". The championship belt also had four identical side plates. Apart from

10443-559: The "World Championship". In December 2001, the two championships were unified at Vengeance . At the event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Kurt Angle to retain the WWF Championship, while Chris Jericho defeated The Rock for the World Championship. After this, Jericho then defeated Austin, unifying the WWF and World Championships, and becoming the first Undisputed WWF Champion; the Undisputed championship retained

10620-552: The "undisputed" moniker, while the World Heavyweight Championship (2002–2013 version) was created for Raw. ECW became a third brand in 2006, adding the ECW Championship . That title was deactivated in 2010, and the World Heavyweight Championship was unified into the WWE Championship in 2013. The championship was again the sole world title of WWE until the introduction of the Universal Championship with

10797-507: The 1950s, Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) was a member of the NWA and by 1963, its executives held a controlling stake over NWA operations. During this time, Buddy Rogers held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship until January 24, when Lou Thesz defeated Rogers for the championship in a one-fall match. Claiming the title can only be contested in a traditional two-out-of-three falls match, CWC disputed

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10974-566: The 2016 brand split and then a new World Heavyweight Championship in 2023. During both brand splits, the WWE Championship has switched brands, usually as a result of the WWE Draft ; the 2023 draft moved it back to SmackDown. The title was introduced in 1963 with Buddy Rogers becoming the first champion. Its backstory began in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), which had various territorial member promotions . In

11151-559: The Anchor Club and the Whitey and Terry's Olympic Gym. In his spare time, he and Leslie worked out in the gym together, and eventually Beefcake developed a muscular physique. Hogan was impressed by Beefcake's physical stature and became convinced that the two of them should wrestle together as tag team partners. Depressed and yearning to return to wrestling, Hogan called Superstar Billy Graham in 1978 with hopes that Graham could find him

11328-461: The Beach on July 7, during a six-man tag team match pitting The Outsiders ( Kevin Nash and Scott Hall ) against WCW loyalists, Hogan interfered and attacked Randy Savage on behalf of Hall and Nash, thereby turning heel for the first time in nearly fifteen years. After the match, Hogan delivered a promo , accosting the fans and WCW for under-appreciating his talent and drawing power, and announcing

11505-591: The Beach , where Hogan won by escaping the cage. After successfully retaining the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Big Bubba Rogers and Lex Luger in two separate matches on Nitro in September 1995. The October 9, 1995, broadcast of Nitro was Hogan's first appearance in an all-black attire. Hogan feuded with The Dungeon of Doom , which led to a WarGames match at Fall Brawl where Hogan's team (Lex Luger, Randy Savage, and Sting ) won. Hogan's reign as WCW World Heavyweight Champion (which, at 469 days,

11682-532: The ECW Championship. In April 2011, WWE ceased going by its full name with the "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism , and the first brand split ended that August. Just prior to the end of the first brand split, a storyline saw CM Punk vowing to leave the company with the WWE Championship when his contract expired on July 17, 2011, the date of the 2011 Money in the Bank pay-per-view. At

11859-529: The Florida region visited the bars where Ruckus was performing. Among those attending his performances were Jack and Gerald Brisco , two brothers who wrestled together as a tag team in the Florida region. Impressed by Hogan's physical stature, the Brisco brothers asked Hiro Matsuda —the man who trained wrestlers working for Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF)—to make him a potential trainee. In 1976,

12036-429: The Giant , which culminated in a match with André at Shea Stadium in August 1980. During his initial run as a villain in the WWF, Hogan was paired with "Classy" Freddie Blassie , himself a villainous wrestler-turned- manager . In 1980, Hogan began appearing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) where Japanese wrestling fans nicknamed him "Ichiban" ( 一番 , "Number One") . Hogan first appeared on May 13, 1980, while he

12213-400: The Giant and Ted DiBiase) and defeated them at the main event of the first SummerSlam . They then went on to feud with Slick's Twin Towers : Akeem and Big Boss Man . In mid-1988, Hogan wrestled at house shows in singles competition with his "War Bonnet", a red and yellow gladiator helmet with a fist-shaped crest. This was notably used to give Bad News Brown his first WWF loss at

12390-575: The Hogan '86 version. A much larger version similar to the Hogan '86 championship belt was created for André the Giant before WrestleMania III , although he never wore it as champion. A custom championship belt was used by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin during his second reign (1998), which included his "Smoking Skull" logo as well as rattle snakes. As an answer, The Rock also had a custom championship belt designed and constructed, including his trademark "Brahma Bull" logo, but due to creative reasons, it never appeared on television. The Spinner Belt, originally

12567-517: The June 2, 2023, episode of SmackDown , Triple H presented Reigns with a new singular championship belt to represent the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Amidst confusion of the lineages, Fightful reported that WWE confirmed to them that the two championships are still in fact separate lineages, represented by one belt. This has also been represented on WWE.com, with both Reigns and Cody Rhodes , who defeated Reigns at WrestleMania XL , being shown as champions of both individual titles rather than

12744-794: The MSG (Madison Square Garden) Tag League tournament two years in a row: in 1982 and 1983. In 1984, Hogan returned to NJPW to wrestle Inoki to defend the early version of the IWGP title after that Inoki won in the finals of the IWGP League, becoming the new no. 1 contender to the championship. Hogan lost the match and title belt by countout , thanks to interference from Riki Choshu . Hogan also defended his WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Seiji Sakaguchi and Fujinami, among others, until ending his tour in Nagoya on June 13 losing to Inoki via count-out in

12921-537: The McMahon family crest of a lion holding a shield that had the company logo. The championship would drop the "undisputed" moniker in September 2002, becoming the WWE Championship again when it became exclusive to SmackDown!, while the Big Gold Belt was resurrected to represent the World Heavyweight Championship for Raw. After John Cena won the WWE Championship in April 2005, he introduced his own custom belt,

13098-471: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship lineage for its own championship. On July 1, 1991, a creative disagreement with WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd led to Flair leaving WCW for Vince McMahon 's World Wrestling Federation . When Herd refused to return Flair's $ 25,000 deposit (that was left with the NWA), Flair kept the "Big Gold Belt" that had represented the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. A new belt

13275-555: The November 7, 2017, episode of SmackDown . This was also the first time in nearly 15 years that the championship changed hands on an episode of SmackDown ; the last time was in 2003 when Brock Lesnar defeated Kurt Angle for the title. At Crown Jewel on October 31, 2019, SmackDown wrestler "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt won the Universal Championship, thus transferring the title to SmackDown. Also at that event, after reigning WWE Champion Brock Lesnar had defeated Cain Velasquez to retain

13452-587: The SmackDown General Manager and Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon named Mick Foley the Raw General Manager. Below is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the WWE Championship between the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. When introduced in 1963, the original WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was represented by a United States championship belt that Buddy Rogers had defended in various territories prior to becoming

13629-476: The SmackDown brand, leaving the Raw brand without a world title. In response, on September 2, Bischoff disputed Lesnar's status as champion, stating Lesnar was refusing to defend his title against the designated No. 1 contender, Triple H, and awarded the latter with the newly created World Heavyweight Championship . Immediately afterward, Lesnar's championship dropped the epithet "Undisputed" and became known as

13806-633: The Undisputed Championship was the only male wrestler allowed to appear on both shows. In May 2002, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the championships were renamed accordingly. At first, the championship remained unaffiliated with either brand as wrestlers from both brands could challenge the champion. Following the appointment of Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon as General Managers of Raw and SmackDown , respectively, Stephanie McMahon convinced then-Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar to become exclusive to

13983-402: The Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, both the standard versions of the WWE Championship and Universal Championship belts were used in tandem to represent the undisputed title, although both titles retained their individual lineages. On the June 2, 2023, episode of SmackDown , in celebration of Reigns reaching 1,000 days as Universal Champion, he was presented with

14160-508: The Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (WWE and Universal Championships) by defeating Roman Reigns in a Bloodline Rules match at WrestleMania XL Night 2 on April 7, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Following his win, the undisputed title's name was truncated to Undisputed WWE Championship. Hulk Hogan Terry Gene Bollea ( / b ə ˈ l eɪ ə / ; born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan ,

14337-563: The Undisputed WWF Championship for his record equaling (for the time) sixth reign before departing in 2003. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 , and inducted a second time in 2020 as a member of the nWo. Hogan also performed for the American Wrestling Association (AWA), where he headlined the inaugural AWA closed circuit supercard, Super Sunday in 1983, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) – where he

14514-616: The WCW World Heavyweight Championship (represented by the new belt) and International Championship (represented by the "Big Gold Belt"), by having Flair wrestle Sting in June 1994. Flair won and unified the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. The unified championship retained the lineage of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, while the International Championship

14691-442: The WCW World Heavyweight Championship at SuperBrawl V , where Hogan won by disqualification after the returning Flair's interference. Hogan then defeated Vader (who was managed part-time by Flair) in a non-title leather strap match at Uncensored . Because of the controversial ending caused once again by Flair at Uncensored, Hogan's feud with Vader culminated in a steel cage match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Bash at

14868-584: The WCW World Heavyweight Championship, which became known as the "WCW Championship". The WWF also utilized the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship , WCW Cruiserweight Championship , and the WCW Tag Team Championship . After the "Invasion" concluded at Survivor Series in 2001, the title was rebranded as the "World Championship", making The Rock the last person to hold the title while it

15045-406: The WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Hogan then lost the title to Sting in a match at Starrcade on December 28. In the match, WCW's newly contracted Bret Hart accused referee Nick Patrick of fast-counting a victory for Hogan and had the match restarted – with himself as referee. Sting later won by submission. After a rematch the following night on Nitro , where Sting controversially retained

15222-540: The WWE Championship at ECW One Night Stand on June 11, 2006, the championship briefly became a world title of the ECW brand; the ECW World Heavyweight Championship was subsequently reactivated for the ECW brand upon Van Dam's title win. Van Dam held both titles until he lost the WWE Championship to Raw's Edge the following month. The ECW brand was disbanded in 2010, subsequently deactivating

15399-437: The WWE Championship. Over the course of the first brand split, the WWE Championship was used as the world title of the SmackDown brand twice and of the Raw brand three times. In all but two cases, the WWE Championship switched brands as a result of the annual draft . In June 2006, WWE established ECW as a third brand, on which former Extreme Championship Wrestling stars and newer talent competed. When ECW's Rob Van Dam won

15576-453: The WWF Championship belt to represent the WWF Championship until a single belt was presented to then champion Triple H by Ric Flair in April 2002. The inaugural champion was Ric Flair , and there were 63 different champions overall. The longest reigning champion was Hulk Hogan who held the title from July 17, 1994, to October 29, 1995, for a total of 469 days. Hogan holds the record for longest combined reigns at 1,177 days. Ric Flair has

15753-480: The WWF and World Championships into the Undisputed WWF Championship, the "Big Eagle" championship belt was used in tandem with the " Big Gold Belt ", the former WCW Championship belt, until a single Undisputed Championship belt was introduced to champion Triple H on the April 1, 2002, episode of Raw . This new belt, dubbed the "Undisputed Championship Belt", was designed by New York -based tattoo artist Keith Ciaramello. Taking inspiration from WCW, this design included

15930-438: The WWF to pursue a career in film and television. He was lured back to the ring when he signed with rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994. He won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six times , and holds the record for the longest reign . In 1996, he underwent a career renaissance upon adopting the villainous persona of "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, leading the popular New World Order (nWo) stable . As

16107-591: The allegations. Due to intense public scrutiny, Hogan took a leave of absence from the company. Hogan returned to the WWF in February 1993, helping out his friend Brutus Beefcake in his feud with Money Inc. ( Irwin R. Schyster and "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase), and officially renaming themselves The Mega-Maniacs , taking on Money Inc.'s former manager "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart (a long-time friend of Hogan's outside of wrestling) as their manager in what

16284-736: The back of the head with his arm cast in a shot meant for Hogan. On Saturday Night's Main Event I , Hogan successfully defended the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Orton in a match that Hogan won by disqualification . Hogan was named the most requested celebrity of the 1980s for the Make-a-Wish Foundation children's charity. He was featured on the covers of Sports Illustrated (the first and as of 2013 , only professional wrestler to do so), TV Guide , and People magazines, while also appearing on The Tonight Show and having his own CBS Saturday morning cartoon titled Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling . Hogan, as

16461-476: The brand extension and wrestlers (including all champions), were then free to appear on any program. On July 19, 2016, SmackDown moved to Tuesdays and became a live show with its own set of wrestlers and writers, separate from Raw , thus reintroducing the brand split. The draft took place on the live premiere of SmackDown . On the July 18 episode of Raw , SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon named Daniel Bryan

16638-462: The caveats of rejoining is that the championship would no longer be recognised as a "world championship", and only as a regional heavyweight championship. In 1979, the WWWF was renamed World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and then after conclusively ending its affiliation with the NWA in 1983, the title regained its "world championship" status and was renamed the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Although

16815-488: The champion by way of being the first man to escape the camel clutch (the Iron Sheik's finishing move). Immediately after the title win, commentator Gorilla Monsoon proclaimed: "Hulkamania is here!". Hogan frequently referred to his fans as "Hulkamaniacs" in his interviews and introduced his three "demandments": training , saying prayers , and eating vitamins . Eventually, a fourth demandment ( believing in oneself )

16992-478: The champion's logo in lieu of a nameplate; the default side plates consisted of a red globe with the WWE logo on the globe underneath a crown. After Randy Orton unified the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship, with the latter being retired, the "Big Logo Belt" was used in tandem with the "Big Gold Belt" to represent the renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship. On the August 18, 2014, episode of Raw , reigning champion Brock Lesnar , who had won

17169-413: The championship belt was updated several times. First in 1971, this design was on an indigo colored strap and contained three shield-shaped plates. Below the center plate, which read "World Heavyweight Champion" and had a cross at its center, a separate horizontal plate read "WWWF". This was replaced with another design in 1972. This version, on a red strap, read "WWWF Heavyweight Wrestling Champion" around

17346-603: The championship was again declared vacant. It was decided that the winner of the 1992 Royal Rumble match would also be declared the new WWF Champion. Hogan entered in the #26 spot, but failed to regain the championship as he was eliminated by friend Sid Justice . In turn, Hogan helped cause Sid's elimination, leaving Flair (who had entered the match as the 3rd entrant) as the winner and new WWF Champion. Hogan and Sid patched things up and teamed together on Saturday Night's Main Event XXX against Flair and Undertaker, but during

17523-503: The combined Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, which was shortened to Undisputed WWE Championship after Rhodes won the title. With the first brand split, an annual draft was established in 2002. Each year (except 2003), the General Managers participated in a draft lottery in which select members of WWE's roster were assigned to a brand. The revived ECW became a third brand from 2006 to 2010. On August 29, 2011, WWE ended

17700-431: The decision to be overturned by AWA President Stanley Blackburn due to the use of a foreign object during the match. Hogan left the AWA in November 1983. After purchasing the company from his father in 1982, Vincent K. McMahon had plans to expand the territory into a nationwide promotion, and he handpicked Hogan to be the company's showpiece attraction due to his charisma and name recognition. Hogan made his return at

17877-483: The duo broke up while wrestling The Twin Towers on The Main Event II , when Savage accidentally collided with Miss Elizabeth during the match, and Hogan took her backstage to receive medical attention, temporarily abandoning Savage. After ensuring Elizabeth was all right, Hogan returned to the ring and begged Savage to tag him in. Savage, in a fury, grabbed Hogan's outstretched hand with one hand, and slapped him across

18054-431: The earnings, if Titan held no interest). This extended to WCW, whose parent company Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner in 1996 and became sister companies with Marvel rival DC Comics . (As Hogan was well underway with the nWo storyline under the "Hollywood Hogan" ring name at the time, this avoided Time Warner the awkward situation of paying Marvel the rights to the name while owning its chief rival.) In

18231-405: The edges with an eagle at the center, while six side plates represented several countries. 1973 saw the introduction of another yet similar design; this one was on a black strap and contained two grapplers above a differently designed eagle. This version was subsequently held by Stan Stasiak , Bruno Sammartino, "Superstar" Billy Graham – who wore a red leather variation – and Bob Backlund . During

18408-519: The end of July 1981, when during a television taping that aired in August, Jerry Blackwell , after suffering a pinfall loss to Brad Rheingans , began beating down Rheingans and easily fighting off anyone who tried to run in for the save. Hogan ran in, got the upper hand and ran Blackwell from the ring. Hogan was eventually victorious in his feud with Blackwell and by the end of 1981, gained his first title matches against Bockwinkel. In March 1982, Hogan defeated Bockwinkel and his manager Bobby Heenan in

18585-491: The event, Punk succeeded in defeating the defending champion John Cena to win the title, and left the company with the physical championship belt. Subsequently, the championship was vacated and Rey Mysterio won an eight-man tournament by defeating The Miz in the finals to be crowned the new WWE Champion, only to subsequently lose it later that night to Cena, for the latter's record ninth reign . Punk then returned to WWE with his own championship belt, disputing Cena's claim to

18762-604: The event. In 1992, the Big Gold Belt was used for the revived NWA World Heavyweight Championship, a co-promotional gimmick between WCW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling . Masahiro Chono won the G1 Climax in 1992 defeating Rick Rude in the finals while also having a broken neck in the process. Then in 1993 On January 4, The Great Muta won the NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Masahiro Chono, but eventually dropped it to Barry Windham at SuperBrawl III . Then at

18939-552: The face with the other before leaving the ring. Hogan eventually won the match by himself. After the match, Savage attacked Hogan backstage, which started a feud between the two. Their feud culminated in Hogan beating Savage for his second WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania V . Hogan's second run in 1989 lasted a year, during which he defended the title in two matches against Savage in April that he lost both times by count-out, before defeating The Big Boss Man in

19116-471: The fall of 1991, Hogan was challenged by Ric Flair , the former NWA World Heavyweight Champion who recently arrived in the WWF. The challenge went unmet, as Hogan lost the WWF Championship to The Undertaker at Survivor Series . Jack Tunney immediately granted Hogan a rematch at This Tuesday in Texas six days later, which Hogan won. Flair had interfered in both matches and due to the resulting controversy,

19293-511: The first annual King of the Ring pay-per-view on June 13, Hogan defended the WWF Championship in a rematch against Yokozuna. This was Hogan's first and only title defense since defeating Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX. Yokozuna kicked out of Hogan's signature leg drop and scored the pinfall win after Hogan was blinded by a fireball shot by a "Japanese photographer" (actually a disguised Harvey Wippleman). The victorious Yokozuna proceeded to give Hogan

19470-412: The first holder of an early version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship , defeating Antonio Inoki by knockout in the finals of a ten-man tournament. Since then, this championship was defended annually against the winner of the IWGP League of the year until it was replaced by current IWGP Heavyweight Championship , that is defended regularly. Hogan and Inoki also worked as partners in Japan, winning

19647-432: The first holder of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, with The Rock being the last. The title was the second of five to be represented by the historic Big Gold Belt , first introduced in 1986. In November 1988, Turner Broadcasting purchased Jim Crockett Promotions , which had promoted under the name "NWA World Championship Wrestling". While the promotion remained a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA),

19824-443: The first session in training, Matsuda broke Hogan's leg. After 10 weeks of rehab, Hogan returned to train with Matsuda and blocked him when he tried to break his leg again. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s In mid-1977, after training for more than a year with Matsuda, the Brisco brothers dropped by Matsuda's gym to see Hogan. During this visit, Jack Brisco handed Hogan

20001-545: The formation of the New World Order (nWo). The new stable gained prominence in the following weeks and months. Hogan grew a beard alongside his famous mustache and dyed it black, traded his red and yellow garb in for black and white clothing, often detailed with lightning bolts, and renamed himself "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan (often shortened to Hollywood Hogan). Hogan won his second WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Hog Wild on August 10 by defeating The Giant for

20178-475: The full name appeared on the championship belts until 1998, the name was often abbreviated to WWF Championship, which became its official name in 1998. In 1991, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), a member of the NWA, established the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to replace the NWA's world title. In 1993, WCW 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

20355-415: The hip-hop theme. The WWE logo was encrusted with diamonds while other parts of the championship were emblazoned with various other jewels. The inner side plates read "WWE Champion", though before 2008, one side plate indicated the brand the title was designated to. The spinning function was phased out in later years and the logo set in a fixed place, most notably during The Miz 's first reign (2010–2011) when

20532-432: The image for the WWE Championship; the Universal Championship title history remains a picture of the previous blue belt. Custom championship belts have been created to honor certain reigning champions or match their characters . During Hogan's reign in 1986, he had a modified version of the Hogan '86 made, which included a picture of himself at the center. Not much is known about this "mystery belt" as he quickly reverted to

20709-439: The inaugural WWWF world champion. The center plate of this belt was an outline of the continental United States and there were two shield-shaped side plates with grapplers on them; the plates were on a red leather strap. On the center plate, there was a circle flanked by grapplers, and the circle was designed to contain a photograph of the titleholder. Above the circle was a shield with an eagle atop it with stars on opposite sides of

20886-462: The inner workings of the wrestling business) that the two really were brothers, as few people actually knew their real names outside of immediate friends, family, and the various promoters the two worked for. After wrestling a show for Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) in Memphis, Jerry Jarrett, the promoter for the CWA, approached Hogan and Leslie and offered them a job in his promotion for $ 800

21063-406: The introduction of the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship belt in June 2023, WWE have since presented custom versions of it. The WWE Championship was the first world championship introduced into the promotion in 1963. The inaugural champion was Buddy Rogers, and there have been 55 different official champions overall and 11 vacancies. The longest reigning champion is Bruno Sammartino , who held

21240-418: The latter's reign, the promotion's name was shortened to World Wrestling Federation (WWF), but the physical championship belt still read "WWWF". After the previous design was destroyed, a new design was introduced in January 1983, nicknamed the "Big Green Belt" due to its size and the color of its strap. This was the first to be created under the WWF name. It included eight (later ten) side plates dedicated to

21417-737: The lineage of the WWF Championship and the World Championship was retired. Subsequently, the Big Eagle Belt (formerly representing the WWF Championship) and the Big Gold Belt (formerly representing the World Championship) were used in tandem to represent the Undisputed Championship . Jericho held the championship for four months until he lost it at WrestleMania X8 against Triple H , who

21594-424: The logo was turned upside down to look like an "M". On the February 18, 2013, episode of Raw , The Rock unveiled a new WWE Championship belt, often dubbed the "Big Logo Belt". The new title was partially designed by Orange County Choppers of American Chopper fame, as well as well-known belt maker Dave Millican. The championship included a large cut-out of the scratch WWE logo (encrusted with diamonds) inside

21771-644: The match Sid abandoned Hogan, starting their feud. At WrestleMania VIII , Hogan defeated Sid via disqualification due to interference by Sid's manager Harvey Wippleman . Hogan was then attacked by Papa Shango and was saved by the returning Ultimate Warrior. At this time, news sources began to allege that Dr. George Zahorian III, a doctor for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, had been selling steroids illegally to wrestlers in general and Hogan in particular. Hogan appeared on an episode of The Arsenio Hall Show to deny

21948-489: The match, Hogan thanked DiBiase for putting him over and told him that he "owed him one", a favor he repaid during DiBiase's second run with the company in the late 1980s and early 1990s as "The Million Dollar Man". McMahon gave Hogan former tag team champion Tony Altomare as chaperone and guide. At this time, Hogan wrestled Bob Backlund for the WWF Championship , and he started his first big feud with André

22125-401: The midst of Hogan's speech. Then, on an edition of Piper's Pit , Hogan was confronted by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, who announced that André was his new protégé, and Andre challenged Hogan to a title match at WrestleMania III, where Hogan successfully defended the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against André the Giant. During the match, Hogan hit a body slam on the 520-pound André (which

22302-456: The opponent (later accompanied by a loud "you!" from the audience), shaking his finger to scold him, three punches, an Irish whip, the big boot and running leg drop – followed, ensuring victory. That finishing sequence occasionally changed depending on the storyline and opponent; for instance, with "giant" wrestlers, the sequence might involve a body slam . In 1984, similarities between Hogan's character and that of The Incredible Hulk led to

22479-464: The premier WWF icon, headlined seven of the first eight WrestleMania events. He also co-hosted Saturday Night Live on March 30, 1985, during this lucrative run. AT&T reported that the 900 number information line he ran while with the WWF was the single biggest 900 number from 1991 to 1993. Hogan continued to run a 900 number after joining World Championship Wrestling (WCW). On Saturday Night's Main Event II , he successfully defended

22656-452: The previous champions. The center plate featured a wrestler holding up a championship belt with a globe behind him. This design, held by Bob Backlund, The Iron Sheik , and Hulk Hogan , was replaced first by the "Hogan '84" design during the spring of 1984, then by the nearly identical "Hogan '85" design, which first appeared at WrestleMania 1. Both were called "Hogan" belts as they were only worn by Hulk Hogan, and they were similar in design to

22833-416: The previous design, included removable round center sections, allowing the holder's personal logo to be added to the championship belt; the default plates showed gold and red world maps with the WWE logo over them but without the crown from the previous design. Customizable side plates have since become a prominent feature with the majority of WWE's championship belts. The "Network Logo" design would become

23010-510: The previous fifteen years. A new storyline was introduced in early 1987; Hogan was presented a trophy for being the WWF World Heavyweight Champion for three consecutive years. André the Giant, who was Hogan's good friend, came out to congratulate him. Shortly afterward, André was presented a slightly smaller trophy for being "undefeated in the WWF for 15 years". Hogan came out to congratulate André, who walked out in

23187-423: The process. The centerpiece attraction for the first WrestleMania on March 31, 1985, Hogan teamed with legit friend, TV and movie star Mr. T to defeat his archrival "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff when "Cowboy" Bob Orton , who had been in the corner of Piper and Orndorff, accidentally caused his team's defeat by knocking out Orndorff after he jumped from the top turnbuckle and hit him in

23364-542: The promotion, it was established by the then- World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) on April 25, 1963, as the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship, after the promotion seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) following a dispute over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship . The inaugural champion was Buddy Rogers . Since its inception, the title has undergone many name changes due to company name changes and title unifications. It

23541-413: The same base outline but with a different design on the center plate itself. After the introduction of the Universal Championship, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship subsequently reverted to being called the WWE Championship, although from July to December 2016, it was called the "WWE World Championship". The physical belt retained the text "World Heavyweight Champion". After Roman Reigns became

23718-493: The same design as the "Network Logo" belt, but made from "entirely sustainable materials" (such as the strap being made from hemp and the center and side plates carved from wood of a naturally fallen oak tree ; the side plates also had his name instead of the WWE logo). In October 2014, WWE presented the San Francisco Giants a replica of the "Network Logo" belt for winning the 2014 World Series . This began

23895-502: The same. Despite this, his manager Paul Heyman had continued to carry around the previous WWE and Universal Championship belts until the end of July. On WWE's website, pictures of the previous title belts were still used for the individual title histories of each championship until April 2024 when the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (subsequently referred to as the Undisputed WWE Championship) belt replaced

24072-546: The second shove prompting Hebner to disqualify Zeus from the match. Hogan and Beefcake then defeated Zeus and Savage in a rematch at the No Holds Barred pay-per-view to end the feud. Hogan also had defeated Savage to retain the WWF Championship in their official WrestleMania rematch on October 10, at United Kingdom show First WWF UK Event at London Arena . During his second reign as the WWF Champion, Hogan won

24249-457: The shield. The caption "World's Champion" was added below the circle. This title belt was worn by the inaugural champion Buddy Rogers in 1963 and the second champion Bruno Sammartino. After Sammartino became champion, a new title belt on a blue strap was created and used until 1965. The enlarged center piece contained a crowned globe and two grapplers, and read "WWWF World Champion"; the two side plates commemorated Sammartino's title win. This belt

24426-422: The shortest title reign, having won it and lost it on the same night on May 29, 2000. The Giant was youngest champion, at the age of 23. The oldest champion was Ric Flair who won at the age of 51. Flair held the title the most times with eight championship reigns, the six had been recognized by the WWE. There were twelve vacancies throughout the title's history. The Rock was the final WCW Champion, before it

24603-783: The show backstage, Mary Jarrett noticed that Hogan was actually bigger than Ferrigno, who was well known at the time for having large muscles. As a result, Hogan began performing as Terry "The Hulk" Boulder and sometimes wrestled as Sterling Golden. On December 1, 1979, Hogan won his first professional wrestling championship , the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship (Northern Division) , recognized in Alabama and Tennessee , when he defeated Bob Roop in Knoxville, Tennessee . He dropped it in January 1980 to Bob Armstrong . He briefly wrestled in

24780-472: The side plates were updated with the inner side plates containing the McMahon family crest of a lion holding a shield that had the WWF logo. When it was unveiled, it originally contained the block WWF logo and was on a blue strap, but was updated in November 1998 to the WWF scratch logo and on a black strap. In addition to the logo, it read "World Wrestling Federation Champion". After Chris Jericho unified

24957-569: The title . The two WWE Champions wrestled each other at SummerSlam ; Punk defeated Cena to solidify his claim on the title. Following the end of the first brand split in August 2011, both the WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion could appear on both Raw and SmackDown . In November 2013, the night after Survivor Series , reigning World Heavyweight Champion John Cena made a challenge to reigning WWE Champion Randy Orton to determine WWE's undisputed world champion. Orton defeated Cena in

25134-530: The title against Nikolai Volkoff in a flag match . He met long-time rival Roddy Piper in a WWF title match at the Wrestling Classic pay-per-view (PPV) event. Hogan retained the title by disqualification after Bob Orton interfered and hit Hogan with his cast. Hogan had many challengers in the way as the new year began. Throughout 1986, Hogan made successful title defenses against challengers such as Terry Funk , Don Muraco , King Kong Bundy (in

25311-414: The title being renamed and referred simply as the WWF Championship. Also during Hogan's second reign as champion, he starred in the movie No Holds Barred , which was the inspiration of a feud with Hogan's co-star Tom Lister, Jr. , who appeared at wrestling events as his movie character, Zeus (an "unstoppable monster" who was jealous over Hogan's higher billing and wanted revenge). Hogan easily beat Zeus in

25488-538: The title change, and thus seceded from the NWA and became the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). The WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was then established and awarded to Buddy Rogers with the explanation that he won a fictional tournament in Rio de Janeiro , supposedly defeating Antonino Rocca in the finals. After several years, the WWWF became affiliated with the NWA once again; one of

25665-428: The title for the first time at the age of 25 years, 44 days during SummerSlam 2002 in August 2002, while the oldest champion is Mr. McMahon , who won the title for the first and only time at the age of 54 years, 21 days during the September 16, 1999 episode of SmackDown. John Cena holds the record for most reigns with 13 which occurred between 2005 and 2017. Cody Rhodes is the current champion in his first reign. He won

25842-401: The title from May 17, 1963, to January 18, 1971, for a total of 2,803 days (7 years, 8 months, and 1 day); Sammartino also holds the record for longest combined reign at 4,040 days. André the Giant is the shortest reigning champion, officially holding the title for 1 minute, 48 seconds due to selling the title to Ted DiBiase following his title win. The youngest champion is Brock Lesnar, who won

26019-490: The title the night before at SummerSlam , was presented with a single championship belt, retiring the Big Gold Belt in the process. This new standard belt, often dubbed the "Network Logo" belt, had a slightly updated design from the belt introduced by The Rock in 2013 as a result of WWE changing their corporate logo to the one originally used for the WWE Network , which had launched earlier that year in February. It included

26196-612: The title was spray painted each time with the "nWo" initials in black and often announced during Hogan's title defenses as the nWo/WCW World Heavyweight Championship, while referred to by nWo members only as the nWo World Heavyweight Championship. Similarly, red paint was used for the nWo Wolfpack. In March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) purchased the assets of World Championship Wrestling. Soon after, " The Invasion " took place and four of WCW's championships were defended on WWF programming including

26373-430: The title's name was reverted to WWE Championship. In light of the return of the brand split the following month, Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown . Ambrose then retained his title at Battleground on July 24 against Raw draftees Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns , making the title exclusive to SmackDown. On the July 25 episode of Raw , to address the lack of a world title for the brand, the WWE Universal Championship

26550-406: The title, he was attacked by Raw's Rey Mysterio , who Lesnar had attacked a few weeks prior. The following night on Friday Night SmackDown , Lesnar quit SmackDown and went to Raw to continue his feud with Mysterio, thus transferring the WWE Championship to Raw. At WrestleMania 38 Night 2 on April 3, 2022, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated reigning WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in

26727-428: The title, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship became vacant. Sting went on to win the vacant title against Hogan at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22, 1998, and Hogan then developed a rivalry with former friend (and recent nWo recruit) Randy Savage, who had just cost Hogan the title match at SuperBrawl by hitting him with a spray can. The feud culminated in a steel cage match at Uncensored on March 15, which ended in

26904-466: The title. He spray painted "nWo" across the title belt, scribbled across the nameplate, and referred to the title as the "nWo title". Hogan then started a feud with Lex Luger after Luger and The Giant defeated Hogan and Dennis Rodman in a tag team match at Bash at the Beach on July 13, 1997. On the August 4 episode of Nitro , Hogan lost the title to Lex Luger by submission . Five days later at Road Wild on August 9, Hogan defeated Luger to regain

27081-443: The title. This led to a steel cage match between Hogan and The Giant at SuperBrawl VI , where Hogan won to end their feud. In early 1996, Hogan reformed The Mega Powers with Randy Savage to feud with The Alliance to End Hulkamania, which culminated at Uncensored in a Doomsday Cage match that Hogan and Savage won. After coming out victorious from his feuds, Hogan began to only appear occasionally on WCW programming. At Bash at

27258-423: The top, below that was an eagle with two banners below it reading "World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion". The bottom read "World Wrestling Federation" and above that was a name plate commemorating Hogan's title win, while the side plates noted previous champions. In October 1985, a new belt was introduced and was again only worn by Hogan. This belt is erroneously known as the "Hogan '86" belt. The center plate featured

27435-487: The two brothers asked Hogan to try wrestling. Hogan eventually agreed. At first, Mike Graham , the son of CWF promoter Eddie Graham , refused to put Hogan in the ring; according to Hogan, he met Graham while in high school and the two did not get along. After Hogan quit Ruckus and started telling people in town that he was going to be a wrestler, Graham finally agreed to accept the Brisco Brothers' request. During

27612-564: The use of the NWA name was gradually reduced on televised programming, in favor of the name "World Championship Wrestling", or "WCW". On January 11, 1991, Ric Flair defeated Sting to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and was recognized as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. The new championship was not initially represented by its own title belt, and WCW continued to use the NWA World Heavyweight Championship title belt. Because of this, WCW regularly claimed

27789-406: The usual black leather strap, The Ultimate Warrior wore white, light blue, yellow, and purple variations, with the latter also worn by Sgt. Slaughter . In March 1998, after "Stone Cold" Steve Austin became champion, he was presented with a new design, often dubbed the "Big Eagle" or " Attitude Era " championship belt. The center plate was similar to the previous design, but became fully rounded, and

27966-564: The video game, Hulk Hogan's Main Event . He was the frontman for The Wrestling Boot Band, whose sole record, Hulk Rules , reached No. 12 on the Billboard Top Kid Audio chart in 1995. Hogan was born in Augusta, Georgia , on August 11, 1953, the son of construction foreman Pietro "Peter" Bollea (December 6, 1913 – December 18, 2001) and homemaker and dance teacher Ruth V. ( née Moody; 1922 – January 1, 2011). Bollea

28143-486: Was a five-time WWF Champion , with his 1,474-day reign being the longest of the WrestleMania era ever. He is the first wrestler to win consecutive Royal Rumble matches, winning in 1990 and 1991 . His match with André the Giant on WWF The Main Event on February 5, 1988, still holds American television viewership records for wrestling with a 15.2 Nielsen rating and 33 million viewers. In 1993, Hogan departed

28320-410: Was added during his feud with Earthquake in 1990. Hogan's ring gear developed a characteristic yellow-and-red color scheme; his ring entrances involved him ritualistically ripping his shirt off his body, flexing , and listening for audience cheers in an exaggerated manner. The majority of Hogan's matches during this time involved him wrestling heels who had been booked as unstoppable monsters , using

28497-405: Was already beginning to fall out by that time, and he refused to dye it, simply replying, "I'll be a blond Irish". Bollea wrestled his first match in the WWF under the ring name "Hulk Hogan" by defeating Harry Valdez on the November 17 episode of Championship Wrestling . He made his first appearance at Madison Square Garden on December 17, 1979, defeating Ted DiBiase after a bearhug . After

28674-630: Was an overbearing trainer, and left CWF. After declining an offer to wrestle for the Kansas City circuit, Hogan took a hiatus from wrestling and managed The Anchor club, a private club in Cocoa Beach, Florida , for a man named Whitey Bridges. Eventually, Whitey and Hogan became close friends, and opened a gym together; the gym became known as Whitey and Terry's Olympic gym. Soon after, Hogan's friend Ed Leslie (later known as Brutus Beefcake ) came to Cocoa Beach to help Hogan and Bridges manage both

28851-653: Was appearing at the "Disney tapings" as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, despite the fact that in regards to the storyline, Flair, who had returned to WCW and regained the NWA title, was still champion. After leaving the NWA, WCW kept the Big Gold Belt, and it was renamed the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship . At Starrcade in December 1993, Flair won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, by defeating Vader . WCW decided to unify

29028-547: Was created; Finn Bálor became the inaugural champion at SummerSlam . After the unveiling of the Universal title, the WWE Championship was renamed WWE World Championship, but reverted to WWE Championship in December 2016 during AJ Styles ' first reign. The title changed hands for the first time outside of North America when AJ Styles defeated Jinder Mahal to win his second WWE Championship in Manchester , England on

29205-430: Was drafted to in the 2023 WWE Draft , he and his undisputed championship would become exclusive to that brand. Triple H subsequently unveiled a new World Heavyweight Championship for the opposing brand as the counterpart to Reigns' Undisputed Championship, which was won by Seth "Freakin" Rollins at Night of Champions . As Reigns was drafted to SmackDown, the World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to Raw. On

29382-473: Was dubbed "the bodyslam heard around the world") and won the match after a leg drop. Hulk Hogan vs Big Boss Man on March 7, 1989, at the El Paso Civic Center for a video-taping of a WWF "Superstars of Wrestling" event. Hogan remained WWF World Heavyweight Champion for four years (1,474 days) . In front of 33 million viewers, Hogan finally lost the title to André on The Main Event I after

29559-422: Was named as the WCW Championship. The title was then unified with the WWF Championship at Vengeance , where Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the World Championship and the WWF Championship, respectively. As a result, Jericho was the last holder of the championship title, and he became the first Undisputed WWF Champion. The Big Gold belt itself would be used in tandem with

29736-471: Was now a WCW employee—visited him on the set of Thunder in Paradise episodes. Hype then built over whether Hogan should remain with Thunder in Paradise or join WCW and have an opportunity to wrestle Ric Flair . On the May 28, 1994, episode of WCW Saturday Night , Hogan tore up his Thunder in Paradise contract and stated he was now willing to quit the show and return to wrestling, and Okerlund issued

29913-421: Was ordered, but was not ready in time for The Great American Bash on July 14. WCW was forced to use a belt owned by Dusty Rhodes from the defunct Championship Wrestling from Florida with a gold-colored plate tacked on with the words "WCW World Heavyweight Champion", which was awarded to Lex Luger after he defeated Barry Windham in a cage match for the vacant championship. The new belt appeared shortly after

30090-488: Was promoted as WWE's sole primary championship. An additional world title, the WCW Championship , was added after the then- World Wrestling Federation 's (WWF) purchase of World Championship Wrestling in early 2001. The titles were later unified as the Undisputed WWF Championship . After the first brand split in 2002 and the promotion being renamed to WWE , the championship became exclusive to SmackDown, dropping

30267-668: Was rebranded as the World Championship. He would go on to lose the title to Chris Jericho at Vengeance in San Diego, California on December 9, 2001. Jericho would then defeat Stone Cold Steve Austin on the same night to unify the World Wrestling Federation Championship and World Championship, and become the first ever Undisputed WWF Champion. In WCW , Flair was recognized as an eight-time champion but WWE only recognizes 6, counting his first reign as one of his 8 NWA title reigns and ignoring

30444-497: Was retired. The belt design used from mid-1991 to mid-1994 to represent the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was dropped in favor of keeping the "Big Gold Belt", which had originally represented the title when it was established in January 1991. During Hollywood Hogan 's runs as champion in 1996–1997 and again in 1998–1999 (ie from his second to his fifth reign as champion), as part of the New World Order (nWo) storyline,

30621-402: Was soon after presented with a single championship belt. The Undisputed Championship continued up through the beginning of the first brand split , which saw wrestlers being drafted to the company's main television programs , Raw and SmackDown , each show representing the brand of the same name, with championships assigned to and authority figures appointed for each brand. The holder of

30798-562: Was still with the WWF. He occasionally toured the country over the next few years, facing a wide variety of opponents ranging from Tatsumi Fujinami to Abdullah the Butcher . When competing in Japan , Hogan used a vastly different repertoire of wrestling moves, relying on more technical, traditional wrestling holds and maneuvers as opposed to the power-based, brawling style American fans became accustomed to seeing from him. In addition, Hogan used

30975-474: Was stolen in September 1965; a new belt was created with a mostly similar design with a couple of minor differences with the design of the side plates. This is the most recognizable version of Sammartino's belt that was used until 1971 and has been called the "holy grail of professional wrestling artifacts". After defeating Sammartino in January 1971, Ivan Koloff held Sammartino's belt for three weeks before losing it to Pedro Morales . During Morales's reign,

31152-545: Was the first time WWF audiences had seen Hart as a fan favorite. At WrestleMania IX , Hogan and Beefcake took on Money Inc. for the WWF Tag Team Championship , a match the Mega-Maniacs lost via disqualification. Hogan went into the match injured (he had a cut above his left eyebrow, and the left eye itself was fully black). The WWF used Hogan's injury in a storyline that had DiBiase allegedly paying

31329-600: Was the inaugural winner of the original IWGP Heavyweight Championship – and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). During and after wrestling, Hogan had an extensive acting career, beginning with his 1982 cameo role in Rocky III . He has starred in several films (including No Holds Barred , Suburban Commando and Mr. Nanny ) and three television shows ( Hogan Knows Best , Thunder in Paradise , and China, IL ), as well as in Right Guard commercials and

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