Why The Universal Championship Was WWE’s Worst World Title Ever

Every wrestler to ever set foot in a squared circle aspires to win a world championship one day. Every promotion has its own world title, but for most wrestlers, the top title in WWE is the endgame. For better or worse, WWE is the world’s biggest professional wrestling and sports entertainment promotion.

Throughout its storied history, it has had multiple iterations of the WWE and World Heavyweight Championship. The promotion has rarely strayed from this duo, but at SummerSlam 2016, the company crowned its inaugural Universal Champion. The Universal Championship still technically exists, as it has been unified with the WWE Championship. But for all intents and purposes, the title is defunct. This is arguably for the best because its short tenure confirmed its status as the worst world title in WWE history.

The Universal Championship Was Doomed From The Start

Finn Balor Had To Drop The Universal Title After Just One Day

• WWE booked a match to determine the inaugural Universal Champion at SummerSlam 2016.
• Finn Bálor vs. Seth Rollins for the title was hurt by the fans’ negative reaction to the championship’s design.
• Bálor won the title, but had to vacate it the next night due to injury.

In the weeks leading up to SummerSlam 2016, WWE booked a tournament to determine the two men who would compete for the right to become the first Universal Champion. The two men in question were Seth Rollins and Finn Bálor. Seth Rollins was already an established main-event star, while Finn Bálor had taken the main roster by storm, notably beating Roman Reigns in a qualifying match.

When Bálor vs. Rollins took place in the penultimate match on the SummerSlam card, WWE chose to unveil the championship. With a bright red body and strap, the Universal Championship was unlike any other WWE title, and fans did not like it. While Bálor and Rollins put on a strong showing, fans were more distracted by the ugliness of the design. Ultimately, Bálor won the bout to become the inaugural Universal Champion.

Unfortunately, his title reign was short-lived. Bálor picked up a shoulder injury that needed surgery in his match at SummerSlam, forcing him to vacate the title less than 24 hours after winning it. Between the title design, Bálor’s untimely injury, and the fact that his match with Rollins the previous night wasn’t even the main event of SummerSlam, WWE was fighting an uphill battle with the Universal Championship.

Most Universal Championship Reigns Struggled

WWE Couldn’t Figure Out How To Legitimize The Title With Fans

• Kevin Owens won the Universal Championship a week after Finn Bálor vacated it.
• Owens lost the title to Goldberg, who then lost it to Brock Lesnar.
• WWE couldn’t figure out how to legitimize the title in the eyes of fans until Roman Reigns became the Tribal Chief.

A week after Finn Bálor vacated the title, WWE booked a fatal four-way elimination match to determine the new Universal Champion. Of the four participants, Big Cass, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Kevin Owens, Owens emerged victorious with a little help from Triple H. The Game attacked Seth Rollins, allowing The Prizefighter to claim the title.

His six-month reign as Universal Champion was entertaining enough, but it was marred by screwy finishes that quickly grew repetitive. The best thing about Owens’ time as Universal Champion was his friendship with Chris Jericho. Owens lost the title to Goldberg in seconds ahead of WrestleMania 33. Goldberg then lost the title to Brock Lesnar a month later. WWE played up Lesnar’s 503-day reign a lot, but it was marked by lengthy absences and multiple subpar matches.

Roman Reigns finally put an end to that at the 2018 SummerSlam but had to vacate the title two months later because his leukemia had returned. Lesnar became Universal Champion once again, swapped the title with Seth Rollins a couple of times, and then Seth Rollins was ruined as a babyface in his feud with ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt. Goldberg got the title again and then lost it to Braun Strowman. Repeatedly, WWE’s presentation of the Universal Championship was below expectations. It was a world title because WWE repeatedly told fans it was a world title, and it was defended in main event slots. But nothing about it felt like it was on par with the WWE Championship until Roman Reigns became the Tribal Chief.

WWE Began Plans To Phase Out The Universal Championship In 2022

Even WWE Understood The Universal Title Was A Failure

• Roman Reigns excelled as Universal Champion.
• WWE booked itself into a corner by unifying the titles, but Triple H used this as an opportunity to phase out the Universal Championship entirely.
• WWE slowly phased out the Universal Championship and brought a new iteration of the World Heavyweight Championship into the fold.

Looking back at the Universal Championship, only Roman Reigns’ reign, which began at Payback 2020, stands out as something special. That’s because the title was supported by elite character work and storytelling that legitimized its presence in main event angles. As The Bloodline story evolved, WWE pushed to have the faction hold all the top gold.

This meant that in the main event of WrestleMania 38, WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and Universal Champion Roman Reigns competed in a Winner-Takes-All match. Reigns was victorious, and the visual of him with both titles added to the aura of the Tribal Chief. Soon after, The Usos had both tag team championships. Doing this meant that WWE had booked itself into a corner.

The tag team championships were an easy enough fix, as they were never officially unified. But the Universal Championship remained, as a failed idea of the previous regime. WWE presented Reigns with an Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, the same gold belt now referred to only as the WWE Championship. WWE brought back an iteration of the World Heavyweight Championship to fill the void left by the Universal Championship. Meanwhile, the Universal Championship is a thing of the past, now remembered as nothing more than a bad decision with worse booking.