Eventually, when NWA and WCW went their separate ways, it became exclusive WCW property. Many thought that The Big Gold Belt was black leather, which is not true. It just so happened that the belt was so beaten up and thrown around so much, and probably had alcohol poured over it, and the strap became discoloured very quickly in its early tenure.
For months, Bobby Heenan went on TV with this belt and proclaimed that the original owner of the belt would be coming to WWF, and lo and behold! Ric Flair ended up showing up on WWF TV, with the big gold belt.
This led to a legal dispute between WCW and Ric Flair over the ownership of the belt. Ric Flair put the down payment and deposit on the belt, and contended that it should’ve been returned to him after he lost the championship, but that never happened.
So he upped and went to WWE with that championship belt. Thus, WCW used a different world championship, created by Reggie Parks, who was an actual professional wrestling belt maker, unlike Crumrine. It was a much simpler design and was known mainly to be on Vader and Ron Simmons, who was the first ever African American world champion.
This belt was used from 1991-93. The logo was used presumably to avoid any legal disputes.
