Post by Road Warrior Shark on Sept 8, 2014 13:46:18 GMT -5
A year or two ago, I posted in the OO/PH group on Facebook a blog post (from another message board I lurk) on dealing with the current location/owner of the acutal original Big Gold Belt. In summary, at the time, Scott Steiner was rumored to have posession of the original, having swapped out his cast copy shortly before WCW closed down. When WWE bought WCW, they inherited the cast copy believing it to be the real belt. Hulk Hogan had also claimed to have the original, having taken another cast copy home with him during the Russo/Jarrett episode. Eventually, WWE had a redesign done, added their logo to the belt and that is what we saw up until Summer Slam.
There is a nice big update in book form. (Purchase your copy Here) A private collector acquired the belt (presumably from Steiner, but names are not named.) With help from the book's author & beltmaker Dave Millican, they were able to track down the original brown leather strap that was replaced a few years before WCW closed, and the original "Ric Flair" nameplate and put them all back together for the first time in years.
The book is a pretty good read, with some nice bits of history & stories about how the Big Gold came into existence, what happened to the "Rick Flair" nameplate & who else had original nameplates ordered, original artwork used to make the belt & behind the scene stories from the people involved.
It isn't a long read, and is probably overpriced for its size, but for a wrestling & history nerd like me, worth the money. I bought both this book and the authors previous book on the "Domed Globe," the belt that the Big Gold replaced as the NWA World Title. Not quite as in-depth a story to be told there, but lots of history & great pictures in both.