WWE Talent Pitching For Classic Title Belts As Cody Rhodes Teases Winged Eagle Return

Triple H stokes speculation, nostalgia for "one night only" special return of the Winged Eagle.

by Scott Carlson
Winged Eagle WWE Title
WWE

Wrestling fans looking for a nostalgia fix will find an abundance of it this weekend when WWE resurrects Saturday Night's Main Event -- and the retro vibes just jumped off the chart.

In promoting the return of the groundbreaking network program this Saturday, WWE has been channeling the feeling of the original show, which ran from 1985-92. Wednesday, Triple H dropped a huge hint of another piece of nostalgia making its return at Saturday Night's Main Event:

Let's see: Triple H talks about the retro theme of the upcoming special, Cody Rhodes, of all people, opening presumably a title belt case, basking in the glow, and smiling. It doesn't take a super-sleuth to figure out that the fabled Winged Eagle -- the classic world title design from the 80s and 90s -- is very likely making a comeback, even if it's for "one night only," and many fans jumped on this with glee.

While Cody Rhodes has been outspoken since returning to WWE about his desire to bring back the Winged Eagle, Fightful Select reports that "a number of talent" have mentioned bringing back classic titles. Fightful notes that this was a contributing factor to the WWE Tag Team Championship titles, unveiled this spring, sporting a more classic look.

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Widely regarded as the gold standard of world title designs, the Winged Eagle made its debut in a rather infamous manner, at the very first episode of The Main Event, a spinoff of Saturday Night's Main Event, in February 1988. That program, headlined by Hulk Hogan battling Andre the Giant for the WWF Championship, set an American television ratings record for a wrestling program, with 33 million viewers tuning in.

That record audience saw Hogan give a backstage interview wearing the then-current WWF Championship title, now known as the Hogan '86. When he walked out to the ring "moments later," the belt has been replaced with the Winged Eagle. As most fans know, Hogan lost the title to Andre that night due to Dave Hebner's twin brother Earl posing as the referee for the match.

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The Winged Eagle would remain in use until 1998, when the Big Eagle would take its place as the Attitude Era took off. During that decade, the Winged Eagle was present for countless historic moments: Ric Flair winning the title in the 1992 Royal Rumble, Bret Hart finally knocking off Yokozuna, Shawn Michaels' "boyhood dream [coming] true," and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin ascending to the top of the company at WrestleMania 14.

It will be interesting to see whether WWE rolls out the original title or a reproduction of the Winged Eagle with the current logo (the original belt featured the block "WWF" lettering at the top). When WWE published a photoshoot with superstars wearing classic titles several years ago, the "WWF" was edited out. If they commissioned a new WWE version of the belt for Saturday Night's Main Event, perhaps this really won't be a "one night only" deal.

 
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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.