WWF Champion - Belt Designs

Belt Designs

Special custom belts have been created to match the characters of certain WWE champions:

• The Ultimate Warrior - white, blue and purple leather straps
• "Stone Cold" Steve Austin - Smoking Skull belt
• John Cena - Spinner belt with free-motion "spinner" WWE logo in the center
• Edge - Modified "Rated-R Superstar" spinner belt
• The Miz - Spinner belt with the WWE logo turned upside down to resemble an "M", (which stood for Miz.)

A much larger version of the belt was created for André the Giant before WrestleMania III, although he never wore it as champion. A custom championship belt was designed and constructed for The Rock, which featured his trademark Brahma Bull logo in the center as an answer to Austin's Smoking Skull Belt, but due to creative reasons it never appeared on television. Similarly, Edge had originally designed an entirely different custom belt than the "Rated R Spinner" design he used for his second reign, however the plans were scrapped due to time constraints.

The "Spinner" belt's design, which featured a gold and diamond bling-bling style reflecting Cena's hip hop character, became the WWE Championship's primary design from April 11, 2005, to February 18, 2013. The belt ceased to spin at No Mercy 2007 but span again during The Rock's feud with CM Punk. The physical belt itself originally indicated the brand it was designated to. When it was first introduced, it featured a unique side plate design that read "SmackDown", though it was then replaced with one that read "Mon-Nite Raw" when John Cena was drafted to the Raw brand. When the title once again became SmackDown's primary championship after Triple H was drafted to the brand in 2008, the "Raw" plate was replaced with a second "WWE Champion" side plate. Furthermore, the belt also featured a silver tip on the end of the leather strap. Despite lasting for eight years, the belt was heavily subjected to much critisism, as it was seen as looking like a toy, thus denegrating the title's value. On the February 18, 2013 episode of Raw, The Rock unveiled a new WWE Championship belt. The new title (which was partially designed by Orange County Choppers of American Chopper fame) features a black strap with a large diamond encrusted WWE logo on the front with the word "CHAMPION" directly underneath, with WWE logo side plates. A distinctive feature of this belt is that there is no nameplate for the champion. Instead, the side plates can be customized to incorporate the current champion's logo/insignia.

The side plate designs for holders of this belt include:

• The "Brahma Bull" logo of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
• The "Hustle, Loyalty, Respect" (left) and "U ₡ ME" (right) logos of John Cena