Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: When did Juan Rivera win the WWC Universal Heavyweight title?
Following this Burke would go on to feud with Juan Rivera who at the time was referred to as "TNT". Both wrestlers had been involved in a mid-card feud prior to this. Rivera won the championship on February 9, 1990, eventually losing it to Abdullah the Butcher, who lost it to Colón. The title was held up numerous times in 1991, as part of feuds between Colón, Greg Valentine and Dino Bravo.
The two top stars of the Attitude Era, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, eventually left the company in 2003 and 2004 respectively, while newcomers such as Brock Lesnar, who would become the youngest WWE Champion and Randy Orton, who became the youngest World Heavyweight Champion, saw huge success. Triple H would also be featured prominently during this time, winning several of his fourteen world championships, as would The Undertaker whose WrestleMania win streak started gaining fame. Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, John Cena, Batista, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, and Rob Van Dam were also given main event opportunities and all ended up becoming multiple-time world champions. From mid 2002 to 2003, WWE brought several prominent WCW stars to the company, including Eric Bischoff, Scott Steiner, Goldberg, Kevin Nash and Ric Flair. The Great American Bash, originally a WCW pay-per-view event, made its debut in WWE.
The World Heavyweight Championship was established in 2002 as a second world championship in WWE during the time of the first brand extension. During this period, the World Heavyweight Championship would be the primary championship for either the Raw or Smackdown brand, with the WWE Championship on the other. The brand extension ended in 2011, allowing both championships to appear on both shows. On December 15, 2013, World Heavyweight Champion John Cena faced WWE Champion Randy Orton in a match at , where the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship as Orton defeated Cena. At the event, it was announced that the unified titles would be called the "WWE World Heavyweight Championship". WWE officially recognized Orton as the final World Heavyweight Champion, and retired the title.
Following the end of the first brand extension in August 2011, both the WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion could appear on both "Raw" and "SmackDown". In November 2013, the night after Survivor Series, then-World Heavyweight Champion John Cena made a challenge to then-WWE Champion Randy Orton to determine an undisputed WWE world champion. Orton defeated Cena in a TLC match at the pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the unified championship was renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship and retained the lineage of the WWE Championship; the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. Orton and subsequent champions held both championship belts until a single championship belt was given to then-champion Brock Lesnar in 2014.
Following the end of the first brand extension in 2011, both the World Heavyweight Champion and WWE Champion could appear on both "Raw" and "SmackDown". In 2013, the night after Survivor Series, then-World Heavyweight Champion John Cena made a challenge to then-WWE Champion Randy Orton to determine an undisputed WWE world champion. Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a TLC match at the pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the WWE Championship was renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The unified championship retained the lineage of the WWE Championship, and the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. With his victory over John Cena, Randy Orton became the final World Heavyweight Champion. Like with the Undisputed Championship, the Big Gold Belt was used in tandem with the WWE Championship belt to represent the WWE World Heavyweight Championship until a single belt was presented to then champion Brock Lesnar in August 2014.
The NWA’s presence in Japan was established in 1953, when Japanese wrestler/promoter Rikidozan founded the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, (JWA) which quickly became the main promotion in Japan. In 1972, the JWA’s two top draws Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki left to form their own promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) respectively. As a result, the JWA soon folded. AJPW became an NWA member upon its inception in 1973 and stayed until the late 1980s. NJPW was also a member of the NWA at various points between 1975 and 1985, mainly in order to gain control of the NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship. In 1992 and 1993, NJPW joined with the NWA once more to re-establish and promote the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but left the NWA when WCW withdrew. NJPW returned to the NWA in 2004, again mainly for the NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship, and it is not a connection that is strongly emphasized. Between NJPW's departure in 1993 and its return in 2004 NWA representation in Japan was scattered among a few independent promotions: the International Wrestling Association of Japan (1994–1996); the Wrestle Yume Factory (1995–1997), the Universal Fighting Arts Organization (1999–2000); and Pro Wrestling Zero-One (2001–2004). In June 2007, the Inoki Genome Federation replaced NJPW as the Japanese affiliate of the National Wrestling Alliance. In February 2008, however, New Japan returned to the NWA. At the annual meeting in 2010, New Japan did not renew its membership and left the NWA yet again. In 2011, Pro Wrestling Zero1 returned to the NWA as their Japanese territory.
In March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased World Championship Wrestling. Soon after, "The Invasion" took place, in which The Alliance was ultimately dismantled. Following the Survivor Series in November 2001, the title was renamed the WWF Cruiserweight Championship, replacing the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship. Following the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently referred to as the WWE Cruiserweight Championship and became exclusive to the SmackDown brand.
On September 28, 2007, the title was vacated after the final champion, Hornswoggle, was stripped of the championship by SmackDown! General manager, Vickie Guerrero. Hornswoggle had won the championship in a Cruiserweight Open at that year's The Great American Bash pay-per-view event. The last ever match contested for the title occurred on the August 31, 2007 episode of "SmackDown!", when Hornswoggle successfully defended the title against Jamie Noble.
There have been 81 different champions. Chris Jericho has the most reigns with nine. Pedro Morales held the championship for a record total of 619 days and The Honky Tonk Man had the longest uninterrupted reign at 454 days, from June 2, 1987 until August 29, 1988. Dean Douglas had the shortest reign at just 13 minutes 52 seconds. Chyna is the only woman in WWE history to win the title. The youngest champion was Jeff Hardy, who won the championship at 23 years old, while the oldest champion was Ric Flair, who won the championship at Unforgiven in 2005 at the age of 56. There have been 10 vacancies throughout the title's history.
WWE was founded as Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) on January 7, 1952 by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt. CWC was the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s northeastern territory. The NWA recognized an undisputed NWA World Heavyweight Champion that went to several different professional wrestling promotions in the NWA. The championship was defended around the world. The NWA generally promoted strong shooters as champions, to give their worked sport credibility and guard against double-crosses. While doing strong business in the Midwest (the NWA's core region), these wrestlers attracted little interest in the CWC territory. In 1961, the NWA board decided instead to put the championship on bleach blond showman "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, a much more effective drawing card in the region. The rest of the NWA was unhappy with Mondt because he rarely allowed Rogers to wrestle outside of the Northeast. Mondt and McMahon wanted Rogers to keep the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but Rogers was unwilling to sacrifice his $25,000 deposit on the championship belt (championship holders at the time had to pay a deposit to insure they honored their commitments as champion). Rogers lost the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Lou Thesz in a one-fall match in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on January 24, 1963, which led to Mondt, McMahon, and the CWC leaving the NWA in protest, creating the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in the process.
The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the World Heavyweight Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.
The inaugural champion was Triple H, and there were 25 different champions overall. The longest reigning champion was Batista who held the title from April 3, 2005, to January 10, 2006, for a total of 282 days. Triple H holds the record for longest combined reigns at 616 days. The shortest reigning champion was Randy Orton in his fourth reign, who immediately retired the championship upon winning it and unifying it with the WWE Championship. He was also the youngest champion, at the age of 24. The oldest champion was The Undertaker who won at the age of 44. Edge held the title the most times with seven championship reigns. There were six vacancies throughout the title's history.
Owing to its TV program aired on TV Asahi, NJPW is the largest professional wrestling promotion in Japan and the second largest promotion in the world. It was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance at various points in its history. NJPW has had agreements with various MMA and professional wrestling promotions around the world, including WWE, World Championship Wrestling, American Wrestling Association, World Class Championship Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, WAR, UWFi, Ring of Honor, Pride Fighting Championships, and Jersey All Pro Wrestling. NJPW's biggest event is the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, held each year since 1992 and currently promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom banner.
It was founded as Independent Wrestling League on August 13, 2010 by Martín Amaro, with Octavio Rivero as the head booker. In late 2010 Rivero was replaced by Amaro's niece, Ángeles Rubio, under whom IWL started a working agreement with Perros del Mal Producciones. Rubio would leave the promotion for personal reasons in April 2011.
He was followed as the head booker by wrestler Fantasma de la Ópera, who started a working relationship with AAA. On May 28, 2011, it was announced that Fantasma de la Ópera would be replaced by Valerie Richter. In a press conference held on June 21, 2011, Richter announced that the company would change its name to International Wrestling League.
Hart won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam in August 1997. A week prior to Survivor Series, Hart, who had performed for the WWF since 1984, signed a contract to perform with WCW beginning in December 1997. McMahon sought to prevent Hart from leaving the company as the champion, but Hart was unwilling to lose the title to Michaels – with whom he had a long feud both on-screen and off – at Survivor Series in his home country. Hart, Michaels, and McMahon came to an agreement where the Survivor Series match would end with a disqualification, which under normal rules would result in Hart retaining the title. Hart would then lose or forfeit the title at a later date. However, McMahon decided without Hart's knowledge that Michaels would win the title at Survivor Series. Accounts differ as to who exactly was involved in the plan and the extent of their involvement. The plan was executed when match referee Earl Hebner, on direct order from McMahon, ended the match as Michaels held Hart in the Sharpshooter submission hold, Hart's signature finishing move, even though Hart had not submitted. Michaels was declared the victor by submission and crowned as the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion.
Vincent James McMahon (July 6, 1914 – May 24, 1984), also known as Vince McMahon Sr., was an American professional wrestling promoter. He is best known for running the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (subsequently renamed as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) during his tenure, and currently named WWE) from 1954 to 1982, and fathering his successor, Vince McMahon.
Puerto Rico FC played their home matches at the renovated Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium located in Bayamón. 10 miles from the capital city of San Juan, The "JRL", as it is now known, was originally a baseball stadium scheduled for demolition, and in 2003, it was converted into a football stadium for the Islanders. Until it was damaged by Hurricane Maria, the 22,000-seater stadium also served as the home to all levels of the Puerto Rico national football team as well as the Bayamon' affiliate team in the Puerto Rico Soccer League, Bayamón FC.
Razor Ramon continued with two of his feuds after Survivor Series. Irwin R. Schyster stole Ramon's gold chains, which set up a match for the Intercontinental Championship at Royal Rumble 1994. Despite interference from Shawn Michaels, Ramon pinned Schyster to retain the title. Michaels and Ramon then faced each other at WrestleMania X. Diesel got involved, but Ramon won the match. Ramon then defended his title against Diesel on April 13, 1994. Diesel won the match and became the new WWF Intercontinental Champion. Ramon regained the belt in a rematch at SummerSlam 1994, however. Meanwhile, the 1–2–3 Kid and Marty Jannetty continued with their push from the promotion and won the WWF Tag Team Championship on January 10, 1994.
On September 18, 1956, The Fabulous Moolah became the third NWA World Women's Champion. At that time, the WWE did not exist and did not become a company until 1963 when it was established as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). Moolah, who bought the rights to the championship in the 1970s, defended the championship as the NWA World Women's Champion up until May 19, 1984; by this time, the WWWF had been renamed to World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In 1983, the WWF disaffiliated with the NWA and Moolah sold the championship's rights to the WWF in 1984, and she was recognized as the WWF Women's Champion. Instead of beginning her reign in 1984, the WWF claimed the lineage of her reign from when she first became champion in 1956. The preceding champions and the title changes between 1956 and when Moolah lost it in 1984 are not recognized by WWE (although they are recognized by the NWA). As a result, The Fabulous Moolah's first reign is considered to have lasted 28 years by the promotion.
The 2005 draft was held on the June 6 episode of "Raw". The first draft lottery pick was then WWE Champion John Cena, thus moving the WWE Championship to Raw and having two titles on the brand. Eventually, then World Heavyweight Champion Batista was deafted to SmackDown as the last draft pick, leaving only the WWE Championship on "Raw". On the 2008 draft lottery, CM Punk got drafted to Raw and then won the World Heavyweight Championship from Edge, who was a SmackDown wrestler. Triple H, who was the WWE Champion at the time, got drafted to SmackDown while Kane, who was the then ECW Champion, got drafted to Raw. After the draft lottery in 2009, the WWE Championship was brought back to Raw when Triple H was drafted from SmackDown while the World Heavyweight Championship was brought back to SmackDown when Edge defeated John Cena to win the title at Backlash.
On the August 29, 2011, episode of "Raw", it was announced that performers from Raw and SmackDown were no longer exclusive to their respective brand. Subsequently, championships previously exclusive to one show or the other were available for wrestlers from any show to compete for—this would mark the end of the brand extension as all programming and live events featured the full WWE roster. In a 2013 interview with "Advertising Age", Stephanie McMahon explained that WWE's decision to end the brand extension was due to wanting their content to flow across television and online platforms.
The WWE European Championship is a former professional wrestling title competed for in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The title was created on February 26, 1997. The first champion was The British Bulldog who defeated Owen Hart in a tournament final. The title was retired briefly in April 1999 by then-champion Shane McMahon, who wanted to retire as an "undefeated champion". McMahon reintroduced the championship two months later and gave it to Mideon, who saw the title belt in Shane's travel bag and asked if he could have it. The title was finally retired on July 22, 2002 when WWE Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam defeated European Champion Jeff Hardy to unify the European title into the Intercontinental title. There have been a total of 27 recognized champions who have had a combined 37 official reigns. This is a chronological list of wrestlers that have been WWE European Champion by ring name.
The WWE Hardcore Championship was a professional wrestling championship contested for in the United States–based World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion, formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) before May 2002. The title was only contestable in matches under hardcore regulations, and could be won only by individual wrestlers. As a professional wrestling championship, it was introduced by the WWF on its television program "Raw Is War" on November 2, 1998, in which WWF chairman Mr. McMahon awarded Mankind the title. In 2000, the WWF instated the "24/7 rule", a regulation stating that the title could be defended anywhere at any time as long as a referee was present, which led to numerous title changes in shorter time periods; the rule was discontinued in 2002. On the August 26, 2002 episode of "Raw", Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam defeated Hardcore Champion Tommy Dreamer to unify both titles; the Hardcore Championship was retired shortly thereafter. The title was reactivated on two occasions afterwards, although they are not considered official reigns by WWE according to their official title history. On the June 23, 2003 episode of "Raw", Mick Foley (who was the first champion as "Mankind") was awarded the Hardcore Championship belt by the "Raw" brand authority figure Stone Cold Steve Austin for his contributions in hardcore wrestling. Edge and Foley then introduced themselves as co-holders of the championship in 2006, due to a storyline with alumni of the hardcore wrestling-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion.
That reward came in the ring moments later, as McMahon was about to announce the stripping of the WWF Championship from Steve Austin, who had not yet appeared on the show. McMahon's intent was to award it to Kurt Angle as a token of his appreciation for Angle's actions at Survivor Series. However, before he could do so he was interrupted by Ric Flair, who returned to a WWF ring for the first time since January 1993. Flair then happily told McMahon that he "had bet on a winner last night," and said to a surprised McMahon that when Shane and Stephanie sold their stock in the WWF to purchase WCW and ECW, he was the consortium who had bought the stock, and as such, he was co-owner of the WWF and he and McMahon were now partners.
That same year, a faction led by Juan Rivera and Miguel Pérez, Jr. known "Los Autenticos" began "La Lotería del Terror", an angle in which members selected from a list of current and former employees of WWC would be attacked. As part of this angle, stable members Dennis Rivera and Noel Rodríguez visited one of WWC's events, but only stalked the outside of the venue. One of the chosen was an actual WWC wrestler, who made a single appearance in the IWA as part of this angle following a payment dispute. When this was resolved, WWC uncharacteristically gave continuation to the angle by staging a "rescue" scene. In September 2009, Torres returned to WWC, still carrying the new Universal Heavyweight Championship belt in a black bag, challenging the incumbent champion, Ángel "BJ" Rosado, to an unification of the two titles. He won and was briefly referred to as the "Undisputed Universal Heavyweight Champion". On December 12, 2009, WWC announced that Shane Sewell was leaving to sign with the "sister enterprise", spoiling a surprise appearance scheduled for the IWA's Christmas in PR. Weeks later, when WWC contracted Gilbert Cosme for Euphoria 2010, the IWA countered by filing a copyright claim to prevent the use of the "Ricky Banderas" character. WWC instead used the ring name "El Triple Mega Campeón". The inconsistent use of the women's division extended throughout the late 2000s, with the IWA even recurring to transsexual characters to keep the belt involved in the booking. In 2010, both promotions dropped their respective championships from the events. That year, IWA directly parodied José Roberto Rodríguez by giving a gimmick named "El Mostro" to David Muñiz, who adopted the former's likeness and was depicted in odd or otherwise humiliating storylines. The Extreme Wrestling Organization, by now the largest independent company in Puerto Rico and de facto third main company, entered in conflict with both the IWA, for not allowing its wrestlers participation in one of its events and WWC, for contracting the EWO World Heavyweight Champion without forcing him to drop the title.
Sewell wrestled part-time in then-new Puerto Rican federation New Wrestling Stars. During his time in the company, as part of a talent exchange with the WWC, he won the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship title from "La Amenaza" Bryan in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico on November 5, 2005, which made Sewell the first wrestler to win both the top titles in both IWA and WWC in a calendar year. He lost the Universal title to Bryan on February 12, 2006 and split his time with both companies. Sewell later feuded with Tim Arson over the NWS Heavyweight title until June 3, 2006 when he lost a Title vs. Leave The Company match.
After returning to Puerto Rico, he began working for the Capital Sports Promotion (later renamed to World Wrestling Council). He feuded with Killer Tim Brooks, Kevin Sullivan and Hercules Hernandez. In March 1985, he defeated Randy Savage to win the WWC North American Heavyweight Championship. Wrestled Ric Flair for the NWA title. In the summer of 1987 Ayala suggested WWC office to turn heel after years working as a babyface, he feuded with Carlos Colon over the WWC Universal Heavyweight Title and hired Chicky Starr as his manager. His feud with Carlos Colon reach its peak when Ayala attacked Nancy Coates, Carlos Colon's wife, in a WWC banquet award ceremony. On January 6, 1989 lost a loser leaves town match to Colon and disappeared from WWC.
On July 11, 2010, Colón was booked in a match called "The Three Faces of Fear" at WWC's Aniversario 2010 which also involved Booker T. The concept of this contest was that he would face three unknown adversaries successively. Colón also performed on a second date of this event, working under a "tweener" concept, representing a morally ambiguous team without clear allegiance. He returned to WWC on September 25, 2010 at the "Septiembre Negro" event, where he defeated "El Triple Mega Campeón" Ricky Banderas. On November 27, 2010, Colón defeated Shelton Benjamin to win the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship at the Crossfire event. He made his first title defense against Banderas at WWC's last show of the year—Lockout. On January 8, 2011, Colón lost the Universal Heavyweight Championship to Banderas, following interference from Shane Sewell. On June 4, 2011, Carlito returned to WWC and defeated Steve Corino to win the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship for the thirteenth time. On July 17, 2011 at Aniversario 2011 Carlito made his first defense of the title against Abyss. In this event, Savio Vega cut a promo pursuing a feud as part of the first interpromotional angle between WWC and the International Wrestling Association. However, this cooperation was stalled due to differences between the administration of both promotions, remaining fruitless for the rest of the year.