Why The New WWE Championship Belt Sucks

new-wwe-belt Within the wrestling industry and around the world, the WWE champion is ranked as one of the absolute elite. Every single performer from all corners of the globe has dreamt of holding above their head the greatest prize in all of wrestling. The WWE championship is synonymous with some of the greatest figures to ever appear in front of us to represent the business and the belt itself is an instantly recognisable symbol of being €œThe Best". For 8 years the Championship was portrayed by what was quite obviously a gimmick belt designed solely for the waist of John Cena. The jewels, the bling and the slang all fit with Cena€™s character and no matter what you think of the man, it looked right around his waist. John Cena being the man for so long meant this belt overstayed its welcome, especially when he was no longer the €œChamp€ but, if we are all honest with ourselves, we put up with it as it was still the symbol of power. This past Monday night the world was shown the replacement called for by so many that would finally usurp the €œSpinner€ after so many years. The World was finally getting a replacement and was hopeful that we would see the return of a regal belt which said to everybody that the carrier was the greatest champion in professional wrestling on the planet at that time. The Rock had us all excited for the reveal, stating to everyone that this was finally going to bestow all of these things we so desperately wanted. He built up the tension, he grabbed the red velvet we couldn€™t help but try and peak under and whipped off the cover to reveal the brand new WWE Championship belt. And boy does it suck! You could almost hear the collective groan from every single WWE fan who had spoken out about the €œSpinner€ belt as they took their first glance at the new belt. You could also hear the forced excitement from The Rock as he unveiled it, almost forcing the crowd to cheer for this awful piece of jewelled garbage. We had dreamt of a true shield of a belt, a masterpiece throwback to what world titles should be. A design so magnificent but yet steeped in powerful imagery that each fan and performer would crave to carry it to the ring and be known as €œthe man€. The new belt I fear will hold none of these desires to the performers and quite likely the exact opposite will occur. But why does it seem to have so many scratching their heads as to why this belt even got green flagged? The most obvious problem for me is the shape of the belt itself. Every single promotion that I can think of past and present has had a world title in which the main plate has been circular in design. On the surface this doesn€™t seem like such a massive problem seeing as the new belt has a more squared shield design but imagery is a huge part in most things wrestling related. The spherical designs of world titles are not accidental and are mostly used to portray an image of the globe we live on. A world title quite obviously. Taking the new shape and comparing it with other titles belts, the most obvious likeness is with the United States Championship and old Lightweight titles. All title€™s meant for the lower card to feud over and the shape chosen purely because it wasn€™t a circular design. If your World title is comparable to undercard belts, something doesn€™t sit right. That€™s not the only similarity with the minor belts; it looks very much like it is roughly the same size, if not smaller, than the US title. Surely your premier belt should be the biggest and grandest of all your current belts. I could be mistaken due to the tank like size of The Rock but it definitely seems to pale in comparison to the World Title. One thing I feel the €œSpinner€ got right was its silhouette in the fact it was rounded but had a slight change in its overall shape. The thing we didn€™t like about it was its clunky, Fisher Price design as it simply looked like a marketing tool to sell more toys to kids as indeed it did and performed the task admirably. It seems the designers of this belt took this €œkiddy€ approach a little further by having a child design it. Is there anything simpler than the WWE logo, some sparkly jewels and the word €œChampion€ embossed underneath? I think not and it is quite likely something a small child who was destined to have no flare for the rest of their life would design. I would even go so far as to say it actually looks a lot like a child€™s attempt at a cardboard belt made of tin foil and sellotape. But still this is not the biggest downfall of the biggest prize in western wrestling. In my opinion, the biggest pitfall the designers fell down was the sheer amount of blank space taking over the main plate. I could forgive this belt a lot more if behind the big €œWWE€ logo there was imagery of the planet or the old winged eagle, maybe a small splash of colour here and there but no! Instead the space behind and around the logo is just blank! Black leather takes up an obviously large portion of the main plate area making the belt look dull and unimpressive. It makes you wonder how a belt that started its design in the summer of 2011 costing tens of thousands of dollars managed to look so plain. When you would look at the World Title and compare it to the WWE title, you could argue amongst friends which looked the most impressive. Even the spinner actually looked like it cost an obscene amount of money and would sparkle like a king€™s favourite crown. The crown jewel of the company even! This new belt, when sat side by side with the World title will look small, insignificant and bland. It€™s a real shame that something so many fans had been calling for finally happened and in true WWE fashion these days, they somehow managed to mess it up. I€™ve yet to hear one person state that they love the new design, apart from those on WWE payroll naturally but instead have heard a few people declare that it€™s a bit better than the €œspinner€. A stance I put down to many simply being bored of the old, clunky looking belt and are happy enough with just about anything new that came after. Some have even stated it doesn't matter what it looks like as it is what it symbolises that counts but im not sure if these people understand that the belt IS the symbol, it hovers above all those who carry or challenge for it and its image is one of the few images constantly current with the product. It would appear we are destined to have a cartoon looking belt from now on. Gone are the days of grand belts designed around powerful imagery such as the old winged eagle designs surrounding an image of the earth. Instead, in their place we will have lots of polished gold, plenty of reflective jewels and very little in terms wonder and design.
 
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WhatCulture WWE Editor: An Ex Wrestler, Computer Game Retail Employee, Batman fanatic and all round nerdy man who's views on Wrestling and all that come with it border on the obsessive.