History of the WWE Divas Championship
The WWE Divas Championship is the premier women’s championship in WWE. It has a storied history behind it, and is valued deeply by all competitors in the Divas division of the WWE.
Let us have a look at its rich history and its evolution over the years:
The Beginning
The Divas championship was created by WWE in 2008. At that time, the major WWE brand RAW had the WWE Women’s Championship, while the other big brand Smackdown did not have any women’s title.
The then-SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero introduced the Divas title on Smackdown as an alternative to Raw's Women's Championship. The inaugural championship match was held on July 20, 2008 at the Great American Bash pay-per-view.
Michelle McCool defeated Natalya in the match to become the inaugural champion.
Evolution of the title and Divas Champions over the years
Michelle McCool, who was the inaugural champion, held on to the title for 155 days, before losing it to Maryse. Maryse held on to the title for a longer reign of 216 days. The championship became exclusive to the Raw brand on April 13, 2009 when Maryse was drafted from SmackDown, in the annual WWE draft.
The title saw many new champions over the next year, including the likes of Mickie James, Melina, Eve Torres and Alicia Fox.
The next major milestone for the Divas title came in 2010. On August 30, 2010, it was announced on an episode of RAW that the WWE Divas Championship would be unified with the WWE Women's Championship at a match at Night of Champions.
And with that, the title (known briefly as the WWE Unified Divas Championship) became accessible to both WWE brands and the champion could appear on both shows, a situation made permanent by the ending of the brand extension in 2011.
Michelle McCool was coincidentally the first champion after the unification of the titles. It was a shorter reign for her this time, and she lost her title to Natalya, in a match at the Survivor Series.
2012 saw the crowning of four new champions one by one, including Eve Torres, Brie Bella, Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix, in that order. Beth Phoenix had a long title reign, holding on to the title for 204 days.
The next most significant phase in this Championship’s history was in 2014, when the title changed hands between AJ Lee and Paige multiple times. Both had three alternate reigns at the top, one after the other, creating a fascinating rivalry for the fans.
Towards 2014 end, Nikki Bella became the Divas Champion, and she created a record for the longest title reign, holding onto the Divas title for a record 301 days, before losing it to the current champion Charlotte.
Records related to the WWE Divas title
The WWE Divas title has seen a total of 26 title reigns and 1 vacancy. Eve Torres and AJ Lee hold the record for most reigns as WWE Divas Champion with three each.
Nikki Bella, as mentioned earlier, holds the record for the longest title reign at 301 days. Jillian Hall has the shortest reign at four minutes. Layla is the oldest Divas Champion, having won at the age of 34 while Paige holds the distinction of being the youngest Divas Champion in history, at 21 years of age, and is also the only woman to win the title in her debut.
Future Outlook
The WWE Divas title will continue to be the major driver of competition in the women’s section of WWE. The current champion Charlotte has been creating waves in the Divas section and has defeated all challengers to her title.
She and the current crop of WWE divas are sure to keep the flag flying high for the Divas’ wing and take the WWE Divas Championship to even greater heights.