On this date in WWE history: Triple H is awarded the new world heavyweight championship

Sometimes you don't need to win the world heavyweight championship to obtain possession of the coveted title. Sometimes they'll just give it to you.

That's what happened on this date in history (Sept. 2, 2002) when Triple H was "awarded" the brand spanking new -- and Raw exclusive -- world title, which was really just the Big Gold Belt from World Championship Wrestling (WCW) with a fresh coat of paint.

This was necessary, because World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) had split its promotion into two unique brands, Raw and Smackdown, earlier in the year. The initial plan was to have the Undisputed Champion defend the belt on both brands as needed. But that wouldn't work long term and, really, they could make more money by creating another world title and having the two become brand exclusive.

So that's what they did, with Brock Lesnar's Undisputed Championship becoming the WWE Championship.

The manner in which they did this wasn't much more than an ego stroke. Eric Bischoff, the Raw General Manager at the time, came out and called "The Game" to the ring, where they both proceeded to bury Lesnar and build up Trips like he was the second coming of Christ. Bischoff then opened a briefcase and just handed Triple H the title.

Just like that.

Watch it happen after the jump.

Also on this date in history: The Giant defects from WCW and joins the nWo.