redirected from WHEI WWE Championship
The WHEI Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by War Hawks Entertainment Inc. for the SmackDown Brand. It is one of three world titles for WHEI's brands, alongside the WHEI Universal Championship on the Raw brand and the LWL World Heavyweight Championship on the LWL brand. The current champion is Braun Strowman who is in his 1st reign.
The championship was originally the WWE World Heavyweight Championship as the brand split had been abandoned in real life for 4 years at that point and the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships were unified in 2013. However upon creation of their universe mode Ironman, and Juggernaut made the decision to un-unify all the championships and split them among Raw and SmackDown.
With the reintroduction of the brand split in the universe mode Ironman took the WWE Championship to be the world title for SmackDown brand while the reinstated World Heavyweight Championship would be the world title for Raw. The title has been the main championship for SmackDown during all 3 seasons so far.
During the latter half of season 3 the WWE name was all but removed from the title except for the images of the title since Ironman didn't like the way the title looked when he tried to redesign it with his own logos for WHEI, hence the title is now simply referred to as the WHEI Championship.
History 
Edit
Origin Edit
When it was decided that they would reinstate the brand split to give all wrestlers on the roster a chance to shine the three championships that were unified during/after the brand split were seperated again. This was done to give each brand its own unique feel and give fans a reason to tune in to one show or the other. Despite its long history with the brand and Ironman's own fondness for the belt Ironman took this championship rather than the World Heavyweight Championship. This was because he wanted to have the most prestigious title on his brand.
During the latter half of season 3 the WWE name was all but removed from the title except for the images of the title since Ironman didn't like the way the title looked when he tried to redesign it with his own logos for WHEI, hence the title is now simply referred to as the WHEI Championship.
Brand Designation Edit
Since starting the universe mode the title has been main championship contested for on SmackDown in all three seasons. It only changed brands briefly once during the season 3 draft when champion Finn Balor was drafted to LWL. However due to a pre-draft stipulation he was stripped of the title, forcing its vacancy. This will be rectified at the upcoming SummerSlam Pay Per View.
| Colors | |
|---|---|
| Red | Championship moved to the Raw brand |
| Blue | Championship moved to the SmackDown brand |
| Green | Championship moved to the LWL brand |
| Date Of Transition | Notes |
|---|---|
| (Blue) December 22, 2015 | WWE World Heavyweight Champion Damien Mizdow drafted to SmackDown in the season 1 draft. Title un-unified with the World Heavyweight Championship which is subsequently moved to the Raw brand. Title renamed WWE Championship |
| (Green) July 21, 2017 | WWE Champion Randy Orton was defeated by LWL's V-Revolticon bringing the title to LWL |
| (Blue) April 10, 2018 | Title brought back to SmackDown when it was awarded to Finn Balor prior to the season 3 draft. |
| August 5, 2018 | During the season 3 draft WWE Champion Finn Balor is drafted to LWL. Per a pre-draft stipulation the title is vacated. |
Championship belt design Edit
Like the real life WWE Championship the design of the title is a large cut out of the WWE logo (encrusted with diamonds) inside a large irregular heptagonal plate. With the words World Heavyweight Champion in capital letters under the logo in small font along the bottom edges,this design was retained even after the rename back to simply the WWE Championship.
Default side plates consist of the WWE logo inside of a red globe, although these can be switched out with the champions logos in lieu of a name plate.
Reigns Edit
| No. | Wrestler | Reign | Date | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Damien Mizdow | 1 | December 22, 2015 | Season 1 Draft | Reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion Mizdow was drafted to SmackDown during the season 1 draft and subsequently deemed the first WHEI WWE Champion after the World Heavyweight Championship was reinstated. |
| 2 | Shawn Michaels | 5 | January 26, 2016 | Cyber Sunday (2016) | Defeated champion Damien Mizdow in a Fatal 4 Way also involving Sting and the Rock to win the Championship. This was counted toward his overall WWE Championship total. |
| 3 | Shane McMahon | 1 | July 1, 2016 | Fastlane (2016) | Defeated Shawn Michaels to win the championship in the final SmackDown pay per view of season 1. Held the championship going into season 2 |
| 4 | Randy Orton | 10 | July 24, 2017 | The Great American Bash (2017) | Defeated Shane in the first and only SmackDown pay per view of the very brief season 2. Like Shawn this counted toward his overall WWE Championship total |
| 5 | V-Revolticon | 1 | July 21, 2017 | SmackDown Live | Defeated Randy Orton for the title bringing it to LWL |
| 6 | Finn Balor | 1 | April 10, 2018 | Season 3 premire | Awarded the championship to be the default champion heading into season 3. |
| 7 | Vacant | --- | August 5, 2018 | Season 3 draft | champion Balor was stripped of the title following being drafted to LWL |
| 8 | Danie Bryan | 5 | August 26, 2018 | SummerSlam | Defeated Sami Zayn in a tournament final to win the vacant championship |
| 9 | Braun Strowman | 1 | February 6, 2019 | Royal Rumble | Defeated Bryan at the Royal Rumble to win the title. |
