Wrestlers Allowed to have Physical Possession of Title Belts
By Scott Keith on August 26, 2018
Hello, Scott. I was reading your Observer rewinds and I was wondering about Honky Tonk Man refusing to drop the IC title to Randy Savage in February 1988. How was he allowed to get away with that? Also, it seems that if the company maintained physical possession of all title belts, then Honky threatening to take the IC title elsewhere wouldn't be a serious threat. Allowing the wrestlers to actually hold onto their titles seems like an antiquated notion. Do you know why wrestlers are allowed to travel with their title belts instead of the company maintaining physical possession? It seems like a burden for the wrestlers to travel with, and if Vince kept possession of all title belts, he wouldn't have to worry about Alundra Blayze showing up on Nitro with his property.
Absolutely correct, which is why they stopped allowing people to carry the physical belts around after the Attitude Era. Wrestlers now turn in their belts after TV tapings, and in fact there are two versions of most belts: The so-called “hero belt” for TV and PPV, and a scaled down lower quality version for house show appearances. Most people are also given a replica for their personal trophy collection, but that might just be high level guys like Cena and Rock. Either way, Vince will never allow a Madusa situation to occur again.
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