The World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. It was originally the highest ranked title on the RAW brand. Currently, it is the highest ranked championship on the SmackDown! brand.
HISTORY
In August 2002, after Brock Lesnar won the WWE Undisputed Championship, he was signed to appear and defend the Undisputed Championship on the SmackDown! brand only, leaving the RAW brand without a top title. Following this, RAW General Manager, Eric Bischoff, introduced the World Heavyweight Championship and commissioned it to be the main title for the RAW brand. This new championship was represented by the Big Gold Belt, an iconic championship belt that had previously represented the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and later the WCW Championship. Bischoff awarded this new title to Triple H citing the fact that he was "the last man to wear the belt", in reference to Triple H being the last person to physically hold the Big Gold Belt during his reign as Undisputed Champion. In March 2003, the Big Gold Belt was replaced with a similar design featuring the WWE logo at the top of the center plate.
The World Heavyweight Championship remained exclusive to the RAW brand until June 6, 2005 as a result of the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery. The WWE Champion, John Cena, was drafted to the RAW brand which left the two top titles in WWE on the RAW brand. This prompted SmackDown! General Manager, Theodore Long, to attempt to introduce a third top title called the "SmackDown! Championship". However this was deemed unnecessary when the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, was drafted to the SmackDown! brand on June 30, 2005.
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