WCW World Heavyweight Champion

WCW World Heavyweight Championship
The Big Gold Belt represented the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in 1991 and then from 1994–2001
Details
Promotion	WCW (January 11, 1991 – March 23, 2001) WWF (March 26, 2001 – December 9, 2001)
Date established	January 11, 1991
Date retired	December 9, 2001 (unified with the WWF Championship)
Past design(s)
Other name(s)
WCW World Heavyweight Championship (January 11, 1991 – March 26, 2001) WCW Championship (June 24, 2001 – November 19, 2001) World Championship (November 19, 2001 – December 9, 2001) WCW World Championship (as the official name listed in WWE's website)
Statistics First champion(s) Ric Flair Final champion(s) Chris Jericho Most reigns Ric Flair (7 reigns) Longest reign Hulk Hogan (469 days) Shortest reign Chris Jericho (13 minutes, 30 seconds) Oldest winner Ric Flair (51 years) Youngest winner The Giant (23 years) Heaviest champion The Giant (500 lb (230 kg)) Lightest champion David Arquette (150 lb (68 kg))

The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship originally used in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and later, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the original world title of the World Championship Wrestling promotion, spun off from the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. It existed in WCW from 1991 to 2001.

Following the acquisition of WCW by the WWF in March 2001, it became one of two world titles in the WWF, with its name being immediately abbreviated to the WCW Championship and finally, the World Championship in November. It continued to complement the then-WWF Championship until the following month, when both titles were unified to create the Undisputed WWF Championship. The Undisputed title retained the lineage of the WWF Championship, and the World Championship was retired.

Ric Flair was the first holder of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, with Chris Jericho being the last. The title was the second of six to be represented by the historic Big Gold Belt, first introduced in 1986.

In December 1988, Turner Broadcasting purchased Jim Crockett Promotions, which had promoted under the name "NWA World Championship Wrestling". While the promotion remained a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the use of the NWA name was gradually reduced on televised programming, in favor of the name "World Championship Wrestling", or "WCW". On January 11, 1991, Ric Flair defeated Sting to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and was recognized as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. The new championship was not initially represented by its own title belt, and WCW continued to use the NWA World Heavyweight Championship title belt. Because of this, WCW regularly claimed the NWA World Heavyweight Championship lineage for its own championship.