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Championship belt

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A Championship Belt is used primarily in combat sports such as boxing, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling to signify the champions of the promotion or company, much like the Vince Lombardi Trophy or The Stanley Cup.

Boxing

In boxing, the individual organizations such as the World Boxing Council, The World Boxing Association, the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Organization each have their own unique championship belt that are awarded to the champions of each weight class. Boxers, especially the World Champions, strive to win the belt of all 4 organizations to unify their weight divisions.

Weight Divisions

There are numerous Boxing weight classes within the sport, with there being minor discrepancies amongst the different governing bodies. The weight classes are.

Weight WBA WBC IBF WBO BoxRec
201+ lb (91.4+ kg) Heavyweight Heavyweight Heavyweight Heavyweight Heavyweight
176 to 200 lb (90.7 kg) Cruiserweight Cruiserweight Cruiserweight Junior heavyweight Cruiserweight
169 to 175 lb (79.4 kg) Light heavyweight Light heavyweight Light heavyweight Light heavyweight Light heavyweight
161 to 168 lb (76.2 kg) Super middleweight Super middleweight Super middleweight Super middleweight Super middleweight
155 to 160 lb (72.6 kg) Middleweight Middleweight Middleweight Middleweight Middleweight
148 to 154 lb (69.9 kg) Super welterweight Super welterweight Junior middleweight Junior middleweight Light middleweight
141 to 147 lb (66.7 kg) Welterweight Welterweight Welterweight Welterweight Welterweight
136 to 140 lb (63.5 kg) Super lightweight Super lightweight Junior welterweight Junior welterweight Light welterweight
131 to 135 lb (61.2 kg) Lightweight Lightweight Lightweight Lightweight Lightweight
127 to 130 lb (59.0 kg) Super featherweight Super featherweight Junior lightweight Junior lightweight Super featherweight
123 to 126 lb (57.2 kg) Featherweight Featherweight Featherweight Featherweight Featherweight
119 to 122 lb (55.3 kg) Super bantamweight Super bantamweight Junior featherweight Junior featherweight Super bantamweight
116 to 118 lb (53.5 kg) Bantamweight Bantamweight Bantamweight Bantamweight Bantamweight
113 to 115 lb (52.2 kg) Super flyweight Super flyweight Junior bantamweight Junior bantamweight Super flyweight
109 to 112 lb (50.8 kg) Flyweight Flyweight Flyweight Flyweight Flyweight
106 to 108 lb (49.0 kg) Light flyweight Light flyweight Junior flyweight Junior flyweight Light flyweight
96 to 105 lb (47.6 kg) Minimumweight Strawweight Mini flyweight Mini flyweight Minimumweight

Professional Wrestling

Main article: Championship (professional wrestling)

Unlike Professional Boxing, Professional Wrestling has numerous World Champions and even more regionalized and specialized Championship Belts. The generally recognized World Championship Belts are those of World Wrestling Entertainment, The National Wrestling Alliance, and to a lesser extent Ring Of Honor.The National Wrestling Alliance recognizes numerous regional Championship Belts such as The NWA North American Championship and The NWA British Commonwealth Championship. World Wrestling Entertainment currently has 3 Main Champions. The WWE Championship is the main championship belt of its RAW brand, the World Heavyweight Championship is the main championship belt of the SmackDown! brand,and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship is the main championship of the ECW brand. The Raw and Smackdown! brands also have their own separate tag team Championship Belts and various lesser belts, but the ECW brand has one title, although it is unknown if the ECW World Television Championship and the ECW World Tag Team Championship will be brought back.

Weight classes

Unlike boxing, which has 14 recognized weight classes, professional wrestling in North America and Asia generally only has 2 (Europe and Latin America recognize more, but in recent years the weight limits have been mostly nominal). The Heavyweight title and the Cruiserweight/Light Heavyweight title belt. The "weight limit" varies with the Cruiserweight/Light heavyweight divisions depending on the wrestling promotion. The WWE uses 230 lb as its proposed Cruiserweight limit. Generally speaking, the Cruiserweight/Light Heavyweight belt is often treated as a secondary belt, despite having "World Title" status. The Windy City Pro Wrestling promotion in Chicago, IL was the first to use more than 2 weight classes.

Specialized Championship Belts

Professional Wrestling also has numerous specialty championship belts. The most well known ones are the now defunct WWE Hardcore Championship, The NWA World Television Championship and the ROH Pure Championship. TNA Wrestling dropped the cruiserweight title and went with the TNA X Division Championship, considering it an open weight title. These belts would be contested under different rules and stipulations to make the championship more unique.

The usual stipulations were Television Title Belts that were only defended for the first 10-15 minutes of the match, since television matches usually only had a 10 Minute Time Limit. The Smoky Mountain Beat The Champ TV Title was actually vacated if the Champion won 6 consecutive Title Defenses. Hardcore Championships are usually defended in some gimmick match, although "Hardcore Wrestling" in general is waning in popularity. Many years ago, several promotions had "Brass Knuckles Championships" which were the Hardcore Championship's predecessors.

Designs

Generally, wrestling has many more uniquely designed belts than boxing. The 4 major boxing governing bodies generally use the same belt design for all their champions, whereas wrestling companies use different styles for each Championship. The most notable exception is Japan's Pro Wrestling NOAH, who's belts follow one specific design. WWE became the first company to trademark the designs of their belt so they would have unique belts that could not be made for other promotions. Other designs, such as John Cena's "Spinner Belt" and Stone Cold Steve Austin's "Smoking Skull Belt" are substituted for the conventional belt to enhance that character. Where as WWE has had 11 different belts to represent their World Title, The National Wrestling Alliance has stayed with the same design for over 30 years, sans the period between 1986-1993 when the "Big Gold" belt was the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title Belt. Beltmakers such as Reggie Parks and Dave Millican often create belts that not only set the Championships apart from the others, but become huge collector items as well. While many upstart beltmakers tend to replicate Reggie Parks' designs, new talents such as Elgin Moore of Elgman-Customs and Orlando Roman of ChampionCraft are quickly making a name for themselves in the industry with their own unique blend of artistry and innovations in belt design and fabrication.

On August 21st, 2006 WWE introduced a "R-Rated Spinner Belt" for then-WWE Champion Edge. The belt is similar to John Cena's "Spinner Belt" except the WWE scratch logo has been replaced by Edge's "Rated-R Superstar" logo. The early reviews of the belt have not been that positive as both casual and devoted fans dislike the fact that The WWE Championship is now treated more like a customizable fashion accessory, rather than a revered championship trophy.

Belt Collecting

Collecting of Championship Belts has become a very specialized, if not expensive hobby. Many Championship Belts have become collector items over the years as much for their designs as the history behind that particular belt. Championship Belts from the 1980's especially are very sought after by collectors. Belts that are the most sought after include The WWF's "Winged Eagle" Championship and Intercontinental Title Belt used from 1984-1997. The NWA "Domed Globe" World Heavyweight Title Belt, The NWA United States Championship and NWA Television Championship used during the Jim Crockett Promotions era are also very popular. A ring worn Championship from WWE, WCW, ECW or NWA are very sought after and collectors will pay top dollar for belts worn on television. The WWF Tag Team Belts that were worn to the ring at Wrestlemania 1 were recently sold on ebay for $10,500. The World Television Title Belt used on WTBS World Championship Wrestling TV Show in the early 1980's was sold to a collector for over $7,000 on ebay by Ronnie Garvin last year. Ring-worn belts are rare because the Champions usually wish to keep the belts as career mementoes.

In 1997, Figures, Inc. introduced a line of replica belts, starting with The "Big Gold Belt" WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The incredible popularity of the original belt prompted Figures, Inc. to release all of WCW's belts as replicas. The belts, considerably cheaper than actual professional-grade belts, became instantly popular with not only collectors but with independent wrestling companies (who, due to financial constraints, could not afford original, professional-grade belts for their own promotions; since the plates on the belts are very thin and the engraving is very shallow, the belts can be easily altered for the companies needs). In 1998, ECW had their belts released as replica belts as well, becoming very popular with their loyal fanbase. In 1999, Figures, Inc signed an exclusive deal to create replicas of The WWE Championship belts, thus shutting out ECW and WCW at the time from the then-lucrative replica belt business. The NWA World Heavyweight Championship Belt had also been released as a Figures, Inc. replica and when WWE signed the exclusive deal with them, those belts went out of production as well. When WWE purchased WCW and ECW, their replica belts were allowed to be re-issued, however the NWA World Heavyweight Title belt replica wasn't, and is now a true collectors item. The NWA belt replica is very rare now and can fetch more than triple it's original retail price on ebay.

In April 2002, Figures Inc. released the replica of the new WWE Undisputed Championship belt. However, when WWE lost its court case to The World Wildlife Fund, all of the belts that had been made that said "World Wrestling Federation" on them had to be recalled and replicas saying "World Wrestling Entertainment" on them reissued. It is almost urban legend that a few of the Undisputed Championship belt replica's saying World Wrestling Federation on them did get into circulation. If so, these replica belts would truly be rare collectors items.

Figures, INC. has just announced that they will release a replica of the "Andre Belt", a belt made specifically for Andre The Giant when he challenged Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 3. The actual belt itself was donated to Planet Hollywood by Vince McMahon. The belt will be 62 inches in length and the design is unique from the other WWE belts that were used by the company.

The TNA X Division Title Belt will be offered as a replica belt by Premier Replica Belts. It is rumored that Premier belts will offer many replica belts that Figures Inc. can not due to their WWE contract.

Championship Belt Makers

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