The WWE Championship is one of the most iconic belts in the history of sports entertainment. Whether a wrestler wants to admit it or not, every single person who has ever competed in a wrestling ring has, at least once, dreamed of holding up the title. It makes sense, some of the biggest names in the history of wrestling have held the title around their waist or on their shoulder.
The belt has gone through quite a few iconic iterations from the winged eagle of the 90s, to the design (shaped like the United States of America) Bruno Sammartino held for thousands of days. There are also many custom versions of the belt that wrestlers have changed to their liking. This list will examine every custom version of the WWE Championship.
9 Hulk Hogan's Face On The Title
Hulk Hogan's first WWE Championship reign lasted for over 1400 days. During his title run, Hogan debuted multiple different belts that only he held. Most weren't specific to Hogan and were updates to help the WWE Title pop except one. A custom belt, which was clearly a vanity piece for the Hulkster, featured Hogan's face in the middle of the front plate that was shaped like the WWE Title from 1986.
Apparently, the belt was uncomfortable for Hogan, and he used it for less than a week. This same belt design is also rumored to have been used to design the WCW 6-man Tag Team Titles that existed for less than a year. It is one of the earliest examples of a custom WWE Championship.
8 Ultimate Warrior's Different Color Straps
Ultimate Warrior helped usher in the era of custom belts after he won the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 6. His changes to the title were subtle, but the implications were massive. He debuted the blue strap at SummerSlam 1990.
Warrior used both a white and a purple version of the custom strap during his title reign. He would eventually lose the purple strap to Sgt. Slaughter at the 1991 Royal Rumble. It was the only title run of Warrior's career.
7 Massive Andre The Giant WWE Championship Belt
Hulk Hogan's 1400-plus day title reign came to an end when he was defeated by Andre the Giant in 1988. A year before Hogan lost the title, a potential WWE Championship belt was introduced on an episode of WWF Prime Time. It was a massive title shown to be fit for a "giant of a man."
The title was shown in the buildup to WrestleMania 3 which featured Hogan and Andre in the main event. The belt was presented as being able to cover a man with an 80-inch waist.
6 Smoking Skull WWE Championship
Few men are as solely responsible for the rise in viewership of wrestling in the 90s as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. After defeating Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14, he would have six different runs with the WWE Championship. During his second run with the title, he introduced the infamous Smoking Skull belt.
It had rattlesnakes and a smoking skull in the center of the nameplate and was an extension of Austin. The belt itself became a part of a storyline between Austin and The Rock when Vince McMahon stole the title from Austin at Breakdown in 1998. The belt would continue to be the WWE Championship until Mankind won the title at SummerSlam. Austin actually had the belt manufactured without McMahon's knowledge and Vince hated the belt, while the fans loved it.
5 Brahma Bull Belt
The Brahma Bull belt had become well known even though it was never officially used in the WWE. The title was supposed to be introduced as The Rock's response to Austin's Smoking Skull title, but it was lost in the mail. It was found a few weeks later, but by that point, WWE creative had moved on from introducing the title.
It featured The Rock's signature bull on the front plate, and it's estimated that only two official copies of the title exist in the world today. The Rock even once commented on Twitter that the issue with the mail, along with the fact that Austin had already done "the custom belt thing" was a reason it never saw the light of day.
4 The Spinner Belt
John Cena was one of the most polarizing champions in the history of the WWE. His update to the WWE Championship, the spinner belt, was as polarizing as the star who introduced it to WWE audiences. This wasn't the first spinner belt introduced to the WWE. Cena had a US Championship that also spun, which was introduced in 2004.
Unlike the WWE Championship, Cena's US Title went away shortly after he lost it to Orlando Jordan. The spinner WWE Championship was only supposed to last for the duration of Cena's time as champion but ended up being the title for over 8 years. Replicas of the belt were one of the top sellers at the WWE for years and that likely led to the spinner lasting so long in the WWE after Cena's reigns as champion.
3 Edge's Spinner Belt
Many WWE wrestlers were not big fans of John Cena's spinning WWE Title. Unfortunately for them, the replica version of the belt was outselling everybody. Edge expected to get his own "Rated R Superstar" belt and even drew up a copy of an idea.
In the end, the title was only slightly adjusted with Edge's "Rated R" logo being placed in the center of the belt. Edge thought the belt look more like a "hubcap" than a world title. He was the only person to ever use the Rated R belt.
2 The Miz's Custom WWE Championship
Every wrestler with a custom WWE Championship is a first ballot game-changing WWE Hall of Famer, except the Miz (at the time). The Miz's rise to the top of the WWE was a push most fans have forgotten or just pretend never happened.
He also had a custom version of the WWE spinner belt that featured his signature upside-down WWE logo. He used this belt during his first run as champion until losing the title to Cena at Extreme Rules 2011.
1 Daniel Bryan's Eco-Friendly Belt
Daniel Bryan is no stranger to the WWE Championship. He held the title four different times and became the face of the WWE through most of his world title runs at the company. Although turning the WWE Title into an environmentally friendly status symbol seems like the "right thing to do" it brought Bryan massive heat as a heel champion.
The title was made out of organic hemp and the plates were made from trees that fell naturally. The look only lasted through Bryan's reign, but it was a huge addition to the storyline and one of the better uses of a custom WWE Title.