Why Did WWE Retire the WWE 24/7 Championship?

WWE quietly retired the WWE 24/7 Championship last month after Nikki Cross dropped it in a trash can on an episode of Raw. While the title was a staple of WWE programming for a little over three years, it suddenly disappeared from WWE programming as soon as Paul "Triple H" Levesque took over WWE booking in July 2022. In the months that followed it would only change hands during live events, usually starting with Dana Brooke entering the show as champion and leaving after the title was captured by various wrestlers and referees. Brooke finally got the chance to defend it on the Nov. 7 episode of Raw, but lost to Cross. Not long after the trash can segment, WWE.com confirmed the title had been retired.

So why did this all happen? According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, the title was never really on Levesque's radar. Sapp wrote, "A WWE source said that the title 'was almost never mentioned in a creative sense, but allowed for some fun moments for live event shows. The future of the title seemed to be up in the air and it wasn't something that we heard Triple H ever talked about.'"

Dana Brooke's 24/7 Championship Pitch

Brooke became synonymous with the title during its final year, holding it for a combined 336 days across 15 reigns. Prior to its retirement, she pitched the idea of turning it into a secondary women's championship in interviews. 

"I've been wanting to transition the 24/7 Title into an IC title. I think it would be amazing," Brooke told NBC Sports Boston days before dropping the title for a final time. "We're building a roster, we have amazing women on the roster. With everyone coming back, why not? We have the tag team titles, but not everyone is teamed up. You have the storylines that are going for the women's titles, but the rest are just little stories in the mix. Why not go for an IC Title? This way, it's not secondary, it's just another thing to pour your heart and soul in and have that title and be given that opportunity and enhance the women's division."