At a press conference held in London this morning, the WWE announced a two night tournament to crown the first ever WWE UK Champion, complete with a new championship belt. Afterwards, the WWE will then host a weekly show featuring their UK division that will air on the WWE Network.
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While the internet was a flurry over the WWE’s announcement, the belt-heads (it’s a real thing) among us were in awe of the design of the UK Championship. The WWE has taken a lot of flack in the past year over the design of some of their new championships, most notably when the crowd at Summerslam hijacked the match between Finn Balor and Seth Rollins to complain about the color of the Universal Championship.
In the past 6 months the WWE has debuted 6 new championship belts and with today’s debut, it’s high time we put these belts in their proper place. Here are the 5 best belts in the WWE today.
5. WWE Intercontinental Championship
Warning: Sentimental points given here. The only belt design on this list that has any history is the IC championship. The design of this belt goes back to the early 90s when wrestlers like Mr. Perfect and The Ultimate Warrior held the belt. While the leather was generally black, Cody Rhodes brought the white design to the belt in 2011.
The IC title was largely ignored until The Miz brought prominence back to it this past year. The throwback design is a classic look, and while this is one of the best belts in the WWE, it may be time for a redesign. Now that the women’s belts have adopted the white leather, it would be nice to see the IC Championship get a bit of a facelift for the new millenium.
4. Smackdown Tag Team Championship
While the design of the belt is exactly the same as it’s RAW counterpart, changing the black and copper to blue and silver make this one of the best designed belts in WWE history. Sorry, New Day, but copper looks cheap. Pennies are copper and everyone hates pennies. Introduced by Daniel Bryan in August, these beauties look even better now that the New Wyatt Family is holding them.
3. RAW Women’s Championship
I’m not going to lie, this belt gets a tremendous amount of points for NOT BEING THE DIVAS CHAMPIONSHIP! The Divas championship looked like an accessory for a Bratz doll, not a prize for women athletes to compete for. Debuting at Wrestlemania 32, this championship has only been held by two women; Charlotte and Sasha Banks. These two women have broken the glass ceiling for what is possible for women’s wrestling certainly and this belt will forever be associated with their accomplishments.
Goodbye, Divas.
2. UK Championship
All we know about this championship are the relatively unknown men who will be competing for it. But just look at it! It’s beautiful! Mimicking the outer crest of the WWE Championship and incorporating a logo that comes across as a mix between a fancy soccer team and a really old British pub, this belt screams United Kingdom! If I were any of the top American stars, I would fake an English accent just for a chance at competing for this glorious strap of gold and black. Am I jumping the gun on this one? I say not.
The UK Championship is already my personal favorite, but it’s still not the greatest belt in the WWE.
1. WWE Championship
The odds were pretty strong that any belt that followed John Cena’s infamously hideous Spinner belt would be viewed favorably.On the August 18, 2014 episode of Raw, reigning champion Brock Lesnar, who had won the title the night before at SummerSlam debuted the new championship belt. Having Lesnar be the first to hold it, gave it it added value. The WWE championship traces it’s origins back to 1963, when it was the WWWF Championship (ironically this first belt was on red leather).
The belt has since changed names to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the WWE World Championship and just this December, the belt was changed to the WWE Championship. The striking simplicity of the WWE championship not only makes it the current best championship, but one of the all-time greats.
