World Heavyweight Championship

The World Heavyweight Championship is the world championship of the SmackDown brand and one of two in WWE, complementing the WWE Championship of the Raw brand. It was established under the WWE's Raw brand in 2002, and has since moved between both brands on different occasions, mainly as a result of the WWE Draft.

Origin
The World Heavyweight Championship was introduced in 2002. Its true origins, however, date back to the early 1990s. During this time, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was a subsidiary to the NWA, and as such, used the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as its own world championship. The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was established in 1991, and the recognition was awarded to then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair. In 1993, WCW seceded from the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to WWE (Then known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)), itself a former subsidiary to the NWA. Both promotions grew into mainstream prominence and were eventually involved in a television ratings war that would become known as the "Monday Night Wars". In March of 2001, WCW was purchased by the WWF, and as a result, the WWF acquired the video library of WCW, select talent contracts, championships, among other properties and assets. The selected WCW talent joining the WWF roster began "The Invasion" which effectively phased out the WCW name. Following this, the WCW Championship was unified with the WWF Championship at Vengeance in December of 2001. Following the conclusion of the event, the WCW Championship was decommissioned with Chris Jericho becoming the final WCW Champion, as well as the subsequent WWF Champion after defeating The Rock and Steve Austin respectively. The WWF title became the Undisputed Championship in professional wrestling until September 2002 with the creation this World Heavyweight Championship, spun off from the WWE Undisputed Championship as the successor to the WCW title

Creation
By 2002, the WWF roster had doubled in size due to the overabundance of contracted workers. As a result, the WWF divided the roster through its two primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown!, assigning championships and appointing authority figures to each brand. This expansion became known as the Brand Extension. In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Following these changes, the WWE Undisputed Championship remained unaffiliated with either brand as competitors from both brands could challenge the WWE Undisputed Champion. Following the appointment of Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon as General Managers of the Raw and SmackDown brands respectively, Stephanie McMahon exclusively contracted then-WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar to the SmackDown brand, leaving the Raw brand without a world title. On September 2, after disputing the brand designation of the Undisputed title, Eric Bischoff announced the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship. Bischoff awarded the title to Triple H due to previously being Lesnar's scheduled opponent. Immediately afterwards, the WWE Undisputed Championship returned to being the WWE Championship.

Historical Lineage
Since its creation, the championship's history and reigns are often confused with other titles primarily because the championship does not bear the name of its designated organization. Contributing to this is the common usage of the terms "world championship" or "world heavyweight championship" in general for all acknowledged world titles. This results in allusions often being made to other titles including those of WCW and the NWA, amalgamating the history of this championship with the history of the Big Gold Belt that represents it. As affirmed by WWE, the World Heavyweight Championship is not a continuation of the WCW Championship, but rather its successor by way of the WWE Undisputed Championship, just as the WCW Championship spun off from the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Due to its relation to both titles, its lineage is connected with the earliest recognized world heavyweight championship.

Brand Designation
Following the events of the Brand Extension, an annual WWE Draft was established, in which select members of the WWE roster are reassigned to a different brand. After three years on the Raw brand, the World Heavyweight Championship switched brands during the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, in which the WWE Champion John Cena was drafted to Raw while the World Heavyweight Champion Batista was drafted to SmackDown. After the 2008 WWE Draft, the WWE Champion Triple H was drafted to SmackDown, returning the WWE Championship to the SmackDown brand. On June 30, 2008, CM Punk used his Money in the Bank contract for a World Heavyweight Championship match against the World Heavyweight Champion Edge. The holder of the contract is guaranteed a WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW Championship match at any time and place of their choosing. This was done after Punk was drafted to Raw from the ECW brand, a WWE brand established in 2006 from purchased assets of the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion. Punk defeated Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship, moving the title to the Raw brand. The title remained on Raw until February 15, 2009 at No Way Out, when Edge won an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship. However, with Edge being a member of the SmackDown brand at the time, the title was moved to SmackDown. On April 5 at WrestleMania XXV, the title returned to Raw after John Cena, a member of the Raw brand, defeated Edge and The Big Show in a Triple Threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship. However, less than a month later at Backlash, Edge defeated Cena, bringing the title back to SmackDown. Since then, the title has not changed brands. When Jack Swagger, who was at the time a member of the Raw roster, cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and defeated World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho on the April 2, 2010 episode of SmackDown, the belt remained exclusive to the SmackDown brand, and Swagger was transferred to the SmackDown roster.