1,000 days of the WWE Universal Championship: 3 positives and 4 negatives
The Universal Championship was introduced to WWE programming in the summer of 2016 after the rules of the WWE Draft stated that Raw and SmackDown Live would each have their own world champion.
While the WWE Championship moved to SmackDown Live, Raw’s on-screen authority figures at the time – Stephanie McMahon (Commissioner) and Mick Foley (General Manager) – revealed on the July 25, 2016 episode of Raw that they wanted to name the brand’s world title after the WWE Universe, hence the ‘Universal Championship’ name.
Four weeks later, Finn Balor became the inaugural winner of the title when he defeated Seth Rollins on August 21 at SummerSlam, but his reign abruptly ended after just one day due to injury.
Since then, we have seen the following title reigns take place: Kevin Owens (188 days), Goldberg (28 days), Brock Lesnar (504 days), Roman Reigns (64 days), Brock Lesnar (156 days), Seth Rollins (41 days and counting).
As of the time of writing (May 18, 2019), it has been exactly 1,000 days since the Universal Championship was first on the line in the Balor vs. Rollins match at SummerSlam 2016, so now seems like as good a time as any to take a look back at the biggest positives and negatives that the title has brought WWE fans so far.
#7 Negative: Finn Balor injury
WWE was widely praised in the build-up to SummerSlam 2016 when the popular Finn Balor joined Raw from NXT and made an immediate impression by defeating Roman Reigns, as well as three other Superstars in a Fatal 4-Way match, on his first night with the brand.
As we have gone on to find out over the last couple of years, it is very rare that somebody from NXT achieves instant success on the main roster, so the majority of the WWE Universe was happy to see the Irishman defeat Seth Rollins at his first pay-per-view to win the Universal Championship.
Sadly for Balor, he suffered a serious shoulder injury during the match, ruling him out for the next seven months, and he was forced to relinquish the title one day later on Raw.
Although he has been involved in Universal Championship matches against Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar since then, Balor is yet to reclaim the red brand’s top male title.