WCW World Heavyweight Championship

WCW World Heavyweight Championship
The Big Gold Belt represented the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in 1991 and then from 1994 to 2001
Details
Promotion	World Championship Wrestling (January 11, 1991 – March 23, 2001) World Wrestling Federation (March 23, 2001 – December 9, 2001)
Date established	January 11, 1991
Date retired	December 9, 2001 (unified with the WWF Championship)
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 on WWE's website)
Statistics First champion(s) Ric Flair Most reigns Ric Flair (8) Longest reign Hulk Hogan (469 days) Shortest reign Chris Jericho (24 minutes)

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.

Ric Flair was the first holder of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, with Chris Jericho being the last.^[1] The title was the second of five to be represented by the historic Big Gold Belt, first introduced in 1986.