1. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt has had 8 alternate names since it’s introduction in 1963.
In 1963, the original title was called the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship (1963 – 1971). Since then, there have been many changes to both the name of the title and the name of the WWE resulting in an array of title names spanning over 52 years.
After dropping the word ‘World’ from the WWWF Heavyweight Championship (1971 -1979) title, Capitol Wrestling Corporation left the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and formed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), thus creating the WWF Heavyweight Championship title (1979 – 1983).
Then in 1983, the title was changed to the WWF World heavyweight Championship, similar to the first titles name. This title had stayed for the next 15 years until March of 1998 when the name was changed to the WWF Championship.
Lasting only 3 years, the title was quickly changed in December of 2001 to the Undisputed WWF Championship. The name changed one year later due to the change of the organization’s second name change, thus becoming the Undisputed WWE Championship.
Only in 4 months, the title’s name was changed yet again becoming the WWE championship. This time the name changed lasted for 11 years and was changed recently at the end of 2013 to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This is currently the running title name.
2. Since the beginning of the WWE, there has been 120 WWE World Heavyweight Champions.
From Buddy Rogers to Seth Rollins, there has been over 100 people to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (throughout its variations). Seth Rolins currently holds the title with 214 days held as of October 29th, 2015.
After the WWWF left NWA, Buddy Rogers (the first champion) won the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in a fictional tournament in Rio de Janerio. The first person to legitimately win a title was Bruno Sammartino.
3. The Rock, Triple H and Randy Orton are all tied with a total of 8 WWE World Heavyweight Championship wins.
Out of the 3, Randy Orton has held the title for the most amount of days with the title. John Cena currently holds the record for the most WWE World Heavyweight Championship wins with 12 combined wins.
Triple H’s last title win was and elimination chamber match featuring Jef Hardy, Kozlov, The Undertaker and Big Show, he held the title for 70 days.
Randy Orton won his last title by defeating Daniel Bryan in a Hell in a Cell match. Sean Michaels was the special guest referee. He held the title for 161 days.
At the 2013 Royal Rumble, the Rock won his last title in a match against CM Punk. Punk won the match at first but Vince McMahon restarted the match due to an interference by the Shield. He held the title for 70 days.
4. After defeating Bruno Sammartino and ending the longest single WWE World Heavyweight Championship reign in history, Ivan Koloff did not get his belt in the ring.
Bruno Sammartino’s first title reign lasted nearly 3,000 days and is currently the longest reign in WWE history. In just 2 reigns, Bruno Sammartino held the WWWF World Championship title for 4,040 days.
The first time he lost the title was in 1971 at Madison Square Garden to Ivan Koloff. After the match, the announcer feared that a possible riot was at hand, and as a result, he didn’t present Koloff with the belt in the ring, Sammartino stayed in the ring to distract fans while Ivan exited. When Bruno finally left the ring some of the fans started to cry.
5. The most attended Wrestlemania to date was Wrestlemania III in Pontiac, Michigan on March 29th, 1987, the attendance was reported to be 93,173 people.
In a battle for the then-WWF Championship, Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant went head-to-head in what critics considered one of the greatest matches in professional wrestling history. Some people have claimed the record of 93,173 attendees to be false (stating that the attendance was closer to 78,000) due to the lack of credibility of wrestling promoters.
The match lasted almost exactly 12 minutes and after successfully scoop slamming a 520 pound Andre the Giant, Hulk hogan retained the title by landing his signature leg drop off the top ropes. The guest ring announcer for that night was the retired World Series Champion Bob Uecker and the time-keeper was the former Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart.
6. Mike Tyson has technically been a member of D-Generation X since 1998.
Tyson was first introduced as a “special enforcer” for the WWF Championship match featuring Stone Cold, Steve Austin, and Sean Michaels. While being given the opportunity in the ring during Monday Night Raw by Vince McMahon, Tyson and McMahon were interrupted by Stone Cold which resulted in a shoving match primarily between Tyson and Austin.
After accepting the role as the “special enforcer”, Tyson was brought out yet again by McMahon live on Raw. This time being interrupted by D-Generation X. Another altercation ensued between Tyson and Sean Michaels which ended with Michaels ripping off Tyson shirt to reveal his allegiance to D-Generation X.
But, during the Championship match between Austin and Michaels, Tyson showed his allegiance to Stone Cold knocking out Sean Michaels at the end of the match.
But as recently as 2010, Mike Tyson matched up against DX in a tag team match with his partner Chris Jericho where Tyson turned on Jericho in the end and aligned himself with Tipple H and Sean Michaels. He has since been inducted into the WWE hall of fame by Sean Michaels and Triple H.
7. After leaving the WWE, professional wrestler CM Punk has become a writer for Marvel Comics and Vertigo Comics (DC Imprint).
After not appearing in either Raw and Smackdown despite being advertised, Punk thanked his fans and said that he would never return to wrestling. This was a result of being suspended for 2 months after his initial walk out. He claims to have never been contacted after his suspension was over and had a difficult time when it came to collecting his royalty payments. He also went on to state that health was also a factor in his departure.
CM Punk went on to write the intro to 2012’s Avenger’s Vs. X-Men and is currently co-writing an upcoming series called Drax.
8. The Flintstones and WWE did a crossover movie called, “The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age Smackdown!”
In the first Flintstones production in over 14 years, Fred Flintstone convinces Barney Ruble to wrestle in order to get back Fred’s families vacation money. The film stars The Bella Twins, Daniel Bryan, John Cena, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, Vince McMahon, The Undertaker, and Mark Henry.
The film is the first Flintstone’s production since the death of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Although the film was released in 2015 the wrestlers reportedly recorded their vocals during Summer Slam 2013.
9. John Cena holds the record at the Make-A-Wish Foundation for the most wishes granted by a single individual.
With Justin Bieber following in second place, John Cena holds the current record for the most wishes granted at Make-A-Wish-Foundation with over 500 wishes.
One of his latest wishes was for cancer survivor Kiara Grindrod along with Sting at Monday Night Raw, where Cena congratulated Kiara for winning her battle with cancer. The crowd chanted ‘this is awesome’ while Sting gave her his glove.
10. The Undertaker had 6 different names during his Professional wrestling career, one of which is Cain The Undertaker.
Having multiple names throughout his career is not a strange thing in professional wrestling, but the strangest name in the list of the Undertakers names is Cain The Undertaker. This is especially odd considering the Brothers of Destruction duo the Undertaker and Kane.
The Undertaker has been wrestling for over 25 years and has the longest win streak in Wrestlemania history win 21 wins and 0 (zero) lose. He finally ended that streak at Wrestlemania XXX, losing to Brock Lesnar.
11. Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant’s 1988 rematch at The Main Event is currently the most watched wrestling match ever in North American history.
With a Nilsen rating of 15.2 and a viewership of over 33 million, the rematch between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant broke records and still holds the record for the most watched wrestling match in North America to date.
After losing to Hogan at Wrestlemania III, Andre the Giant defeated Hulk Hogan in a match that lasted barely over 9 minutes. The match started in Hogan’s favor and he managed to pin The Giant after a leg drop by the referee was distracted by wrestler Virgil. While arguing with the referee The Giant attacked Hulk Hogan from behind and pinned him for the win. The pin wasn’t correct as Hulk Hogan’s arm was up in the air.
It was later revealed that Ted Dibiase hired the referee’s (Dave Hebner) twin brother to fix the match in order for The Giant to win and surrender the title to him. This was against WWE’s rules so the title was vacated after this incident.
12. After beating Nitro (WCW) in the Monday Night Wars for the first time in nearly 2 years, D-Generation X attempted to crash a live taping of their show in Virginia.
After losing Bret Hart to WCW after the Montreal Screwjob, the Monday Night Wars became dominated by WCW with viewers tuning to Nitro rather than Raw is War. For two years, WWE would lose both ratings and talent to WCW.
After successfully rebooting the franchise into the Attitude Era, Vince McMahon created a rivalry between him and Stone Cold. On April 13th, 1998, the main event between McMahon and Steve Austin was big enough to win the rating race between Raw is War and Nitro. In an attempt to mock WCW for their slipping ratings, D-Generation X road around Norfolk, Virginia in an army truck attempting to taunt and challenge the WCW and Eric Bischoff to a face off.
The arena closed their doors and would not let them in.
13. Since 1987, the WWE has had a variety of drug testing policies including The Talent Wellness Program which tests for recreational drugs, prescription drugs, and anabolic steroids.
Steroids have been a problem in the WWE for a long time. What was once only public speculation has now been confirmed by an array of WWE talent testing positive for steroids. Edge, Umaga, William Reagal, Ultimate Warrior, Randy Orton, Eddie Guerro, Vince McMahon, Chris Benoit, and Hulk Hogan are just a few that have tested positive for steroid us.
Following the death of Eddie Guerrero, the WWE created The Talent Wellness Program due to his sudden death that was possibly related to steroid use. After the double-murder suicide of Chris Benoit and his family, the United States of America has requested WWE to turn over all paperwork regarding the Talent and Wellness Program.
14. Rey Mysterio holds the record for the longest time spent in the ring during a Royal Rumble.
During the 2006 Royal Rumble, Rey Mysterio (entering in the #2 spot) stayed in the ring for a record of 1 hour and 2 minutes and 12 seconds. The main event that night was Kurt Angle vs. Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship.
Triple H, Randy Orton, and Rey Mysterio left in the ring. Triple H and Orton attempted to eliminate Mysterio together but failed and both wrestlers fell victim to Rey Mysterio’s signature 619. This resulted in Triple H being eliminated. Frustrated, Triple H then assaulted Mysterio outside of the ring, throwing him back out to be eliminated by Randy Orton. Rey Mysterio then eliminated Orton after countering his attack thus winning the 2006 Royal Rumble and beating Chris Benoit’s 2004 record of 1 hour 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Mysterio is also the 2nd person to with the Royal Rumble entering from the #2 spot, the first was Vince McMahon.
15. Cyndi Lauper has a wrestling move called ‘The Loaded Purse of Doom.’
After meeting Cyndi Lauper and an appearance in the music video ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’, McMahon booked Lauper in a segment in which she and Lou Albano got into an altercation after Albano referred to Lauper as a ‘broad’. This brought the WWE into mainstream started the Rock n’ Wrestling Connection.
Lauper challenged Albano to a fight where the female wrestler of her choice would fight the female wrestler of his choice. The match was called the Brawl to End It All, it was aired on MTV and featured Wendi Richter (Lauper) and The Fabulous Moolah (Albano). The match was for the WWF Women’s Championship. Lauper interfered during the match hitting Moolah in the head with her purse. The move was called ‘The Loaded Purse of Doom.’
Richter won the match, thus ending Moolah’s 28-year reign as the WWF Women’s Champion. Since then 3 of Cyndi Lauper’s videos feature WWE stars: The Goonies R’ Good Enough, Time After Time, and She Bop.
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