10 Most Prestigious Wrestling Championship Belts Ever
10. The Big Gold Belt/WCW World Heavyweight Championship (Jim Crockett Promotions/WCW)
Date established: 1985 (Big Gold Belt)/11 January, 1991 (WCW World Heavyweight Championship) Date Retired: 9 December, 2001 (WCW Championship) # Of Reigns: 63 Wrestler with Most Reigns: Ric Flair (8) Longest Reign: Hulk Hogan (469 Days) Shortest Reign: Chris Jericho, Kevin Nash, Sting & Ric Flair (>1 Day Each) Due to the belts complex history and lineage, for the sake of this article, this belt represents the World Heavyweight Championship used in the Jim Crockett promotions beginning in 1985, as well as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from . It does not include WWEs World Heavyweight Championship that was the companys second world title from 2002 to 2013. When people think of the real world championship they often think of the Big Gold Belt that once represented the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and later became the WCW World Championship. During those early years, this was the belt that was defined by rassling, traditional wrestling that emphasized grappling skill and technique over charisma and theatricality. For many wrestling fans, especially in the southern United States, this was the most prestigious title in wrestling, especially when worn and defended by Ric Flair. Some of the matches that Flair had for this belt, including his match with Ricky the Dragon Steamboat at NWA Chi Town Rumble 89, are considered some of the best matches in history. Sadly, this belt began losing its legitimacy towards the tail end of the Monday Night Wars. By 1999, the powers at be in WCW fell into the mentality of the belt is just a prop and began using it solely to shock fans with surprise title changes as a means of competing with WWE. This included people like actor David Arquette and WCW booker Vince Russo winning the belt, utterly ruining it in the eyes of WCWs traditional wrestling-associated fanbase. So while it ended poorly for WCW, during its early years it was considered one of the biggest and most important titles in all of wrestling.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
