no one ever was
The WWE Women's Championship was established in 1956. At that time it was named the NWA World Women's Championship for the NWA. The first ever woman to hold the title was the wrestler The Fabulous Moolah. She debuted as a wrestler in 1949 and retired in 2007.
Triple H: 12 Times World or WWE Champion. All in WWF/WWE. Ric Flair: 16 Times World or WWE Champion. Spread between NWA/WCW/WWF/WWE. Raven: 27 Times Hardcore Champion. All in WWF/WWE Sandman: 4 Times ECW Champion. All in ECW
Buddy Rodgers except back then it was called the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship. Technically Rogers did not win the title, as the top star in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) he was named the first WWE Champion when the company began promoting in the early 1960's. Rogers quickly lost the title to Bruno Sammartino, making Rogers the first ever WWE Champion but Bruno the first man to "WIN" the title. Subsequently, Rogers was the first man to be recognized as both WWE and NWA or WCW (World Championship Wrestling, the company name after Ted Turner purchased most of the NWA assets in the late 80's) until Ric Flair in 1992.
Ken Shamrock
Ken Shamrock?
The first TNA Champion was Samoa Joe. He defeated Kurt Angle for the title and was named the first TNA World Champion in history.
AWA world tag team champion x2 (with Marty Jannetty) NWA Central states tag team champion (with Marty Jannetty) AWA Southern Tag team Champion x2 (with Marty Texas All Star Wrestling Tag Team Chsmpion x2 (with Paul Diamond) Texas Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Champion WWF/WWE World Tag Team Champion x5 (1x Marty Jannetty-unrecognised by WWE), (x2 Diesel), (1x Steve Austin), (1x John Cena) WWE World Unified Tag Team Champion (with Triple H) WWF European Champion WWF Intercontinental Champion x3 WWF World Champion x3 WWF/WWE World Heavyweight Champion 1995 & 1996 Royal Rumble Winner HBK is also the fourth man to hold the WWF Triple Crown ( Tag, Intercontinental and World Tutles) and the first ever Grand Slam Champion (Tag, European, Intercontinental and World)
Apparently a masked wrestler can be NWA Champion now. Back in the 1980's, there was a NWA bylaw stating a masked wrestler could not be champion. Dusty Rhodes, suspended at the time by NWA, won a NWA title match over Ric Flair while wearing a mask, but the title never changed hands and was not recognized because Rhodes refused to unmask.
According to WWE, John Cena, the current WWE Champion, has been WWE Champion 11 times. But if you're a fan of WWE, you know this is not true as he has only been WWE Champion 10 times, not counting the match he had vs Rey Mysterio on July 25, 2011 for the WWE Championship because the rightful champion was CM Punk. In regard to the last answer who said Ric Flair won the WWE Championship 16 times, you're sadly mistaken friend because Flair only won the WWE Championship two times. He won the NWA/WCW World Heavyweight Championship 14 times before that belt officially became the property of WWE in 2001 when WWE acquired WCW from Ted Turner and subsequently became known as the World Heavyweight Championship it is known as today.
The first NWA world heavyweight champion was officially Orville Brown in 1948 but it could quite easily be argued that the first NWA champion was Georg Hackenschmidt in 1905. It just depends on whether you only take the NWA as in its current form or whether you accept those of its ancestors fromwhom the title was born. http://www.wrestlingbooker.com/Articles/title_claims_1.html http://www.wrestlingbooker.com/Articles/title_claims_2.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NWA_World_Heavyweight_Champions These links will explain further.
WWE began in 1952.In 1953 it joined the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance)
Traditionally, this title was seen as a stepping stone to the NWA World Championship. This is exactly what the title was for Lex. From 1987 - 1991, Lex was seemingly always either the U.S. Champion or the number one contender for it. Over an 874 day period, he was only without the title for 65 days. While champion, he was involved in a feud with Ric Flair for the NWA World Championship. In 1991, he vacated the title when he won the vacant NWA World Championship from Barry Windham. So i think Lex Lugar is the longest U S Champion.