10 Ugliest Wrestling Title Belts

9. ROH “Briscoe” World Title

Boy, nothing says “wrestling is a terrible business that will cross any line in pursuit of money” like a title featuring Confederate flags being held by a guy who was under fire for making ridiculously homophobic statements on Twitter while champion. The wrestler, Jay Briscoe, did apologize for the statements and claimed they were made “in character”, which doesn’t particularly make it that much better, but it’s pro wrestling, and if we try to figure out whether people were saying things as part of the act or are really terrible in real life, we’ll be here all day and probably end up really depressed. Even setting aside the controversy, the belt itself is just terrible, and it’s definitely for a small independent company trying to secure a national TV deal and expand their reach to decide it was a good idea in the first place.

http://prowrestling.wikia.com/wiki/ROH_World_Championship Source: prowrestling.wikia.com

8. NWA-TNA X Division Title

The X Division was one of the only things TNA has occasionally done right over its tortured existence, a sub-section of the roster that was all about putting on eye-catching, spectacular matches that did things other promotions simply weren’t. It was a cruiserweight title without putting a weight limit on it, a belt that told fans “matches involving this will give you all the reasons to watch TNA that you will ever need”. And many of the matches that took place over the X Division title were some of the best in that company’s history. However, the original version of the title was just bad. Look at that “X”. It looks like the graphic they flash on Family Feud when somebody gives an answer that isn’t on the board. Later designs would have much better, more stylized “X” designs, and those were infinitely better than the first attempt.

http://archive.slamfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=19483&sid=fafa7eff9df4db8eae845896956aaed3 Source: archive.slamfans.com

7. WWE Internet Championship

This creative and humorous but ultimately horrible title was part of Zack Ryder’s ground-breaking “Z! True Long Island Story” YouTube show, and was never really an official WWE title (although it was referenced on television several times). The idea behind it was great, and fans were actually calling for Ryder to be allowed to defend it as a legitimate title. As for the execution, while the main plate is harmless enough for something that’s supposed to be a joke, the social media logos on the side plates just make it look cheap and ruin the authenticity. That’s right, we’re okay with the giant spiked hair logo, but the corporate sponsorship is where we draw the line. We never claimed to be consistent.

http://belttalk.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7076&start=10 Source: belttalk.com

6. WWE Hardcore Title

It’s not really fair, this belt is supposed to look terrible, because it was only originally intended as a joke title that was a present for Mankind from Vince McMahon in thanks for his attempts to help protect the boss from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. However, the belt actually ended up being defended as a credible title, and eventually begat the wonderfully chaotic “24/7” rule, where it could be defended anytime, anywhere, as long as there was a referee present. The whole thing was wonderfully silly and on very rare occasions led to good hardcore matches, but there’s no denying it is one ugly-ass belt. Also, because it was literally an old, broken WWE Championship with lots of pieces barely hanging on, WWE couldn’t actually sell replica versions and make any money off of it, which was probably a strike against it in their books.

http://prowrestling.wikia.com/wiki/WWE_Hardcore_Championship Source: prowrestling.wikia.com

5. WWE United States Spinner Belt

Listen, we’re not completely against wrestlers having personal vanity belts. The Smoking Skull Belt, after all, is one of the best-designed and memorable title belts in history. But this absurdity is childishness of the highest caliber. It was WWE’s first foray into putting ridiculous amounts of shiny jewels on their belts, a tradition which led to eye-searing designs like that other Spinner Belt and the Divas Title (don’t worry, we’ll get to both of those, and lives on in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which many have compared to an over-sized class ring. And this thing existed for nearly a year, almost certainly because if WWE is going to design something that clearly cost way too much money and only works for one person (Cena’s name and “Word Life” are literally part of the belt’s faceplate), then that person is going to hold the belt for a really long time. On the bright side, it did go away immediately after he lost it. However, that wouldn’t be the last Cena-specific belt to make an assault on our eyes…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt9PrRwbG_I Source: YouTube.com

4. WWE Spinner Belt

Having not learned from the United States Spinner belt, WWE created another custom belt for John Cena’s first WWE Championship win, resulting in this garish, bejewelled monstrosity. And, of course, the WWE logo spun freely, because Cena was still a rapper at that point and in WWE’s world, that means that he likes things that spin like a turntable. Even other wrestlers would take shots, on television, at the absurdity of the “Spinner Belt”, which also had the fun feature of not being weighted particularly well, so the logo was always askew in pictures. Even after it stopped being a vanity belt for Cena, WWE kept the ridiculous design, and their only contribution towards making it slightly less silly was to fix the logo in place.

http://shop.wwe.com/WWE-Championship-Spinner-Replica-Title-Belt/W00322,default,pd.html Source: shop.wwe.com

3. TNA Immortal Title

We probably could fill a book with the incredibly weird things Jeff Hardy has contributed to professional wrestling, but none stand out like this horrific version of the TNA World Title that was created as part of his heel character’s persona. Clearly designed by Hardy himself, who spent much of his TNA career using the promotion as some sort of bizarre gallery to show off his artistic endeavours at every turn, this belt is clearly the stuff of nightmares, and a sign of a diseased mind. But we already kind of knew that about Jeff Hardy, anyway. The belt’s existence came to the end in the most Jeff Hardy way possible, after being defeated for it by Sting, Hardy showed up for the rematch under the influence of something, and was quickly pinned in under a minute and suspended from the promotion (many felt he probably should have been fired, but TNA has never had a history of making good decisions), with the belt quietly being replaced by the regular World title at some point.

http://topropebelts.com/gallery/jeff-hardys-tna-impact-world-title/#details Source: topropebelts.com

2. WWE Tag Team Titles

These would be the giant copper pennies that represented tag team supremacy in WWE from 2010 until a modified, somewhat better version was created in late 2016. At the time they were first introduced, WWE was clearly experimenting with belt design, as also evidenced by the far cooler and criminally underappreciated ECW “giant silver eagle” belt that would represent the WWE version of that brand. But these belts, when compared to the classic look of the originals, or even the sleek design of the World and WWE Tag Titles that had existed during the brand split, have just never looked right. The round shape makes them look comically large, and the color just screams “cheap”. There’s a reason one wrestling title belts are generally supposed to look like they’re made of gold or silver, after all, they’re supposed to be valuable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mjem9LE2hM Source: YouTube.com

1. WWE Divas Title

Look at it. Just look at it! That is a damned butterfly on a wrestling title! When WWE created this belt, they set the concept of gender equality in wrestling back ten years, and they were already starting from way behind everyone else. The belt literally had no reason to exist at the time, either, because WWE still had the Women’s Championship, but decided they wanted a title for both brands. Of course, at this point, they only had a small number of even competent female wrestlers on the roster, supplemented by a truckload of bikini models, but they felt that was enough to have two separate women’s divisions. The fact that it’s called the Divas Title should tell you how much credibility the holders of the belt were given compared to the much more traditional Women’s title. But this one was shiny and sparkly and pink, and WWE could sell it to the coveted young female demographic, so guess which one got to survive when the belts were unified? This belt, and everything is represents, is an abomination, and we will be forever ecstatic that WWE retired the belt, and the term “Divas”, as part of their revival of the Women’s Division in 2016.

http://shop.wwe.com/WWE-Divas-Championship-Replica-Title-Belt/W01788,default,pd.html Source: shop.wwe.com