Women's World Championship (WWE)

The Women's World Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of two women's world titles for WWE's main roster, along with the WWE Women's Championship on SmackDown. The current champion is Liv Morgan, who is in her third reign. She won the title by defeating previous champion Stephanie Vaquer at WrestleMania 42 Night 1 on April 18, 2026.

Established as the SmackDown Women's Championship, it was unveiled on the August 23, 2016, episode of SmackDown as the counterpart to the WWE Women's Championship, which became exclusive to Raw as a result of the 2016 WWE Draft and renamed as Raw Women's Championship. The inaugural champion was Becky Lynch. As a result of the 2023 WWE Draft, the Raw and SmackDown women's championships switched brands, with the SmackDown Women's Championship subsequently renamed as the Women's World Championship, while the Raw Women's Championship reverted to its original name of WWE Women's Championship. It is the fourth overall women’s singles championship to be created by WWE, after the Divas Championship, the NXT Women's Championship, and the current WWE Women’s Championship.

History

The Women's World Championship was originally established as the SmackDown Women's Championship on August 23, 2016. Its creation came as a result of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE reintroducing the brand extension, where the company again divided its roster between the Raw and SmackDown brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform; the first brand split ended in August 2011. During the 2016 draft, reigning WWE Women's Champion Charlotte was drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a women's championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016, episode of SmackDown, SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon and general manager Daniel Bryan unveiled the SmackDown Women's Championship (Raw's title was subsequently renamed as Raw Women's Championship).[1][2]

A six-pack elimination challenge was then scheduled for Backlash on September 11, 2016, to determine the inaugural champion. The six women who competed at SummerSlam in the six-woman tag team match were chosen for the six-pack challenge: Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi, Natalya, and Nikki Bella.[3] Lynch became the inaugural champion when she last eliminated Carmella.[4] 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.[5] However, this recognition was reversed when NXT reverted to being WWE's developmental brand in September 2021.[6]

Inaugural championship match

The title headlined a WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event for the first time at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in December 2018, where Becky Lynch defended it in a triple threat Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match against Charlotte Flair and Asuka, which Asuka won; this was also the first women's TLC triple threat match.[7] The title was then on the line in a winner takes all triple threat match in the main event of WrestleMania 35 in April 2019, where Flair defended the title against Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey and Lynch, who won the match. This was the first women's match to main event a WrestleMania – WWE's flagship event.[8][9] At Super ShowDown in February 2020, the title became the first women's championship to be defended in Saudi Arabia, where Bayley retained the title over Naomi; this was only the second women's match contested in the country.[10]

promotion	WWE
brand	Raw
currentholder	Liv Morgan
won	April 18, 2026
created	August 23, 2016
firstchamp	Becky Lynch
mostreigns	Charlotte Flair (7 reigns)
longestreign	380 days: Bayley (2nd reign) Rhea Ripley (1st reign)
shortestreign	Charlotte Flair (4th reign, 4 minutes and 55 seconds)
oldest	Naomi (37 years, 235 days)
youngest	Alexa Bliss (25 years, 124 days)
heaviest	Rhea Ripley (170 lb)
lightest	Alexa Bliss (102 lb)
pastnames	* WWE SmackDown Women's Championship (2016–2023) * Women's World Championship (2023–present)

Women's World Championship (WWE)

History

Inaugural championship match

Brand designation history

Championship belt designs

Reigns

External links

References