[tps_title]The Brand Split And The WWE Universal Championship[/tps_title]
In the summer of 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand split for the first time in five years. For the first time ever SmackDown would be broadcast live weekly, and it and Raw would be treated as two entirely separate brands – with two entirely separate sets of championships.
WWE held a superstar draft on the first episode of SmackDown Live on July 16. The WWE Champion at the time, Dean Ambrose, was drafted to SmackDown and the WWE Championship therefore became exclusive to that brand.
The WWE Universal Championship (pictured above) was subsequently created on July 25 to represent the Raw-exclusive world title.