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The Diva's Championship began life in 2008 as a supplementary title to WWE's original Women's Championship (1956-2010). Introduced as part of the 2008 Draft by then Smackdown General Manager Vickie Guerrero, the Diva's Title sought to capitalise on the "Diva" tag that WWE had used to describe it's female performers for the prior half decade and ensure that both Raw and Smackdown had designated titles for it's women wrestlers.
Michelle McCool became the inaugural champion when she defeated Natalya at the Great American Bash on July 20, 2008. McCool reigned as champion until December, when she dropped the belt to Maryse (yes, The Miz's wife) on an episode of Smackdown. On September 19, 2010 at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, the original Women's Championship then held by McCool was unified into the Diva's Title then held by Melina Perez. The Diva's Championship then became the sole title for WWE's female performers.
The title lasted until 2016, when it was replaced by a brand new WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016. At that event, reigning Diva's Champion, Charlotte Flair defeated Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks to become the inaugural Women's Champion under the new lineage. The eight year old Diva's Title and also the Diva's moniker used to describe the women wrestlers was retired.
The Diva's Championship is not held in particular high esteem by fans or WWE in 2019, but remains an important title as it gave stars such as AJ Lee, Paige and Flair their first (and in Lee and Paige's case, their only) main roster title wins in WWE. Less heralded names such as Eve Torres and Kaitlyn also contested rewarding matches with the Diva's Title at stake. This slideshow looks at the five greatest champions in the eight year history of the Diva's Championship.
#5 Beth Phoenix (One reign, 204 days as champion)
The Glamazon recently returned to the ring at WrestleMania 35, but prior to her retirement, Beth Phoenix knew all about winning titles. She won her first Women's Championship way back at No Mercy 2007, when she crushed then champion, Candice Michelle to claim the gold.
Phoenix was a dominant champion and would go on to hold that version of the Women's Championship on a two further occasions. Her solitary Diva's Championship victory came later in October 2011 which she held all the way until April of 2012, defeating all comers until she dropped the strap to Nikki Bella, six days prior to the 2012 Extreme Rules pay-per-view.
Phoenix then retired to start a family with her future husband Edge. Her Diva's Championship reign was in essence her final hurrah as a full time WWE employee. Phoenix will be remembered as one of the very best wrestlers to hold that title but her lack of effective competition during that run means that she does not place higher on this list.
#4 Paige (Two reigns, 121 days as champion)
Paige won the Diva's Championship on her first night on the main roster on the post-WrestleMania 30 Raw. Then champion AJ Lee was proclaiming her superiority over the women's roster which brought out the reigning NXT Champion, Paige, who then successfully challenged the arrogant champion to claim the title.
Paige dropped the belt back to Lee and reclaimed it in a memorable encounter at SummerSlam that year when Paige celebrated her 22nd birthday by winning back the belt. Lee and Paige contested hitherto unseen technical wrestling matches, atypical of the usual Diva's fare the WWE Universe was accustomed to witnessing.
Despite her youth, Paige played both baby face and heel with aplomb during her title reigns, showing impressive range for a performer of her youth. Paige undoubtedly is one of the finest and most successful wrestlers to hold the butterfly strap.
#3 Nikki Bella (Two reigns, 307 days as champion)
Nikki Bella is one of the most polarising figures in WWE history. Adored by many for her part in WWE's reality shows, Total Diva's and Total Bella's and despised by many more for the same reason. Bella's first Diva's Title reign was unmemorable as it lasted all of six days between her upending Beth Phoenix on the April 23, 2012 Raw and dropping it to the returning Layla El at Backlash 2012.
WWE had strongly employed that Kharma would be Bella's mystery opponent at the show but alas the limited Layla won the belt. Bella's second title run broke the record for longest Diva's Title reign, surpassing AJ Lee's record of 296 days.
During this title run, Bella developed into a competent all rounder in the ring and on the microphone and held onto the strap until she lost to WWE's new top female star, Charlotte Flair when the company's Women's Revolution kicked into high gear in Autumn 2015.
#2 Charlotte Flair (One reign, 196 days as champion)
Charlotte Flair is now a record 8 time Women's Champion; the first woman in WWE history to achieve this feat. Way back in September 2015, she won the first of these titles when she ended Nikki Bella's record 301 day title run.
Flair nearly broke that record herself and would have done so had she not unified the strap with the brand new Women's Championship which was activated at WrestleMania 32. With her 'Mania victory, Flair became the inaugural Women's Champion, as the Diva's strap was deactivated and the term "Diva" was eradicated from WWE television.
Her reign delivered superlative bouts with the likes of Paige, Becky Lynch, Natalya and Sasha Banks. Flair would have a greater legacy with the Diva's Title had it not ceased to exist within a year of her debut, but her dominating title run and classic matches make her one of the most memorable champions in the title's eight year history.
#1 AJ Lee (Three reigns, 406 combined days as champion)
In some ways it is ironic, that the woman who liked to be labelled the anti-Diva is the most successful Diva's Champion of all time and will always be synonymous with the now defunct belt. AJ Lee captured the first of her three Diva's Titles at Payback 2013 when she beat Kaitlyn in an impressive encounter, which was easily the best bout of Kaitlyn's career at that point.
Lee's first title run was her most successful as it lasted a whopping 295 days, breaking the record for longest title run before it was eventually surpassed by Nikki Bella. She dropped title number one to Paige in a memorable match-up on the post WrestleMania XXX Raw. She reclaimed it two months later before losing once more to Paige in another entertaining encounter at SummerSlam.
Lee was not without the butterfly strap for long as she regained it a month later in a triple threat bout with Paige and Bella to become a record equalling three time champion, before she was upended by Bella at the Survivor Series. Lee retired from the ring four months later but left a lasting legacy with the Diva's Championship.
