You know the one.
Someone says ‘Pro Wrestling Championship’. There’s a belt that comes to mind before any other for you. Maybe it’s something in the design, maybe it’s how it was treated or the prestige that came with it. Maybe you just love a non-black strap?
What (for you) is the best professional wrestling championship belt?
Or…what belt just pisses you off with it’s existence. Stupid gimmick? Pointless? Ungodly ugly? What belt makes you sigh and wonder what the hell the booker was thinking?
Best:
Someone will say it so I might as well get the ball rolling - The IWGP Heavyweight Championship V4.
Just flat out the absolute most gorgeous belt I’ve ever seen, love the 3D centre-plate, the shape, it’s just chef’s kiss and NJPW should have never moved away to the Cody’s Tattoo Belt™.
Least:
When they did this to the WWE women’s title. The logic behind the physical belt is fucking Looney Tunes shit lol.
Someone will say it so I might as well get the ball rolling - The IWGP Heavyweight Championship V4.
I’m that someone. It’s just absolute perfection.
What the fuck is that women’s title my goodness
You’ll have to look up who as I’m too high to care and wouldn’t even if I wasn’t, but it was 2 women feuding over it and (iirc) they ‘broke’ it in two (legit pulled apart the 2 halves -__-) and I think they each had ‘their’ half for a little bit. Idk I didn’t watch WWE much during that period and the stories sure didn’t help lol.
If I recall this correctly it was Michelle McCool and Layla (tag teaming as LayCool either before of after this) I think it must have been a triple treat match, and they both got the pin. They both had hold of the title claiming they won the match, and I think that’s when the “breaking” occurred. They were then named joined champs. If that’s not exactly right it got to be very similar.
Sounds close enough to me.
It was when Layla and Michelle McCool were co-champions. They split the belt between them. It was meant to look like those “Best Friends” pendants, where it’s a heart broken in half and each friend wears one of the halves around their neck.
So damned goofy lol
Best: The NXT UK Championship. I’ll admit, in my mind I was thinking it was more 3D than what it was, but it’s still a beautiful belt.
Worst: WWE 27/7 Championship. It looked like a worse version of their bad tag belts and was treated like a worse version of the Hardcore belt. R-Truth and Drake Maverick’s feud over it was fun, though.
NXT UK Championship
Honestly that was one belt that coulda done with some 3D work on it, its gorgeous.
The NXT UK belt is the one belt that I have bought myself the replica off. It’s just a gorgeous looking belt. (Mine is however the WWE UK title before it got its name change to NXT UK)
Best: The WWF Winged Eagle. And it looks 20% better draped over Bret Hart’s shoulder.
Worst: AEW’s TNT and TBS championships, they’re just very bland to me.
Honorable mentions:
DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Weight Championship, it literally has fucking brass knuckles in it.
WWE Spinner, spinner go brrrr.
Worst: AEW’s TNT and TBS championships
I loathe belts with (non-company) corporate branding. No belt should have a television station name or logo on it, especially when TV rights can change in the future.
i’m a purist; i love the idea of a television championship, but only if it’s treated as one and defended under television rules with time limits. :^
especially when TV rights can change in the future.
I think that was kind of the point of the branding; to solidify the relationship with Warner Media and make AEW feel more like “part of the family”.
Remember when the TNT title wasn’t even finished lol
the gwf light heavyweight championship, mostly because it gave us some great matches during the tournament (enjoy 7 hours of cruiserweight matches) but also because i have fond memories of watching it after school
enjoy 7 hours of cruiserweight matches
I got 8h before I gotta leave for a doctors appointment, LFG.
And beautiful belt.
even if you skip to the end the finale of
spoiler
jerry lynn vs lightning kid
was fantastic
Main:
The WWF Attitude era Big Eagle belt and WCW Big Gold tie as my all-time favorites, it’s the only one I ever bought in the “premium” replica form. Honorable mention to the IWGP championship, the old design that was used until 2020-2021.
Note: WCW’s Big Gold is superior to the one they use in WWE, it hurts my feelings when the video games use the WWE one and call it the WCW belt, knowing full well the WCW belt did not have a WWE logo on it.
My least favorite belt of all time is the WWE/Universal/Undisputed Universal/Giant Logo belt.
Secondary belt:
AEW International Title is cool looking, in my mind I’m seeing PAC carrying it out and I guess that’s the All-Atlantic Belt, but I think they are the same. Honorable mention to the WCW US Title.
Worst… I’m going with the Impact Grand Champion belt. I just can’t think of more ugly ones off the top of my head.
Tag Belts:
Best… WCW with an honorable mention to the current Tag Design in WWE, the full ones, not the hubcaps.
Worst… WWE’s just retired belts. Honorable mention to AAA, I don’t know if it’s changed but it used to be like a plain smooth plate with the AAA logo on it, it wasn’t great.
Womens:
AEW’s done a great job with their Women’s World titles, I liked the tiny one they started with and I really like the current one.
The worst one ever, well it’s not the butterfly, it’s probably the attitude era belt, it was very plain, almost an afterthought just like the women were.
Honorable mention to the NWA Women’s title, I don’t know if it’s horrid or great, but they had a locket on it, so a picture of the champion is or was on the belt.
Tertiary Titles:
I thought the WCW TV and WWF European titles were good. I like them over the TNT Title or X Titles used in AEW and TNA.
NWA Women’s title
The photo is still on it if I’m not mistaken, and yeah. I don’t mind nameplates, or sideplates, but keep peoples fucking faces off the belts please lmao.
The fact it is a recent addition to the title just blows my mind, it’s so cheesy.
The belt that pisses me off simply for existing: TNA Digital Media championship. FFS, that name….the concept is totally unnecessary, but that friggin’ name is just horrible. And, hey, why not have a ‘pre-show champ’, right? Last one we had was Ryback. Gotta keep the legacy alive.
For real, just name it the damn Television title. Wanna be wacky and hip call it the Streaming title w/e still better than ‘Digital Media’.
I’ve always been a big fan of the WWF undisputed championship that they had for a bit after unifying the WWF and WCW belts. It combines the best elements of the WWF Winged Eagle and the WCW Big Gold and makes something that just oozes class.
As for which ones get under my skin… honestly, the current WWE Championship design. It’s just the laziest design possible with a bunch of gemstones thrown on it.
