Everyone knows about the “Smoking Skull” WWE Championship belt that “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had made for himself back during the Attitude Era. It’s still around in replica form, of course, as Kevin Love and Timofey Mozgov were famously rocking it just a few months ago when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Finals. (Stone Cold himself appreciated that move, of course.) The Rock (as you may already know) wanted to get in on that “personal belt” action himself, but his “Brahma Bull” design never quite made it to TV.
Yesterday, WWE posted a “Live From the Archive” Facebook video where Cathy Kelley got to take a tour to the glorious WWE warehouse. If you skip ahead to the 4:45 mark, you get to see her taking a look (and holding) the custom “Brahma Bull” belt that WWE had made for The Rock, but never ended up using.
Word of the belt has been around for a very long time, of course, and there were even toys made based on the idea The Rock would be … rocking this belt on WWE television. It has also been part of some WWE exhibits in the past, like Fan AXXESS at WrestleMania XXVI. And the belt maker has also been offering replicas of the belt plates for a few years now.
But the fact remains: this is very cool, and I love that they appear to keep the belt in a heavy duty steel briefcase while just being like “Pffft, whatever” with Rocky’s purple-strap IC belt. We’re also big Cathy Kelley fans here and her enthusiasm, as always, is beyond infectious.
And I’m a huuuuuuge sucker for any web show or clip that deals with the WWE warehouse. Just open that bad boy to the public, already. I would pay some pretty good money to be able to walk around and see some priceless wrestling artifacts. Not “NXT Experience” fantasy camp money, but money!
