The WWE Divas Championship is a professional wrestling women's championship owned by the WWE promotion. The word "Divas" in the championship's name refers to the pseudonym WWE Diva, which WWE uses to refer to its female wrestlers. The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition.
The creation of the championship was announced on June 6, 2008, by then SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero as a counterpart to the Raw brand's WWE Women's Championship. The inaugural champion was Ana Sanchez, who defeated Natalya on July 20, 2008, at The Great American Bash. On April 13, 2009, the title was moved from SmackDown to Raw as a result of then Divas Champion Maryse being drafted to Raw in the 2009 WWE draft. On September 19, 2010, at the Night of Champions pay-per-view event, Michelle McCool (defending the Women's Championship on behalf of tag team partner and official champion, Layla) defeated Divas Champion Melina, retiring the Women's Championship and unifying it with the Divas Championship.
Ana Sanchez holds the record for most reigns as Divas Champion with four. AJ Lee holds the longest title reign at 295 days, while Nikki Bella has the shortest reign at just six days. 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 current champion is Ana Sanchez, who is in her fourth reign. Overall, there have been 27 reigns shared between 15 women.
Title history[]
Names[]
Name | Years |
---|---|
WWE Divas Championship | 2008–2016 |
Unified WWE Divas Championship | 2010 |
Reigns[]
Reign | The reign number for the specific champion listed |
---|---|
Location | The city in which the title was won |
Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title was won |
+ | Indicates the current reign is changing daily |
No. | Champion | Reign | Date | Days held | Location | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ana Sanchez | 1 | July 20, 2008 | 155 | Uniondale, NY | The Great American Bash | Sanchez defeated Natalya to become the inaugural champion. |
2 | Maryse | 1 | December 22, 2008 | 216 | Toronto, ON | SmackDown | Maria served as the special guest referee. The championship became exclusive to the Raw brand on April 13, 2009 when Maryse was drafted from SmackDown. |
3 | Ana Sanchez | 2 | July 26, 2009 | 162 | Philadelphia, PA | Night of Champions | |
— | Vacated | — | January 4, 2010 | — | Dayton, OH | Raw | Ana Sanchez vacated her title after suffering a knee injury. |
4 | Eve Torres | 1 | February 22, 2010 | 49 | Indianapolis, IN | Raw | Defeated Gail Kim in a tournament final to win the vacant title. |
5 | Ana Sanchez | 3 | April 12, 2010 | 69 | London, England | Raw | |
6 | Alicia Fox | 1 | June 20, 2010 | 56 | Uniondale, NY | Fatal 4-Way | This was a Fatal 4-Way match also involving Gail Kim and Maryse. Fox pinned Maryse to win the championship. |
7 | Melina | 1 | August 15, 2010 | 35 | Los Angeles, CA | SummerSlam | |
8 | Michelle McCool | 1 | September 19, 2010 | 63 | Rosemont, IL | Night of Champion | This was a lumberjill match where the Women's Championship was unified with the Divas Championship. The title subsequently became accessible on both the Raw and SmackDown brands and was briefly referred to as the Unified Divas Championship, keeping the lineage of the Divas Championship whilst the Women's Championship was retired. Layla was unofficially the co-champion during this reign; she defended the championship in McCool's place on some occasions. |
9 | Natalya | 1 | November 21, 2010 | 70 | Miami, FL | Survivor Series | This was a handicap match also involving Layla as Michelle McCool's tag team partner. |
10 | Eve Torres | 2 | January 30, 2011 | 71 | Boston, MA | Royal Rumble | This was a Fatal 4-Way match also involving Layla and Michelle McCool. Eve pinned Layla to win the championship. |
11 | Brie Bella | 1 | April 11, 2011 | 70 | Bridgeport, CT | Raw | |
12 | Kelly Kelly | 1 | June 20, 2011 | 104 | Baltimore, MD | Raw | This was a "Power to the People" special episode of Raw, where Brie Bella's opponent was determined by a fan-voted poll. Kelly Kelly received the highest number of votes. |
† | Ana Sanchez | — | August 1, 2011 | — | Indianapolis, IN | Raw | After winning the title Sanchez threw the title to the floor claiming that the title meant nothing to her and true women's wrestling fans. WWE subsequently returned the title to Kelly Kelly invalidating Sanchez's title win. |
13 | Beth Phoenix | 1 | October 2, 2011 | 204 | New Orleans, LA | Hell in a Cell | |
14 | Nikki Bella | 1 | April 23, 2012 | 6 | Detroit, MI | Raw | This was a lumberjill match |
15 | Layla | 1 | April 29, 2012 | 140 | Rosemont, IL | Extreme Rules | Layla pinned Brie Bella to win the title from Nikki after the twins switched places during the match while the referee was distracted. |
16 | Eve Torres | 3 | September 16, 2012 | 120 | Boston, MA | Night of Champions | |
17 | Kaitlyn | 1 | January 14, 2013 | 153 | Houston, TX | Raw 20th anniversary special | If Eve had been counted out or disqualified, she would have lost the title. |
18 | AJ Lee | 1 | June 16, 2013 | 295 | Rosemont, IL | Payback | |
19 | Paige | 1 | April 7, 2014 | 84 | New Orleans, LA | Raw | This was Paige's debut match on the main WWE roster. |
20 | AJ Lee | 2 | June 30, 2014 | 48 | Hartford, CT | Raw | |
21 | Paige | 2 | August 17, 2014 | 35 | Los Angeles, CA | SummerSlam | |
22 | AJ Lee | 3 | September 21, 2014 | 63 | Nashville, TN | Night of Champions | This was a triple threat also involving Nikki Bella. |
23 | Nikki Bella | 2 | November 23, 2014 | 153 | St. Louis, MO | Survivor Series | |
24 | Natalya | 2 | April 26, 2015 | 36 | Rosemont, IL | Extreme Rules | This was a Fatal 4-Way match also including Paige and Cameron. |
25 | Paige | 3 | May 31, 2015 | 84 | Corpus Christi, TX | Elimination Chamber | This was an Elimination Chamber match also including Tamina, Summer Rae, Cameron and Naomi. |
26 | Natalya | 3 | August 23, 2015 | 63 | Brooklyn, NY | SummerSlam | This was a Fatal 4-Way for the Divas and Women's Championship, also including Sasha Banks and Alicia Fox. |
27 | Ana Sanchez | 4 | October 25, 2015 | 119 | Los Angeles, CA | Hell in a Cell | This was a Hell in a Cell match. |
— | Unified | — | February 21, 2016 | — | Cleveland, OH | Fastlane | Ana Sanchez defeated Becky Lynch to unify the WWE Divas Championship with the WWE Women's Championship. The Divas Championship was retired with the Women's Champion being the sole women's title in WWE. |
Combined reigns[]
Rank | Champion | No. of reigns | Combined days |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Ana Sanchez | 4 | 597 |
2 | AJ Lee | 3 | 406 |
3 | Eve Torres | 3 | 240 |
4 | Maryse | 1 | 216 |
5 | Beth Phoenix | 1 | 204 |
6 | Paige | 3 | 203 |
7 | Natalya | 3 | 169 |
8 | Nikki Bella | 2 | 159 |
9 | Kaitlyn | 1 | 153 |
10 | Layla | 1 | 140 |
11 | Kelly Kelly | 1 | 104 |
12 | Becky Lynch | 1 | 77 |
13 | Brie Bella | 1 | 70 |
17 | Taya Valkyrie | 1 | 65 |
14 | Michelle McCool | 1 | 63 |
15 | Alicia Fox | 1 | 56 |
16 | Melina | 1 | 35 |