Reddit reviews Big Gold: A Close Look at Pro Wrestling's Most Celebrated Championship Belt

> secondary look alikes to the WCW championship

Well, it's not a look alike, it's literally the same belt. The "Big Gold" was first used as the NWA World Championship from 1986-1991. After Flair went to WWF and took the belt with him in 1991, there was a new belt made for the WCW World Championship and for the first time, WCW and the NWA recognized different champions. When the belt went back to WCW after they sued WWF for showing it on WWF TV, they had both a WCW Champion and an NWA Champion in the company at the same time. When WCW broke off from the NWA in 1993, they just changed the name of the NWA World Championship to the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (it's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the simple version of what happened). WCW unified the two world championships in 1994 and just used the "Big Gold" belt from then on. That is, until Dec 2000, when then champion Scott Steiner started wearing a solid gold colored replica belt. The replica is the one WWF got when they bought WCW. Steiner kept the original belt, and it's now in the hands of a private collector. There's actually a good book detailing the history of the belt.

Everyone thinks it looks better than the monstrosity they have now. The current belt was designed for marketing purposes and looks like a gaudy ass, oversized hood ornament. The Big Gold belt was designed for Ric fucking Flair. It's the greatest title belt design of all time.

There's also a book about the real, original belt. which went missing towards the end of WCW. Nobody knows who currently has it (as in, their identity hasn't been revealed). But the owner got it cleaned up and the author brought Ric Flair to look at it, and he himself confirmed it was the legit one. He thought Hogan had it.