At a time when the WWE roster is potentially at its most talented in history, there are numerous championship opportunities for wrestlers to pursue. With multiple titles for men, women, tag teams, and continental divisions, wrestlers are able to use championships to help grow their careers further. Talents like Apollo are getting runs with the United States Championship, and Drake Maverick has had a career resurgence during his fight for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship.

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However, given the long history of WWE, there have been multiple championships that have been started and deactivated over time. Sometimes WWE starts a division, but then interest dissipates, so they abandon the Championship altogether. Ever hear of the WWE Junior Heavyweight Championship? Or the United States Tag Team Championship? They existed once but were eventually disbanded.

The real question is, have any of the championships ever made a return after being abandoned?

10 Retired – World Martial Arts Championship

Even prior to beginning WWE Studios or the XFL, WWE has always been a company that focuses on diversification. Instead of being 100% focused on professional wrestling, they spent time promoting "shoot fights" akin to the UFC.

Despite being active for over a decade, it was only held by two people, including Antonio Inoki who held it for 4,000 days. However, once WWE cut ties with New Japan Pro Wrestling, the championship was retired.

9 Brought Back – The Million Dollar Championship

Ted DiBiase The Million Dollar Man

While never officially sanctioned as a championship by WWE, the Million Dollar Championship has a heavy history in the DiBiase family. DiBiase Sr. held the diamond-encrusted championship to show off his wealth through most of the '90s during his run, only losing it once to Virgil.

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Eventually, when his son DiBiase Jr. began a singles run in 2010, he would bring the status-symbol back. While it did not work as well for the son as it did for the father, the prestige of a golden championship covered in diamonds will always be there, so WWE could bring it back again anytime they want.

8 Retired – Canadian Championship

Despite always having a heavy presence in Canada, and many very popular Canadian superstars, WWE did a very poor job of having a division to represent the Great White North.

In fact, there was only one champion who held a championship dedicated to the country for a few months. Dino Bravo held the short-lived WWF Canadian Championship, but the title was abandoned very quietly and rarely defended.

7 Brought Back – Cruiserweight Championship

The current NXT Cruiserweight Championship does not exactly share the exact lineage – or prestige – as the previous Cruiserweight title which dates back to WCW.

However, WWE surely saw value in bringing back a division that focuses on fast-paced, high-flying action. Therefore, despite retiring the original version in 2007, the promotion re-instated the division in 2016 and even gave the Cruiserweight title its own show called 205 Live to showcase the talent.

6 Retired – Hardcore Championship

During the Attitude Era, WWE tried to capitalize on the "hardcore" aspect of wrestling that was popular at the time – mainly thanks to Extreme Championship Wrestling – and instated their own Hardcore Championship. The division eventually moved on from weapons-based combat to a championship defended 24/7, and incorporated much more comedy into the matches.

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Despite creating the 24/7 Championship in 2019, it does not share the same concept as the Hardcore Championship. Given the PG rating of WWE's current programming, the likelihood of them bringing back the Hardcore Championship is very slim.

5 Brought Back – Women's Tag Team Championship

The Women's Tag Team Championship is another WWE title that does not share the same lineage as a previous iteration. However, WWE still thought enough of this particular division to bring it back in 2019.

The original championship was active from 1983 to 1989 and was held by women like Velvet McIntyre and Leilani Kai. It was retired as a result of there being too few competitors in the division.

4 Retired – European Championship

The European Championship has the distinction of being held by multiple former World Champions and was featured heavily on WWE programming for many years. However, it was rarely defended in Europe and was only held by two wrestlers who hailed from Europe.

Despite its strange legacy, wrestlers like Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, and Triple H feuded over it, but it does not seem to fit into WWE's plans as a tertiary championship in this day and age.

3 Brought Back – Intercontinental Championship

To think that WWE once took their most prestigious secondary championship and unified it with the World Heavyweight Championship would normally be unthinkable, however, it was done in 2002. During the initial brand extension, Eric Bischoff unified all of the singles championships together, breaking the over 20-year lineage of the Intercontinental Championship.

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Thankfully, the championship was reinstated later that year and that has remained the case since then. The deactivation was different than the championship being declared vacant by the holder, but thankfully cooler heads prevailed and the championship was reactivated.

2 Retired - Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship

WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles

WCW was well-known for having a great Cruiserweight Division and even went to the extent of establishing a Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship in 2001. While this would have been a great feature for the company, unfortunately, it came at a time when WCW was being purchased by WWE.

There were only two teams to hold the titles before WWE completed the purchase and decided not to keep them, and they were abandoned and never featured on WWE programming.

1 Brought Back – United States Championship

John Cena United States Champion 2015

With recent championship holders like John Cena, AJ Styles, and Shinsuke Nakamura, acclaim for the United States Championship is at an all-time high. With its new design in 2020, the US Championship has been newly minted as a prestigious secondary championship in WWE.

However, there was a time where WWE thought they could do without it; consequently, the company deactivated the championship in 2001 following the Invasion of WCW.

NEXT: WWE: 10 More Old School PPVs NXT Should Revive