WWE Women's Championship

:"This article is about the championship that is currently defended on the Raw brand of WWE. For SmackDown's women's championship, see WWE Divas Championship."

Infobox championship


caption=Victoria wearing the Women's Championship
championshipname=WWE Women's Championship
currentholder=Beth Phoenix
won=August 17 2008 (aired August 17 2008)
promotion=World Wrestling Entertainment
brand=Raw
created=September 18 1956
mostreigns=Trish Stratus (7 reigns)
firstchamp=The Fabulous Moolah
longestreign=The Fabulous Moolah (10,170 days)
shortestreign=Mickie James [cite web|url=http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/women/4598286|title=Mickie's Third Reign|accessmonthday= April 25|accessyear = 2007|publisher=WWE.com|accessdate=2007-10-23]
(<1 hour)
oldest=The Fabulous Moolah (76 years, 87 days)
youngest=Wendi Richter nobr|(22 years, 321 days)
heaviest=Bertha Faye nobr|(convert|260|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on
lightest=The Kat nobr|(convert|105|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on
pastnames=small
*NWA World Women's Championship
*WWF Women's ChampionshipThe World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Women's Championship is a professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. It is challenged by WWE Divas only and is exclusive to the Raw brand.

History

The WWE Women's Championship is descended from the same lineage as the NWA World Women's Championship of the National Wrestling Alliance, which is still active today. When Mildred Burke won the World Women's title for the very first time, the NWA recognized her as women's champion, followed by June Byers in a controversial two out of three falls match in 1954. The official NWA Women's title however was introduced in 1956, where The Fabulous Moolah emerged as the victor of a tournament final on September 18. [cite web|url=http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/women/30445413212111221|title=WWE: Inside WWE > Title History > Women's > 19560918 - Fabulous Moolah|accessdate=2007-10-06|publisher=WWE.com] It wasn't until 1964 when Byers retired from professional wrestling, that Moolah was finally recognized as the undisputed NWA Women's Champion. The original title remained in the NWA until 1983, when the World Wrestling Federation acquired the rights to the title from The Fabulous Moolah and left the NWA. Following this, the title was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Women's Championship. The promotion does not recognize other reigns that occurred during the title's existence in the NWA, and as a result, The Fabulous Moolah's reign is considered to have lasted 27 years. Despite these events, the NWA continues to recognize its own NWA World Women's Championship.

In 1990, the Women's Championship became inactive after Rockin' Robin vacated the championship following her departure from the WWF. Then in December 1993, the title was reactivated with Alundra Blayze winning a tournament for the vacant Women's Championship. However, the Women's Championship became inactive again when Blayze unexpectedly signed with World Championship Wrestling in 1995 while still champion, forcing her to relinquish the title.cite web|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/675/story/278156.html|title=Rena enjoys home life|author=Scott Fishman|publisher=Miami Herald|accessdate=2007-10-23|date=October 20, 2007] The Women's Championship was reactivated again in September 1998 when Jacqueline Moore defeated Sable to win the title.

After the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently referred to as the WWE Women's Championship. With the WWE Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship became the only titles allowed to be defended on both the Raw and SmackDown! as opposed to all other titles in WWE being exclusive to a single brand. However, with the introduction of the World Heavyweight Championship on the Raw brand after the Undisputed title was moved to the SmackDown! brand and became the WWE Championship again, the Women's Championship became exclusive to the Raw brand. The championship remained the only women's exclusive championship for the promotion until July 4 2008, when a counterpart to the championship was created for the SmackDown brand, called the WWE Divas Championship.

Current champion

The current champion is Beth Phoenix who is in her second reign. She, along with Santino Marella, defeated the former champion Mickie James and WWE Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston in an intergender tag team match to win both respective titles at SummerSlam in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 17, 2008. [citeweb|url=http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/women/200804141|accessdate=2008-08-18|title=Beth Phoenix's second reign|publisher=World Wrestling Entertainment]

ee also

*List of WWE Women's Champions
*List of WWE Women's Championship reigns by length
*WWE Diva
*WWE Divas Championship

Notes

External links

* [http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/women/ WWE Women's Title History]