The WWE Championship lasted from April 25, 1963 to April 7, 2024, Buddy rogers to Roman reigns, Cody Rohodes fought for the Universal Championship not the WWE Championship that was unified with the August 21, 2016 title at WM 38! lets see history:

The original Professional Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship was won by Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship George Hackenschmidt in May 4, 1905 in New York City after he defeated American Heavyweight Champion Tom Jenkins in a historic title unification match, thus making the first world title in wrestling history. Hackenschmidt hailed from Russian Tasr empire that predated the Soviet era so there wasn't much beef, and soon fan favorite American born Frank Gotch won it from him in 1908. In the 1940s National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) came to existence and shortly became main stream. The first NWA World Heavyweight Champion was Orville Brown in 1948, who lost the title to their poster boy poster boy Lou Thesz. In the 1950s Thesz set on a mission to unify wrestling championships.

In 1956 Lou Thesz won the original 1905 World Heavyweight Championship unifying it with the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, deactivating the Original title and its 50 years history and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship carrying its lineage. In 1963 when Buddy Rogers was NWA World heavyweight Champion he faced and lost to Lou Thesz in a one fall's match but at that time the rule was titles change in 2 out of 3 falls matches, so this led to dispute with Vince J (Vince K's father) and the NWA and him and Toots Mondt went on to make the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and Buddy Roggers their first WWWF champion (the very WWE Championship this thread is about), and it can trace its origin to the NWA world title and even the 1905 world title by the lineage. Roggers however went on to lose the title to Bruno Sammartino who would carry the WWF in the 1960s and 1970s and held the title a record 7 years (thankfully Roman didn't reach that, no one should) and had the classic 75 minutes time limit draw match with Pedro Morales at Showdown at Shea 1972. Anyway it went on its legacy. NWA was defiant and kept Lou Thesz as the NWA World heavyweight Champion. Gene Kiniski would finally win it from him in 1966 ending Thesz's monopolistic era.

Now years passed by again and in 1991 Ric Flair won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (he won it many times before but this was the most significant). During Flair's 1991 regime Word Championship Wrestling (WCW) pulled out of NWA while Flair was still the Champion and made Flair the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Unlike Roger's despite the technical fault NWA could make an excuse he lost, they couldn't about Flair, so the 1905 World Heavyweight Championship's lineage fell on Flair and WCW and while in 1992 NWA crowned Masahiro Chono the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, it lost its lineage to the 1905 title as did NWA lose relevance, as WCW and WWF were about to engage in the Monday Night Wars. In the mean time I picked up watching wrestling in 1996 (Rage in the Cage the event Bret Hart beat Diesel in a steel cage match was my first event in February 1996) and since then not only was I a hardcore fan but also looked back into history of this.

Fast forward to 2001, WWF won and acquired WCW. Vengeance 2001 is remembered as the night Chris Jericho beat both The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin but in reality its true significance was that that night Jericho unified the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with the WWF Championship and now WWF Championship claimed full lineage to the 1905 World Heavyweight Championship, 1963 disputed but now it was "Undisputed" at last.... At this time the biggest political ego in wrestling history Triple H started his reign of terror taking place squashing fan favorites like Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Goldberg, Kane and so many others over the years (his amazing work with NXT makes ppl forget his crimes). he beat Chris Jericho for the Undisputed WWF Championship at WrestleMania 18 in 2002, and he won the WWF Championship as WCW World title's lineage ended back in Vengeance 2001 and was carried on by the WWF Championship. Shortly after HHH lost the title to Hulk Hogan at Backlash 2002 (a good match, I don't see why many ppl didn't like it). 2002 was also the year of the brand split. When Brock Lesnar became WWE Champion (yes it was renamed by then), the title was moved to Smack Down, Eric Bischoff made Triple H Raw's "World Heavyweight Champion" and thus the 2002 title came lasting till 2013 (we know its fate so not discussing it). Now WWE history revisionists tried to claim the 2002's WHC's lineage to the original 1905 World Heavyweight Championship that was 0 validity, as the 1905 World Heavyweight Championship's lineage was carried by WCW World Heavyweight Championship since 1991 and Jericho unified at Vengeance 2001 there was no link between the 1905 title and the rubbish 2002 title made for Triple Ego.

At SummerSlam 2016 Finn Balor won the inaugural Universal Championship title. Four years later at Payback 2020 Roman Reigns won the title which by then took over as WWE's poster world title. Heading into 2022 Brock Lesnar who was the youngest WWE Champion in history back in 2002, won the title again 20 years later. At WrestleMania 38 in April 3, 2022 universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a historic title unification match unifying the 1963 WWE Championship with the 2016 Universal Championship. By all accounts the WWE Championship should have been deactivated that very moment much like the WCW Championship was deactivated at Vengeance 2001 when Chris Jericho unified it with the WWF Championship. But that didn't happen, WWE revised history and broke tradition and listed that Roman reigns was holder of both titles! They would even give him a separate single belt to represent both the title. But ok tow this was "still acceptable", Roman Reigns did win it at WrestleMania 38 so as long as he was Champion the WWE Championship's separate lineage could continue albeit at life support, but both the WWWE Championship and Universal Championship now held lineage to the 1905 World Heavyweight Championship. In 2023 WWE introduced another 2002 style World Heavyweight Championship that had 0 link to the 1905 World heavyweight Championship the lineage of which belonged to WWE Championship and Universal Championship.

Now in 2024 at WrestleMania 40 night 2 on April 7, 2024 Cody Rhodes defeated Roman Reigns for the "Universal Championship". By this point the WWE Championship was unified to the Universal Championship, Cody Rhodes never won the WWE Championship, by no account from all the factual historical and traditional book style thesis I wrote above is Cody Rhodes WWE Champion. At WM 40 night 2 the WWE Championship effectively got deactivated from historical and traditional perspective, and Cody Rhodes the Universal Champion carries the lineage of the 1905 World Heavyweight Championship through the Universal Championship. But WWE being history revisionists at WWE dot Com lists Cody Rhodes as being holder of both Universal Championship and WWE Championship. This is ridiculous and disgrace. In 2024 the WWE Championship just doesn't exist no matter what WWE pretends, also I might add modern WWE is woke and trash as are many newbie fans, so they don't deserve the historic 1963 title, let it retire in peace and let the 2016 Universal Championship carry the stain of the modern post 2008 pg WWE! By WWE's logic the WCW World Heavyweight Championship is still active, taht would make Cody Rhodes WWE Champion, WCW Chgampion and Universal Champion cause by WWE's logic now they can revise hiostory and traditcion and claim unified titles as still existing. Just outright ridiculous! The WWE Championship had a great run (April 25 1963 - April 7, 2024), no need to stain it further, l;et it retire in peace and let Universal Championship represent the modern WWE and the modern pg audience. Also since 2023 WWE business totally changed as its now under TKO, since September 12, 2023 its the TKO era so let Universal Championship represent that, let WWE Championship's legacy be preserved, from Buddy Rogers to Roman Reigns. Let it retitre in peace and stop acting that Cody Rhodes ever won it, Cody Rhodes is Universal Champion, never WWE Champion!