Why the WWE Championship Is Anything but Undisputed

It would be really nice if CM Punk would admit that the WWE Championship is anything but undisputed.

Earlier this month on Raw, CM Punk returned to the company in his hometown of Chicago to become the new WWE Champion. Punk, who was a Raw Superstar, has shifted over to SmackDown to represent that brand as their champion.

Punk has had a history of rebelling against the stupid things WWE says or does, and he would be the perfect talent to step up and acknowledge that the title he currently holds is very much disputed.

WWE crowned their first Undisputed Champion in 2001

WWE purchased WCW in March of 2001. Later that year, at Vengeance, the company combined the WWE Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship when Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin on the same night to have the honor of being the company's first "Undisputed Champion." This gave the champion the right to appear on both Raw and SmackDown instead of being locked down to one singular brand.

Less than six months later, WWE did away with the double-championship presentation and introduced a single Undisputed Championship. Funny enough, just a few months later at SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar would win the Undisputed Championship for the first time with a shocking victory over The Rock.

After his win, it was announced that Brock Lesnar would exclusively be taking the title to SmackDown, and the company withdrew the undisputed moniker and reintroduced the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw.

The WWE Undisputed Championship has come and gone over the years

Over a decade later, in 2013, WWE decided to merge the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship as Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a TLC match to unify the titles. This lasted until 2016, when the company decided to bring back the brand split and introduce the Universal Championship.

These titles remained separate until WrestleMania 38 in 2022, when Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Two years later, when Cody Rhodes defeated Roman Reigns at WrestleMania XL, the Universal name was dropped, and the title simply became the WWE Undisputed Championship.

But even by this point, the title was very much disputed. A year earlier, WWE created a new World Heavyweight Championship for the Raw brand due to Roman Reigns' part-time schedule, which eventually landed him exclusively on the SmackDown brand. At that point, Reigns' title was very much disputed.

FINISHED. THE. STORY. ❤️#CodyRhodes earned that #WrestleMania moment. pic.twitter.com/U5IAnBimgv
— WWE (@WWE) April 8, 2024

Can CM Punk once again be the voice of the voiceless?

For the last three years, many within the WWE Universe have been vocal about the fact that the Undisputed Championship couldn't be a thing as long as they also had a World Championship.

These cries have fallen upon deaf ears, and Cody Rhodes did little to address any of these concerns during his numerous reigns as the WWE Champion. With someone like CM Punk now holding the title, it would be really nice if he acknowledged that the title is very much disputed, given that he held the other one earlier this year.

Will Punk help fix the name of the championship he holds? Or will WWE continue to belittle the World Heavyweight Championship that Roman Reigns holds by placing the other title on an "Undisputed" pedestal? Only time will tell.

Add us as a preferred source on Google