4 Old WWE title designs that should replace the Universal Championship
The WWE Universal Championship belt is ugly, plain and simple. It has a very simple design, consisting of nothing more than a giant WWE logo both on its main plate and side plates. The gaudy red color does nothing to make it any better, and instead makes it look more like a toy. In fact, this belt design is so bad that as soon as it was unveiled at SummerSlam 2016, fans immediately groaned and chanted ‘that belt sucks’ during its inaugural title match.
The fault here lies with WWE’s creative departments, who came up with the ‘brilliant’ idea of making a world championship look like this. Aesthetics matter significantly, and people find it hard to care about a title when it looks so bad (just look at the Divas’ Championship, which became infamous for looking like a pink butterfly).
If WWE ever want this belt to be taken seriously, they should start with redesigning it completely. But to make things easier, they don’t need a new design; instead, they should consider these old WWE Belt designs as possible options.
#4 The ‘Big Green Belt’
This rarely-mentioned piece of WWE history was used between 1978 and 1985. The reason it isn’t mentioned so much is because it’s one of the ugliest championship belts ever. Not only was the choice of green an awful one for a belt, but the general design was terrible as well.
It looked like the unholy offspring of a wrestling belt and a trophy since big trophies tend to name previous owners of the said championship on them. Worn by Bob Backlund during his reign, this belt looked utterly ridiculous around his waist, especially with the redundant ten side plates that described the former champions.
Yet this design is still better than the Universal Championship design used in WWE right now. Why? Legitimacy. This belt actually held the names of its former holders and looked like a prize worth fighting for.
If you’re competing in a sport and the top prize lists the people that once held it, that gives it some credibility and prestige, which is more than what can be said about the Universal Championship.