Professional wrestling championships are often split up into various different classifications, each of which designate varying levels of importance to the belts.
World championships John Cena. With his three reigns as
World Heavyweight Champion, Cena is recognized by
WWE for the most world title reigns at 17. The world heavyweight championship (also just world championship, heavyweight championship, or in some cases the name of the promotion followed by championship) is the name given to the championship that is typically presented as being the most
prestigious of those contested within a promotion. The wrestler holding a championship with this name is most commonly referred to as the "world heavyweight champion" or "world champion" (though some promotions may use synonymous/alternate terms, such as the
AAA Mega Championship of
Lucha Libre AAA World Wide or the
Undisputed WWE Championship, the premier title of
WWE). Since professional wrestling is scripted, there is no promotion or group of people that recognize one official world title of the industry (the closest was the
NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship during the
territory days during the mid to late 20th century). Instead, each promotion can promote their top title as a world title, with some of them promoting title matches around the world to claim the designation. Some promotions may even recognize multiple world championships, such as is the case with WWE, as due to the large size of its roster, the promotion splits its roster into what they call brands where talent exclusively perform and their two main brands (
Raw and
SmackDown) each have their own world championship. The first widely recognized world heavyweight championship was the
World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, created in 1905, and the inaugural champion was
George Hackenschmidt. The lineage of many prominent contemporary world championships can be traced back to the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, with the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship considered its direct successor, with many world championships having been spun off from the NWA's title.
Location-specific championships as the
WWE Intercontinental Champion. Overall, he is a record 10-time intercontinental champion between
WWE, and
NJPW. A very common championship variation. The championship usually specifies the location on where the promotion is based, an example being WWE's
WWE United States Championship. Sometimes it may specify a specific state or territory, such as the
NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship. It is also common to be a smaller division of the world, an example being the
WWE Intercontinental Championship, the
TNA International Championship , or the
IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship. It is very common for these variations to be the second most prestigious championship in a promotion, but exceptions have existed, like the now defunct
WWE European Championship, which served as the company's tertiary singles championship, and the
NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, which many NWA territories created versions of and promoted as their most prestigious championship whenever the NWA World Heavyweight Champion was not around.
Weight class championships Another common classification of championships are by
weight classes. Given the scripted nature of professional wrestling matches, weight classes are not always strictly adhered to. Typically, promotions prefer to have a heavyweight title as their top prize, with other designations, such as
cruiserweight,
middleweight, or
light-heavyweight titles. Promotions often have one sub-heavyweight classification, while others sometimes may have more. Mountevans' committee (a governing body that instilled rules for professional wrestling in the UK) created seven formal weight divisions: • Lightweight () • Welterweight () • Middleweight () • Heavy middleweight () • Light heavyweight () • Mid-heavyweight () • Heavyweight (above ) Classifying championships into weight classes is also common practice in the
lucha libre promotions of
Mexico. Lucha libre has a detailed weight class system patterned after boxing. Each weight class has an official upper limit, but examples of wrestlers who are technically too heavy to hold their title can be found. The following weight classes exist in lucha libre, as defined by the "Comisión de Box y Lucha Libre Mexico D.F." (the Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Commission), the main regulatory body in Mexico: • Flyweight () • Bantamweight () • Featherweight () • Lightweight () • Super Lightweight () • Welterweight () • Super Welterweight () • Middleweight () • Super Middleweight/Junior Light Heavyweight () • Light Heavyweight () • Junior Heavyweight/Cruiserweight () • Heavyweight () (Minimum)
Gender championships , a seven-time
TNA Knockouts Champion (right hand), held the
TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship simultaneously Gender occasionally plays a role in the classifications of championship belts. Due to professional wrestling being a male dominated sport, only women's titles are given official gender classifications. Generally, only men are allowed to win the championships without a gender specification, though
Chyna defeating
Jeff Jarrett to win the
WWF Intercontinental Championship in 1999 and
Tessa Blanchard defeating
Sami Callihan to win the
Impact World Championship in 2020 are notable exceptions. In promotions featuring only a single gender (such as
Women of Wrestling or
Shimmer Women Athletes), gender classifications are often unnecessary as well. Titles specifically designated for women may fall into any of the other categories listed here (e.g., women's world titles or women's tag team titles, putting them on an equal level as their male counterpart).
Andy Kaufman once used gender classifications to his advantage, turning inter-gender competitions into a unique wrestling side-show. Kaufman declared himself the "Inter-Gender Champion of the World", and offered $1,000 to any woman who could pin him. None were successful during the run of the gimmick; though in other promotions such as
WCW and
WWE, women have successfully pinned men, most notably in a few isolated championship matches. On rare occasions, a male wrestler will compete in championship matches for championships generally contested exclusively in the women's division. Such examples include
Harvey Wippleman becoming the only male to capture the
WWF Women's Championship in 2000, and
Eric Young winning one half of the
TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship in 2012.
Gimmick/style championships , two-time
ROH World Television Champion Gimmick match classifications sometimes factor into the creation of title belts. In these classifications, special skills in a certain type of match or a certain style of wrestling is the signature of the division, and the champion is considered to be the most skilled wrestler at that specific style. Gimmick championships often take very differing forms. A common variation is the "hardcore championship", a title often defended in weapons-filled and bloody competitions with fewer rules (count outs and disqualifications are not usually allowed). A recent example of a hardcore championship is the
FTW Championship, which was used in
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) from 2020 to 2024 and was primarily contested in
FTW Rules matches. Another past such title was the
WWE Hardcore Championship, which was active from 1998 to 2002. In recent years, style-based championships have centered around what is known as "scientific" or technical wrestling. Examples of this include the
NXT Heritage Cup (which is specifically contested under "British Round Rules") in WWE's
NXT brand, and the
ROH Pure Championship in
Ring of Honor (which is contested under "Pure Wrestling Rules"). A variation that was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s and made a return in the 2020s is a "television championship" or "iron man championship", which involves more frequent title defenses as well as the stipulations that the belt can only change hands on television (as opposed to non-televised
house shows) with title matches having a short, TV-friendly time limit, usually 10 or 15 minutes. These titles were originally introduced during a time when weekly TV shows were seen as a vehicle to promote the money-making live shows, where major title defenses took place. Television titles provided a championship that would be defended on the weekly television shows. Examples of a television championship include the
AEW TNT Championship (named after the
home network of AEW's
Collision plus other AEW programming) and the
ROH World Television Championship. In 2021, AEW introduced the first TV title specifically for female wrestlers, the
AEW TBS Championship, named for
the network that is the home of
Dynamite as of January 5, 2022, serving as the counterpart to the male TNT Championship. Sister promotion ROH introduced a similar title for their women's division, the
ROH Women's World Television Championship. A modern take on the traditional TV title are internet championships. As professional wrestling began having events on streaming and online platforms, some promotions modified their television championships to be promoted as internet championships to reflect this. Examples of this include the
TNA Digital Media Championship, which was created in 2021 and defended up to 2025, where the full match are free to watch on to
TNA's online platforms and
YouTube. In 2024, WWE introduced the Speed Championship for the
men and
women division. The title was doubly named after the
Twitter exclusive streaming show
WWE Speed and due to the five-minute time limit of title matches (non-title
Speed matches have a three-minute time limit). Since August 2025, the titles will no longer be defended on
WWE Speed.
Tag team championships as both the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team and
ROH World Tag Team Champions Tag team championships are yet another different form of wrestling titles. Some consider it to be a style championship, but tag team championships are unique in their ability to include multiple wrestlers on teams competing for multiple belts. The most common form of tag team championships are in 2-on-2 format, which is often implicitly understood. Other tag team championships include 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 formats, which are often explicitly stated within the championship name to distinguish them from the 2-on-2 championships. Some teams may invoke what is called the
Freebird Rule, in which a stable of three or more wrestlers are all officially recognized as champion, allowing any pairing of the stable's members to defend the championship. This rule is most commonly applied to the standard 2-on-2 tag team championship, though it has also been applied to the other variants. Tag team championships are also often combined with regional modifiers, gimmick modifiers, gender modifiers, and weight class modifiers to further distinguish them. In such cases, the primary title is usually called the
world tag team championship, with the other championships seen as secondary titles. Examples of 2-on-2 tag team championships: •
WWE Tag Team Championship •
TNA World Tag Team Championship •
IWGP Tag Team Championship Examples of 3-on-3 tag team championships: •
CMLL World Trios Championship •
ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship •
AEW World Trios Championship Examples of 4-on-4 tag team championships: •
FMW World Street Fight 8-Man Tag Team Championship Examples of 5-on-5 tag team championships: •
KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Championship Unsanctioned championships as
FTW Champion in
AEW. His father,
Taz, appears in the background and was the original holder of the title in
ECW. The concept of championships, and their central role in wrestling, allows for the potential for
angles. One such angle is an unsanctioned championship title. These are claimed by a wrestler and defended in sanctioned matches, but are not recognized as legitimate titles by the promotion. Examples of unsanctioned championships include: •
Ted DiBiase's
Million Dollar Championship in
WWE •
Taz's
FTW Championship in
ECW and
AEW •
James Storm's
TNA World Beer Drinking Championship in
TNA •
Zack Ryder's
WWE Internet Championship in
WWE == References ==