The WWE Divas Championship was a

women's professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called promotions. Some promotions are exclusively for wome ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

in WWE. The championship was created by WWE in 2008, and was introduced as part of the

WWE brand extension The brand extension, also referred to as the brand split, is the separation of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE's roster of wrestlers (and, at various times, creative staff) into distinct divisions, or "brands". The promotion's ...

via a storyline by then SmackDown

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Vickie Guerrero as an alternative to Raw's WWE Women's Championship. Michelle McCool became the inaugural champion on July 20, 2008, when she defeated Natalya at The Great American Bash. After then-WWE Divas Champion Maryse was drafted to Raw as part of the

2009 WWE draft The 2009 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) draft was the seventh WWE draft, produced by the American professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment. The draft had two parts: the first part was televised live for three hours on A ...

, she took the title with her. McCool won a match against Melina to unify the WWE Divas and Women's titles at the

Night of Champions Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends on ...

pay-per-view on September 19, 2010, creating the Unified WWE Divas Championship; it eventually dropped the "Unified" moniker. The youngest woman to win the Divas Championship is Paige, at age 21. The title was retired in 2016 at WrestleMania 32, after WWE Hall of Famer Lita revealed a brand-new Women's Championship, which would later be called the Raw Women's Championship, to replace the Divas Championship. The match for the new title took place at the event between the reigning Divas Champion

Charlotte Flair Ashley Elizabeth Fliehr (born April 5, 1986) is an American professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Charlotte Flair. She is currently inactive. She is a second-genera ...

and her opponents Becky Lynch and

Sasha Banks Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado (born January 26, 1992) is an American professional wrestler and actress. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sasha Banks. Banks previously wrestled on ...

in a

triple threat match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or " gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

. Therefore, Charlotte Flair was the last Divas champion.

History

With the first

in 2002, a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to different television programs and touring companies, the WWE Women's Championship was originally to be defended on both brands. At some point that year, however, it became exclusive to the Raw brand. Thereafter, only Divas on the Raw brand were able to compete for the title, while the Divas on the SmackDown brand were unable to compete for a women's-exclusive championship. However, on a few occasions, the regulation was bypassed with Melina, Ashley Massaro, Torrie Wilson, and Nidia challenging for the title while on the SmackDown brand, but none were successful. As a result, WWE created the WWE Divas Championship and introduced it on the June 6, 2008 episode of '' SmackDown'' when then SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero announced the creation of the title. On the June 6 and July 4, editions of ''SmackDown'', Natalya and Michelle McCool won their respective Golden Dreams match (also involving Maryse, Victoria,

Kelly Kelly Barbara Blank Coba (born Barbara Jean Blank; January 15, 1987), known professionally as Barbie Blank and by her ring name Kelly Kelly, is an American professional wrestler and model. Blank has a background in gymnastics and cheerleading, a ...

Cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The n ...

, and Layla) to qualify for the Divas Championship match. At The Great American Bash, McCool defeated Natalya to become the inaugural champion. When Maryse won the title from McCool in December 2008, she dislocated her kneecap at a live event later that month. Similar to how

Trish Stratus Patricia Anne Stratigeas (; born December 18, 1975) better known by the ring name Trish Stratus is a Canadian professional wrestler, actress and yoga instructor. She is currently signed to WWE. Often regarded as one of the greatest Women's Pe ...

kept the Women's Championship when she was sidelined with a herniated disc in 2005, Maryse was able to keep the Divas title upon her return in late January 2009. As part of the

, then Divas Champion Maryse was one of the people drafted to the Raw brand, in the process making the championship exclusive to Raw. On January 4, 2010, WWE vacated the title after the current Divas Champion Melina sustained a torn

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formati ...

. A tournament was started two weeks later on '' Raw'', where former Divas Champion Maryse qualified over Brie Bella, Alicia Fox qualified over

, Eve Torres qualified over

Katie Lea Burchill Katarina Leigh Waters (born 10 November 1980) is a German-born English American professional wrestler and actress. She is best known for her time with Impact Wrestling under the ring names Katarina or Winter and for her time in WWE under the ring ...

, and Gail Kim qualified over former Divas Champion Jillian Hall. In the semifinals, Maryse defeated Eve Torres, and Gail Kim defeated Alicia Fox. On February 22 episode of ''Raw'', Maryse defeated Gail Kim to win the vacant championship, making her the first person to hold the title on more than one occasion. It was announced on the August 30 episode of ''Raw'' that the Divas Championship would be unified with the Women's Championship at a match at

. With that, the title (known briefly as the WWE Unified Divas Championship) became accessible to both WWE brands and the champion could appear on both shows, a situation made permanent by the ending of the brand extension in 2011. In August 2014, the Divas Championship belt, along with all other pre-existing championship belts in WWE at the time, received a minor update, replacing the long-standing scratch logo with WWE's new logo originally used for the WWE Network. On April 6, 2014, AJ Lee became the first and only woman to defend the Divas Championship at WrestleMania for WrestleMania XXX. On the WrestleMania 32 pre-show, former WWE Diva and Hall of Famer Lita announced that the scheduled

for the Divas Championship between

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, Becky Lynch, and

was instead going to be for the new WWE Women's Championship (does not share the same lineage as the original WWE Women's Championship). It was also announced that the Divas Championship would be retired, and all female performers would become WWE Superstars in the process, coincidentally retiring the term "Diva".

WWE Divas Championship Tournament (2010)

On January 4, 2010, WWE vacated the title after then Divas Champion Melina sustained a torn

. A tournament was started two weeks later on ''Raw''. On February 22 episode of ''Raw'', Maryse defeated Gail Kim to win the vacant championship, making her the first person to hold the title on more than one occasion. * The tournament final was originally scheduled at Elimination Chamber, but when official consultant to the SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero interrupted, she announced that she was changing the match to an interbrand Divas tag team match, with Maryse and Gail Kim facing LayCool ( Michelle McCool and Layla) from SmackDown. The final was held the following night on ''Raw''.

Brand designation history

The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the Divas Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.

Reigns

There were 26 total reigns and 1 vacancy. The inaugural champion was Michelle McCool, who defeated Natalya to win the title at The Great American Bash on July 20, 2008. Eve Torres and AJ Lee hold the record for most reigns as Divas Champion with three each. AJ Lee holds the record for most combined days as champion with 406 days, while

Nikki Bella Stephanie Nicole Garcia-Colace (born November 21, 1983), known professionally as Nikki Bella, is an American professional wrestler and television personality. She is currently signed to WWE as an ambassador. In 2007, Bella signed with WWE an ...

holds the record for longest individual reign at 301 days. Jillian Hall has the shortest reign at five minutes. Layla is the oldest Divas Champion, having won at the age of 34, while Paige is the youngest Divas Champion in history at 21 years of age, and is also the only woman to win the title in her debut. The final champion was

, who was in her first and only reign. She defeated

on September 20, 2015, at

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

to win the title. Charlotte was originally scheduled to defend the title at WrestleMania 32 against

and Becky Lynch, but during the event it was announced that the scheduled triple threat match would instead be for the new WWE Women's Championship (now Raw Women's Championship), with the Divas Championship subsequently being retired. Charlotte won the match and the Women's Championship; this ended her reign as Divas Champion and began a new reign as Women's Champion.

References

External links

Official WWE Divas Championship history
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wwe Divas Championship WWE Diva WWE women's championships