
The WWE Universal Championship is a world professional wrestling title owned by WWE and exclusive to the SmackDown roster, and has been held by Roman Reigns since August 30, 2020.
It was initially created on August 21, 2016, at SummerSlam, as a Raw exclusive, after the WWE Championship became exclusive to SmackDown as part of the second brand extension. Together with the aforementioned WWE Championship, it is one of the federation's two world titles.
After various qualifying matches, on the August 29, 2016 episode of Raw, the title was reassigned in a Fatal 4-Way Elimination match that included Big Cass, Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins; the match was won by Owens, who won the contest thanks to the interference of Triple H against Reigns first and then Rollins.
On April 3, 2022, during the second night of WrestleMania 38, Roman Reigns, holder of the Universal Championship, defeated Brock Lesnar to unify the Universal title with the WWE Championship just won to form the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Despite the merger, the two titles have remained separate.