World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) with a market capitalisation of $1.42bn⁽¹⁾ is by some considerable distance the biggest company in the pro wrestling or sports-entertainment industry worldwide. This would compel any author on this subject to consider its main titles as possible World Championships.

This third article in the series will consider the claim of both the World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship in the context of the criteria set out in the introductory article.

1- That the belt should be defended regularly and currently, or at least occasionally, in more than one country and preferably several countries on more than one continent.

Both of these titles are based in the US but like the NWA's championship, they are occasionally defended outside of the USA, most frequently in Canada, but also in Japan, the United Kingdom and other European countries.

The WWE Championship (RAW) has not however changed hands outside of the USA since the Montreal Screwjob of 1997 and not outside North America since 1979 when Antonio Inoki won it in Tokushima, Japan. The latter event and indeed every title change outside of North America are not recognised by the WWE themselves

The World Heavyweight Championship (Smackdown) has never changed hands outside of the USA since its inception in 2002. Note that the WWE does not recognise this as the same championship as the belt represented in WCW which changed hands in England, Ireland and Canada.

Therefore, the WWE Championship does satisfy this criterion reasonably but if WWE's omission of previous reigns is taken to imply that they were of a different belt, then the same cannot be said of the World Heavyweight Championship.

2- That the belt should be contested fairly regularly by wrestlers of different nationalities.

The WWE Championship has been held by wrestlers from the following countries:

• -American (most) North America
• -Canadian (e.g. Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Edge) North America
• -Samoan descent (Yokozuna) (Polynesia)
• -Japanese (Antonio Inoki) (Asia)
• -French (Andre the Giant) (Europe)
• -Iranian (Iron Sheik) (Asia)
• -Italian (Bruno Sammartino) (Europe)
• -Puerto Rican (Pedro Morales) (North America)

It has been contested by a few other nationalities.

The World Heavyweight Championship has only ever been held by wrestlers from three countries and contested by no others:

• -American
• -Canadian (Edge and Chris Benoit)
• -Indian (Great Khali)

The WWE championship appears to satisfy this criterion as well as can be expected. However the World Heavyweight Championship cannot be said to satisfy this on the basis of 2 Canadian champions and one short Indian reign.

3 – That the belt and its lineage should be viewed as prestigious by the wrestling community (both wrestlers and fans) around the world.

As with the NWA claim, this is a difficult quality to quantify but it could be said that the majority of wrestling fans worldwide would view both belts as fairly prestigious. There are obviously a lot of wrestling fans who do not believe that the WWE deserves its pre-eminent position and consequently devalue their belts. The author makes no comment on this matter in this article other than to say that whatever his own views, this is probably not the general consensus among the wrestling community.

The lineage of the World Heavyweight Championship is to all intents and purposes non-existent if the WWE does not recognise the history of the physical belt.

The WWE championship can however trace its origins to the Thesz and Hackenschmidt Championships, albeit controversially. The crucial link in the chain is in 1981 when the WWE claim a double count out against NWA champion Ric Flair makes Bob Backlund the new champion. Neither then nor now would a double count out result in a new champion in either the WWE or the NWA so the argument here is very weak. Nevertheless, the WWE do dispute it. In 1991, Ric Flair as the NWA champion was stripped of the belt when he recognised (after joining WWF) the WWF (WWE) Championship as the real world title. The champion claiming another title as the true championship is a compelling but illegitimate argument.

4- That the belt should be the highest prize in any promotion in which it is contested.

These belts are the highest prizes on their respective brands in the company but that is surely not enough since both cannot be recognised as the pre-eminent championship of the world if they are not the top prize in their company. However, the WWE Championship is unofficially claimed as the senior of the two due to both its heritage and its place, at the time of writing, on the company's flagship show (RAW). This in effect means that the World Heavyweight Championship does not satisfy this criterion if the WWE Championship does and they cannot, in any case, both fulfil this criterion.

5- That the belt should be regularly contested by well-respected and accomplished wrestlers.

Both belts are held at the time of writing by respectable and accomplished wrestlers (The Undertaker and Randy Orton). The recent history of both belts, however, contain the names of a few champions who really do not warrant the title on the basis of their wrestling abilities but then this is not always the point of titles in pro wrestling.

It is the opinion of the author that this criterion is met but that it would be more fully satisfied if there was more care apparent in the decision to award the Championships.

1- finance.yahoo.com