During the
Money in the Bank pay-per-view and
livestreaming event on May 19, 2019,
WWE announced that a new
professional wrestling championship would be introduced on the following night's episode of
Raw, where hardcore legend and
WWE Hall of Famer
Mick Foley unveiled the WWE 24/7 Championship. Like the former
WWE Hardcore Championship and its "
24/7 rule", the 24/7 Championship could be defended anytime,
anywhere, as long as a WWE referee was present, hence its name. It was later confirmed that the title was not gender-exclusive and could also be won by non-WWE personnel after the respective wins of former WWE female wrestler
Kelly Kelly and
Fox sportscaster
Rob Stone. Although a stipulation of the championship, the 24/7 rule could be temporarily suspended by any authority figure. This usually occurred when the champion was involved in a non-title match. For example, after
Elias won the title from
R-Truth on the May 28, 2019, episode of
SmackDown Live, the brand's commissioner
Shane McMahon suspended the rule until after the scheduled tag team match later that same night, in which both Elias and Truth were involved. The rule could also be suspended during an actual scheduled match for the title to prevent other wrestlers from getting involved. For example, when R-Truth unsuccessfully defended the title against Elias in a
lumberjack match on the June 4 episode of
SmackDown. Another example was when reigning champion R-Truth was a guest on
The Miz's "Miz TV" talkshow and during a subsequent scheduled match against Drake Maverick, both on the June 24 episode of
Raw. Former WWE wrestler No Way Jose said in a 2021 interview that he had proposed the idea for the 24/7 Championship to a writer about five months before the title's debut. However, according to
professional wrestling journalist
Dave Meltzer, the idea for the title was proposed by the
USA Network, where
Raw and
SmackDown had both aired, in an attempt to increase the ratings during
Raws third hour. The viewership of both shows had been declining; the April 29 and 30, 2019, episodes of
Raw and
SmackDown, respectively, both reached a record low for non-holiday broadcasts outside of football season, with viewership dropping off the most during
Raws third hour. In October 2019, Meltzer reported that following the
2019 WWE Draft, the title would only appear on
Raw due to
SmackDown moving to
Fox as the title was USA Network's idea. Although the title was established under the rule that it could be defended on any brand, it primarily only appeared on
Raw following that draft, with only a few exceptions (such as an exchange that occurred in
Times Square during a segment of Fox's ''
New Year's Eve with Steve Harvey cross-promoting SmackDown''). During the November 7, 2022, episode of
Raw,
Nikki Cross defeated
Dana Brooke to win the championship for an 11th time. Afterwards backstage, Cross discarded the championship as trash. Two days later on November 9, the 24/7 Championship was removed from the active titles page on WWE.com, subsequently retiring the championship with Cross as its final holder. It was reported that after WWE owner
Vince McMahon retired in July 2022, the new creative team headed by
Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque did not have plans for the title; from that point, it was barely used on television until it was deactivated. According to Senior Vice President of Live Events
"Road Dogg" Jesse James, Levesque saw no value in the championship. ==Belt design==