WWE Women's Championship (1956–2010)

The 1984 to 2010 version of the WWE Women's Championship was a women's professional wrestling world championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. The company claims a lineage that dates back to September 18, 1956, when The Fabulous Moolah became the National Wrestling Alliance's third World Women's Champion; however, WWE, at the time World Wrestling Federation, did not acquire the rights to the championship until 1984.
The WWF did not exist in its modern incarnation in 1956, but claim this year for the championship's establishment and do not recognize any title changes from when Moolah became champion until she lost it in 1984 to Wendi Richter, prior to which, Moolah sold the title's rights to the company and it became the WWF Women's Championship, and later, the WWE Women's Championship when the company was renamed. With WWE claiming a lineage beginning in 1956, it made the Women's Championship the oldest active professional wrestling championship in the company until its retirement in 2010 after it was unified with the WWE Divas Championship, which briefly became known as the Unified WWE Divas Championship. The final champion was Layla.
A new WWE Women's Championship was created in April 2016, and although both championships share the same name and the original is considered to be the predecessor, the new championship does not carry the lineage of the original. In September 2016, the newer title was renamed as Raw Women's Championship but reverted to WWE Women's Championship in June 2023.

History

On September 18, 1956, The Fabulous Moolah became the third NWA World Women's Champion. At that time, WWE did not exist and would not become a company until 1963, when the Capitol Wrestling Corporation pulled out of the National Wrestling Alliance to establish the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Moolah, who bought the rights to the championship in the 1970s, defended the championship as the NWA World Women's Champion up until May 19, 1984; by this time, the WWWF had been renamed to World Wrestling Federation. In 1983, the WWF disaffiliated with the NWA and Moolah sold the championship's rights to the WWF in 1984, and she was recognized as the WWF Women's Champion. Instead of beginning her reign in 1984, the WWF claimed the lineage of her reign from when she first became champion in 1956. The preceding champions and the title changes between 1956 and when Moolah lost it in 1984 are not recognized by WWE. As a result, The Fabulous Moolah's first reign is considered to have lasted 28 years by the promotion.
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 was released from the WWF. Blayze, as Madusa, unexpectedly signed with World Championship Wrestling in 1995 and threw the championship belt, which was still in her possession, in a trash can on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro. The Women's Championship was reactivated again in September 1998 during the Attitude Era 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 in March 2002, the Women's Championship at first was still defended on both the Raw and SmackDown brands, while most titles were exclusive to one brand. In September, the Women's Championship became exclusive to only the Raw brand. The Women's Championship remained the sole championship contested by women, until July 4, 2008, when a counterpart to the championship, called the WWE Divas Championship, was created for the SmackDown brand. On April 13, 2009, the Women's Championship became exclusive to the SmackDown brand when reigning champion Melina was drafted from Raw to SmackDown during the 2009 WWE Draft to replace the current WWE Divas Champion Maryse, who had been drafted to Raw.
The Women's Championship was unified with the Divas Championship at Night of Champions in September 2010, creating the Unified WWE Divas Championship and making the Women's Championship defunct as the unified title followed the lineage of the Divas Championship; the title eventually dropped the "Unified" moniker.
On April 3, 2016, at WrestleMania 32, a new WWE Women's Championship was introduced to succeed the Divas Championship. This new title does not carry the lineage of either the Divas Championship or the original Women's Championship, but is acknowledged by WWE as the successor of both.

Tournaments

1993

This tournament was held to decide the new WWF Women's Champion after the title was reinstated after three years of inactivity.

WWE Women's Championship Tournament (2006)

The WWE Women's Championship Tournament was a tournament to crown a new WWE Women's Champion after champion Trish Stratus retired from her wrestling career.

Brand designation history

Following the WWE brand extension on March 25, all titles in WWE became exclusive to either the Raw brand or SmackDown brand. The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the Women's Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.

Date of transition	Brand	Notes
September 23, 2002	Raw	The WWE Women's Championship became exclusive to Raw.
April 13, 2009	SmackDown	Women's Champion Melina was drafted to SmackDown in the 2009 WWE Draft.
September 19, 2010		At Night of Champions, Michelle McCool unified the Divas Championship with the Women's Championship. The Women's Championship was retired and the Divas Championship became briefly known as the Unified WWE Divas Championship and defended on both Raw and SmackDown.

Reigns

Over the championship's fifty-six year history, there were 59 recognized reigns between 29 recognized champions and 4 vacancies. As per WWE's official title history, the inaugural champion was The Fabulous Moolah, who defeated Judy Grable on September 18, 1956. Moolah had the longest reign by holding it for 10 years, although the WWE considers it to be longer at 28 years, as title changes between 1956 and 1984 are not recognized by the promotion. The Fabulous Moolah is technically tied with Trish Stratus for the most reigns with 7, but because WWE does not recognize the title changes between 1956 and 1984, Moolah only has 4 and Stratus has the most reigns with 7. Mickie James's third reign is the shortest at less than 1 hour. Only four women held the championship for a continuous reign of one year or more: The Fabulous Moolah, Sensational Sherri, Rockin' Robin, and Trish Stratus.
Despite the title being contested mainly by female wrestlers, the championship was once held by a male, Harvey Wippleman, who won it under the name "Hervina".