5 WWE titles that were retired (and why they will never return)

#4 World Heavyweight Championship (2002-2013)

Why did WWE retire the World Heavyweight Championship?

Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a unification match at TLC 2013 to retain his WWE Championship and win the World Heavyweight Championship.

Officially, Orton is classed as the final holder of the World Heavyweight Championship, despite the fact that the title ceased to exist as soon as he won it from Cena.

To make matters more confusing, Orton and the next three holders of the WWE Championship – Daniel Bryan, Cena and Brock Lesnar – carried around two titles (the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship) until WWE introduced a one-belt title design in August 2014.

Triple H explained that the World Heavyweight Championship was retired because every Superstar could appear on both Raw and SmackDown at the time, so there was no need for two world champions.

Why will the World Heavyweight Championship never return?

Realistically, the only way WWE would have reintroduced the title is if they assigned it to the Raw brand in the 2016 WWE Draft. However, a new title – the Universal Championship – was created instead.

With the WWE Championship and Universal Championship both treated as priorities by WWE, there is no room for the World Heavyweight Championship in the current-day product.