The Unofficial WWE Championship (UWWEC) begins on March 31, 1985 – Wrestlemania I. The holder of the WWF/E Championship at the end of the night is officially crowned the UWWEC. Hulk Hogan was the champion going into the event and was the champion after when he and Mr. T defeated Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. This is considered the first Unofficial WWE Championship reign.
Hulk Hogan, just like he dominated the WWF at the time, dominated the UWWE too. He traded wins with Don Muraco, Tito Santana, Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff and other stars of the 1980s to clearly be the most decorated champion by the time the ’80s were over with 26 reigns already under his belt in a 5 year period.
The 90s saw Hulk Hogan’s dominance slow down but that didn’t stop him from having the longest reign in UWWEC history (a record that still stands today). His final reign as champion lasted 512 days from the beginning of 1992 to the middle of 1993. He was finally stopped at King of the Ring ’93 by Yokozuna who also won the WWF Championship in the process.
The mid-to-late ’90s saw the UWWEC once again reflect the real life WWF where Bret Hart, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels had the most success. HBK has only held the title on 6 occasions but has an average length reign of over 100 days – the highest by anyone with more than 5 reigns.
The early 2000s saw plenty of short reigns by wrestlers in the lower card. With the WWF Hardcore Title’s 24/7 rule, the UWWEC saw multiple title changes on the same day. The big guns of the attitude era shared some success but there is no real trend or pattern that the UWWEC follows.
Later on in the decade, Batista dominated the title with the equal-second most title reigns in history with 16 (tied with Randy Savage). His total number of days as champion reached 809, which is the second most in history (after Hulk Hogan, of course).
The ’10s have started off an interesting fashion with some old stars such as Kane improving their already impressive record while established stars like Randy Orton are constantly challenging for the title.
There is still plenty of history to be written for the Unofficial WWE Championship and you never know who could win it next.
The Unofficial WWE Championship 