Crazy customisations, cracking them open with hammers and carrying them to other companies...
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00:00From sending them for an impromptu swim, to feeling the need to make them a little too
00:05personal, this group of WWE champions felt the need to do some very strange things to their
00:10titles. I mean belts, I mean gold, I mean those things with Velcro. I'm Gareth from WhatCulture
00:15Wrestling and here are 10 more strange things WWE champions did with the belt.
00:20Oh and yes, we've been a bit cute with the parameters here just so we can present this
00:24as a bit of a sequel to the original. So here's the compromise. All of the people featured here
00:29have been champions in WWE at some point, even if it wasn't or isn't that specific strap involved.
00:35And if that isn't enough, well...
00:37Number 10. Hulk Hogan buries it in another country
00:40There was once a time where putting the WWE championship on Hulk Hogan made all the sense
00:45in the world. Five very specific times, in fact. Hogan's first four reigns and his earnestly sweet
00:50and thankfully short nostalgia run in 2002 all spoke to the frenzied popularity of wrestling's
00:56biggest star. His 1993 victory at WrestleMania IX spoke only to Vince McMahon's panic. McMahon
01:03thought he'd found the magic again as the show of shows went off the air with the Hulkster squashing
01:08Yokozuna seconds after the sumo star had cheaply defeated Bret Hart. But the chairman confused it
01:14with a mere illusion akin to the double doink phenomenon earlier in the show. Over in Japan,
01:18where he thought he wouldn't be seen nor heard, Hogan called the belt a toy and a trinket during
01:24a New Japan Pro Wrestling press conference to leverage a future there instead. His arrogance
01:29laden tour de force literally knew no bounds, but McMahon saw sense enough to make a clean break
01:35shortly afterwards. Number 9. The Rock throws it off a bridge
01:38WWE used to be so great at making backlash feel like anything but a rehash. Even after
01:44WrestleMania XV's end of the world victory for Stone Cold Steve Austin, the hero didn't just want
01:49his belt back, he wanted HIS belt back. Turning an old Austin trick on its head in 1999, The Rock
01:56went one further than just hoeing the smoking-skulled WWE Championship into the Detroit River. Just as
02:02the Rattlesnake had once done to his Intercontinental title, he knocked Stone Cold into
02:06the drink too. The dramatic scene played off a vintage moment from their original 1997 series
02:12that saw Austin hand the Intercontinental Championship over to the Great One, only to
02:17hold it hostage before lobbing it over the Belle Isle Bridge into the briny Deep Below. Spotting
02:22the opportunity for a cute callback when the pair were back waging war during a return to the city
02:27two years later, Rock's dangerous assault perfectly set the stage for their pay-per-view rematch,
02:33especially when he revealed that he still had possession of it one week later. What an a-hole!
02:38Number 8. Mr. Perfect smashes it with a hammer Between 1988 and 1990, Mr. Perfect did everything
02:45but win the WWE Championship. Having executed his vast array of perfect sporting skills in some
02:51very fondly remembered vignettes, Perfect went on an unbeaten streak befitting of his name,
02:56and would later claim the Intercontinental Championship while becoming the crown jewel
03:00of the Heenan family. Before that though, he famously took out his rage on a belt he wasn't
03:05quite able to snare. Smashing up the cherished WWE Championship following Hulk Hogan's Saturday
03:10night's main event clash with the Genius was an inspired way to try and get in the Hulkster's head,
03:16and developed a new life nearly a decade later when Vince McMahon presented mankind with the
03:20Hardcore Championship. The urban legend was eventually debunked, though the broken-up
03:25winged eagle design patronizingly offered to Mrs. Foley's baby boy was not the carefully kept
03:30version Kurt Hennig battered with a hammer. But it was certainly nice to think of the diligence
03:34needed to keep such a thing in the first place. Number 7. The Fiend puts his face on it
03:39Yes, they sold at $6,000 a pop. Yes, there was a certain disconnect between Bray Wyatt's clown-faced
03:45oddball holding the glistening Universal Championship belt. And yes, there was something
03:50ever so slightly disarming about The Fiend wearing his own face around his face. And finally, no,
03:55it still didn't really look like a title. How was this ever actually a thing? In the age of
04:00nuance-free debate and ultra-definitive hot takes, almost certainly mindful of the furore it would
04:06cause from those celebrating and castigating the thing, the organization capitalized on the
04:10controversy and parted some rich fuels with some clearly inconsequential cash. And that's why all
04:16of this happened, obviously. Just in case you thought it was something foolish like, I don't
04:20know, law. Number 6. Chris Jericho has it stolen
04:24When Chris Jericho first became a world champion in wrestling, he was made aware of the news via
04:29a joke. Infamously, it was an overheard Vince McMahon gag about the business going to crap
04:33that confirmed Y2J's impending win. Fitting then that his most recent and arguably most important
04:39reign atop an organization built to rival McMahon's monopoly, triggered an iconic pro-wrestling meme
04:45and a tale that sounded like a joke in the aftermath. Following his little bit of the
04:49bubbly celebrations after defeating Hangman Page at All Out 2019, Jericho found that the physical
04:55belt had been stolen, and put out a video from his hot tub requesting its return from the low-life
05:00scumbag who'd taken it. Alongside the Tallahassee police, the appeal worked. Local authorities
05:05recovered it from the side of the road and returned it to Le Champion in time for the
05:09maiden edition of Dynamite on TNT just a few weeks later.
05:13Number 5. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall's belt basketball
05:17An infamously horrendous bit of belt abuse made darkly amusing due to the perpetrators.
05:22This game of basketball with WCW's Television Championship made a mockery of legacy and
05:28prestige in a company rapidly destroying both. The outsiders seemingly arrived at the pointlessness
05:33of the belt on the spot. When talking about defending his United States gold, Hall was
05:38asked about the other around his waist. After calling the piece of tin useless, he set up a
05:431v1 with Nash, who dunked it in the bin as listless interviewer Chavo Guerrero commented on it as if
05:49he wasn't sick of his life too. It's too rooted in cynicism to be one of those charmingly self-effacing
05:54click-tales, this one. Both were old enough to know better, but rich enough to not care.
05:59And WCW was left to pick up the pieces, or in Jim Duggan's case, the belt itself,
06:03from that same bin in the aftermath.
06:06Number 4. The Giant wears both belts
06:08As lovingly noted and shared by AtDeepCutsWCW, the company juggled two pairs of tag-team title
06:15belts between 1998 and 1999. And while White's partner Scott Hall sported one of each for the
06:21crack, the Giant kept it slicker by arriving for this bout fronting both. It's the sort of thing
06:26WWE could, and probably should, do again. Now, relatively recent precedents suggest they won't.
06:32Braun Strowman easily battered the bar at WrestleMania 34, but had to pull Nicholas
06:37Cone from the crowd to be his partner from the night. The Monster Among Men could probably do
06:41a better job pulling off two belts than he ever did the single Universal Strap in 2020,
06:46in whatever company he lands in next, if he even does. Wrestling's a bit weird right now, isn't it?
06:51Number 3. Wrestlers take them to the opposition
06:54I'm bundling this into one entry because the two most prominent cases from the 1990s
06:59are so famous that they've been laboured upon to the point of exhaustion,
07:02even if the moments still play out as dramatic decades later. When Ric Flair and Alundra
07:07Blaze took their top titles to the other side in 1991 and 1995, respectively,
07:13they were shot fired in wrestling wars. Such was the theoretical prestige of both straps.
07:18The subsequent carnage has convinced others to bring another company's gold to their current home.
07:23From Team 3D wearing all the belts in their career during a half-decent TNA run,
07:27and Rhino also bringing his original ECW Championship to Impact Zone,
07:32to Austin Aries and Kenny Omega having runs as wrestling belt collectors,
07:36there's a certain tension to seeing things in wrestling that are where they should not be.
07:40Which is perhaps why a famously affable chap got himself in an awful lot of
07:44bother when he inadvertently disgraced the gold.
07:47Number 2. Mick Foley throws it to the ground
07:50It all came up, as it were, when Cactus Jack went to Extreme Championship Wrestling for
07:55an independent wrestling hardcore dream match with Sabu. An amicable talent trade
08:00turned a little less so when it became apparent just how suited to the surrounds Cactus was.
08:05Everything from his look to the style and energy of his matches,
08:08and indeed his character's propensity for danger seemed to jive better with
08:12a grubby bingo hall in Philadelphia, rather than the glossy and ever-changing
08:16face of World Championship Wrestling. Feeling as though he disgraced himself
08:20against the homicidal, suicidal, genocidal, death-defying maniac,
08:24he made the point that losing his pride there was worth more than any belt.
08:28The phlegm-soaked strap hit the deck, as did Foley's WCW prospects.
08:33For the duration of his ECW tenure, and especially after arriving in WWE by 1996,
08:39he didn't appear particularly devastated with his decision.
08:42Number 1. Naomi makes it glow
08:44Naomi's 2017 Smackdown Women's Championship reigns may as well have not even happened,
08:50based on how little they've been spoken of ever since. The former two-time champion
08:54didn't get much of a look-in after surprisingly dropping the gold to Natalya at Summerslam that
08:58same year, and has repeatedly found her presence minimised ever since. Is it possible the company
09:04just didn't want to spend big on customising the belt again? During a discussion about her
09:08LED-loaded prize on Talkin' Smack, Naomi noted that it had seven lighting settings,
09:13and she was looking for more. Typically, it's when the props look their cheapest
09:17that they cost the most. The chaotic end aesthetic was an acquired taste,
09:22but it was brilliantly in keeping with her character, entrance, and the rest of her
09:26presentation. It's the sort of thing that's missed now more than ever too, especially against the
09:31tepid surroundings of the Thunderdome or grim, thinly obscured avarice of NXT's Capitol Wrestling
09:38Center. More LED belts, less LED fans once the world gets off its ass again, please.
09:43And that's our list! Know of any other strange things WWE champions did with the belt? Let us
09:48know all about them in the comment section right down below and do not forget to like,
09:52share and click on that subscribe button. Also, be sure to head on over to WhatCulture.com and
09:56find some more incredible articles just like the one this video you're watching is based on.
10:01I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Wrestling, thank you as always for clicking on this video,
10:05and I'm sure I'll see you very, very soon. Bye!