Every Major Wrestling Title Ranked From Ugliest To Most Beautiful

From fool's gold to 24k.

AEW World Tag Team Championship
Twitter (AEWrestling)

Some notes on the criteria follow:

The IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship should be a major title, but, if it's even possible, New Japan Pro Wrestling has even less regard for its doubles division than WWE. And for all the division's faults, the tag teams in WWE perform, often excellently, in defiance of their booking. The effort behind and quality output of NJPW tag matches is severely lacking in 2019.

The NXT UK Championship is a stunning bit of hardware, but provided the brand doesn't produce another TakeOver event in 2019, people will not care about it for 363 days of the year. It cannot be objectively classed as a major title, otherwise it could well top this list: the localised aesthetic is as authentic as it is stunning.

Nor can the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, the design of which does look fairly sleek, if a bit like an outline of a fox's head. Promoted - with some gall, in hindsight - as a progressive achievement, it devolved into a comedy title, and then anybody's title, in swift order. The revised Cruiserweight Title might yet develop prestige, under the auspices of Triple H's NXT, but at present, it's still tied to a chronic lack of heat, relevance and stature. CMLL's total title inflation, and Mexico's diminished standing on the global stage in general, explain those absences.

Sometimes, major = fugly...

21. Impact Wrestling World Championship

AEW World Tag Team Championship
IMPACT Wrestling

Provided you don't look at it too closely, Impact's top prize is nice.

The gold is pronounced, but it isn't too prominent, which in this specific instance works: it would look hilariously ambitious, in Peak TNA fashion, were it to look like the Big Gold Belt, or something. The blue detail is unusual, without looking too jarring or low grade, but what in the hell is that figure above the company logo about?

It's obviously the Anthem owl, but it doesn't look much like an owl in certain lights. Because of the black colouring, it looks more like a miniaturised Batman.

It captures the inadvertently hilarious DNA of the company, at least.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!