10 Wrestlers Who Didn't Know What To Do With Title Belts
In the sport where guys that don't wear pants fight for belts, what happens when they get one?!
As the wrestler currently most associated with belts in wrestling at present, Kenny Omega has taken to making a choice that could be entirely by accident but always seems - to delusional loyalists such as your writer - like a quirkily wonderful decision.
He deeply cherishes and cares for the completely valueless TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
Of all the titles he currently carries around, this one is the silliest. Long abandoned as Impact's top title, it was used for a while as a comedic prop before Omega lifted the company's proper prize. Yet, either because it's aesthetically pleasing, or he's attributed an odd value to it, 'The Cleaner' seems to want the thing to shine. It's often around his head, over top of one of the many others, or simply - as was the case when he won it - the one held aloft in glory.
As spectacular a visual as it is, Omega's made having about 50 different titles seem fairly straightforward, such is his sardonic excellent. Especially when plenty of these industry icons seemed to struggle figuring out what to do with just one of them...
10. Stone Cold Steve Austin (WWE Championship)
Steve Austin becoming WWE Champion in 1998 presented an interesting issue for the company's booking to have to navigate around.
'The Rattlesnake' was such a corporate rabble-rouser that Vince McMahon had a personal investment in him not being the flag-bearer for the organisation. Austin, for his part, wanted to be the top star in a job he felt he was the best at, and needed the belt as proof.
McMahon thought he'd figured it out on the Raw after Austin's WrestleMania XIV victory when he presented Stone Cold with a brand new belt, but the Champion got around showing it or his boss any respect by dragging it to the ring whenever he made his entrance. And that was before he replaced it completely with an alternative suited specifically to his style.
A small but ingenious move, this got around what would have looked and felt like something of a plot-hole. The Rock borrowed this too, rarely sporting the belt around his waist after claiming it for the first time at the tail-end of the year.