List of WWE World Heavyweight champions

 Would you like to know list of WWE Heavyweight champions

This article is about a list of wrestlers who have held the current WWE World Heavyweight Championship. For a list of wrestlers who have held the now-retired "World Heavyweight" title see List of World Heavyweight Champions (WWE).
Nine-time and current champion Triple H
The WWE World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE. It is the first world title established in WWE, having been introduced in 1963 as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) World Heavyweight Championship. After ending its affiliation with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the promotion was renamed World Wrestling Federation (WWF) with the title also renamed to reflect the acronym.
In 2001, it was unified with the World Championship (formerly the WCW World Heavyweight Championship) following the WWF's buyout of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and became the Undisputed WWF Championship.
In 2002, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling                  Nine time and current champion
 Entertainment                                                                                             Triple H
                                                                                                                 
(WWE) and split its roster into two franchises, Raw and SmackDownl in a brand extension.fiall The title was then designated to the SmackDowni brand, while WWE established an alternate world title known as the World Heavyweight Championship for the Raw brand. The WWE Undisputed Championship was then renamed simply as the WWE Championship.

At the TLC pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, when Randy Orton won the championship against John Cena, the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship, resulting in the retiring of the former/a and the renaming of the latter to its current name of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches in which participants usually execute scripted fmishes rather than contend in direct competition. Some reigns were held by champions using a ring name, while others used their real name. The first champion was
Buddy Rogers who won the championship in 1963. The champion with the single longest reign is Bruno Sammartino with a reign of 2,803 days, while the record for longest combined reign is also held by Sammartino at 4,040. The current champion is Triple H in his ninth reign after winning the 2016 Royal Rumble match, in which Roman Reigns was the defending champion.
Overall, there have been 46 different official champions, with John Cena having the most reigns at twelve. Seven men in history have held the championship for a continuous reign of one year (365 days) or more. They are Bruno Sammartino Pedro Morales Bob Backlund Hulk Hogan  Randy Savage John Cena and CM Punk.