List of World Heavyweight Champions

The World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It is the world title of the SmackDown brand and one of two in WWE, complementing the WWE Championship of the Raw brand. The title is the most recent of five to be represented by the historic Big Gold Belt, first introduced in 1985. It was established under the Raw brand in 2002, after Raw and SmackDown became distinct brands under WWE, and has moved between both brands on different occasions, mainly as a result of the WWE Draft. The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches.

Belt design The World Heavyweight Championship belt is designed after the Big Gold Belt, an iconic championship belt that had previously represented the WCW and NWA World Heavyweight Championships. It features a black leather strap with buckles to wrap around the waist of the wrestler who wears it, and three pieces made of gold. In the middle of the strap is a large center piece, which features a design of a crown on top of a globe in the center. At the top of the current piece, the WWE logo (added in March 2003) and the words "World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion" are engraved, while a nameplate, which has the name of the champion etched, is located at the bottom of the piece. In addition, the entire piece is engraved with a unique fleuron pattern that is surrounded by red gemstones. Along the strap, on both ends, are two smaller side pieces which follows the same fleuron design pattern as seen in the center piece. Since July 19, 2011 (aired on the July 22 edition of SmackDown), the back of the belt has featured a red crocodile pattern.

Christal is the current champion and is in her third reign, defeating Otisha for the championship on March 2, 2012 at Wrestlemania XXXI. There have been 29 World Heavyweight Championship reigns and 13 total champions.

Reign
As of December 5, 2012.