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| WWE Divas Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
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 The WWE Divas Championship belt (2014–2016) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | June 6, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date retired | April 3, 2016 (replaced with theWWE Women's Championship) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Other names | |||||||||||||||||||||
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TheWWE Divas Championship was awomen's professional wrestlingworld championship inWWE. The championship was created by WWE in 2008, and was introduced as part of theWWE brand extension via astoryline by thenSmackDownGeneral ManagerVickie Guerrero as an alternative toRaw'sWWE Women's Championship.[1] It is the first women’s singles championship to be created by WWE itself, as although WWE claims the Women’s Championship to be created in 1956, the company has only owned the title since 1984.
Michelle McCool became the inaugural champion on July 20, 2008, when she defeatedNatalya atThe Great American Bash.[2] After then-WWE Divas ChampionMaryse was drafted to Raw as part of the2009 WWE draft, she took the title with her.[3][4] McCool won a match againstMelina to unify the WWE Divas and Women's titles at theNight of Champions pay-per-view on September 19, 2010, creating the Unified WWE Divas Championship;[5][6][7] it eventually dropped the "Unified" moniker.[8][9] The youngest woman to win the Divas Championship isPaige, at age 21.
The title was retired in 2016 atWrestleMania 32, afterWWE Hall of FamerLita revealed a brand-newWomen's Championship to replace the Divas Championship. The match for the new title took place at the event between the reigning Divas ChampionCharlotte and her opponentsBecky Lynch andSasha Banks in atriple threat match. Charlotte was the last Divas Champion.
With the firstWWE brand extension in 2002, a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to different television programs and touring companies, theWWE Women's Championship was originally to be defended on both brands. At some point that year, however, it became exclusive to theRaw brand. Thereafter, onlyDivas on the Raw brand were able to compete for the title, while the Divas on theSmackDown brand were unable to compete for a women's-exclusive championship.[10][11] However, on a few occasions, the regulation was bypassed withMelina,Ashley Massaro,Torrie Wilson, andNidia challenging for the title while on the SmackDown brand, but none were successful.[12][13]
As a result, WWE created the WWE Divas Championship and introduced it on the June 6, 2008, episode ofSmackDown when then SmackDown General ManagerVickie Guerrero announced the creation of the title.[14] On the June 6 and July 4, editions ofSmackDown,Natalya andMichelle McCool won their respectiveGolden Dreams match (also involvingMaryse,Victoria,Kelly Kelly,Cherry, andLayla) to qualify for the Divas Championship match.[15][16] AtThe Great American Bash, McCool defeated Natalya to become the inaugural champion.[17] WhenMaryse won the title from McCool in December 2008, she dislocated her kneecap at alive event later that month. Similar to howTrish Stratus kept the Women's Championship when she was sidelined with aherniated disc in 2005,[18] Maryse was able to keep the Divas title upon her return in late January 2009. As part of the2009 WWE draft, then Divas Champion Maryse was one of the people drafted to the Raw brand, in the process making the championship exclusive to Raw.[19]
On January 4, 2010, WWE vacated the title after the current Divas ChampionMelina sustained a tornanterior cruciate ligament. A tournament was started two weeks later onRaw, where former Divas ChampionMaryse qualified overBrie Bella,Alicia Fox qualified overKelly Kelly,Eve Torres qualified overKatie Lea Burchill, andGail Kim qualified over former Divas ChampionJillian Hall. In the semifinals, Maryse defeated Eve Torres, and Gail Kim defeated Alicia Fox. On February 22 episode ofRaw, Maryse defeated Gail Kim to win the vacant championship, making her the first person to hold the title on more than one occasion. It was announced on the August 30 episode ofRaw that the Divas Championship would beunified with the Women's Championship at a match atNight of Champions. With that, the title (known briefly as the WWE Unified Divas Championship) became accessible to both WWE brands and the champion could appear on both shows, a situation made permanent by the ending of the brand extension in 2011. On September 16, 2012, Eve Torres became the first ever three-time WWE Divas Champion after defeating Layla atNight of Champions.[20] In August 2014, the Divas Championship belt, along with all other pre-existing championship belts in WWE at the time, received a minor update, replacing the long-standing scratch logo with WWE's current logo originally used for theWWE Network that launched earlier that year in February.[21]
On April 6, 2014,AJ Lee became the first and only woman to defend the Divas Championship atWrestleMania forWrestleMania XXX.
On theWrestleMania 32 pre-show, former WWE Diva andHall of FamerLita announced that the scheduledtriple threat match for the Divas Championship betweenCharlotte,Becky Lynch, andSasha Banks was instead going to be for the newWWE Women's Championship (does not share the same lineage as the originalWWE Women's Championship). It was also announced that the Divas Championship would be retired, and all female performers would become WWE Superstars in the process, coincidentally retiring the term "Diva".[22]
On January 4, 2010, WWE vacated the title afterDivas ChampionMelina sustained a tornanterior cruciate ligament. A tournament started two weeks later onRaw. The tournament final was originally scheduled atElimination Chamber, but when official consultant to theSmackDown General ManagerVickie Guerrero interrupted, she announced that she was changing the match to an interbrand Divas tag team match, withMaryse andGail Kim facingLayCool (Michelle McCool andLayla) from SmackDown. The final was held the following night onRaw. On February 22 episode ofRaw,Maryse defeatedGail Kim to win the vacant title, making her the first person to hold the title on more than one occasion.
| Quarterfinals Raw January 4–11, 2010 Superstars January 5, 2010 (Aired: January 7) | Semifinals Raw January 25, 2010 | Final Raw February 22, 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Maryse | Pinfall | |||||||||||||
| Brie Bella | 2:18 | |||||||||||||
| Maryse | Pinfall | |||||||||||||
| Eve Torres | 2:05 | |||||||||||||
| Eve Torres | Pinfall | |||||||||||||
| Katie Lea Burchill | 1:53 | |||||||||||||
| Maryse | Pinfall | |||||||||||||
| Gail Kim | 2:50 | |||||||||||||
| Kelly Kelly | 2:01 | |||||||||||||
| Alicia Fox | Pinfall | |||||||||||||
| Alicia Fox | 1:55 | |||||||||||||
| Gail Kim | Pinfall | |||||||||||||
| Gail Kim | Pinfall | |||||||||||||
| Jillian Hall | 3:10 | |||||||||||||
The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the Divas Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.
| Date of transition | Brand | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| June 6, 2008 | SmackDown | Championship established forSmackDown as the counterpart toRaw'sWWE Women's Championship.Michelle McCool became the inaugural Divas Champion atThe Great American Bash. |
| April 13, 2009 | Raw | Divas ChampionMaryse was drafted toRaw during the2009 WWE Draft. |
| September 19, 2010 | N/A | AtNight of Champions,Michelle McCool unified the Divas Championship with theWomen's Championship. The Women's Championship was retired and the Divas Championship became briefly known as the Unified WWE Divas Championship and defended on bothRaw andSmackDown. |
| August 29, 2011 | N/A | End of first brand extension. In April 2016, the Divas Championship was retired and replaced by a newWWE Women's Championship. |
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There were 26 total reigns and 1 vacancy. The inaugural champion wasMichelle McCool, who defeatedNatalya to win the title atThe Great American Bash on July 20, 2008.
Eve Torres andAJ Lee held the record for most reigns as Divas Champion with three each.AJ Lee held the record for most combined days as champion with 406 days, whileNikki Bella held the record for longest individual reign at 301 days.Jillian Hall had the shortest reign at five minutes.Layla was the oldest Divas Champion, having won at the age of 34, whilePaige was the youngest Divas Champion in history at 21 years of age, and was also the only woman to win the title in her debut.[23]
The final champion wasCharlotte, who was in her first and only reign. She defeatedNikki Bella on September 20, 2015, atNight of Champions inHouston, Texas to win the title. Charlotte was originally scheduled to defend the title atWrestleMania 32 againstSasha Banks andBecky Lynch, but during the event it was announced that the scheduled triple threat match would instead be for the newWWE Women's Championship (also known as the Raw Women's Championship from 2016 to 2023), with the Divas Championship subsequently being retired. Charlotte won the match and the Women's Championship; this ended her reign as Divas Champion and began a new reign as Women's Champion.
Media related toWrestlers as the WWE Divas champion at Wikimedia Commons