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WWE has produced some historic title belts in its history, but as beautiful as some of them have been, the custom ones always get people talking and spike the interest in that particular championship.
A recent example of this would be when Kalisto recently posted a picture on Instagram where the strap of the Cruiserweight Championship looked black. It wasn’t, but it got people talking. As much as wrestling fans detest change, they love a new belt.
Custom belts are even more special owing to the fact that there have not been many since the WWE started. They generate interest and lead to more merchandise sales as fans clamour to have the replica of the rare design.
WWE have even capitalised on this with The New Day's custom WWE Tag Team Championships available in the WWE Shop, despite them never appearing on television.
It’s cool to see different takes on championship belts. I’m a big fan of the sideplates that the main championships now have as every champion now gets his own spin on the belt.
This article will take a look at 5 of the best custom belts that have been produced for WWE, whether it be for a mid-card title or the most prestigious one in the company.
#5 Goldust's Golden Intercontinental Championship Belt
Goldust is a fantastic character even to this day. Despite how wacky he has been in the past, I won’t forget how perverse and weird he was when he first debuted in the WWE. If anything, the character was way ahead of the times with the social views on gender and drag queens compared to how it would be received now.
He was built properly and became over with the crowd. He feuded with Razor Ramon and ended up capturing the Intercontinental Championship at the 1996 Royal Rumble. He held the title until the 1996 King of the Ring, with a slight period where it was vacant due to a no contest, but it was essentially a 6-month run with the mid-card belt.
It was during this time that Goldust actually had the belt re-leathered ala Ultimate Warrior in a wonderful gold colour. It truly did look special. Unfortunately, it did not really last long and pictures of it are rare. Unless you were watching the programming at the time, you probably wouldn’t even know about it.
Now you’ve read this slide though, you’ll never forget the belt of… Goldust.
#4 John Cena's US Championship Spinner Belt
John Cena has had an untold effect on the WWE Universe, and whether you love him or you hate him, one of the best things he’s done is make one of the mid-card championships mean something.
When the WWF took over WCW, they inherited all their champions and therefore their championship belts. Over the course of a few months, the WWE unified various championships and combined the US Championship with the Intercontinental Championship. However, it was brought back to the SmackDown brand after the first brand split.
During John Cena’s third reign as United States Champion, he debuted a ‘spinner’ version of the belt. It was completely customised and looked amazing. It was encrusted with diamonds, with the American flag still prominent.
In black, tasteful and elegant writing, the phrase ‘Word Life’ and John Cena sat top and bottom of the emblazoned ‘US’ in huge diamond capital letters.
The spinning feature was something completely different and fit right in with John Cena’s rapper gimmick. He was popular, down with the kids and so was the belt.
#3 The Rock's Brahma Bull WWF Championship Belt
I’m breaking the rules slightly here as this belt actually never made it to television, but it is one of the nicest custom belts that the WWE has ever produced.
WWE put a lot of faith into The Rock when he became WWF Champion. He had had a rocky road (no pun intended) after his debut with the crowd not taking to him at all.
It was a lot like the Roman Reigns situation nowadays, but Rocky fed off this and turned into pretty much the perfect heel, before eventually turning the crowd to his side with his charismatic, funny promos.
I’ve heard a lot of stories as to why The Rock’s custom belt never made it to television such as it getting lost in the post, but in January of 2017, Bruce Prichard revealed the reason was that The Rock actually dropped the WWF Championship before it was even ready.
They just never used it after that. The belt was beautiful. It was a large gold design with The Rock’s Brahma Bull design in 3d on the front, with red eyes, really complementing the gold disc. The bull is even pulling off The People's Eyebrow in a nice touch! It’s literally one of the most delightful belts I’ve ever had the pleasure of casting my eyes across.
#2 Stone Cold Smokin’ Skull WWF Championship Belt
This is by far the most popular custom belt but comes second on the list for reasons that will become apparent. Stone Cold Steve Austin held this belt when he was the WWF Champion and it was actually a part of some pretty notorious segments on WWF Raw.
The Rock became incensed with Austin and actually stole the belt for a time, dunking it in the river on one episode of Raw is War.
Only Austin, Undertaker and Mankind held it officially though the latter two superstars reverted back to the original design once they had captured the gold.
The belt is fairly simple in design as it is just gold with black detail, barring the red WWF logo. Barbed wire surrounds the main face of the belt. It has rattlesnakes slithering around the skulls on the plates ready to strike and two surrounding the skull with smoking eyes, which is the centrepiece. Let us not forget the snakeskin style leather, which could be seen on the back of the strap.
The story behind this belt is quite interesting. I‘ve heard two accounts in my years of paying attention to everything wrestling. The first, is that the new belt cut Austin either on the chin or the stomach, so he wanted a new belt that was more ergonomically designed for him as he was carrying the company as champion.
However, as told by Austin himself, The Road Warriors suggested he should have his own belt as his character did not play by the rules and therefore would look better with a custom belt rather than the corporate one that had been presented to him originally.
What remains true is that Austin had the belt made without McMahon’s knowledge and used it on TV without prior approval. McMahon was fuming and forced him to use the proper belt but, due to fan reaction and backlash, ended up allowing Austin to use the belt he had made and incorporated it into storylines.
It’s certainly iconic and will remain a part of WWE history forever. You can still purchase a replica of this belt, but thanks to the lawsuit, your copy will sport the scratch WWE logo.
#1 John Cena WWE Championship Spinner Belt
I am fully aware of the controversy this is going to cause for being at the top of the list, but just hear me out. The WWE Championship spinner belt that John Cena brought to the WWE may not be the nicest looking title on the list (I think I made my feelings pretty clear on the Brahma Bull slide) but it’s without a doubt the most influential.
The belt we’re talking about here is the spinner version that Cena had on both Raw and SmackDown. It was similar to the US Spinner belt mentioned earlier in the article.
It had the classic eagle at the top of the circle holding the WWE logo which was peppered with Diamonds. The eagle had red eyes akin to the Brahma Bull belt and there was an intricate design engraved in the gold circle. The middle of the belt, which included this logo, spun just like the US Spinner belt Cena had championed before.
This belt, though a custom design for John Cena, lasted 8 years in the WWE. Granted, the spinning middle was phased out eventually and the side plates changed as the belt not only switched brands but as the whole brand split faded away into a distant memory.
It’s the top of the list not only because it fit John Cena perfectly and his character but also because of the impact it had on the whole business. To keep a customer belt for 8 years as your top Championship is pretty much unheard of.
The thing is, wrestlers looked really good with it. Triple H, CM Punk and Randy Orton looked just as good with the belt as Cena did. The only thing that wound me up about it was the fact that it said ‘Champ’ and not ‘Champion’.
It eventually outstayed its welcome, primarily the more unpopular Cena became. It became hated by the WWE Universe and people welcomed the change. I think it had to do with the fact it was a Cena belt and the fact that 8 years is a long time without any change to the belt.
If we take personal feelings out of this, it remains the best custom belt that WWE has ever produced.
Word Life.
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