I actually DID know about all of these, but this was still an interesting Top 5 list. Probably could even expand it to 10 with stuff like the Western States Heritage title and oddball WCW ones like that.
When the Shield and the Wyatts were going to war, I thought they were going to dig up the 6-man belts. Took Lucha Underground to actually do it, though.
And I don't believe WCW ever had them either... whoops, they had a version that didn't make it to a full year. Then again, when the only multiple-reign guys are Ricky Morton (minus Robert Gibson) and Tommy Rich (minus most credibility), maybe the title was put down humanely after all.
Surprised the CZW Ironman belt didn't make the list. A belt so bad that after Kevin Steen buried it in a promo, the company pretty much agreed with him and promptly killed the title.
Love the joke that was made about that belt on Cheap Seats: "There's a belt for that? Wouldn't it be more logical to just give the winner a pair of brass knucks?
I remember this also carrying over into their mid-90s toys. The WWF ring was gigantic compared to the Jakks figures produced for it, while the WCW ring was too small for the figures to even work a match in. Suplexes were especially impossible.
Actually, in the WWE 50 book, they do discuss it, saying they picked Rio as it was far enough away in the pre-Internet era for fans to not really look into it.
Hogan did a ensguri once in a match with Muracco in 1985 and the announcers I think just sat on their hands. I'd been shocked too, but it has happened along with Hogan countering Muracco's tombstone cradle pile driver.
The name is stupid "Five Titles You Didn't Know Existed". Who the fuck is "you"? Considering only WWE geeks would even KNOW ABOUT that link, chances are they have heard of at least SOME of those titles, not least of all because some of them have high-profile defenses on wrestling PPV's. Wrestling PPV's on the WWE Network.
The WWE Warehouse episode about the rings is pretty interesting, too. The heated ring they used for WM29 was a pretty badass feat of theoretical science and engineering.
I totally get why they don't, but I wish they sold tickets to the WWE warehouse. Place looks like I could spend hours there just wandering around, jaw on the floor.
Actually 2 years ago WWE.com did an April Fools joke and "revealed" the Rio IC tournament brackets http://www.wwe.com/classics/intercontinental-title-tournament-finally-uncovered-26102625
I guess that tells us where Sharpe was in the jobber heirarchy. At least putting a jobber on each side of the six-man creates some suspense as to who will win, as opposed to the three-stars-one-jobber standard tags we'd get sometimes.
I didn't pick up on it at first either, but the first time I really noticed how much larger WWF's rings were than WCW's (and then couldn't help but notice it every time, still can't watch old matches without thinking about it) was the Scotty/Malenko match from Backlash 2000. It looked like a midget match in that ring.
When they started out the championship with Morton/Rich/JYD, there were indeed no actual, physical belts; but they did eventually have them. A Google image search on "York Foundation" turns up not only pictures of the Foundation with the six-man belts, but their predecessors Matt Borne/Tom Zenk/Dustin Rhodes with the same belts. They're kind of tall and narrow compared to most title belts.
Nah. The garden shows in early 80s were mic'd, poorly though. Dick Ebersol, along with wccw's production, really kicked the company into gear. Huge difference with Mania 1 and all tv and after Ebersol joined the team from nbc.
I really want to see the giant lit up WWF logo they used to use for the entrance (the block logo hung above the curtains). I attended some tv tapings back in the day and that one piece lit up looked more amazing than the current times square led bullshit.
wow it's like you guys where never even around during the late 80's and 90's era lol, besides andre and king kong bundy, wcw always had the bigger guys kevin nash, scott hall, bader, and gonzales the giant all began their careers in wcw, gonzales the giant being the largest pro wrestler of all time. i remember gonzales the giant in that electric cage match wcw had with cactus jack and few others. Not to mention big show started his career in wcw in 95, and bader always did back flips in wcw with no problem with ring size. thing is the wwe ring loose ropes where a problem with high flyers, there was always the risk of the ropes breaking and hard to get good foot hold on loose ropes. wcw was a haven if you wanted to do high risk jumps of the ropes more naturally and at a faster pace cause the wcw ropes where metal cables instead of flimsy loose ropes. new japan, tna, roh, all use metal cables instead of the loose ropes for a reason. cause they are not in "entertainment" business, they are in the all around pro wrestling business which requires a "real" pro wrestling ring. I remember rey, chris jericho, sabu, public enemy tag team relying on the ropes them selves to do some of their high flying stuff and not just on the turnbuckles which wwe guys mostly relied on. you didn't see this type of stuff in wwe untill wcw and ecw guys started going to wwe. but you could bet there where a lot of botches particularly with sabu he kept botching on the wwe ropes even current guys who mostly wrestled with steel cable ropes like sin cara botched a lot on the wwe lose ropes. also, hogan i remember him bouncing of wwf ropes and bottom rope ripping off lol the bigger boys need steel cables not lose ropes that can rip. you want faster paced natural wrestling of off ropes, you need the steel cables cause they can hold up to the big guys and you don't need to gingerly step on the lose ropes like undertaker would during the old school lol, old school move on steel cables would of been much faster and more impact on the delivery and less gingerly foot steps.
I'd love to see the Women's Tag Team Championship make a return. Put in on the Bellas and let their reign of terror begin.
ReplyDeletePlease don't give them any ideas.
ReplyDeleteCome on now. I can see it now, Bellas vs. Tamina/Naomi feud that will last for four straight PPV's.
ReplyDeleteThey don't need a tag title to that. In fact they treat the Divas championship as a tag title these days.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Shield and the Wyatts were going to war, I thought they were going to dig up the 6-man belts. Took Lucha Underground to actually do it, though.
ReplyDeleteWhat six man belts? WWE never had them.
ReplyDeleteSting turning left a pit in my stomach.
ReplyDelete22 was really good, but I thought 21 was much better.
ReplyDeleteFor one time he was correct.
ReplyDeleteAfter all these years, I still find it hilarious that they continue to run with the whole Patterson/Rio de Janeiro story.
ReplyDeleteI'm talking about the IC title, not any other Patterson/Rio de Janeiro story.
Jumping Bomb Angels <3
ReplyDeleteI knew all of these existed, also. I feel ashamed.
Somebody pointed out once the larger Wwf/e rings help build drama for the hot tags in tag matches.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't believe WCW ever had them either... whoops, they had a version that didn't make it to a full year. Then again, when the only multiple-reign guys are Ricky Morton (minus Robert Gibson) and Tommy Rich (minus most credibility), maybe the title was put down humanely after all.
ReplyDeleteI'm partial to 7 with Willie Nelson wearing a toy wwf title.
ReplyDeleteI want to say the Armstrongs had them for a second.
ReplyDeleteThat IS an amazing one..!
ReplyDeleteA feud lasting 4 months? Jeez who can even remember things for that long?
ReplyDeleteWould the Hulk Hogan memorial title count? I think Rock won at WrestleMAnia and unified it with the world title at Vengence.
ReplyDeletesame here
ReplyDeleteI closed the article, let's see if I can remember:
ReplyDeleteJYD/Morton/Rich
Freebirds (with Badstreet)
???... Josh/Dustin/Z-Man (reopened to find this one.)
York Foundation (Morton/Rich/Taylor)
The Jet Set: George Gulas (blech) and Bobby Eaton... yeah, THERE'S a weird team.
ReplyDeleteAnd my favorite trio:
ReplyDeleteEddie Marlin, Tommy Gilbert, and Ricky Gibson
Three guys known mostly for things OUTSIDE their own in-ring careers:
-Promoter
-Father of Eddie and Referee
-Brother of Robert of the R&R Express.
Also, a nice little article on the passing of Ricky Gibson by Michael Hayes:
http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/archive/hayesongibson
A name like that needs to be resurrected with two good wrestlers. I wouldn't be opposed to Kidd and Cesaro using it.
ReplyDeleteFor oddish titles I was always find of the NWA US Tag Titles. The matches were always great and fun. Sometimes better than the NWA World Tag Team.
ReplyDeleteThat's about how long this Cena/Rusev feud has been going on
ReplyDeleteHow about the NWA Brass Knuckles title that was occasionally used in Mid-Atlantic.
ReplyDeleteI knew of the AWA version the Crusher had, did not know about the Crockett one.
ReplyDeleteSurprised the CZW Ironman belt didn't make the list. A belt so bad that after Kevin Steen buried it in a promo, the company pretty much agreed with him and promptly killed the title.
ReplyDeleteLove the joke that was made about that belt on Cheap Seats: "There's a belt for that? Wouldn't it be more logical to just give the winner a pair of brass knucks?
ReplyDeleteWCW claimed to have six man tag titles, but there were never actual six man tag team belts, essentially it only existed as an on-screen graphic.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed is that they started miking the rings between Survivor Series 87 and 88
ReplyDeleteNice Whatley namedrop
ReplyDeleteremember back in the day the guys were really thrown off doing the Shotgun Saturday Night tapings because the ring was so much smaller
ReplyDeleteOut of respect for Bret, it would thump when he hit it.
ReplyDeleteWCW's ropes were apparently made with elevator cables. Rick Martel's career ending injury came from his leg landing on the rope during a bump
ReplyDeleteI remember this also carrying over into their mid-90s toys. The WWF ring was gigantic compared to the Jakks figures produced for it, while the WCW ring was too small for the figures to even work a match in. Suplexes were especially impossible.
ReplyDeleteActually, in the WWE 50 book, they do discuss it, saying they picked Rio as it was far enough away in the pre-Internet era for fans to not really look into it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, me too. And that RR match with the Angels might be the best women's match I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteAKAIK the smaller ring is actually the general standard, at least in the U.S. It's only WWE that uses the 20' X 20' ring.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking that Japan had a big ring too.
ReplyDeleteROH's turnbuckle pads are as big as a pillow. Seriously, they're gigantic.
ReplyDeleteECW was the opposite of that, sometimes the guardrail was right up against the ring.
ReplyDeleteDid your stomach churn when they mentioned the Bellas resurrecting that legacy too?
ReplyDeleteSurprised anyone could NOT have known all of these.
ReplyDeleteAnd Tom Philips is an idiot.
Normally they wouldn't have that trap door though.
ReplyDeleteGorilla once called a Russian leg sweep "a reverse piledrive" in some match. Not a piledriver, but a piledrive.
ReplyDeleteLord Alfred Hayes once called a power bomb the washer lifter or washer driver or the drip dry or something to that effect.
Hogan did a ensguri once in a match with Muracco in 1985 and the announcers I think just sat on their hands. I'd been shocked too, but it has happened along with Hogan countering Muracco's tombstone cradle pile driver.
ReplyDeleteYeah seriously, what kind of loser wouldn't have heard of some obscure pro wrestling title belts from 20+ years ago?
ReplyDeleteThe name is stupid "Five Titles You Didn't Know Existed". Who the fuck is "you"? Considering only WWE geeks would even KNOW ABOUT that link, chances are they have heard of at least SOME of those titles, not least of all because some of them have high-profile defenses on wrestling PPV's. Wrestling PPV's on the WWE Network.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, you are a loser.
The WWE Warehouse episode about the rings is pretty interesting, too. The heated ring they used for WM29 was a pretty badass feat of theoretical science and engineering.
ReplyDeleteI totally get why they don't, but I wish they sold tickets to the WWE warehouse. Place looks like I could spend hours there just wandering around, jaw on the floor.
McMahon: What a manouver. (Any move)
ReplyDeleteBischoff: Did you see that!!! (Any move that was high impact)
Tony S: Sidewalk slam!!!!
Mike Tenay: That move was originated in Japan.
Actually 2 years ago WWE.com did an April Fools joke and "revealed" the Rio IC tournament brackets
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wwe.com/classics/intercontinental-title-tournament-finally-uncovered-26102625
The name is stupid, Tom Philips is an idiot, I'm a loser... you in a bad mood today by any chance?
ReplyDeleteI guess that tells us where Sharpe was in the jobber heirarchy. At least putting a jobber on each side of the six-man creates some suspense as to who will win, as opposed to the three-stars-one-jobber standard tags we'd get sometimes.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm just allergic to bullshit.
ReplyDeleteLOL Patterson over Rodz in the finals. This was brilliant. Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteYou are an idiot
ReplyDeleteand a giant pile of turd it seem
ReplyDeletewhat about it ?
ReplyDelete'k
ReplyDeletewrong
ReplyDeletesure you weren't looking at your dick ?
ReplyDeleteNo girls hands could be small enough in your case
ReplyDeleteTired joke
ReplyDeleteNobody cares about RoH
ReplyDeleteI didn't pick up on it at first either, but the first time I really noticed how much larger WWF's rings were than WCW's (and then couldn't help but notice it every time, still can't watch old matches without thinking about it) was the Scotty/Malenko match from Backlash 2000. It looked like a midget match in that ring.
ReplyDeleteThe reason is: they are midgets. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhy is Philips' head cut off?
ReplyDeleteAnd why is it "ironic" that the Four Horseman never won the six man belts?
When they started out the championship with Morton/Rich/JYD, there were indeed no actual, physical belts; but they did eventually have them. A Google image search on "York Foundation" turns up not only pictures of the Foundation with the six-man belts, but their predecessors Matt Borne/Tom Zenk/Dustin Rhodes with the same belts. They're kind of tall and narrow compared to most title belts.
ReplyDeleteThat's why cruise weight matches never work in wwe. Smaller rings, lower cables, benefit the athletes in that division
ReplyDeleteThat was ridiculous small to accommodate nightclubs. They were close to 14x14
ReplyDeleteNah. The garden shows in early 80s were mic'd, poorly though. Dick Ebersol, along with wccw's production, really kicked the company into gear. Huge difference with Mania 1 and all tv and after Ebersol joined the team from nbc.
ReplyDeleteI really want to see the giant lit up WWF logo they used to use for the entrance (the block logo hung above the curtains). I attended some tv tapings back in the day and that one piece lit up looked more amazing than the current times square led bullshit.
ReplyDeleteHaha you should hear bryan Alvarez rant on him
ReplyDeleteJust to verify- you're talking about the ring noise when someone gets slammed?
ReplyDeletewow it's like you guys where never even around during the late 80's and 90's era lol, besides andre and king kong bundy, wcw always had the bigger guys kevin nash, scott hall, bader, and gonzales the giant all began their careers in wcw, gonzales the giant being the largest pro wrestler of all time. i remember gonzales the giant in that electric cage match wcw had with cactus jack and few others. Not to mention big show started his career in wcw in 95, and bader always did back flips in wcw with no problem with ring size. thing is the wwe ring loose ropes where a problem with high flyers, there was always the risk of the ropes breaking and hard to get good foot hold on loose ropes. wcw was a haven if you wanted to do high risk jumps of the ropes more naturally and at a faster pace cause the wcw ropes where metal cables instead of flimsy loose ropes. new japan, tna, roh, all use metal cables instead of the loose ropes for a reason. cause they are not in "entertainment" business, they are in the all around pro wrestling business which requires a "real" pro wrestling ring. I remember rey, chris jericho, sabu, public enemy tag team relying on the ropes them selves to do some of their high flying stuff and not just on the turnbuckles which wwe guys mostly relied on. you didn't see this type of stuff in wwe untill wcw and ecw guys started going to wwe. but you could bet there where a lot of botches particularly with sabu he kept botching on the wwe ropes even current guys who mostly wrestled with steel cable ropes like sin cara botched a lot on the wwe lose ropes. also, hogan i remember him bouncing of wwf ropes and bottom rope ripping off lol the bigger boys need steel cables not lose ropes that can rip. you want faster paced natural wrestling of off ropes, you need the steel cables cause they can hold up to the big guys and you don't need to gingerly step on the lose ropes like undertaker would during the old school lol, old school move on steel cables would of been much faster and more impact on the delivery and less gingerly foot steps.
ReplyDelete