History
The championship was established on April 3, 2016. During the WrestleMania 32 pre-show that day, WWE Hall of Famer Lita appeared: after recapping the history of women's professional wrestling in WWE, she declared that WWE's women would no longer be referred to as WWE Divas, but as "WWE Superstars" like their male counterparts.[1] The term "Diva" had been criticized by some commentators, fans, and several past and present female wrestlers, including reigning Divas Champion Charlotte,[2] as diminishing the athletic abilities of female wrestlers and relegating them to "eye candy".[3][4] Lita also unveiled a new title belt and revealed that the Divas Championship would be retired in favor of a new WWE Women's Championship. The inaugural champion was determined by a triple threat match between Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks later that night, which was originally scheduled for the Divas Championship.[5][6] Charlotte, the final Divas Champion, became the first WWE Women's Champion by winning that match.[7]
The title shares its name with the original WWE Women's Championship. However, the newer title does not share the same title history as the original, which was unified with the Divas Championship in 2010 and subsequently retired. WWE acknowledges the original championship as its predecessor,[1] and notes that the lineage of female champions dates back to The Fabulous Moolah's reign in 1956.[5]
Following the reintroduction of the brand split in July 2016, reigning champion Charlotte was drafted to the Raw brand, making the championship exclusive to Raw. It was subsequently renamed the Raw Women's Championship after SummerSlam in August, when SmackDown created the SmackDown Women's Championship as a counterpart title.[1] The NXT Women's Championship would become WWE's third main women's title when NXT, the promotion's developmental brand, became recognized as WWE's third major brand in September 2019 when it was moved to the USA Network.[8] However, this recognition was reversed when NXT reverted to being WWE's developmental brand in September 2021.[9]
The championship was the first women's title to be defended in the main event of a WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event, which was at Hell in a Cell in October 2016; this was also the first-ever women's Hell in a Cell match and the first women's match to main event a WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event. At the event, Charlotte (whose ring name was lengthened to Charlotte Flair) defeated Sasha Banks to become a three-time champion.[10] After two years, it was again featured in the main event match of a pay-per-view and livestreaming event, which was the first-ever all-women's event Evolution in October 2018, where Ronda Rousey retained the title against Nikki Bella.[11] Rousey then defended the title in a winner takes all triple threat match against SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch in the main event of WrestleMania 35 in April 2019, which Lynch won. This was the first women's match to main event a WrestleMania – WWE's flagship event.[12][13] On May 10, 2020, the championship became the first in history to be directly rewarded as a result of winning the
As a result of the 2023 WWE Draft, the Raw and SmackDown women's championships switched brands and there were no title changes for either championship before draft results went into effect on May 8. The issue of the Raw Women's Championship being on SmackDown was then resolved on the June 9, 2023, episode of SmackDown. That night, WWE official Adam Pearce unveiled a new championship belt to reigning champion Asuka, with the title subsequently reverting to its original name WWE Women's Championship as to when Lita first introduced it at WrestleMania 32.[15] The SmackDown Women's Championship subsequently became the Women's World Championship on June 12.[16]
