WWE Divas Championship

The WWE Divas Championship was a women’s championship in WWE, active from 2008 to 2016. It began as SmackDown’s women’s singles title during the first brand extension and later became WWE’s main women’s championship after the older WWE Women’s Championship was retired in 2010.

WWE introduced the title in 2008 when Raw and SmackDown had separate women’s divisions. The WWE Women’s Championship was assigned to Raw at the time, so SmackDown needed its own championship. SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero brought in the Divas Championship as the brand’s answer to that gap.

The first champion was decided at The Great American Bash on July 20, 2008. Michelle McCool defeated Natalya to win the new title, giving SmackDown a women’s championship that had its own lineage instead of continuing the older WWE Women’s Championship history.

For its first two years, the belt and the older Women’s Championship existed in parallel, drifting between brands as the roster reshuffled. Maryse took the Divas title to Raw after the 2009 draft, and the Women’s Championship eventually landed on SmackDown. That left WWE carrying two separate women’s singles titles at once.

That changed at Night of Champions on September 19, 2010, when Michelle McCool (representing one-half of LayCool) defeated Melina in a match that unified the two championships. The WWE Women’s Championship was retired, and the Divas Championship absorbed its place as the division’s lone women’s title.

After the unification, the championship was defended across WWE’s main roster. The title was briefly presented with the unified label, but WWE later used the Divas Championship name again. This period made the championship the main title for WWE’s women’s division until 2016.

The championship had 26 recognized reigns and one vacancy during its history. Eve Torres and AJ Lee had the most reigns with three each. Jillian Hall had the shortest reign, while Nikki Bella later set the record for the longest single reign.

AJ Lee became one of the title’s most important champions during the early 2010s. Her longest reign lasted 295 days and carried the title through a period when WWE’s women’s division was still being branded as Divas. Paige ended that reign on the Raw after WrestleMania XXX in 2014, winning the title in her main roster debut.

Nikki Bella set the championship’s longest-reign record during her second title run. She held the Divas Championship for 301 days before losing it to Charlotte at Night of Champions on September 20, 2015. That reign became one of the final major runs before WWE moved away from the Divas name.

In the last few months of the title’s existence, the WWE’s Women’s Revolution was taking place. This change was part of an effort to bring more attention to women’s wrestling, allowing for longer matches and more significant storylines.

Superstars like Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks moved up from the NXT brand to the main WWE roster in 2015. Charlotte’s reign became the bridge between the Divas Championship and WWE’s next women’s title.

WWE retired the Divas Championship at WrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016. Charlotte entered the event as champion in a Triple Threat match against Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks. Before the match, WWE introduced a new WWE Women’s Championship and confirmed that the Divas Championship would no longer continue.

Charlotte won the match, becoming the final recognized Divas Champion and the inaugural WWE Women’s Champion. The change ended the Divas Championship after nearly eight years.

All female wrestlers became “Superstars,” retiring the “Diva” term, and the women’s division moved into the new WWE Women’s Championship lineage.