Whether it’s Mercedes Mone, Kenny Omega, Kurt Angle, or the credited originator of the belt-collecting trope, Ultimo Dragon, recent discord around the belt-collecting trope reveals all that glistens is not gold. However, some of the trope’s flaws are tricks of the light.
Being a belt collector is a trope rather than a gimmick. A plot device with an inherent story. It aids characterization, adding another wrinkle to a wrestler’s persona. To suggest it’s a gimmick could imply the champion has no persona, just props. Continually, the trope enhances the champion.
Shiny!
At first sight, seeing a champion surrounded by gold demands attention. Like them or hate them, the image tells an obvious story. This champion triumphed and succeeded multiple times. In combat-oriented sports like boxing and MMA, where titles are defended continuously, there’s the added implication of momentum and power—being undefeatable.
The image can be emotive and inspirational at best. The champion appears elite, generational, and maybe even the greatest of all time (GOAT). However, some of us cynically question: why so many? It’s a problem with “real” sports like boxing with undisputed championships.
When former WCW belt collector, Lance Storm, commented on Mercedes Mone’s title run, his words resonated with some fans.
“Belts are supposed to be prestigious, and an AEW championship or a Ring of Honor championship has a degree of prestige, but if you’ve never heard of the promotion, never heard of the belt, never heard of the woman she defeated, then it just starts delving into comedy… Or at least the lesser belts bring down the ones that are supposed to be important, because when you come out with 10 belts, if you think they’re all equal, chances are the two or three important ones get brought down to the six or seven less important ones rather than the other way around. If you can’t actually name the championships, it’s like, what do they mean?” Lance Storm, Wrestling Observer Live, transcript from WrestleTalk.
Although Storm’s comments reveal more than an idealism, but an irony I’ve already discussed with Mercedes Mone’s championships, politics, and hate.
Ideal Meets Reality
Titles should matter. They are supposed to be prestigious and vital to the promotions and wrestlers. In theory, yes. In their promotions’ narrative and marketing, yes. Logically, more results in a dilution of value.
Besides Mercedes Mone, there are two more active female belt collections. Both are based in the UK. Millie McKenzie holds six titles; Nina Samuels has ten. In theory and thought, three women pursuing the same path simultaneously undermines them, their championships, and the trope. But most fans won’t know about McKenzie or Samuels, two stand-outs here on the UK indie scene.
If they did, humans are comparative beings. Naturally, we evaluate, distinguish, and rank wrestlers, promotions, and their championships. Therefore, does anyone, as Storm asserts, think each promotion’s top championships are equal? For years, wrestlers and fans prized the WWE Intercontinental Championship over whichever version of a world championship/s was active.
In practice, a championship’s values fluctuate based on booking and other factors ranging from the wrestler’s abilities to real-world events. Even with partnership promotions, politics, and presentation, we’re shown that titles are unequal. Think about the discord of TNA World Champion Joe Hendry at WrestleMania 41.
Championship inequity is the trope’s foundation.
Ultimo Dragon: A Misleading Picture
The infamous photograph of Ultimo Dragon holding ten belts is misleading. What’s missing is Dragon’s eleventh, the WAR six-man tag team championship. Dragon held all those titles for six days.
Seven of the right belts that formed the J-Crown were valueless until unified. With messy and unofficial lineages to their namesake (UWA was defunct), promotions. Together, they were greater than the sum of their parts. These seven belts cemented the J-Crown’s legacy. The additional championships were window dressing to emphasize the crown’s jewel, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. The ninth, the NWA World Middleweight Championship, Dragon owned this belt.
The belts lower in the hierarchy can be diminished in value when the creative looks to use the belt as a prop. This can be temporary or, due to booking, become devalued. Kurt Angle defeated Samoa Joe in 2007 for the IWGP World Heavyweight, TNA World Heavyweight, X-Division, and World Tag Team championships. Tag titles changed hands in a singles contest. Those latter mid-card belts suffered creatively from the disruption.
Austin Aries coined the moniker belt collector in 2017. Since then, others like Matt Cardona on the indies and Kenny Omega in AEW have used the trope to establish new heel personas and create storylines across promotions. AEW is running its second and more extensive belt collector run with Mone, a polarizing figure. It would be fair to question how much criticism is tribalistic.
It’s Not Generation, It’s Promotional
The belt collector trope has valid flaws. Yet narratively, for Storm or others to claim, “a younger generation… just thinks, ‘More belts, more belts, more belts, everything’s great,” twists kayfabe.
Wrestlers don’t book themselves to be champions. Promoters/bookers/those in charge of the promotion do. Yes, wrestlers might pitch the ideas, but many people across promotions must agree to share. Why do it if it can damage your championship prestige?
It’s a promotional tool. Currently, there are nine unified world champions across weight classes in boxing. Big multi-title contests are spectacles. To a lesser extent, WWE has used a more reserved version of the trope—the Two-Man Power Trip. Three times, WWE unified its men’s world championship. Becky Two Belts. The short-term attempt to create excitement, catch eyeballs, and generate buzz and money is the same, just insular.
It’s a narrative tool with an inherent story of trying to achieve GOATdom that heel champions since Aries continue to mine in different ways. Critics like to ignore context and story. If those other championship Mone’s holds are valueless, from supposedly “easy” unknown opponents, doesn’t that, in kayfabe? For a superficial, egotistical, and “fake” character who wants to take the easy option to cement her greatness?
BestYa created a Women’s Championship for Mone, making many of us aware of the promotion’s existence. Although the championship might have some perceived long-term value, it’s got more value than a championship you never knew existed. Clearly, other promotions have and are continuing to benefit, even if we can’t see the full data.
Future of Belt Collecting
The frequency and range of belt collectors may increase as more companies work closely together. Some will continue to protest on business grounds or principles, ignoring that some companies seem happy to be “secondary” and take the publicity and PR they want. If AAA were concerned about being secondary to AEW and their world championship, why book Omega to hold AAA’s Mega Championship for then record 765 days?
TNA’s former President, Scott D’Amore, admitted that despite conflicting visions, Omega’s presence boasted ratings and PPV buys, as desired. Some might excuse WWE NXT wrestlers holding their top men’s and women’s championships as an exception because it’s WWE. Tribalism aside, the trope has evolved significantly since Ultimo Dragon. Title unification matches and wrestlers winning multiple belts have storyline potential that has seen title reigns go from 6 days to months and possibly years. Discord aside, there’s more gold to mine.
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