World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)

The World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship promoted by WWE from 2002 to 2013. It was one of two world championships in WWE at the time, alongside the WWE Championship (then known as the WWE Undisputed Championship).

Created on September 2, 2002, by then-General Manager of Raw Eric Bischoff, the title was introduced after the WWE Undisputed Championship became exclusive to the SmackDown! brand. Bischoff awarded the newly created World Heavyweight Championship to Triple H, establishing it as the top title on Raw.

The championship's lineage can be traced back to the original World Heavyweight Championship, created in 1905, though WWE does not officially recognize this historical connection. The Big Gold Belt, the design most often associated with the World Heavyweight Championship, was originally used for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and later the WCW World Heavyweight Championship before WWE acquired WCW in 2001.

The championship changed hands multiple times throughout its eleven-year history, being held by a variety of prominent WWE wrestlers. Notable champions include Triple H, Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Batista, John Cena, and Edge.

On December 15, 2013, the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view event. WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion John Cena in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to unify the titles, retiring the World Heavyweight Championship and creating the unified WWE World Heavyweight Championship (later renamed the WWE World Championship and subsequently the WWE Championship). The lineage of the WWE Championship was maintained, and the World Heavyweight Championship was discontinued.