What is actually inside a WWE belt?
The WWE has been around since 1952 when ‘Jess’ McMahon founded ‘Capitol Wrestling Corporation’.
The world’s premier professional wrestling organisation, WWF (WWE since 2002), largely featured 3 major championships, namely the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, the WWF Intercontinental Championship and the WWF Tag-Team Championships. The aforementioned WWF World title was held by some of the most legendary names in the business such as The Undertaker, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan.
The WWF (World Wrestling Federation) belt spanned 23 years (1979-2002) featuring various design changes to said belt, with the most prominent amongst them being the ‘Big Green’ belt, the ‘84, ‘85 and ‘86 Hogan belts, the 1988 ‘Winged Eagle’ belt introduced by Hulk Hogan, 1998 Smoking Skull belt, the Attitude Era’s ‘Big Gold’ strap and the WWF scratch logo design.
Arguably, the most beloved design of the WWF belt is the aforementioned ‘1988 Winged Eagle’ that was famously held by icons such as Bret Hart and The Undertaker. Today, we take a look at what’s inside the famous Winged Eagle WWF belt, courtesy a video produced by What’s Inside, LLC. Father-son duo Dan and Lincoln Markham team up with social media phenomenon/spokesperson Gary Vaynerchuk, to cut a WWF Wind Eagle strap in half (PS- the belt had been signed by The Undertaker, Bret Hart and legendary ring announcer Howard Finkel; and they cut it open!) Here’s the video:
The original belt was handcrafted by former pro-wrestler and legendary belt designer Reggie Parks, whose moniker ‘King of Belts’, was earned in part by his design of the iconic 1988 WWF belt.
Now mind you, the belt featured in the video is a replica belt and not the original ones handed out to Taker, Hart and the others. Nevertheless, said replica is worth nothing less than $500 in today’s market with some fans willing to go as far as $2,000 for the ‘Eagle’. Once cut open with an electric saw, the first thing to catch our eye, is the ‘Gold Dust’- and no, I don’t mean Dustin Runnels either- I mean actual fine particles of solid gold! In other words, the belt has not I repeat, NOT been cheaply made. It’s definitely worth the current price it goes by in today’s market.
The belt is made up of four main layers- 1) Metal 2) Leather 3) Cork 4) Foam.
#1 Metal Plates:
The outermost portion is made up of gold-plated metal which of course is top-of-the-shelf, rust proof and most probably nickel-free. The original plates- large plate in the center and secondary plates towards each side- seem to be made out of brass, that’s been coated with golden spray-paint and further rust-proofed.
Although most of today's belts are silver-plated and then coated with gold, the Winged Eagle seemingly comprises only the original brass texture with a finish of gold. The plates are attached on top of a leather strap that forms the foundation of the belt, running through the center where it forms a circle, to the left and right straps.