Over the years there have been several title unification matches, with the most recent one being the merger of the WWE & World Heavyweight titles into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. There's been plenty more before that too. At one time, they were pretty much unheard of. And while they still have some Unification matches arise simply because WWE have decided that there's too many championships. Having too many titles at once devalues them, so if it comes to it, it's necessary to eliminate some. Unification means the title doesn't have to be made totally defunct, and the lineage of the title is allowed to continue. The Invasion storyline was the most prolific time for title unification matches, as WWE inherited a new batch of titles when it bought out WCW. As part of the feud between the WWE & WCW rosters, champions would face their equivalent in unification matches. The unifications were made in an effort to strengthen the status of each title, by blending their histories together. Of course in each instance of title unification, the belt that belonged to WCW was dropped, and only the heritage of the WWE title belts was continued. Now that the brand extension is all but over, there have been unifications of the two sets of tag team championships, the two women's titles and the World & WWE titles into the current WWE World Heavyweight Championship. It's believed that the Intercontinental & US titles are set to follow suit. Losing a title in a unification match has to be doubly frustrating, because not only is your original title lost, but so is the opportunity to win the new one.
