continued to use updated versions of it on their TV shows, pay-per-views, and Network specials until its retirement. Athletes in other sports like football, baseball, and basketball began to show up with commemorative or replica versions of the Big Gold, as well.

The story of the belt has been well-documented, specifically in Big Gold: A Close Look at Pro Wrestling’s Most Celebrated Championship Belt, written by Dick Bourne and Millican: With Jim Crockett Jr., the promoter for the Carolinas-based World Championship Wrestling, as the president of the National Wrestling Alliance, he decided the Domed Globe–a championship belt worn by the likes of Jack Brisco, Terry Funk, Harley Race, Ric Flair, and others–needed updating. He also wanted the title to look unlike anything else out there at the time. NelsonRoyal, a former NWA world junior heavyweight champion, capitalized on an existing relationship with silversmith Charles Crumrine and commissioned the work on behalf of the promotion. At first, the NWA logo was prominently displayed on the belt. However, once Crockett saw the belt, he ordered the logo to be removed.

Crockett was already the president of the NWA, but his WCW promotion was expanding, gobbling up the competition like the Bill Watts-owned Universal Wrestling Federation and monopolizing the NWA world champion, which minimized formerly important NWA strongholds like Florida, Missouri, and Texas. With no organizational logo on the belt, references to the National Wrestling Alliance began to disappear from WCW programming. It was a quiet harbinger of change during the 1980s wrestling wars.

How a Wrestling Championship Belt is Made

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