WWE Universal Championship

On this page, you find the full Title History for the WWE Universal Championship, with all Championship Info, Statistics, the Belt Design changes through the years, and the full list of Title Reigns, along with dates, events, and reign durations.

The WWE Universal Championship was a World Title contested in World Wrestling Entertainment, by men wrestlers.

The championship was first established on July 25, 2016, and the inaugural champion was Finn Bálor.

When the WWE Championship became exclusive to SmackDown following the WWE Brand Extension, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley created the Universal Championship as the flagship title of Monday Night Raw. The Universal Title then switched to the blue brand with "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt's 2019 victory over Seth Rollins.

From April 3, 2022 to April 20, 2025, 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.

The WWE Universal Championship was retired on April 7, 2024, when it was unified into the WWE Championship, with the final champion being Roman Reigns.

WWE Universal Championship: Title History

Promotions History

Promotion from to
Promotion WWEBrand SmackDown October 31, 2019 April 7, 2024
Promotion WWEBrand Raw July 25, 2016 October 30, 2019
Defended With
- Undisputed WWE Championship - Undisputed WWE Championship ( April 8, 2024 - April 20, 2025)
- WWE Championship - Undisputed WWE Universal Championship ( April 3, 2022 - April 7, 2024)

Promotion	from	to
Promotion WWEBrand SmackDown	October 31, 2019	April 7, 2024
Promotion WWEBrand Raw	July 25, 2016	October 30, 2019

Championship Names & Belt Designs

- WWE Universal Championship (Undisputed) June 2, 2023 April 20, 2025
- WWE Universal Championship February 27, 2020 June 1, 2023
- WWE Universal Championship (The Fiend) November 29, 2019 February 26, 2020
- WWE Universal Championship November 15, 2019 November 28, 2019
- WWE Universal Championship July 25, 2016 November 14, 2019

For the Title History of the championship in which this title was unified into, see the page for the WWE Championship.

WWE Universal Championship: Title Reigns

N.	Image	Champion	Reign
World Wrestling Entertainment: SmackDown
	Unified into the Undisputed WWE Championship April 7, 2024 Philadelphia, PA \| WWE WrestleMania XL 385+ days The Universal Championship was jointly defended with the WWE Championship as the "Undisputed WWE Championship". When Cody Rhodes defeated Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 on April 7, 2024, WWE initially recognized Rhodes as champion of both titles. However, when John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 on April 20, 2025, the Universal Championship was retroactively retired, starting at WrestleMania 40, with Reigns recognized as the final champion.
14		Roman Reigns 2 August 30, 2020 Orlando, FL \| WWE Payback 2020 1316 days At WrestleMania 38, Roman Reigns defeated the then-WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match. The titles remained independently active, but were collectively defended on any brand as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.	1316 days
13		Bray Wyatt / The Fiend 2 August 23, 2020 Orlando, FL \| WWE SummerSlam 2020 7 days	7 days
12		Braun Strowman 1 April 4, 2020 Orlando, FL \| WWE WrestleMania 36 141 days	141 days
11		Goldberg 2 February 27, 2020 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia \| WWE Super ShowDown 2020 37 days	37 days
10		Bray Wyatt / The Fiend 1 October 31, 2019 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia \| WWE Crown Jewel 2019 119 days The title became exclusive to the SmackDown brand due to Wyatt's status as a SmackDown wrestler.	119 days
World Wrestling Entertainment: Raw
9		Seth Rollins 2 August 11, 2019 Toronto, Ontario, Canada \| WWE SummerSlam 2019 81 days	81 days
8		Brock Lesnar 3 July 14, 2019 Philadelphia, PA \| WWE Extreme Rules 2019 28 days Cashed in the Money in the Bank contract.	28 days
7		Seth Rollins 1 April 7, 2019 East Rutherford, NJ \| WWE WrestleMania 35 98 days	98 days
6		Brock Lesnar 2 November 2, 2018 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia \| WWE Crown Jewel (2018) 156 days Defeated Braun Strowman for the vacant title.	156 days
		Vacant October 22, 2018 Providence, RI \| Raw 11 days The title was vacated after Roman Reigns announced that he had a re-diagnosis of leukemia.	11 days
5		Roman Reigns 1 August 19, 2018 Brooklyn, NY \| WWE SummerSlam 2018 64 days	64 days
4		Brock Lesnar 1 April 2, 2017 Orlando, FL \| WWE WrestleMania 33 504 days	504 days
3		Goldberg 1 March 5, 2017 Milwaukee, WI \| WWE Fastlane 2017 28 days	28 days
2		Kevin Owens 1 August 29, 2016 Houston, TX \| Raw 188 days Defeated Big Cass, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins in a fatal four-way elimination match for the vacant title.	188 days
		Vacant August 22, 2016 Brooklyn, NY \| Raw 7 days The title was vacated due to Finn Bálor suffering a shoulder injury.	7 days
1		Finn Bálor 1 August 21, 2016 Brooklyn, NY \| WWE SummerSlam 2016 1 day The title was established for Raw after the WWE Championship became exclusive to SmackDown following the 2016 WWE Draft. Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the inaugural champion.	1 day

WWE Universal Championship: Statistics

Promotion World Wrestling Entertainment
Gender Male
Title Type Primary Title
Date Established July 25, 2016
Date Retired April 7, 2024
Unified Into Undisputed WWE Championship

First ChampionFinn Bálor
Final ChampionRoman Reigns

Most Number of Reigns

Rank	Wrestler	Reigns
	Brock Lesnar	3
	Roman Reigns	2
	Seth Rollins	2
	Bray Wyatt / The Fiend	2
	Goldberg	2

Most Combined Days

Rank	Wrestler	Days
	Roman Reigns	1380
	Brock Lesnar	688
	Kevin Owens	188
	Seth Rollins	179
	Braun Strowman	141

Longest Reigns

Wrestler	Reign	Days
Roman Reigns	August 30, 2020 - April 7, 2024	1316
Brock Lesnar	April 2, 2017 - August 19, 2018	504
Kevin Owens	August 29, 2016 - March 5, 2017	188
Brock Lesnar	November 2, 2018 - April 7, 2019	156
Braun Strowman	April 4, 2020 - August 23, 2020	141