WWE: US Championship – A Legacy of Greatness DVD Review: 14 Interesting Observations
4. There Has Been More Title Belts Than You Think
Six mainstream design to be precise. It all started off with a simple look that was merely a think brown leather piece with a couple of gold plates on.
Then, we had the classic Championship that the likes of Magnum T.A. and Dusty Rhodes held before Nikia Koloff literally smashed it into pieces off a ring post in 1991.
This was booked so WCW could signify leaving their old territory days behind. A new title belt - the design that was used in WCW right up until its closure in 2001 - also meant that a new crop of young challengers were brought in. The likes of Dustin Rhodes, Vader, Stunning Steve Austin are all given as examples.
After that design was unified with the Intercontinental Championship with Test's defeat to Edge at Survivor Series 2001, the belt was stuck on the shelf until the draft of 2002. SmackDown GM brought a smaller design of what we have today to the show.
John Cena's victory at WrestleMania 20 against The Big Show saw him bring his own spinner design in, before JBL burned that and debuted the design that has been used to this day.
I suppose we can't leave Lance Storm out of his entry, with the serious fellow renaning WCW's US title the Canadian Heavyweight Championship.