WWE: Latest Update on the Upcoming New Championship Belt Designs
Reports of WWE looking to change the designs for a number of its championships first started popping up in late August by insider @BeltFanDan. More details then emerged in mid-September, stating that WWE was looking to give a facelift to both the Men's and Women's Tag Team Championships, writing at the time, "New WWE Tag belts are described to me as being the existing design, dual plated, black strap and having a stacked, large WWE logo in the center. They also have the OLD never used tags which are the women's tag style on colored straps."
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select provided an update of his own on Tuesday, noting that the new designs are finished and are currently in WWE's possession. He wrote, "Several WWE talent we've spoken to of late have said that they'd been in favor of some changes to title belts personally. We asked about velcro vs. snaps, and several of the talent said that the velcro helps them when they need to attach the belt quickly, but cosmetically it looks bad."
He also noted that some of the changes were decided on under the Vince McMahon regime, but Triple H's propensity to make his own changes have "accelerated some things." Sapp also pointed out on Twitter that, with the exception of the logo change, the WWE Championship's design has gone unchanged since its introduction in February 2013. It will soon surpass the iconic "Winged Eagle" as the longest championship design in the title's prestigious history.
If the current WWE Title belt design stays the same through next year, it'll pass the Winged Eagle as the longest that a design of the top WWE title has stuck around.
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) September 27, 2022
There have been minor cosmetic and logo changes, but is largely the same since February 2013 pic.twitter.com/QfMQlLFiuc
Speaking of the Winged Eagle, fans began speculating earlier this year that if and when Cody Rhodes becomes WWE Champion he'll possibly revive the classic design just like what he did with the Intercontinental Championship. Rhodes has talked openly about winning the WWE Championship being his only goal now that he's back in the company.
"When I left here, Roman Reigns was on top. And I think Roman Reigns was experiencing some of the negative byproduct of being on top," Rhodes said on The Bump earlier this year. "Some of the pushback that a new face, a new individual [deals with]," Rhodes said. "But the thing that makes a champion in any company is consistency. And when he said 'Dallas, Texas, acknowledge me' and whether they're supposed to boo, cheer, whatever it might be, and they acknowledged him. That's what, you want to know a term that is really overused in what we do, is over.
"...He has truly gotten over via consistency and via hard work. What he has going now with Paul Heyman and [The Usos]," Rhodes added. "I don't want to use this word because I don't want to sound like... he's an intimidating presence. I just look forward to obviously, again, it exists. There's a match out there that is likely the match that exists out there. But before the matches, you've got to cross paths in some capacity and we haven't yet, and I look forward to that."