WWE and other pro wrestling promotions have created personalized championships for their top stars. Here are the top 10 personalized championships.One of the most recognizable items of the professional wrestling industry is extravagant championship belts. From the famous (or infamous) NWA World Heavyweight Championship to classic designs like the WCW/WWE World Heavyweight Championship, belts can take on many different designs. However, an individual's title reign becomes even more distinguished if he or she can obtain a personalized championship.
Throughout the many decades in the world of professional wrestling, personalized championships have remained a highlight of the industry. Whether the purpose be to introduce an entirely new championship design or to make someone's title run feel special, here are the top 10 personalized championship belts in pro wrestling history.
10 WWE Championship, Brahma Bull Edition
While this championship is a fan favorite, it only makes number ten on this list for one simple, yet very important, reason: it never appeared on television. The Rock's personalized WWE Championship has made many appearances in video games, but never once made a television debut.
While it was believed to be lost in the mail for years, a 2012 article from WWE.com investigated why the championship belt never appeared on television, and according to The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment himself, the belt never appeared on WWE television for unspecified "creative reasons."
9 Fabulous Moolah's Women's Championship
As one of the longest-reigning champions in all of professional wrestling, women's or otherwise, the Fabulous Moolah has not been without controversy. Despite all of the backstage stories about Moolah, it is undeniable that her twenty-eight-year reign as women's champion was very formative for the industry.
Moolah's picture adorns this belt, as do the words "World’s Champion Girl Wrestler / September 18, 1956 / Baltimore, Maryland," marking the date when Moolah became NWA Women's Champion. While this belt is decorative and does not lack decorum, Moolah's fairly tarnished legacy is what lands this belt so low on the countdown.
8 Spinner WWE Championship, Edge Edition
Love it or hate it, the WWE Championship with the spinning "WWE" logo in the middle is an iconic championship. However, Edge's personal twist on the middle spinner? Not so much.
The reason that this belt makes it so low on the list is that, if you believe the man himself, it was never supposed to be. Edge says that he had actually designed his own belt that he liked even more, but it would have taken too long to create, so they instead chose to just replace the spinner, a decision that Edge had no input in.
7 WWE Championship, Smoking Skull Edition
Another fan favorite is Stone Cold Steve Austin's famous Smoking Skull WWE Championship. This variation on the WWE strap was really the first custom championship to garner much fanfare. The belt debuted during Austin's second title win in 1998, and if WWE is to be believed, this belt was not pre-approved like all other custom championships.
According to the same article on custom championships linked above, this custom championship was not approved by management, and Stone Cold Steve Austin shelled out his own money to create this custom belt, adorned with barbed wire and rattlesnake designs.
6 Spinner United States Championship
While this belt may not be nearly as popular as some of the entries that are lower on this list, it gets this spot because of how important it is to the legacy of WWE championships as a whole. Fitting with John Cena's "Doctor of Thuganomics" gimmick, Cena had a customized championship belt made during his third reign as United States Champion in 2004.
While many dislike the look of the United States Spinner belt, it was a precursor to the WWE Championship Spinner belt that would become the standard look for years to come upon its debut.
5 Spinner WWE Championship, Miz Edition
Speaking of the WWE Championship Spinner belt, The Miz followed in the footsteps of Edge when he won the WWE Championship and added his own twist on the spinner belt by flipping the WWE logo and making it look like an "M."
Many fans deem The Miz's WWE Championship run as a failure due to the fact that The Miz took a backseat to the "real" main event feud between The Rock and John Cena, but what puts this title above the Edge change is the fact that it was so minor, yet so effective and fitting with the character that The Miz portrayed during his title run.
4 Spinner WWE Championship
From one WWE Championship Spinner belt to another, this was the originator of every variation of the WWE Championship Spinner that spun off all of the others. It was so iconic for not only the WWE but also for John Cena's character upon the debut of the belt that it became the standard belt design for years to come.
John Cena debuted this championship in 2005 after vanquishing longtime foe John "Bradshaw" Layfield at WrestleMania 21, and would go on to hold the title for nearly three hundred days before dropping it to Edge in 2006.
3 The Fiend's Universal Championship
This may be recency bias coming into the play, but yes, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt's Universal Championship is number three on the list. When The Fiend captured the Universal Championship from Seth Rollins and brought it to Smackdown, it was a surprise to everyone when he debuted a blue version of the "jam belt" that replaced the red design which debuted in August of 2016 during the second brand split.
Wyatt uses both belts simultaneously, donning the blue strap as Bray Wyatt and The Fiend belt as his alter-ego. Nevertheless, The Fiend's custom Universal Championship is just as terrifying as the character.
2 Eco-Friendly WWE Championship
When Daniel Bryan returned from injury in 2018, it was the most heartwarming story in all of professional wrestling. This heartwarming return made it all the more devastating when Bryan hit then-WWE Champion AJ Styles with a low blow to capture the championship, turning heel in the process.
Again, this may be recency bias, but Daniel Bryan's environmentalist, eco-warrior gimmick garnered him a lot of heat and made him the perfect villain for Kofi Kingston to topple. Bryan's character would not have been nearly as effective as it was without the eco-friendly belt.
1 NWO Spray-Painted Belt
The number one spot on this list has to be the nWo Spray-painted Championship. As the leader of the New World Order, Hollywood Hogan defeated Big Show (then called "The Giant") for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. It was here when Hogan spray painted a black "nWo" across the front of the championship belt and began to refer to the championship as the "nWo Title."
A personalized championship can make or break a character, and in the case of the nWo, the spray-painted championship helped to establish the nWo as the mold that all of the best factions have followed.