The WWE World Heavyweight title has been officially renamed to the WWE Championship probably in anticipation of a second heavyweight title introduced for the brand split happening next month. The WWE.COM title history page has been changed with the updated name, never mind that the actual title has World Heavyweight Champion in small letters underneath the WWE logo. WWE started using the WWE World Heavyweight title name at TLC in December 2013 when both titles – the WWE and the World Heavyweight one – were combined together in a main event match between Randy Orton and John Cena.
Orton is credited as being the first-ever WWE World Heavyweight champion even though the titles were combined before in December 2001 to create the WWE Undisputed champion, with Chris Jericho being the first one. The rumors now are that each brand will have its own set of titles and it’s likely that the “big gold belt” will be returning after a couple of years on hiatus.
Colin Vassallo has been editor of Wrestling-Online since 1996