Unfinished AEW TNT Championship Revealed At Double Or Nothing
Circumstances prevented the strap being plated for the show.
Cody made AEW history at last night's Double or Nothing pay-per-view, when he became the company's inaugural TNT Champion after beating Lance Archer to claim the honour.
After the match, The American Nightmare was presented with a brand new - albeit unfinished - belt.
Quite rightly unabashed, AEW - via Tony Schiavone on commentary - openly admitted that the bright red strap had yet to plated, owing to the circumstances currently affecting us all.
Some wrestling organisations - we won't name who - would have been terribly embarrassed to show such an obviously tinpot title on TV, particularly as they continue to pretend the reality of the outside world doesn't elide with their fantasy bubble.
Not so AEW, and not so Cody, who proudly posed with the partially completed prize post-match. It's entirely possible the belt, utterly unique by chance rather than design, could become iconic in its own right as a symbol of indefatigability in the face of straitened times. However, it's also symbolic of a period of much suffering, and it's more likely AEW will want to spruce it up at the first opportunity.
So you can expect to see it crop up on historical lists of championship oddities some years down the line.