Mid 20th Century
178-797: The WWE Universal 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 Championship as the Undisputed WWE Championship , but both titles have maintained their individual lineages. It is one of three world titles in WWE, alongside its companion WWE Championship on SmackDown, and
356-533: A No Disqualification match . In July, ROH announced the return of Tag Wars, where 12 tag teams competed in three blocks to determine new challengers for the Kings of Wrestling in an Ultimate Endurance match . On 28 August the Kings of Wrestling defeated The Dark City Fight Club ( Jon Davis and Kory Chavis ), The All Night Express ( Kenny King and Rhett Titus ) and the Briscoes to retain their championship and win
534-435: A bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether the individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in
712-416: A live broadcast format, the 2016 WWE Draft took place. During the draft, Dean Ambrose , who held the promotion's original world championship , the WWE Championship , was drafted to SmackDown. At Battleground on July 24, Ambrose retained the title in a triple threat match against Raw draftees Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns , thus leaving Raw without a world title. On the following episode of Raw ,
890-415: A performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in the 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance
1068-415: A professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
1246-458: A 1–1 draw, so Steamboat retained the title. A 20-minute rematch on the 8 April episode of FCW resulted in a similar 1–1 draw. A second 30-minute rematch for the title on 6 May FCW TV resulted in Steamboat winning 3–2. On the 13 May episode of FCW , Cesaro was then disqualified against Kassius Ohno (the former Chris Hero) and eliminated from a tournament to crown the number one contender to
1424-498: A Cell on 27 October, they lost to Los Matadores ( Diego and Fernando ). The following night on Raw , The Real Americans defeated WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Goldust in a non-title match. On 18 November Raw , a fan handed out a hundred simple black and white signs on standard printer paper with the words "Cesaro Section" printed on them. A group of fans held them up together in Cesaro's match and this made it to air and
1602-593: A Cell on 28 October, Cesaro successfully retained the United States Championship against Justin Gabriel . Cesaro then began feuding with R-Truth after Truth saved Kofi Kingston from a post-match assault from Cesaro on 29 October Raw . At the same time as his feud with Truth, Cesaro was successfully defending his title against Tyson Kidd on the 31 October episode of NXT . On 18 November at Survivor Series , Cesaro defeated R-Truth to retain
1780-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
1958-532: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
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#17327759917932136-519: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
2314-465: A challenge from Kevin Steen and ended up losing the title to him in the impromptu match, ending his reign at 287 days. On 20 August, after both Castagnoli and Hero were eliminated from the 2011 Battle of Los Angeles in the first round, they challenged PWG World Tag Team Champions, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), to a match for the title. The match, which took place later that same evening, saw
2492-585: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
2670-522: A contract with WWE and began working in its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) under the new ring name Antonio Cesaro. He made his FCW debut at a live event on 17 September, in a loss against Seth Rollins . He made his television debut on the 24 October episode of FCW , defeating Mike Dalton . On 6 January 2012, Cesaro made his WWE live event debut in Jackson, Mississippi , where he teamed with Michael McGillicutty in
2848-513: A contract. In storyline, the multilingual Cesaro served in the Swiss militia , before embarking on a career in rugby , which ended with him being banned for "excessive aggression". The following week on SmackDown , Cesaro defeated Tyson Kidd in a tryout match. In May, Aksana revealed that she and Cesaro were lovers. On 3 July live episode of The Great American Bash SmackDown , Cesaro suffered his first loss when he and Aksana were defeated in
3026-480: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Claudio Castagnoli Claudio Castagnoli ( / ˈ k æ s t æ n ˌ j oʊ l i / Italian: [kastanˈɲoli] ; born 27 December 1980)
3204-661: A developmental deal with the World Wrestling Entertainment , having impressed them with an appearance on Raw (as a police officer in a backstage segment) and a successful tryout for Deep South Wrestling . Shortly after, Castagnoli was released from his WWE contract. Castagnoli returned to Chikara on 16 February 2007 as a masked character named "A Very Mysterious Ice Cream", part of Los Ice Creams. Afterward Castagnoli started feuding with his former partner Chris Hero. On 22 April 2007, at Rey de Voladores Hero defeated Castagnoli and as per stipulation of
3382-404: A distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by the broader public. In the United States, wrestling
3560-574: 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 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
3738-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
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#17327759917933916-433: A fighting spirit, marking Cesaro's first ever face turn in WWE, while The New Day turned heel by using underhanded tactics during their matches. At Extreme Rules on 26 April, Cesaro and Kidd lost the titles to The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston). They failed to regain the championship at Payback in a 2-out-of-3 falls match on 17 May due to Xavier Woods' interference. At Elimination Chamber on 31 May, they failed to win
4094-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
4272-799: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
4450-476: A match for the ROH World Championship against Nigel McGuinness, but lost. On 2 August, Castagnoli failed a Championship rematch against McGuinness. Along with Bryan Danielson and ROH World Tag Team Champion Tyler Black , he competed in a four-man elimination match. He wound up being the first eliminated by Danielson and afterwards snapped and beat Danielson down setting him up to be eliminated by
4628-532: A match for the title and as a result Claudio could no longer challenge for the title as long as McGuinness was the champion. At the beginning of 2006 Castagnoli's partner from other promotions, Chris Hero, along with other Combat Zone Wrestling wrestlers invaded ROH and started a cross-promotional war. Castagnoli initially sided with ROH, but on 22 April 2006, at The 100th Show turned on the company and assisted Hero, Super Dragon and Necro Butcher in defeating Team ROH ( Samoa Joe , B. J. Whitmer and Adam Pearce ) in
4806-578: A mixed tag team match by The Great Khali and Layla . On 27 July and 3 August episodes of SmackDown , Cesaro scored back-to-back non-title wins over United States Champion Santino Marella . On the following SmackDown , Cesaro suffered his first loss in a singles match as he was pinned by Christian . On the SummerSlam pre-show on 19 August, Cesaro defeated Marella to win the title, his first singles title in WWE. Cesaro made his first televised title defense on 3 September Raw , defeating Marella in
4984-424: A more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise
5162-420: A mystery tag team partner match and sided with Tornado instead, Castagnoli came out and took Kingston's place as Hero's partner. However, when Hero went to tag Castagnoli, he nailed him with a European uppercut, turned heel and joined Tornado and Kingston. On 5 January 2008, at All Star Weekend 6: Night One Tornado, Castagnoli and Kingston defeated Hero, Necro Butcher and Hero's girlfriend/valet Candice LeRae in
5340-572: A new Champion. On 9 October's The Curse of Guerrilla Island , Castagnoli defeated Gatson, Hero and Ryan to win the PWG World Championship, his first major singles title in the United States. Castagnoli and Hero were scheduled to face PWG World Tag Team Champions, ¡Peligro Abejas! (El Generico and Paul London ), in a non–title match at the following event. Due to Castagnoli's title win, the Champions agreed to put their belts on
5518-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
WWE Universal Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
5696-454: A red globe), which could be customized with the champion's logo. The most prominent difference was the belt's strap, the color of which indicated the brand it was exclusive to. When the belt was first unveiled at SummerSlam 2016, the strap was red to symbolize its exclusivity to the Raw brand and the underline of the WWE logo on the center plate was black to make it visible (essentially the reverse of
5874-405: A rematch. Cesaro retained the title against Zack Ryder on 16 September at Night of Champions . On 21 September SmackDown , Cesaro ended his relationship with Aksana after an inadvertent distraction from her cost him his non-title match with Santino Marella. This led to a title rematch between Cesaro and Marella the following week, where Cesaro was able to retain his title easily. At Hell in
6052-530: A six-man main event match. On 15 July 2006, at Death Before Dishonor 4 Team ROH defeated Castagnoli, Hero, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb and Eddie Kingston in a Cage of Death match to end the feud. Due to having a contract with ROH prior to the invasion however, Castagnoli was allowed to stay in the company, while the rest of Team CZW were forced out. Hero returned to the company during the August tour of United Kingdom and on 16 September he revealed that he had stolen
6230-419: A six-person tag team match to earn Tornado a match with LeRae. On 21 March 2008, Hero defeated Castagnoli in a grudge match. On 6 July 2008, at PWG's fifth anniversary show Life During Wartime Castagnoli wrestled his last match at the time for the promotion, defeating Phoenix Star. Castagnoli returned to the company for the annual Battle of Los Angeles Tournament on 4 September 2010. Castagnoli made it to
6408-581: A spot at the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship . On 14 February SmackDown , while his ring name was shortened to Cesaro, he defeated WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton clean in a non-title match. At Elimination Chamber on 23 February, Cesaro was eliminated by Cena via submission. On 27 February at NXT Arrival , Cesaro defeated Zayn again, but embraced Zayn after
6586-738: A stable known as The Artist Collective. Cesaro and Nakamura won the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship once in July 2020, making Cesaro a seven-time WWE tag team champion in total. He left WWE in February 2022, and made his debut for AEW in June of that year, returning to his Claudio Castagnoli name and persona. When playing a villainous character , particularly in the United States, Castagnoli has been known to emphasize his European origin as part of his gimmick , proclaiming
6764-554: A superior intellect and fashion sensibility while regularly using moves such as the European uppercut . He gained a reputation for impressive in-ring feats of strength, and was called one of WWE's best and most underrated performers for much of his time there. He was voted " Most Underrated Wrestler " for a record four years in a row (2013–2016), by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . Claudio Castagnoli
6942-533: A tag team loss to Alex Riley and Mason Ryan . On the 4 March episode of FCW , Cesaro and Alexander Rusev unsuccessfully challenged Bo Rotundo and Husky Harris for the Florida Tag Team Championship . Cesaro then started feuding with Richie Steamboat over the FCW 15 Championship , starting with a title match (15 minute Iron Man rules ) on the 18 March episode of FCW , which ended in
7120-606: A tag title shot by The Usos. At the Royal Rumble pre-show on 25 January, Cesaro and Kidd defeated The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods ). Later that night, Cesaro entered the Royal Rumble match at #28 but was eliminated by Dolph Ziggler. At Fastlane on 22 February, Cesaro and Kidd defeated The Usos to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship. They retained their titles in a rematch
7298-763: A team with Chris Hero known as the Kings of Wrestling . The Kings of Wrestling became two-time ROH World Tag Team Champions , with their 364-day reign as champions becoming the longest in ROH history up to that point. The team also held various independent tag team titles, such as the Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas , the JCW Tag Team Championship , and the CZW World Tag Team Championship , with Castagnoli also winning
WWE Universal Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
7476-414: A three-day tournament to win the 2010 King of Trios . On 23 October Castagnoli represented BDK in the torneo cibernetico match, where they faced a team composed of Chikara originals. He eliminated himself from the match by low blowing Eddie Kingston, but his plan did not work out as Kingston came back to eliminate Tursas and win the match. At the season nine finale on 12 December, Castagnoli and Ares lost
7654-515: A three-week-long tour. The team went undefeated in tag team matches, before being defeated on the final day of the tour, 5 December, by Takuma Sano and Yoshihiro Takayama in a match for the GHC Tag Team Championship . The Kings of Wrestling returned to Noah in April 2011 to take part in the 2011 Global Tag League , where they managed to win two out of their seven-round robin matches, finishing seventh out of eight teams in
7832-409: A title belt made of broken metal pieces held together by duct tape , which challengers "made ... mean something by busting [their] asses". In a kayfabe promo on the following episode of Raw , the then- villainous Rollins called the championship belt "beautiful". Later in 2016, Jim Vorel of Paste ranked the title as the worst of the nine then contested in WWE, noting its "obnoxious" design. On
8010-456: A title challenge to Sgt. Slaughter as part of the "Champion's Choice Night" and then defeated Slaughter in the match that followed to retain his championship. At the Royal Rumble pre-show on 27 January 2013, Cesaro defeated The Miz to retain the United States Championship. That same night, he entered his first Royal Rumble match at #22 but was eliminated by the eventual winner John Cena . On 17 February at Elimination Chamber , he retained
8188-567: A two-out-of-three falls match to conclude the feud. On 15 September at the Night of Champions pre-show, The Real Americans competed in a #1 contenders Tag Team Turmoil match for the WWE Tag Team Championship , in which they were the last team eliminated by The Prime Time Players ( Darren Young and Titus O'Neil ). On 6 October at Battleground , The Real Americans defeated Santino Marella and The Great Khali. At Hell in
8366-503: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
8544-586: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
8722-650: Is a Swiss professional wrestler . He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Death Riders and one-third of the AEW World Trios Champions . He also performs for AEW's sister promotion, Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a two-time ROH World Champion . He is best known for his time in WWE , where he performed under the ring name Antonio Cesaro and later simply Cesaro from 2011 to 2022. Castagnoli began his career in
8900-436: Is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which
9078-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
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#17327759917939256-427: Is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as a genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has
9434-470: Is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain a " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to
9612-735: Is the current champion in his first reign. He won the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (Universal and WWE 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. As of November 26, 2024. Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling )
9790-433: The 12 Large: Summit . In late 2004, Castagnoli made his way to Combat Zone Wrestling , where he teamed up with Chris Hero to once again form the Kings of Wrestling. Eventually, on 10 September 2005 they defeated The Tough Crazy Bastards of Necro Butcher and Toby Klein to win the CZW World Tag Team Championship . While feuding with BLKOUT , Castagnoli and Hero lost the titles to Eddie Kingston and Joker . In September
9968-517: The 2003 Tag World Grand Prix , from which they were eliminated after drawing with the SuperFriends (Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush). Castagnoli returned to Chikara in 2004 as a member of Larry Sweeney 's Sweet 'n' Sour International faction . The following year Castagnoli teamed up with Arik Cannon to form AC/CC. The team entered the 2005 Tag World Grand Prix and ended up winning the tournament after Hero turned on his partner Quackenbush in
10146-570: The 2009 King of Trios teaming with Bryan Danielson and Dave Taylor as Team Uppercut. The team advanced to the finals of the tournament, where they were defeated by F.I.S.T. (Icarus, Akuma and Taylor). After the tournament Eddie Kingston , whose team The Roughnecks had been eliminated by Castagnoli and his team, claimed that he had been embarrassed and disrespected by Castagnoli. On 24 May 2009, Kingston, who had claimed technical superiority over Castagnoli, pinned him cleanly with an Oklahoma roll . After Castagnoli defeated Kingston via countout at
10324-718: The 2011 DDT 4 Tournament , defeating the Cutler Brothers (Brandon and Dustin Cutler) in their first-round match. However, in the semifinals of the tournament the Kings of Wrestling suffered an upset loss against the Nightmare Violence Connection ( Akira Tozawa and Kevin Steen ) when Tozawa rolled Hero up for the win. On 9 April Castagnoli defended the PWG World Championship against the Battle of Los Angeles winner, Joey Ryan, who had knocked him out of
10502-565: The FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship . Cesaro faced Steamboat again for the FCW 15 Championship on the 8 July episode of FCW in a 15-minute match that Steamboat won 1–0 in sudden death overtime . Cesaro made his WWE television debut on 20 April episode of SmackDown , appearing in a backstage segment with Aksana and Theodore Long , ending with him going to talk to General Manager John Laurinaitis about
10680-686: The NXT Championship on 3 July episode of NXT . At Money in the Bank on 14 July, Cesaro and Colter's fellow client Jack Swagger competed in the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match , but were both unsuccessful as the match was won by Damien Sandow . The following night on Raw , Cesaro and Swagger, now billed as "The Real Americans", teamed together in a losing effort to The Usos . On 21 August episode of NXT , Cesaro defeated Zayn in
10858-624: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
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#173277599179311036-616: The PWG World Championship once. The Kings of Wrestling were voted as Tag Team of the Year by readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 2010. Castagnoli was signed to WWE in 2011, and given the ring name of Antonio Cesaro. He was assigned to WWE's developmental territory , Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), before making his debut for WWE's main roster in April 2012. Cesaro would hold
11214-620: The ROH World Tag Team Championship belts from champions Austin Aries and Roderick Strong in order to get himself and Castagnoli a match for them. That match took place on 16 September 2006, at Glory By Honor V Night 2 , where the Kings of Wrestling defeated Aries and Strong to become the new Ring of Honor tag team champions. With the news of WWE showing interest in Castagnoli, the Kings of Wrestling dropped
11392-597: The Raw after WrestleMania 32 on 4 April 2016 episode of Raw , introducing a new James Bond style entrance and attire to his character, including a tear-away business suit. He replaced Sami Zayn as a surprise entrant in the main event, a fatal 4-way match between himself, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles and Chris Jericho to determine the #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, with
11570-867: The WWE United States Championship once, and won the inaugural André the Giant Memorial Trophy at WrestleMania XXX . In December 2014, he began a team with Tyson Kidd , with the pair later winning the WWE Tag Team Championship . After that team split, Cesaro would later form an alliance with Sheamus known as The Bar ; The Bar won the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship four times, and the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship once. The Bar split up in April 2019, and Cesaro joined Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura to create
11748-557: The World Heavyweight Championship on Raw . The current champion is Cody Rhodes , who is in his first reign. He won the undisputed championship by defeating previous champion Roman Reigns in a Bloodline Rules match at WrestleMania XL Night 2 on April 7, 2024. Named in honor of WWE's fanbase, referred to as the WWE Universe , the championship was established on July 25, 2016, to be the top title of
11926-666: The Wrestling Observer website in 2015. On 29 June episode of Raw , Cesaro answered John Cena's United States Championship open challenge and won by disqualification after Kevin Owens interfered and assaulted Cesaro. He unsuccessfully challenged Cena for the title again the next week on Raw . Both matches were critically praised, and the second one was awarded the Slammy Award for "Best John Cena U.S. Open Challenge". On 13 July episode of Raw , Cesaro confronted Kevin Owens and Rusev about who should face Cena for
12104-557: The independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in the United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including
12282-431: The spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from the competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on
12460-507: The "Clash of the Champions" NXT . On 15 April Raw , Cesaro lost the United States Championship to Kofi Kingston in an upset victory, ending his long-lived reign at 239 days. Cesaro received his rematch for the title on 1 May episode of Main Event , but was again defeated by Kingston. In May, Cesaro started a feud with Sami Zayn in NXT, where the two held some of what would later be considered
12638-584: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
12816-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
12994-509: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
13172-400: The 2009 Young Lions Cup, the two of them were booked in a "Respect Match" on 22 November 2009, at the season eight finale Three-Fisted Tales , where the loser of the match had to show respect to the winner. Castagnoli won the match, but instead of showing respect, Kingston attacked him, claiming that both Castagnoli and his former partner (Chris Hero) were shady and did not deserve respect. At
13350-425: The 2010 Tag Wars. On 2 September it was announced that Castagnoli had signed a contract with ROH, which gave the company priority in his independent bookings. At the following pay–per–view, Glory By Honor IX on 11 September, the Kings of Wrestling picked up a major victory by defeating Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team ( Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin ) in a non–title match. On 18 December at Final Battle 2010
13528-653: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
13706-560: The Briscoe Brothers. The two adopted Shane Hagadorn as their manager and Sara Del Rey as an associate. On 3 April 2010, at The Big Bang! Castagnoli and Hero defeated the Briscoes to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship for the second time. At the following pay-per-view, Death Before Dishonor VIII , on 19 June Castagnoli and Hero successfully defended their Championship against the Briscoes in
13884-677: The Campeonatos de Parejas in just one weekend, Castagnoli and Ares defeated The Colony (Fire Ant and Soldier Ant) on 20 March 2010, to win the championship, making Castagnoli the first two-time Campeon de Parejas in Chikara history. In April Castagnoli, Ares and Tursas defeated the teams of The Osirian Portal (Amasis and Ophidian ) and Sara Del Rey, Team Perros del Mal ( El Alebrije , Cuije and El Orientál), Team Big Japan Wrestling ( Daisuke Sekimoto , Kankuro Hoshino and Yuji Okabayashi ) and The Colony (Fire Ant, Soldier Ant and Green Ant) over
14062-497: The Campeonatos de Parejas to Jigsaw and Mike Quackenbush. On 13 March 2011, Castagnoli and Eddie Kingston finally faced each other in a grudge match fifteen months in the making, with Castagnoli emerging victorious after hitting Kingston with a chain. In May, Castagnoli entered the 12 Large: Summit to determine the first ever Chikara Grand Champion . During the Chikarasaurus Rex weekend on 30 and 31 July, Castagnoli
14240-628: The Champions Super Dragon and Davey Richards . They received another match for the Championship during the 2007 DDT4 tournament , but were defeated in the first round by the Briscoes. In August 2007, Castagnoli competed in his second Battle of Los Angeles . He defeated Doug Williams in the first round, but lost to Pac in the second. In late 2007, Chris Hero was involved in a feud with Human Tornado and when Hero's scheduled tag team partner Eddie Kingston turned on him in
14418-485: The European independent wrestling circuit in 2000, and wrestled for numerous independent promotions around the world, including Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH), and Westside Xtreme Wrestling (WxW). During his time on the independent circuit, Castagnoli won numerous championships, and became an accomplished tag team wrestler, most notably forming
14596-568: The Germany-based Westside Xtreme Wrestling under the name Double C, losing to SigMasta Rippo. He first used a Japanese gimmick before changing it to a Swiss banker, along with Ares , together known as Swiss Money Holding . While performing in England, Castagnoli received training from Dave Taylor . In Switzerland, he met Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush , who invited Swiss Money Holding to perform in
14774-579: The Intercontinental Championship held by Dolph Ziggler , as Cesaro became #1 contender after winning a battle royal. From September to November, Cesaro faced Ziggler in a title match on five occasions, on Raw , SmackDown and on 26 October at Hell in a Cell , but lost every match, including three-way matches and a two-out-of-three falls match. In a December 2014 interview, Stone Cold Steve Austin asked Vince McMahon why Cesaro had not gotten over yet and asked whether Cesaro
14952-437: The Kings of Wrestling ended their feud with the Briscoe Brothers in a six-man tag team match, where Jay, Mark and their father Mike defeated Castagnoli, Hero and Shane Hagadorn. On 4 January 2011 Castagnoli and Hero became the longest reigning ROH World Tag Team Champions by breaking the previous record of 275 days, set by the Briscoe Brothers. On 26 February at the 9th Anniversary Show , Castagnoli and Hero successfully defended
15130-668: The Kings of Wrestling once again fail to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship. Castagnoli made his debut for Pro Wrestling Noah on 15 February 2008, when he teamed up with Chris Hero in a losing effort against Jun Akiyama and Kentaro Shiga . He primarily wrestled in the promotion as Chris Hero's tag team partner and in January 2010 the Kings of Wrestling entered the Global Tag League , where they ended up losing all of their matches. Castagnoli and Hero returned to Noah on 19 November 2010, for
15308-504: The Kings of Wrestling. Castagnoli wrestled on Ring of Honor's first pay-per-view Respect is Earned on 12 May 2007, teaming with Matt Sydal to challenge the Briscoe Brothers for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Despite losing the match, Castagnoli was granted a rematch with the partner of his choosing. He chose former partner Chris Hero, but the duo lost to the Briscoes on 9 June. Castagnoli gained success in ROH singles competition on 28 July 2007, by winning Ring of Honor's Race to
15486-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
15664-488: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
15842-520: The ROH World Tag Team Championship against The All Night Express. On 1 April at Honor Takes Center Stage , the Kings of Wrestling lost the ROH World Tag Team Championship to Haas and Benjamin, ending their reign at 363 days. Castagnoli and Hero received their rematch for the ROH World Tag Team Championship on 13 August at the first Ring of Honor Wrestling tapings under the Sinclair Broadcast Group banner, but were unable to regain
16020-609: The ROH World Tag Team Championship to Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal on 25 November 2006, at Dethroned . On 23 December at Final Battle 2006 the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) defeated Castagnoli and Hero in what was scheduled to be their last match together. After the match, Castagnoli announced that he would not be leaving for WWE after all, and promised great things for the Kings of Wrestling in 2007. Hero shook Castagnoli's hand, but left with his manager Larry Sweeney who promised Hero big things in 2007, thus ending
16198-681: The Raw brand at the time. Its creation came as a result of the reintroduction of the brand split and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, in which the WWE Championship, the promotion's original world title, became exclusive to SmackDown. The inaugural Universal Champion was Finn Bálor . Since its inception, matches for the championship have headlined several pay-per-view and livestreaming events , including eight consecutive SummerSlams from 2017 to 2024, as well as five WrestleManias ( 34 , 37 Night 2 , 38 Night 2 , 39 Night 2 , and XL Night 2 ), both being two of WWE's "big five" pay-per-views,
16376-538: The SummerSlam crowd's reaction, writing on Twitter : "More important than a title's appearance is what it represents for the men fighting over it. You really let me down tonight, Brooklyn". While acknowledging that he himself might have chosen a different belt design, Mick Foley echoed Rollins's response in a lengthy Facebook post. He recalled being presented with the WWF Hardcore Championship ,
16554-491: The Tag Team Championship was vacated when Joker left the company and on 14 October 2006, at Last Team Standing Castagnoli and Hero defeated Human Tornado and Justice Pain in the finals of a tournament to regain the championship. With their victory, Castagnoli and Hero held the tag team titles of three of the top American independent companies simultaneously (CZW, Chikara, and ROH). After news broke that WWE
16732-554: The Top Tournament , a 16-man, two-night event. He defeated Hallowicked, Mike Quackenbush and Jack Evans en route to the final, where he defeated El Generico . He faced Takeshi Morishima for the ROH World Championship at Death Before Dishonor V: Night One on 10 August, but lost. He received a second shot, this time a three-way match with Brent Albright , later that month, but was again unable to win
16910-405: The United States Championship against Miz via disqualification after Miz accidentally hit him in the groin. Cesaro and Miz faced off in a two-out-of-three falls match for the title on 1 March SmackDown , where Cesaro retained his title to end their feud. During 21 March NXT tapings (which aired on 24 April due to tape delay), Cesaro successfully retained his title against Adrian Neville during
17088-506: The United States Championship in a losing effort. At Money in the Bank on 29 June, he competed in a ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by John Cena. On 21 July Raw , Cesaro ended his partnership with Paul Heyman. In July 2014, WWE.com noted that one of Cesaro's signature moves, the Cesaro Swing, was "now a rarely used attraction" after previously being "a daily maneuver"; also that month, it
17266-424: The United States Championship. The feud continued on the following SmackDown , with Truth defeating Cesaro in a non-title match. Cesaro then defeated Truth in two more matches, first in a four-way match, which also included Kofi Kingston and Wade Barrett on 3 December Raw and second on 16 December at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a singles match, to retain his title. On 31 December Raw , Cesaro issued
17444-627: The United States. They competed in IWA Mid-South and Chikara and received training from Hero before returning to Europe. In 2004, Castagnoli received permanent United States residency in his first try at the green card lottery and moved to the United States, where he began making regular appearances for Ring of Honor and Chikara, while Ares remained in Switzerland and formed the new Swiss Money Holding with Marc Roudin. Castagnoli and Ares made their Chikara debuts on 5 July 2003, at
17622-655: The Universal Championship title history remains a picture of the previous blue belt. The original red Universal Championship design was heavily criticized. Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net referred to it as "a title belt that no one likes". Adam Silverstein of CBS Sports described it as "ugly" while the live SummerSlam audience in Brooklyn, New York gave derisive chants, including "This belt sucks", an assessment with which New England Sports Network reporters agreed. That site's Ricky Doyle wrote that
17800-540: The WWE Championship belt). After the title became exclusive to SmackDown in late 2019, Bray Wyatt introduced a blue strap variation and the underline of the WWE logo was changed from black to red. In addition to the SmackDown version of the belt, Bray Wyatt also introduced a custom version of the championship for his "Fiend" character on the November 29 episode of SmackDown . The custom belt featured The Fiend's face in
17978-422: The annual torneo cibernetico match. The Kings won the match with Hero, Castagnoli and Mitch Ryder as the survivors, but since the match could only have one winner, they were forced to face each other. Castagnoli forced Hero to tap out and then pinned Ryder to win not only the match, but also his freedom from the Kings of Wrestling. On 9 December 2007, Castagnoli defeated Hero to finally end their long feud. After
18156-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
18334-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
18512-561: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
18690-451: The best matches of 2013. On 22 May episode of NXT , Zayn scored an upset victory over Cesaro in his debut match. Cesaro later defeated Zayn in a rematch on the 13 June episode of NXT . On 17 June episode of Raw , Cesaro became an associate of Zeb Colter . Colter and Cesaro went on to justify their alliance by saying that Cesaro was the ultimate (legal) immigrant and thus a superior American. Cesaro unsuccessfully challenged Bo Dallas for
18868-581: The block. On 15 May, he traveled to Germany to challenge Takashi Sugiura 's GHC Heavyweight Championship on " Genesis in Germany ", co-promoted by local Westside Xtreme Wrestling and NOAH. However, he was unsuccessful in his challenge, losing after an Olympic Slam . In November 2006, he wrestled Antonio Thomas in one half of the main event at MXW Pro Wrestling's Capital Collision show in Albany, New York . In April 2007, Castagnoli represented Chikara in
19046-574: The brand's Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley established the WWE Universal Championship to serve as the brand's top championship. The title was named in honor of the WWE Universe, the name the promotion uses to refer to its fan base. The inaugural champion was crowned at SummerSlam on August 21 in a pinfall and submission-only singles match . Rollins was automatically set for that match as he
19224-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
19402-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
19580-416: The center plate was a large cut out of the WWE logo with diamonds sitting inside an irregular heptagonal plate, but with the capital words "Universal Champion" in small print sitting underneath the logo. Just the same, there were gold divider bars that separated the center plate from its two side plates. Each side plate featured the same default removable center section as the WWE Championship (the WWE logo over
19758-581: The championship from Haas and Benjamin. On 6 August 2005, Castagnoli made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla , losing to Joey Ryan . On 2 September 2006, Castagnoli entered his first Battle of Los Angeles tournament, but ended up being eliminated in the first round by Jack Evans. On 21 October, at Horror Business Castagnoli and Hero attempted to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship to hold four different sets of Tag Team titles simultaneously, but were unable to dethrone
19936-785: The championship. This resulted in a triple threat match, where the winner would face Cena immediately after, which Rusev won. On 16 July episode of SmackDown , Cesaro became only the second man (after John Cena) to pin Rusev in a singles match. At SummerSlam on 23 August, Cesaro lost to Owens. Around this time, with Cesaro now firmly established as a fan favorite, the Cesaro Section phenomenon that originated in early 2014 again found traction, and home-made printed "Cesaro Section" signs again became circulated widely for fans to hold up during events to show their support for Cesaro. Cesaro defeated Sheamus on 9 November episode of Raw to advance to
20114-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
20292-461: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
20470-498: The conclusion of the show Ares revealed himself as the man who had been stalking UltraMantis Black , at which point Castagnoli turned rudo by attacking Mike Quackenbush. After beating the entire tecnico roster Castagnoli aligned himself with Ares, Tursas, Pinkie Sanchez, Tim Donst , Sara Del Rey , and Daizee Haze to form the Bruderschaft des Kreuzes . After picking up the three points needed in order to challenge for
20648-416: The crowd response turned what should have been a "landmark moment for the company" into an "awkward experience". Mike Johnson of Pro Wrestling Insider felt the title looked like a "xerox" of the WWE Championship and did not blame the audience for reacting negatively. The design was also unpopular with online wrestling fans. WWE employees responded in the aftermath of the title's debut. Seth Rollins chastised
20826-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
21004-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
21182-399: The eventual winner McGuinness. After turning heel Castagnoli started referring to himself as "very European", joined Prince Nana 's heel stable The Embassy and feuded with Brent Albright. On 19 December 2009, at Final Battle 2009 , ROH's first live pay-per-view, Castagnoli reunited with his former Kings of Wrestling partner Chris Hero as they attacked the new ROH World Tag Team Champions,
21360-603: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
21538-617: The final of the tournament. Together, Castagnoli, Cannon, and Hero formed the Kings of Wrestling faction. Cannon left the promotion at the end of 2005, leaving Hero and Castagnoli to form a regular tag team. They entered the 2006 Tag World Grand Prix , defeating Equinox and Hydra , Ranmaru and Sumie Sakai , the North Star Express (Ryan Cruz and Darin Corbin), Incoherence ( Hallowicked and Delirious ), and finally Team Dragondoor ( Skayde and Milano Collection A.T. ) to become
21716-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
21894-521: The following day, taking the title to Raw. At WrestleMania 38 Night 2 on April 3, 2022, reigning Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match to claim both championships and become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. WWE had billed the match as a championship unification match; however, both titles have remained independently active with Reigns being
22072-607: The following night on Raw after their valet Natalya caused a disqualification. Cesaro and Kidd retained their titles at the WrestleMania 31 pre-show on 29 March in a fatal four-way tag team match. Cesaro also competed in the André the Giant memorial battle royal , but was eliminated by Big Show. Cesaro and Kidd reignited their feud against The New Day, where a double turn took place; Cesaro and Kidd turned face by displaying
22250-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
22428-460: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
22606-457: The inaugural Chikara Campeones de Parejas . On 17 November 2006 at the Chikara show Brick in Reading, Pennsylvania , Castagnoli and Hero lost the Chikara tag titles to Team F.I.S.T. ( Icarus and Gran Akuma ) in a two out of three falls match . Following the match, Hero and Team F.I.S.T. turned on Castagnoli and attacked him. In November 2006, it was revealed that Castagnoli had signed
22784-670: The inaugural King of Europe Cup , a sixteen-man tournament held in Liverpool, England . He lost in the opening match against CZW's representative and former partner, Chris Hero. During mid-2007, Castagnoli competed in the Reclaiming the Glory Tournament for the newly vacated NWA World Heavyweight Championship under the Terry Funk bracket. He defeated Pepper Parks in the first-round qualifiers and Sicodelico Jr. in
22962-526: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
23140-480: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
23318-496: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
23496-509: The latter of which is WWE's flagship event. Following the events of the 2019 Crown Jewel , the title moved to SmackDown. In mid-2016, the professional wrestling promotion WWE reintroduced the brand extension in which the promotion split its main roster between the Raw and SmackDown brands, where wrestlers would exclusively perform on each brands' respective weekly television program (the original brand split ended in August 2011). On July 19, 2016, to coincide with SmackDown shifting to
23674-620: The line as long as Castagnoli agreed to give the victor a shot at the PWG World Championship, should the Kings lose. After Castagnoli had agreed to the stipulation, ¡Peligro Abejas! defeated him and Hero to retain the World Tag Team Championship and earn El Generico a shot at the PWG World Championship. On 29 January 2011, during the WrestleReunion 5 weekend, Castagnoli made his first successful defense by defeating El Generico. On 4 March Castagnoli and Hero entered
23852-401: The match Castagnoli was forced to re-join the Kings of Wrestling. The following month Hero, Castagnoli and Larry Sweeney joined forces with Team F.I.S.T. (Icarus, Akuma and Chuck Taylor ) to form the Kings of Wrestling superstable, which was later joined by Mitch Ryder, Max Boyer and Shayne Hawke. On 22 September 2007, at Cibernetico & Robin the Kings of Wrestling faced Los Luchadores in
24030-564: The match being won by Styles. On 11 April edition of Raw , Cesaro defeated Kevin Owens to become the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship held by The Miz. At Payback on 1 May, Cesaro failed to win the title after a distraction by Zayn and Owens, allowing Miz to retain the title. A fatal 4-way match for the title between Cesaro, Miz, Owens, and Zayn was then made for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on 22 May. The Miz ultimately prevailed by pinning Cesaro after Zayn executed
24208-543: The match, Hero left the company and Castagnoli took over his training duties at the Chikara Wrestle Factory. In 2008, Castagnoli started a new feud, this time with Brodie Lee . On 7 September Castagnoli defeated Lee in the first steel cage match in Chikara history to win the feud. On 19 October 2008, Castagnoli won a seven-on-seven Global Gauntlet match where Chikara wrestlers faced off with wrestlers from Big Japan Pro Wrestling . Castagnoli entered
24386-535: The match. During the WrestleMania XXX pre-show on 6 April, The Real Americans were the final team eliminated during a fatal four-way tag team elimination match for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Jack Swagger blamed Cesaro for the loss and put Cesaro in the Patriot Lock before Colter demanded that the duo to shake hands. Cesaro instead retaliated with a Cesaro Swing on Swagger. Later during
24564-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
24742-516: The opposing brand, 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 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
24920-409: The other hand, Nick Schwartz of Fox Sports wrote: "It's really not as bad as fans made it seem at SummerSlam. It's fine". As of November 26, 2024, there have been fifteen reigns between nine champions and two vacancies. Finn Bálor was the inaugural champion. Brock Lesnar holds the record for most reigns at three. Roman Reigns' second reign is the longest singular reign at 1,316 days, while Bálor has
25098-547: The pay-per-view Cesaro was a surprise entrant in the inaugural André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal , which he won by making the final elimination of the Big Show, body slamming him over the top rope and out of the ring in a manner reminiscent of Hulk Hogan 's body slam of André at WrestleMania III . In a 2015 interview, Cesaro would describe this victory as his "career highlight" to that point. On
25276-453: The place of the center plate. The character's phrases "Hurt" and "Heal" were written in red on black leather strips in the place of side plates while the strap of the belt itself was red and black worn leather with red stitching holding it together. The character's phrase "Let Me In" was also included. Wyatt used both the standard and custom versions of the championship during his first reign (2019–2020); his cheery Firefly Fun House character held
25454-437: The platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of the venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as
25632-437: The post-WrestleMania Raw on 7 April, Hogan endorsed Cesaro's WrestleMania victory. Cesaro proceeded to dump Colter as his manager, instead revealing that he was a Paul Heyman guy. After Cesaro was eliminated by Rob Van Dam from a tournament for an Intercontinental Championship title shot, he defeated Van Dam and Swagger in an elimination match at Extreme Rules on 4 May. At Payback on 1 June, Cesaro faced Sheamus for
25810-425: The previous year's tournament. On 27 May, during the first night of All Star Weekend 8 , Castagnoli successfully defended the PWG World Championship against his longtime tag team partner Chris Hero. The following night, Castagnoli defeated Low Ki to retain the title. On 23 July at PWG's eighth anniversary show, Castagnoli defeated Hero in a rematch for the PWG World Championship. After the match Castagnoli accepted
25988-717: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
26166-559: The quarterfinals in a tournament to crown a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion at Survivor Series after previous champion Seth Rollins injured his knee at a house show in Dublin, but lost to Roman Reigns in the semi-finals on 16 November. On 23 November, WWE announced that Cesaro needed surgery for a torn rotator cuff muscle in his left shoulder that had been injured for at least two months, and that would leave him out of action for four to six months. Cesaro made his return from injury on
26344-658: The second before losing to Brent Albright in the semi-finals on 12 August in Charlotte, North Carolina . Later in September, Castagnoli competed in Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South's Ted Petty Invitational 2007 tournament. He defeated Nigel McGuinness in the first round, Davey Richards in the quarterfinals, and Brent Albright in the semifinals to compete in a three-way elimination match, with finalists Mike Quackenbush and IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion Chuck Taylor. He
26522-411: The semifinals of the tournament, defeating Ricochet and Roderick Strong, before losing to the eventual winner Joey Ryan. Ryan should then have earned a match for the PWG World Championship , but as Davey Richards was stripped of the championship, Castagnoli and the three other Battle of Los Angeles semifinalists – Brandon Gatson , Chris Hero and Joey Ryan – were placed in a four-way match to determine
26700-408: The shortest reign at 22 hours as he was forced to vacate the title due to suffering a legitimate injury in winning it. Reigns also holds the record for longest combined reign at 1,380 days (1,379 days as recognized by WWE). Kevin Owens is the youngest champion when he won it at 32 years, 114 days old, while Goldberg is the oldest when he won the title for a second time at 53. Cody Rhodes
26878-418: The side plates remained the same. Despite this, his manager Paul Heyman had continued to carry around the previous Universal and WWE 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 belt replaced the image for the WWE Championship;
27056-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
27234-467: The standard blue belt, while his sinister Fiend character held the custom belt. After Roman Reigns became the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, both the Universal Championship and WWE 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
27412-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
27590-737: The title. On 29 December 2007, one year after Hero had abandoned Castagnoli, the two of them faced each other at the second ROH pay-per-view Rising Above . If Castagnoli won the match, he would get five minutes with Larry Sweeney, but if he lost, would have had to join Sweet 'n' Sour Inc . He won, but was defeated by Sweeney the following night at Final Battle 2007 , when Sweet & Sour, Inc. member Daniel Puder interfered. On 28 June 2008, Castagnoli scored one of his biggest victories in Ring of Honor by pinning Bryan Danielson in their first meeting in ROH. The following month, on 26 July, Castagnoli received
27768-450: The titles in the inaugural tag team Elimination Chamber match. On 7 June, it was announced that Kidd had suffered a legitimate spinal injury and would be out of action for over a year. "... Cesaro's one main undesirable attribute: being a super talented wrestler whom the fans clearly want to see succeed, but is never given any serious push because of the decision of one man based on vague, shaky reasons." Zach Dominello writing for
27946-519: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
28124-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
28302-414: The two championships are still in fact separate lineages despite there being only one belt. The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the WWE Universal Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands. The Universal Championship belt was based on the "Network Logo" design of the WWE Championship belt introduced in 2014 , with a few notable differences. Like the WWE Championship belt,
28480-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
28658-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
28836-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
29014-435: Was Raw's number one draft pick and was not pinned in the WWE Championship match at Battleground. His opponent was determined by two fatal four-way matches on Raw , with the winners wrestling each other in a singles match. Finn Bálor won the first fatal four-way by defeating Cesaro , Kevin Owens , and Rusev , while Reigns won the second by defeating Chris Jericho , Sami Zayn , and Sheamus . Bálor then defeated Reigns and
29192-408: Was added to the title match. At SummerSlam, Bálor, wrestling under his "Demon" persona, defeated Rollins to become the inaugural champion. Bálor was the first WWE wrestler to win a world title in his pay-per-view debut as well as winning his first world title in less than a month of his debut on WWE's main roster . During the championship match, however, Bálor suffered a legitimate shoulder injury and
29370-612: Was born in Lucerne on 27 December 1980. He played basketball, football, and tennis in his youth, and supported his hometown football club FC Luzern . He became a fan of professional wrestling after discovering it on a German TV station, then found an advertisement on an online forum that encouraged him to train to become a wrestler. Castagnoli received his initial training in his homeland from fellow Swiss wrestler SigMasta Rappo, and made his debut on Christmas Eve 2000 in Essen for
29548-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
29726-465: Was first eliminated by the eventual winner, Quackenbush, being pinned following a Quackendriver II. Castagnoli replaced Fergal Devitt in the eight-man NWA Australian Championship Tournament which was held in November 2007. On 13 March 2010, Castagnoli made his debut for Evolve Wrestling , at the promotion's second event, defeating Bobby Fish . At the following show on 1 May Castagnoli was defeated by Chuck Taylor. In September 2011, Castagnoli signed
29904-486: Was forced to vacate the title the following day. At Crown Jewel on October 31, 2019, SmackDown wrestler "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt won the Universal title by defeating Seth Rollins in a Falls Count Anywhere match that could not be stopped for any reason, thus transferring the Universal Championship to SmackDown. The WWE Championship was subsequently transferred to Raw after reigning champion Brock Lesnar quit SmackDown
30082-419: Was getting a proper push . McMahon replied that Cesaro was lacking in charisma, verbal skills, and the "it" factor, "might be because he's Swiss ... and the European style". McMahon concluded that he was not certain what could be done to restore Cesaro's momentum, but McMahon was not giving up. Cesaro began teaming with Tyson Kidd on the 1 December episode of Raw and were eliminated from a gauntlet match for
30260-568: Was interested in Castagnoli, he and Hero dropped the CZW World Tag Team Titles to the BLKOUT of Sabian and Robbie Mireno on 11 November 2006. Castagnoli has not returned to the company since the loss. Castagnoli made his Ring of Honor debut on 16 July 2005, at Fate of an Angel . For the rest of the year, he feuded with Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness . On 17 December at Final Battle 2005 McGuinness defeated Castagnoli in
30438-457: Was involved in two main event matches, both of which were also a part of the 12 Large: Summit . After losing to Mike Quackenbush on Night 1, Castagnoli suffered an upset loss against his BDK stablemate Sara Del Rey on Night 2, after which he turned on not only Del Rey, but also Daizee Haze as she was standing up for her regular tag team partner. At the following event on 27 August, Castagnoli was defeated by Icarus, eliminating him from contention in
30616-405: Was presented with 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";
30794-650: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
30972-424: Was remarked on by the commentators, as well as by Cesaro himself after the show; this was picked up by other fans, and the Cesaro Section phenomenon quickly spread from there to other arenas and events." Cesaro competed in the 30-man Royal Rumble match at Royal Rumble on 26 January, entering at #21 but was eliminated by Roman Reigns . On 31 January episode of SmackDown , Cesaro defeated Dolph Ziggler to earn
31150-434: Was reported that WWE officials had told Cesaro to stop using the Cesaro Swing because it was making him too popular, and they did not want him being cheered as a heel. Cesaro "was on the verge of big things with fans getting behind what they expected would be a babyface turn... Then it fell apart. They did a heel turn to put him with Paul Heyman, and apparently figured that enabled them to not give him wins at all since Heyman
31328-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
31506-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
31684-534: Was with him... but he'd stay over [... this was] before his big babyface turn fell completely apart and the turn was forgotten about". Dave Meltzer on Cesaro winning the 2014 Wrestling Observer Newsletter award for Most Underrated . Cesaro lost to Rob Van Dam at the SummerSlam pre-show on 17 August. By defeating Van Dam in a rematch on Raw , Cesaro earned a United States title match against Sheamus, but lost again at Night of Champions on 21 September. Instead, Cesaro switched his sights to another title,
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