Respect the Belt. Respect the History!

 

Recently, I purchased a vintage professional wrestling championship belt. Since then, I’ve been researching its origins — trying to determine which promotion it belonged to and who may have held it.

As part of that research, I posted photos in several wrestling history Facebook groups.

The response?

Some thoughtful. Some helpful.

But also — some dismissive.

“It looks like a teenager made that.”
“That looks homemade.”
“That belt is ugly.”

Here’s the thing.

Comments like that don’t just insult a belt.

They insult the history of professional wrestling itself.

Wrestling Wasn’t Always Corporate

Today, fans are used to seeing massive, television-polished championships from companies like WWE or AEW — custom-designed, jewel-encrusted, multi-thousand-dollar pieces crafted by major manufacturers.

But that’s modern wrestling.

Go back to the 1970s and 1980s — especially in the territories — and the landscape looked very different.

Promotions like:

• Continental Wrestling Association

• Southeastern Championship Wrestling

• Continental Wrestling Federation

• Tennessee Mountain Wrestling

…often did not have the budget of a national television company.

Many regional titles were made by local trophy shops. Some were hand-assembled. Some were adapted from existing plates. Some were simple by today’s standards.

But they were real.

They represented championships defended in real towns, in front of real crowds, by real wrestlers who bled, sweat, and drove hundreds of miles for modest paydays.

Those belts were not props.

They were symbols.

“Homemade” Wasn’t an Insult Back Then

In the territory era, wrestling was built on hustle.

Small towns. VFW halls. High school gyms. National Guard armories.

Promoters did what they could with the money they had.

If a belt came from a trophy shop in 1978 Tennessee — that wasn’t embarrassing.

That was normal.

Some of the most beloved regional championships in history started exactly that way.

And sometimes, those belts became iconic not because of their craftsmanship — but because of who wore them.

We Owe the Past Better Than Mockery

It’s easy in 2026 to compare everything to million-dollar TV production.

But the wrestling business wasn’t built on LED boards and corporate branding.

It was built by regional promoters.
Independent wrestlers.
Local craftsmen.
And yes — trophy shop belts.

When we mock an old belt for looking “simple,” we risk mocking the very era that built the industry we enjoy today.

You can’t celebrate the territory system while simultaneously sneering at its artifacts.

This Isn’t About Aesthetics

You don’t have to like how a belt looks.

But dismissing it outright without knowing its history misses the point.

What if that “ugly” belt headlined a town’s biggest wrestling show in 1996?
What if a future star once held it?
What if it represented the dream of a small-town promoter trying to build something meaningful?

History isn’t always polished.

Sometimes it’s brass-plated, slightly crooked, and assembled at a local shop.

And that’s part of what makes it beautiful.

Respect the Craft. Respect the Era.

Professional wrestling has always been layered.

Corporate and independent.
National and regional.
Glamorous and gritty.

If we truly love the business — we respect all of it.

Including the belts that weren’t made for television.
Including the promotions that only ran a handful of shows.
Including the craftsmen who did what they could with what they had.

Because without them…

There is no modern wrestling.

Respect the belt.

Respect the history.

— Joe Clark